Year: 1867

tho otHci, IL VIII SoNcrii WitH rcieTeilct


only to its own interests, for it will
recognize no common interests, and
will create such tyranny rs this con.


tinent has never yet witnessed. AL
ready negroes are influenced by prom


ises ofconfscation and plumber. They


are taught to regard as an enemy


every white man who has any respect


for the rights ofhis own race. If this


continues it must become worse and


worse until all order will be subvert-


ed, all industry cease and the fertile
fields ofthe South grow up into will


derncss. OF all the dangers which our


nation has encountered, none are equal
to those ahead which must result from


the success of an effort now making to
Africanize half our country. I would


not put the considerations of money in


competition with justice and right, but


the expenses melted to reconstruction,
! under the system adopted by Congress


to aggravate what | regard as an in


trinsic wrong of the measure itself. 1t


has cost millions already, and if per-
sisted in, will add largely to the weight


of taxation already too oppressive to


be borne without just complaint, and


may finally reduce the treasury of the


nation to u condition of bankruptcy.


We must not delude ourselves. 1t will


require a strong standing army and


probably more than two hundred mil


lions Of dollars per annum to main


tain the supremacy Of a negro govern


ment after it is established. The sum
thus thrown away would, if properly


used, form a sinking fund large enough


to pay the whole national debt in less
than fifteen years. 1t is vain to hope
that the negroes will maintain their
ascendency themselves without mill


tary power; they ar, wholly incapable
of holding in subjection the white pco-
Iplc of the South. submit to the
judgement of Congress whether the
public credit may not be injuriously
affected by a system of measures like
this. With our debt and vast private
interests, which are complicated with
it, we cannot be too cautious of poll
cy which might by possibility impair
the confidence of the world in our
Government. That confidence can
only be retained by carefully inculca-
ting the principles ofjustice and honor
in the popular mind, and by the most
scrupulous fidelity to all our engage
ments OF every sort. Any serious
breach of the organic law, if persisted
in for a considerable time, cannot hut
create fears for the stability of our in
stitutions. The habitral violation of
the prescribed rules which We bind
ourselves to observe, must demoralize
the people; our only standard of civil
duty would be set at naught, and the
sheet anchor of our political morality
is lost public conscience swings from
its moorings and yields to every I'M
pulse, passion and interest. If we re-
pudiate the Constitution, we will not
be expected to care much for mere pc
cuniary obligations. The violation of
such pledge as we made on the 22d
ofJuly, 1861, will assuredly diminish
the market value of our other secu-
rieties. Besides, if we now acknow-
ledge that the national debt was Great
ed, not to hold the States in the
Union, as tax PAYERS were led to sup
pose, but to expel them from it and
hand them over to be governed by ne
groes, our moral duty to pay it may
seem much less clear. Isay it may
seem so, for | do not admit that it or
any other argument in favor of repu-
|diation can be entertained as sound,
but its influence on some classes of
minds may well be apprehendc.!i..


The financial honor Of this great
commercial nation is largely indebted,
and with republican form of govern
ment, administered by agents of a
popular choice, is thing of such
delicate texture, and the destruction OF
it would be followed by such an
unspeakable calamity that eve y true
patriot must desire to avoid whatever
might expose it to the slightest danger.
The great interests of the country
require immediate relief from these
enactments.


Business in the South is paralyzed
by sense of general insecurity, by the
terror of confiscation and the dreal ofI
negro supremacy. The Southern trade
from which the North would have
derived SO great a profit under a
government ofhw, still languishes and
can never be revived until it ccases to
be fettered by arbitrary power which
makes all its operations unsafe. That
rich country, the richest in natural
resources the world ever saw, Is worse
Il. IN lost ifit be not soon placed under
the protection of free Constitution.
Instead Of being US it ought to be, a
source of wealth and power, it will
become an intolerablc burden upon the
rest of the nation. Another reason
for rctrncing our steps, will doubtless
be seen BY Congress in late manifesta-
tions Of public opinion upon that
subject. We live in country where
popular will always enforces Obedience
to itself sooner or later. 1t is vain to
think of opposing it with anything
short Of legal authority, backed BY
overwhelming force. 1t cannot have
escaped your attention that from the
day on which Congress fairly and !
formally presented the proposition to
govern the Southern States by military
force, with q view to the Ultimate !,
af rnaHa -. -. |