Year: 1867

Would such trust and power be safe in such
| hands


Inc peculiar qualities which sh hould character
ize any people who fit to decide upon the
management of public affairs for a great State
have seldom been combined. 1t is the glory of
white men to know that they have lad III ese dual
lties In sufficient measure to build upon this con-
tnent great political fabric and to preserve It's
stability for more than ninety years, while in
every other part of the world all similar expert
ments have failed But if anything can be prov
eo by known facts,if all reasoning upon evidence
is not abandoned. it must be acknowledged that
IN the progress of nations negroes have shown
less capacity for government than any other race
OF people. No independent government of any
form has ever been successful in their hands. On
the contrary. wherever they have been left to
thelr own devices, they have shown constant
tendency 10 relapse into barbarism. In the South
ern States, however, Congress has undertaken to
confer upon them the privilege of the ballot Just
released from slavery, 1t may be doubted VIII eth
er' as a class. they know more than their ances-
tors how TO organize and regulate civil society
Indeed. it is admitted that the blacks of the
| South are not only regardless of the rights of
property but so utterly ignorant of public affairs
tnat their voting can consist in nothing more
than carrying ballot to the place where they are
directed to depositit 7 need not remind you
that the exercise of the elective franchise is the
highest attribute of an American citizen. and that,
when guided by virtue, intelligence patriotism,
and aProper appreciation of our free institutions,
1t constitutes the true basis of democratic form
of government, in which the sovereign power is





fieialy created, not for its sake but solely
as a means of promoting the general welfare, its
influence for good must necessarily depend upon
the elevated character and true allegiance of the
election. 1t ought, therefore. to be reposed in
none except those who fitted morally and men,
tally to administer it well for if conferred upon
persons who do not justly estimate Its value and
who Indifferent t. its results it will only
serve as means of placing power in the hands of
the unpr ncpled and ambitious. and must even
tuato in the complete destruction of that liberty
of which it should be the m ost powerful conserv-
ator. L have heretofore urged upon your atten-
ton the great danger Ito be appreh ended from
an untimely extension of the elective franchise to
any new class in our country, especially when the
large majority OF that class, in welding the pow
er thus placed in their hands. cannot be expected
correctly to comprehend the duties and response
bilities which pertain to suffrage. Yesterday, as
1T were, four millions of persons were held IN a
condition of slavery that had existed for genera
tions; to-day they are freemen. and are assumed
by law TO be citizens. 1t cannot be presumed,
from their previous condition of servitude, that,
as class, they as welt Informed as to the ma
ture of our Governm ut thu intelligent foreign
who max es our land the home of his choice In
the case of the latter. neither residence of five
years and the knowledge of our institutions which
it gives nor attachment to the principles OF the
Constitution. are the only conditions upon which
he can be admitted to citizenship. He IN ust prove.
in addition, good moral character, and thus give
reasonable ground for the belief that he will be
faithful to the obligations which he assumes as
citizen OF the Republic. Where a people-the
source of all political power-speak,b by their sui
frages, through the insrumentality of the ballot
box it must be carefully guarded against the con-
troll of those who are corrupt in principle and
enemies of free institutions for it only become
to political and social system safe conductor
of healthy popular sentim mt when kept free from
demoralizpg influences Controlled, through
fraud and usurpation, by the designing. anarchy
and despotism must inevitably follow In the
hands of the patriotic and worthy, our Govern
ment will be preserved upon the principles of the
Constitution inherited from our fathers. 1t fol-


lows, therefore, that in admitting to the ballot box
a class of voters not qualified for the exercise
of the elective franchise, we weaken our system
of government, instead of adding to strength
and durability" Il yield to no one in attach
ment to that rule of general suffrage which dis
tinguishes our policy nation. But there is a
limit wisely observed hitherto, which makes the
ballot privilege and trustand which requires
of some classes time suitable for probation and
preparation To give it indiscriminately TO n
new class, wholly unprepared. by previous habits
and opportunities. to perform the trust which it
demands. is to degrade il, and finally to destroy
its power; for it may be safely assumed that no
political truth is better established than that such
indiScrimnate and ALIEN bracing extension of
popular suffrage must end at last in its overthrow
and destruction


L repeat the expression of my willingness to
join in any plan within the scope of constitu-
tional authority which promises to better the con-
dition of the negroes in the South, by encouraging
them in industry enlightening their minds, i'm
proving their morals, and giving protection TO all
their just rights as freedmen. But the transfer
of political inheritance to them would in my
opinion be an abandonment of dutv which we
owe alike to the memory OF our fathers ana the
ri ghts of our children.


The plan of putting the Southern States Who'll
ly, and the General Government partially, into
the hands of the negroes, is proposed at t,n
peculiarly unpropitiOus. The foundations OF So
cety have been broken up by civil war. Indus
try must be reorganized, justice re-estab bllshed,
public credit maintained, and order nrought OUT
of confusion To accomplish these ends would
nnir oh +l,o -lnr, md U
who formed our institutions originally cenn-
IDENTIFY believe that their descendants viii be e.
quail to the arduous task before them, but 1t is
worse than madness to expect that negroes VIII
perform it for us Certainly we ought not to ask
their assistance until we despair of our own COM
potency.


The great difference between the two races In ply
steal, mental and moral characteristics VIII pre-
vent an am alpama alton or fusion of them together
in one homogeneous mass If the inferior obtains
the ascendancy over the other, 1t VIII govern with
reference only to its own lnterest,1or IL VIII re-
cOgnize no common interest-and create suen
tyranny as this continent has never yet witnessed
Already the negroes are Influenced by promises
of confscation and plunder They are taught 10
regard as an enemy every white man who las any
respect for the rights of his own race Ii thIscon
tinues, it must become worse and worse until all
order will be subverted, all industry cease and
the fertile fields of the South grow up INTO VII
derness. OF all the dangers which our nation has
yet encountered none equal to those which
must result from the of the effort now max
ing to Africanize the half of our country


l would not put considerations of money IN
competition with justice and right But the ex'
penses incident to reconstruction under the sys-
tenn adopted by Congress aggravate what reSaI SIr
ded as the intrinsic wrong of the measure tseii:
1t has cost uncounted millions already ana II
persisted in will add largely to the weight OF tax
aton already oppressi1 to be oorne "i1nou' m,
| just complaint and may finally reduce the Irea-
sury of the nation to a condition of bankruptcy
We must not delude ourselves 1t win require ,
strong standing army, and probably more than
| two hundred millions of dollars per annum, to