Year: 1865

in favor of modifying our Constitution SO as
to give the elective franchise to colored men
ID I'm the reorganization of the Southern
States should the elective franchise be secured
to the colored people?
Very truly and sincerely yours,


SAMUEL PLUMB.


Committee.


GENTLEMEN Your letter of yesterday, in.
curing what are my opinions upon some OF /
the phases of the question of the reconstruc- |
tion of the Union was received this morning;
Ipresume we shall agree in regard to four
general principles asserted in the Faneuil Hall |
address, as those which shonld guide the de- |
termination of our relations with both whites |
and blacks in the rebel States. That there
may be no mistake in reference to this, I
"First~The principle must be put beyond
all question, that the republic has direct
claim upon the allegiance Of every citizen frem
which no State can absOlve him, and to his
obedience to the laws of the republic, anything
in the Constitution or laws of any State to the
contrary Notwithstanding.


Second-The public faith is pledged to every
person of color in the rebel States, to secure
to them and their posterity forever, COM
plete and vertible freedom. Having provided
them this freedom, secured their aid on the
faith of this promise, and by successful war
and actual military occupation of the country,
having obtained the power to secure the result,
we are dishonored if we fail to make it good
to them.


Third-Th system Of slavery must be abol-
ished and prohibited by paramount and ire
versible law. Throughout the rebel States
there must be, in the words of Webster. " i'm
pressed upon the soil itself an inability to bear
up but free men,"
Fourth-The system OF the States must be
truly republican.


The application made of the last principle in
the address l do not regard as sound, but shall
perhaps agree mere fully with you than you do
with the address, when I assert that in re-
publican community political privileges OF any
kind can never be rightly or safely based upon
hereditary caste.


How then, it will naturally be asked, can
there be any practical difference between US
as to the mode of carrying out these princi-
pies? 1t is found in the views we take of the
mutual relations of the two races in the South
You, judging from this distance, say, ''Deliver
the four millions offreed people into the hands
of their former oppressors now embittered by
their defeat, and they will make their condi-
tion worse than before" /. starting from the
same principles, and after four years close apd
thoughtful observation of the races where they
are, say am unwiAingly forced to the convic-
ton that the effect of the war has not been sim
ply to g embitter their relations, but to de-
veiop rooted antagonism which makes their
pcIulaueuG luSlOu III Oue POLITICAL community
an absolute impossbility. The sole difference
between us then is in the degree of hostility we
find existing between the races, and its proba.
BILE permanence You assume that the extern
sion of the right of suffrage to the blacks, leav-
ing them intermixed with the whites, will cure
all the trouble. believe that it would rather
be like the decisions in that outer darkness of
which Milton speaks, where


"Chaos empire sits,


And by decision more embroils the fray"


Yet as believe, with you, that the right of
life and liberty are inalienable and more than
admit the danger of leaving laboring class at
the mercy of those who formerly owned them
as slaves, you will say am bound to furnish
some solution of the problem which shall not
deny the right or incur the peril. So / am
and the only real solution which l can see is
the peaceful separation of the races. But, you
will reply, foreign colonization will break down
hopelessly under the very vastness of the labor,
even If it were not tyrannical enough to expel
theA unfortunate people from the land of their
birth. grant the full weight of the objection,
and therefore say the solution is narrowed
down to a peaceable separation of the races on
the soil where they now are.


The essential point in the discussion thus ap-
pears to be the actual relations of the two races
in the Southern States asa question offact, and
the probable future consequences OF those re-
lations as question of theory.


Upon the question of fact think may with
all modesty claim that my anteeedents and my
opportunities for observation entitle nv testi-
mony to have some weight, even with the
most radical anti slavery men in the North.


The antagonism of which / have spoken is
not entirely One-sided. On the part of the for
mer master it takes the form OF an indomitable
nIoe, winch utterly refuses to entertain the
idea Of political or social equality. mingled with
hatred intensified by the circumstances and
the results OF the war. This feeling is not con-
hned to the slaye-owners alone. but the poor
whites share it fully and often show it u,ore
paSSiOnately.


On the part of the freedmen, it is manifested
IN an utter dlstrust of the dominant race. and
an cnmlty which, although made nv circnm.
stances more passive and less OPENLY manifest.
ted, is as real and implacable "a The other
They have The mutual attraction of race among
themselves; ana repusion OF the whites as an.
other people. developed to degree which snr.
prised me. 1t is not as individuals of = nation
common to us all that they speak of tha,,,
selves, but, to use the language of one ofther,
speaking to myself, they feel that they ..hous
long been an oppressed and down.trodJssnn
people,"


The daily and hourly repetition of proofs .,
this fact, many of them too subtle for deserts
tion but none the less convincing to the IE
server, has fully convinced me that never be-
tween Norman and Saxon, nor between Gan
and Frank, was there more conscious hatret
or an antagonism more likely to prove inyet
crate than between black and white on ouI
Southern soil. The negroes have no sense @
security nor faith in their former masters, ever
if they offer them political rights: they will
fear them as Da.sa0s aona fsrentes..
. What does history teach US in regard to tn
permanence and durability of such prejudice
and enmities of the race? Speaking on thi
subject, Augustin Thierry says: ."Whateve
degree OF territorial unity the great moderi
whatever may be community of manners, Ian
guage and public feeling which the habit O
living under the same government and in tn
same state of civilization has introduced amons
the inhabitants Of each of these states. there
l .o~oalv one of them which doas ,,ot o,-or -