Year: 1868

geSElOn i nave COQSulCeQ WIN d
number Of gentlemen from the
South, in whose judgment l have
confded, and who are we'll &C.
quainted with the public senti-
ments Of their respective States.
They have kindly consented to
unite with me in replying to your
communication, and their names
will be found with my own ap-
pended to this answer.


With this explanation we pro-
ceed to give you a candid state
ment Of what we believe to be the
sentiment of the Southern people
in regard to the subject to which
you refer.


Whatever opinion may have
prevailed in the past in regard to
African slavery or the right of a
State to secede from the Union,
we believe we express the almost
unanimous Judgment of the South
ern people when we declare that
they consider that those questions
were decided by the war, and
that it is their intention, in good
faith, to abide by that decision.
At the close of the war the South
ern people laid down their arms,
and sought to resume their former
relations with the United States
Government.


Through their State Conven-
tions they abolished slavery and
annulled their ordinances of seees-
sion and they returned to their
peaceful pursuits with a sincere
purpose to fulfill their duties un-
der the Constitution Of the United
States, which they had sworn to
support. If their action in these
particulars had been met in a
spirit Of frankness and cordiality,
we believe that ere this old irrita-
tions would have passed away,
and the wounds inflicted by the
war would in a great measure
have been healed. As far as we
are advised, the people Of the
South entertain no unfriendly
feeling toward the Government of
the United States, but they COM
plain that their rights under the
Constitution are withheld from
them n the administration there
of. .


The idea that the Southern peo-
pie are hostile to the negroes, and
would oppress them if it were in
their power to do so, is entirely
unfounded. They have grown up
in our midst, and we have been
accustomed, from our childhood,
to look upon them with kindness.
The change in the relations of
the two races has wrought no
change in our feelings toward
them. They still constitute the
important part Of our laboring
population. Without their labor
the lands Of the South would
be comparatively unproductive.
Without the employment which
Southern agriculture affords, they
would be destitute Of the means
of subsistence, and become paul
pers, dependent upon public boun-
ty.


Selfintcrest even if there were
no higher motives, would, there
fore, prompt the whites Of the
South to extend to the negroes
care and protection. The impor-
tant fact that the two races are,
under existing circumstances, ne
cessary to each other, is gradually
becoming apparent to both,. and
we believe, but for influences ex-
erted to stir up the passions of the
negroes, the relations of the two
races would soon adjust themselves
on a basis Of kindness and mutual
advantage.


1t is true that the people of the
South, together with the people
of the North and West, are for OBJ
vious reasons opposed to any sys-
tenn of laws which would place the
political power Of the country in
the hands Of the neglo race. But
the opposition springs from no
feeling of enmity, but from a deep
seated conviction that at present
the NEGROES have neither the intel