Year: 1867

H0R. Ihaddetts Steuens:


DEAR Sm:-You are reported in
the New York Tribune as having re-
Gently said on the floor of Congress :


at is now held by one of the most
liberal and enlightened gentlemen in
the country Il mean Gerritt Smith)
that we should even pay portion OF
the rebel debt


Of course you do not mean that this
is literally so. My often repeated
proposition is that Government lend
or give moneys to the South to help
her upward from the depths of her
poverty and desolation. BY what
logic you were able to construct from
the letter of this proposition your fig
ure of speech is for you, not me, to ex-
plain. | am truly sorry that it il III
your heart to hold up to ridicule my
reasonable proposition. You are too
old and too intellectual to be making
such concessions to passion and preiu-
dice. There are two reasons why the
North should be glad Co help the
South. First, the South is poor-yery
poor, and the North is rich--very rich.
Second, the North is largely RESPONSE
bic for the poverty of the South. Our
fathers united with the fathers of the
South in making this land of slaves;
and in our own day the North has
gone with the South in npholding and
extending slavery. Until the break
ing out of this war every Congress
was for slavery. The repeal of the
Missouri Compromise was the work
of the North as well rs the South
So, too, was the enactment Of that I'M
fernal Fugitive Slave act, which even
the good Abraham Lincoln WAS com.
PEELED, by the pro-slavery sentiment
Of the North rs we'll rs the South, To
enforce 50 vigorously. With compar.
atively few exceptions, our northern
colleges, theological seminarics, aud
political and religious parties, were
on the side ofslayery. The commerce
of the North was emphatically III the
interest OF slavery.


In the light of such facts il surely
cannot be denied that the North made
herself largely responsible for Amcri-
can slavery. But the war came oi
slavery and the poverty and desola-
tion of the South came of the war
and hence, to the same degree that the
North was responsible for slavery is
she responsible fer the war aud for its
ruinous results TO the South.


You call ny sympathy with the
South and my desire TO have the
North help her. "sickly humanity
| call it simple honesty. If my neigh
Dor and / join in getting each other
drunk, and he in his frenzy goes Ia
tearing down my house, and in self:
defense dcmolish his, am not TO dis.
own his claim upon my sympathy.
am 10 feel that honesty requires me tc
help him rebuild.


Would to God that Congress were Sc
just and wise as, at this very session
to lend fifty millions Of dollars To the
Confederate States-to each Of them
so much of it rs would be proportion
ate to her population and to what she
has suffered from the rayages Of the
war; The share falling to each State
to be distributed throughout her terri
tory in loans upon adequate security
This, by proving the love and pity o
the North for her, would win the heart
of the South, aud would thus produc,
true and lasting peace between them
And then it would be worth to the ma
tion, if only in financial point o
view, many times fifty millions of dol
lars. Gold would no longer sbeai
among us a premium of forty pei
cent, and our Government would nc
longer have to pay seven per cent.
nor much more than half seven pei
cent. interest on its loans.


Very respectfully, yours,


GERRITr SMITH.