Connecticut western news., 1875-01-29
REc0NsTRUCTION.
President LincOIn's Plan-Remarls of Hon.
 Frederick w. Seward in the New York Assembly. fS 'zttF s- @z


 a v saI{i V--4A1 sAs .s..s 8tsis. si b. President LincoIn's Plan Remarks of Hon.
 Frederick w. Seward in the New York
 Assembly. f1AG 'stAIE4 A#z
 We give below the remarks of Hon. Frederick w. Seward in the New York State Assembly, on the Louisiana reso- lutions. In publishing 1t, the Albany .EoH9sdl says that Mir. Seward gives the first public and full account of a most in teresting historical event plan of re- construction agreed upon at meeting of President Lincom's cabinet, on the very day of the Presidents s assassination. In the illness of his father, MT. Seward was himself present on that occasion as the representative of the State depart m@lt, anal participated in, the council Mr. Seward spoke as follows 2kA - lz @
 The questions about Louisiana are not new ones. On the contrary, they are very old ones. They arose immediately after the close of the war. On the morn ing of the 14th of April, 1865, when Richmond and. Petersburg had fallen, and Sherman was holding Johnson's army at bay, everything betokened that peace was at hand. President Lincoln called a cabinet meeting at the executive mansion, and invited to participate in 1t General Grant. At such a meeting, in such time, there could be but Oneques=. tion, and that n question of transcendant importahcc-the question of reconstruc- ton, restoration, or re-eStabllshment of the seeded States in their former rela- tions as members of the Federal Union. The conference was long and earnest, with little diversity of opinion, except as to details. One of the difficulties of the problem was, who should be recog- nized as State authorities. There was loyal governor in Virginia. There were military governors ill some of the other States. But the Southern Legis- latures were, for the most part, avowedly in opposition. Whether they should be allowed to continue until they com mitted some overt act of hostility j; whether the governors should be request ed to order new elections whether such. elections should be ordered by the gen eral governmental these were qiles- tions raised. Among many similar sex-. pressionss of the President, ill that terse and homely mode. of speech, he said : t"We can't undertake to run State gov ernments in all these Southern States. Their people must doSthat, though | reckon that at first they may. do it badly" s M ES @ s The Secretary of War, MT. Stanton, produced some sheets of paper on which he had drafted the outlines of plan of reconstruction, embodying the Presi- dents views, and, as I understood, those of most of the other members of the cabinet, In substance it was, that the Treasury department should take pos session of the custom houses, and pros. ceed toscollect the revenues; that the War depaetment3s should garrison or dez stroy the forts, take possession of arms and munitions and maintain the public peace; that the Navy department should ill like manner occupy the harbors, take possession of nayy-yards, ships, and ordnance; that the Interior department should send out it's surveyors, land, pen slon, and Indian agents, and set them at work; that the Postmaster General should reopen his post-offices and es=. tablish his mail routes; that the Attorney General should look after the re-estab- ishment of the Federal courts, with their judges, marshals, and attorneys; ill short, that the machinery of the Uni ted States government should be set in motion, that its laws should be faithfully CAOOt1CNA tliIl Nls5OIOllolJ CuAOlCCSts dl1IA that everything like domestic violence or insrrrection should be repressed; but that public authorities and private citi- zens should remain unmolested, if not found ill actual hostility to the govern ment of the Union In word, it was a plan based upon the Constitution of the United States
 That night Abraham Lincoln passed from earth. Through the madness of an assassin, the Southern people lost a lenient judge, a just and generous friend. The plan for their peace and safety, upon which the morning hours of his last day had been spent, was taken up by his successor; but the embittered public feeling which followed his murder ren- dered both Congress and the people far less ready to acquiesce ill its adoption. From that time to this the efforts that have been made to carry it out have met with an amount of opposition and a de- gree of success and failure that are now among the familiar facts of history. I still think that this plan for the recon struction of the Southern States was the best and wisest one of all. It would have been fortunate for. the South and the Union if 1t had been adopted then. It will be fortunate for the South and the Union if it shall be adopted now But 1t is not to Accomplished by mere denunciation of what is or has been done wrong. It is not enough to denounce the wrong. It is necessary to find out and apply the remedy. ......-