Year: 1866

I
order have destroyed; where thousands and
tens of thousands of turbulent spirits have
been suddenly loosed from the discipline of


war, and thrown without resources or re-
straint upon a disorganized and chaotic So
ciety, and where the keen sense of defeat is
added to the overthrow of ambition and
| hope, scenes of violence should defy for
time the imperfect discipline of law and
excite anew the fears and forebOdings Of
the patriotic and well disposed. 1t is un-
questionably true that local disturbances Of
| this kind, accompanied by more or less of
violence, do still occur. But they are con-
fined entirely to the cities and larger towns


of the Southern States, where different races
! and interests are brought most closely


in contact, and where passions and resent
ment are almost easily fed and famed into
outbreat; and even there they are quite as


much the fruit of untimely and hurtful polIt-
ical agitation, as of any hostility on the


part of the people to the authority of the
National Government But the concurrent


testimony of those best acquainted with the
condition of society and the state of public


sentiment in the South, including that of its


representatives in this Convention, estab-


fishes the fact that the great mass of the


Southern people accept, with as full and


sincere submission as do the people of the
other States, the re-established supremacy


of the national authority, and are prepared,
in the most loyal spirit, and with a zeal
Guickened alike by their interest and their
pride, to cooperate with other States and
sections in whatever may be necessary to
defend the rights, maintain the honor, and
promote the welfare of the country.


History affords no instance where people
so powerful in numbers, in resources, and in
public spirit, after a war so long in It's du-
ration, so destructive in its progress, and so
adverse in its issue, have accepted defeat and
its consequences with so much of good faith
as has marked the conduct of the people
lately in insurrectiOn against the United
States Beyond all question this has been
largely due to the wise generosity with
which their enforced surrender was accepted
by the President of the United States, and
generals in immediate command of our ar


mics, and to the liberal measures which
were afterward taken to restore order, tran
guilty, aud law, to the States where all had
| for the time had been overthrown. No steps
could have been better calculated to COM
mand the respect, win the confidence, revive
the patriotism, and secure the permanent


and affectionate allegiance of the people Of


the South to the Constitution and laws of the
| Union than those which have been so firmly


taken and so steadfastly pursued by the
| President ofthe United States.


And if that confidence and loyalty has


been since impaired, if the people South are
to-day less candid in that allegiance than
they were Immediately upon the close of


the war, we believe it is due to the changed


tone of the Legislative Department of the
| General Government towards them, to the
action by which Congress has endeavored to
suppress and defeat the Presidents wise and
| beneficial policy of restoration; to their ex-


clusion from all participation in our com


mon Government; to the withdrawal OF them


of the rights conferred and guaranteed by


the Constitution, and to the evident purpose
of Congress, in the exercise of Usurped and
unlawful authority, to reduce them from
| the ranks of free and equal members of a


republic of States, with rights and dignities
unimpaired, to the condition of conquered


provinces and conquered people, in all


things subservient and subject to the will
| of their conquerors free only to obey laws
| in making which they are not allowed to
| share. No people has ever existed whose
loyalty and faith such treatment long con,
| tinued would not ALLEVIATE and impair. And
| the ten millions of Americans who live
| in the South would be unworthy citizens OF


a free country, degenerate sons of an heroic
| ancestry, unfit to become guardians of the
| rights and liberties bequeathed to US by the
| fathers and founders of this republic if they
could accept with accomplishing submIs-
| siveness the humiliations thus sought to be


imposed upon them. Resentment OF lnJus-
tice is always and everywhere essential to
/ T. 4I, ,srtt trrhf
| States and people lately in insurrection In


surgents now no longer, to protest against
| the imposition of unjust and degrading con-


ditions, makes them all the more worthy tc
| share in the government of free common


wealth, and gives still firmer assurance O.


the future power and freedom of the Repub.


lie; for whatever responsibility the Southern


people may have incurred in resisting tht


authority of the National Government anc


in taking up arms for its overthrow, they
| NAV be held to answer for as individual


before the judicial tribunals of the land


and for their conduct as societies and organ


lied communities they have already pal(


the most fearful penalty that can fall on OF


Tending States, in the losses, the sutferlngs


| and humiliations of unsuccessful war. Bu


whatever may be the guilt or the punish
ment of the conscious authors OF the lnsur
rection, candor and common justice deman'
concession to the great mass OF those WIN
became involved in Its risks and acted upo
what they deemed to be their duty, and Il
defence of what they had been taught to be
, | lieve were their rights, or under a compul
, sion, physical and moral, which they wer
{ pOwerless to resist. Nor can 1t be amlss to re
, Iaemberthatterribleas have been the bereavt
, ments and the losses of this war, they hay
fallen exclusively upon neither section an
} upon neither party; that they have iaileI
5 indeed, with far greater weight upon thos
| | with whom the war begun that in the deaf
= of relatives and friends, the dispersion G
4 | families, the disruption of social system
5 | and social ties, the overthrow of govern
e ments, of law and Of order, the destruction
n property and of forms and'modes and NEAR
= Of industry, the loss of political, Commercial
and moral influence in any shape and form
q which great calamities we are sure the Stat
r and people which engaged in the war again
- the Government of the United States hay
il suffered tenfold more than those who r
# mained in allegiance to Its Constitution al
n laws. These considerations may not,
{ they certainly do not, justify the action
s the people of the insurgent States; but !
o humane. generous mind will refuse TO the
II very considerable weight in determining Il
n line of conduct which the Government
e the United States should pursue towar
Is them. They accept, if not with alacrlt
l. certainly without sullen resentment, the q
3 feat and overthrow they have sustaine
ct They acknowledge and acquiesce in the T
d | suits to themselves and the country whl'
IF that defeat involves they no long
;. I claim for any State the right to sece
II from the Union; they no longer asse
Of for any State an allegiance paramou
Of TO that which is due to the Gener
e. Government. They have accepted t
ID destruction of slavery-abOlished it by the
IN State costitutions-and concurred with 1
is States and people Of the whole Union


prohibiting its existence forever upon I
N soil or within the jurisdiction of the Unit
At States. They indicate and evince their pJ
O. pose. lust so fast as may bepossible and sa
IS TO adapt their domestic laws to the chang
ne condition Of their society, and to secure
IL the law and its tribunals equal and imp;
n tial Justice to all classes Of their inhabitan
m They admit the invalidity Of all acts OF


A sistance to the national authority and OF
10 debts incurred in attempting its overtime


They avow their willingness to share I
,b burdens and discharge all the duties and
es LEGATIONS which rest upon them IN comm
an with other States and other sections OF
ed Union. and they renew, through their r.


resentatives in this Convention, by all IN