Year: 1868

Grafton of the reconstruction policy of Con-
gress. What saw and what heard con-
firmed, as you well know, that conviction
of its serious errors which constrained me
| two years ago to unite in the effort to pre-
vent its adoption by the country. / wit
messed with pain and solicitude of which
l rather restrained than exaggerated the
expression to you, the spectacle, novel in
in the history Of mankind, Of State the
government of which had been placed in
the hands of the classes of the least intelli.
gence, and having the least interest in the
maintenance of order and the advancement
Of material prosperity All my reflections
on the spot strengthened my belief thai
universal amnesty should have gone hand


finland with universal suffrage at the
South, and that if the protection Of the
rights of the blacks required that they


should be armed with the ballot, the pro


lection Of other rights and interests re
| quired that the numerical ascendency of the
whites should not be nulli6ed by disfran


chisements, and especially not by sucf
sweeping acknowledgements as are con


tained in the reconstruction acts of Con


gress.


But in practically dealing with affairs We
/ AANHe NHhC bu4uEo AlLu LIE ~
| construction policy of Congress, strenuOusly


as | resisted it, and obnoxious as it is to


you, is an accomplished fact. The effects


OF it may be modified by events and the


policy itself may be softened with the grad


ual subsistence of the passions connected


with the late struggle. But overthrown il
cannot be, except by revolution and an
| other civil war, and the issues of the pend.
ing Presidential canvass are so made up as
TO present the question, necessarily over.
shadoWing all others, whether the country
is ready for so desperate remedy as that
for any grievances which exist.


The candidate OF the Democratic party
for the Vice Presidency, and who, if elected
to that Office, will 6nd between himself and
the supreme executive power only the frai
barrier of single life, in his letter Of the
50th of June last, declared:


"There is but one way TO restore the
government and the constitution, and thai
is for the Presidsnt to declare these acts
| (the reconstruction acte} null and void
compel the army to undo its usurpations
at the South, disperse the carpet-bag State
governments, allow the white people of the
South to reorganize their own governments
and elect their own Senators and Repre-
sentatiVes We must have a President
who will execute the will Of the people by
trampling into the dust the usurpations of
Congress known as the reconstruction acts.
repeat that this is the real and only ques-
| ton which we should allow to control MS.
l wish to stand before the convention upon
this issue, but it is one which embraces
every thing of value il its large and com
| prehensive results


Mr. Blair dces not 0verstate the magni-
tude OF the consequences involved in his
presentation as a candidate for the Vice
Presidency, and contingently for the Presi-
dency, on such an issue as that. Indeed,
it is impossible for anybody to overstate
them. And if any doubt could remain as
to the purpose of leader of party NOM
mating such q man and on the basis of such
declarations, 1t is removed by the platform
which they have adopted, in which the re.
| construction acts are denounced Bs "revo-
lutionary, unconstitutional, null and void,


thereby expressly justifying and inviting
revolutionary resistance to them. AS we
now know, these incendiary words had a
fittingorigiu in their committee on resolu-
tons, in General Wade Hampton, Of South
Carolina, and he has told us how they
were received IN that body:


"When I proposed that, every single
member of the ecommittee-and the warmest
men in it were the men of the North-came
forward and said they would carry il for
ward to the end"


What that send" is, it requires no prophet
to foretell. New hetacombs of young men
slain in battle, new contlagrations of cities,
and ruined and finally dismembered
country.


The assumption of the Democratic plat
form that the reconstruction acts are null
and void has no shadow of fact or law to
rest upon, Left, as the Southern States
were, without any civil governments which
could be recognized as such, consistently
with the result Of the late war, it is plain
that unless the work of reorganization was
commenced within them bS spontaneous
popular movements, which Werc not possi-
BILE without dangerous political commo-
tions, it must have been commenced by
some power outside of them, and
that power could be no other than
the government OF the Unien. So President
Lincoln understood it. So President
johnson. understood it, and he proceeded
accordingly to prescribe reorganization
regulating by executive proclamation who
should vote and who should be excluded
from voting in electing members of conven-
tons 70 frame constitutions, and in ratify-
ing and rejecting such constitutions when
framed. Congress has done no more than
that, and exercised no other power than
that, and certainly if that power existed
anywhere in the Federal Government. II
existed in the law-making branch of it.
Congress may not have exercised this power
wisely, but their rightful authority in the
premises is clear and unquestionable, and
those who denounce their acts as "null and
void and counsel revolutionary resistance
to them, are either thoughtless persons
who know not what they do, or bold and
bad men, fatally bent on mischief


II is not ia this second civil war. into
which Mr.. Blair and the Democratic plat
form seek to entice them, that the Southern
states Will ind remedy for the evils
which they suffer. White immigration
from Europe and the North, which peaee
and quiet will invite, the higher rate Of
natural increase Of whites as compared
with blacks, the diminution of the number
OF the disfranchised resulting slowly but
surely trom death, and the early removal
OF disfranchisements which is assured by
such movements as we have just had re-
ported rom the Legislature Of Georgia.
wlii before long change the whole face of
affairs. The antagonism Of races will IL
self cease when political contests cease to
turn Hpon Issues connected With tshs ra,s-
tive rights of races. The policy of NJ
Blair, on the other hand, tends 6irectlS and
Indirectly to band and consolidate Tho
Inf a u.ha