The Portland daily press., 1877-03-30
The FOster-Matthews Letters.

The mountain has come to labor and
brought forth the smallest OF mice. The let
tiers of Charles Foster and Stanley Matthews
have at last been published, and there is
nothing at all dreadful in them. People had
been led to suppose that these gentlemen had
given to Southern leaders pledges in behalf
of President Hayes that all troops would be
at once withdrawn from the Southern states,
and that the authority of Hampton and
Nichols in South Carolina and Louisiana
would be Immediately recognized by the ma
tional authorities. Having assumed that
these pledges were given the opposition jour
nails and orators have been employed the last
two weeks in condemning the President for
breach of faith and violation of his word.
As no pledges were given the abuse has been
wasted. But Democratic marksmen are
used to firing at imaginary targets.
Whatever may be thought of the discretion
of the Ohio men in speaking and writing as
they did, or the justice of their claim to rep
resent President Hayes, the substance of their
letters will scarcely be objected to-it GER
tainly can offend no Republican. Mr. Foster
assures the Southern representatives that it
is his desire ''to have adopted such policy
as will give to the people of the states Of South
Carolina and Louisiana the right to control
their own affairs" and he feels authorized to
say that President Hayes holds the same
opinion. This declaration is reafirmed in
the joint letter of Messrs. Matthews and Fos-
ter in the following words: "We desire to say
that we can assure you in the strongest pos
sible manner of our great desire to have him
president Hayes adopt such a policy as
will give to the people of the states of South
Carolina and Louisiana the right to conduct
their own affairs in their own way, subject
only to the constitution of the United States,
and the laws made in pursuance thereof"
and they add an expression OF belief that
President Hayes holds the same Views. OF
course he does. Every Republican in the
land does. No one will deny the right of
the people of any State in this Union to con-
duct their own affairs in their own way SUBJ
ject only to the constitution and the laws.
That right President Hayes now recognizes
and will continue to recognize.
These letters seem to have been miscon-
strued by the Southern leaders. 1t will be
seen that the letters make no promises of
withdrawal of troops or of recognition of the
claims of Hampton and Nichols. The mis-
construction appears to have arisen in this
way: by the people of South Carolina and
Louisiana Messrs. Foster and Matthews
meant the a1hole people, white and black;
the Southern leaders meant the white people
only. Here is the very root of the difficulty
between North and South, and until the
Southern whites are willing to recognize in
act as well as word the citizenship Of the ne
gro the Southern question cannot be settled.
The duty OF the President is to protect the
rights of the black man as we'll as the rights
of the white man. The duty of the national
government is to sustain republican form
of government in all the states, and there can
be no republican form of government so long
as there is failure to recognize the constitu-
tional rights of any class of citizens. Presi-
dent Hayes wishes to see brought about the
firm establishment in power of those men
whom the majority of the voters of the states
of South Carolina and Louisiana have chosen.
But he does not intend that the negro shall
be ''counted out" that his ballot shall be ig-
nored, or that the majority of white men in
state shall be accounted the majority of
voters therein.