The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-05-15


largest safeguards should be thrown
around the liberties of the newly en-
franchised African race. Though ht
knew very well that of his conquered
fellow-citizens of the south by far the
larger portion, even those who most
heartily acquiesced in and. desired the
abolition of slavery, seriously questioned
the expediency of investing, in single
day and without any preliminary tutel.
age, so vast a body of inexperienced
and uninstructed men with the full pow.
ers and responsibilities of citizenship
and suffrage, he would tolerate no half.
way measures upon point to him sc
vital. -.
Indeed, Immediately after the war,
while other minds were occupying them
selves with different theories of recon
struction, he did not hesitate to impress
most emphatically upon the administra-
tion, not only in public, but in the con-
idence of private intercourse, his suncom-
promising resolution to oppose to the
last any and every scheme which should
| fail to provide the surest guarantees for
the personal freedom and political
rights of the race which he had under
taken to protect. Whether these meas
ures prove him to be practical states
man or a theoretical enthusiast is a
question on which any Judgment which
we, to-day, may pronounce must await
the revision of posterity. I allude to
them here only to show that the spirit
of magnanimity which, during the last
three years, breathes in his utterances
and manifests itself in all his acts affect
ing the south, was as evidently honest as
it was graceful to the feelings of those
to whom it was displayed. 1t was GER
tainly gracious act toward the south,
though, unhappily, it Jared upon the
sensibili les of the people at the other
extreme of the Union, to propose to
erase from the banners of the national
army t6e mementoes of the bloody in
ternecine struggle, which might be re-
garded as assailing the pride or wound
ing tn sensibilities of the southern peo-
pie. That proposal will never be for
gotten by that people so long as the
name of Charles Sumner lives in the
memory of man. Bu5, while it touched
the heart of the south and elected her
profound gratitude, her people would
not have asked of the north such an act
of fself-renunciation.
Conscious that they themselves were
animated by devotion to constitutional
liberty, and that the brightest pages of
history are replete with evidence of the
depth and sincerity of that devotion,
the southern people can but cherish the
recollections of the battles fought and
the victories won in defence of their
hapless cause. And respecting, as all
true and brave men must respect, the
martial spirit with which the men of the
north vindicated the integrity of the
Union and their devotion to the princi-
pies of human freedom, they do not ask,
they do not wish the north to strike the
mementoes of her heroism and victory
from either readers, or monuments, or
battle-fags. They would rather that
both sections should gather up the glo-
ries won by each section, not envious,
but proud of each other, and regard
them common heritage of American
yalor so that future generations, when
they remember the deeds OF herofsm
and devotion done on both sides, will
speak not of northern prowess or south
ern courage, but of the herOism, forti-
tude and courage of American in war
of ideas-a war in which each section
signalized its conservation to tn prin-
ciples, as each understood them, of
American liberty and of the constitution
received from their fathers.
It was my misfurtune, perhaps my
fault, personally, never to have known
this eminent philanthropist AMI states
man. The impulse was often strong
upon me to go to him and offer him my
hand and my heart with it, and to ex-
press to him my thanks for his kind any
considerate course, of late years, toward |
the people with whom L am identified.
If did not yield to that impulse, it |
was because the thought occurred that |
other days were coming in which such a
demonstration might BE- more oppoltune