New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-04-28
ABOLITIONJSTS AND MR.. HAYES.

LETTER FROM COL. T. w. HIGGINSON.
ACTION OF THE PRESIDENT ~ THE SOUTH APPROVED
THE ONLY THING TO Do-A REAL BENEFIT TO
TIE ColoRED RACE-wEBsTER ON "INsURREC-
TONS"
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
SIR: | observe in n Republican newspaper, Op-
posed to the Southern policy of President Hayes
appeal TO the old Abolionists and original Repub-
licans to stand up and be counted As of those adj
dressed. gladly respond. wish to be counted
who approves, heartily cordially, and unreseryedly
the action of the President i'll Withdrawing the garr
sons from the State Houses of South Carolina and
Louisiana ! approve not only what he has done,
but the way in which he has done it with n wise
DELAY giving time, in President Lincoln's fashion
for public sentiment to crystalline into firm
port behind him.
1t seems to me, however, a mistake in some of
President ayess special supporters TO speak of this
action as if il an experiment. and something
that could be receded from" 1t cannot be re-
coded from, and 1t Is not an experiment 1t is no
more an experiment than 10 risk the assertion that
two and two make four, and enforce il by apprO-
pirate legislation" Under the precise circumstances
the President had absolutely no alternative. Let
the immediate consequences he good bad firmly
believe that they will be good but 10 matter for
that-tbcre was nothing else to be done. The proof
of this lies in the fact that every who opposes
his action has TO begin by assuming that South Caro-
lima and Louisiana are still provinces But suppose
they are no: provinces, what theni They have been
readmitted as states and being such, they have alb
soIutely the same rights with New-York and Ohio.
For the President TO perform within their borders
one act of arbitrary authority endangcrs the liberties
of every State i'll the Union. For him, in time of
peace to keep troops in any State House. in order TO
determine a disputed claim to the Goyernorship, is
stretch OF power great that 10 State in the Union
ought to tolerate it great that it ought to be
sisted by every peaceful means.
say in time of peace" To my mind all turns
upon that Whatever may have been the case in the
past, these States have now been for months at
peace. No matter from what motives that peace has
been kept the fact remains. There were outrages
last year; there may be outrages this year. but
neither retrospective nor possible outrages can
stitute instruction. Once recognize that there can
be such a thing as constructive insurrcction' or
latent instruction" and you give prctext under
which the whole nation may at any time be
yerted into consolidated dcsp0tsn at short notice.
In the very State where | am writing, during the
Dorr rebellion, Mr. Webster then Secretary OF State,
took the just ground that the Federal Government
had absolutely no power TO interfere in case of
"merely threatened domestic violence" or to IAN
ticipate nsurrectiouary movements - there must be
"actual insuirection" and "lawlcss assemblages."
1t Is absurd to say that any such condition of things
now exists or has for long time existed in South
Carolina or Louisiana. Call it hollow peace, if you
please il is stl peace Say that 1t is properly TO be
called insurreeiion because there acts of vo
lencc last Autumn. and because there are people
r. i,lv on slight prGvocati0n 10 commit such acts
/ aguii,: aud you create q precedent under which
s,n ne future National administration may garrison
tn star, House of every State where there has been
rio lt lltFelS
n,orr Important than even he inredtte welfare Of
tbc coote u oplc of south Carolina and Louisiana ;
H.. 'iiuu 10 manage IT'S own 10; al affairs ia its
WAY well or badly, 80 long a. the peae is kept and
tt.ic tonejtu;ion Obcyed. On no other coldi ions
can a rcuu,,iic whic covers the breadth of CONT
urnt b. maintained. An'. Oi all people III that re-
pnic. thc cocrcd men of the South can least afford
10 benefit By any arbitrary stretch OF power winch
| ''''' THOs. WENTWORTH iliGGissoS.
| Newport, 4. l., Apfii 70, 1871