Year: 1866

of Georgia should deem our representation at Philadelphia, under the present aspect of affairs, unwise or iinpolitic, we are pre- pared to yield our own views in difference to the popular will:

 LAGRANGE, GA, July 1, 1866.

 My DEAR GENERAL: 1 have received your kind letter of June 30, asking if l think the South ought to be represented in the Conservative Union Convention" called to assemble in Philadelphia in August.

 1 shall leave on the return train, on a business visit to the North, and am compell ed to anwer you briefly.

 I do think that every Southern State should take immediate steps to be repres- ented in that Convention.

 Every man of every section who thinks that the Union as it was, with the Constitu- tion as it now is, can be restored and pre- served, and who is willing to aid in tho work, should lose no time in giving his in huence to this movement.

 The Radical Republican Party is unwil- ling to save the country. All who hate the Constitution are in its ranks. In the name of the Union they destroyed the South only that, rid of her opposition, they might also destroy the old Constitution and make new one. The unconciliating, uncompromising extremists of both sections were always the natural enemies of a Constitution founded in concert and admin stered in compromise. This theory has ever been the cornerstone of my politics. The war we have had was waged between these two extremes-each swallowing up, for the time the conservatives of its section. The Government proper was no party to the contest. The error of the South was in throwing the power of the Government into the hands of her sectional contestant The North triumphed by using the Govern ment, and now seeks, as 1t always intended, to destroy the Government. The Govern ment must now spring out of the embrace of her original and most bitter foe, and struggle for its life-the Constitution. It is to be fierce contest. It will be easier to reconcile the South to the Union, than to reconcile the North to the Constitution. This movement at Philadelphia is to save the Constitution. Let every other issue stand adjourned until this one of salvation is decided. By combination of all con- servative men, constitutional salvation may be possible. In no other way is it possible. The South sought to save the Constitution out of the Union She failed Let her now bring her dimished and shattered, but united and earnest counsels and energies to save the Constitution in the Union Such I always thought was her duty and her safety.

 The Union must remain So 1t is set tied. Shall this Union be without the Con- stitution? Shall it be with a new Consti- tuition formed by section and founded in farce Shall it be bread to one section and stone to another section of the same nominal whole? Shall the eagle protect with one wing and oppress with the other?

 Understand the Philadelphia movement is for a Union of equals according to a Constitution made by all and administered by and for all, and therefore Iapprove it.

 These are my view; and though l consider my days as public man have been counted, you may lock them in your drawer, or throw them in the fire, or give them to the public, as you please.

 Very truly, your friend,

 B. II. HILL

 Gen. A. R. WRIGHT, Augusta, Ga.