Year: 1866

Z
provinces and conquered people, in all
things subordinate and subject to the viii
of their cOnquerors free only to obey laws
in making which they are not allowed to
share.


REPRIsAL AGAINST OPPRESSION JUSTI~
FLED.


/ No people has ever yet existed whose
/ loyalty and faith such treatment, long con-
tinued would not aleniate aud impair.
And the ten millions of Americans who
/ live in the South would be unworthy citi~
zens OF free country, degenerate sons Of
an heroic ancestry, unfit ever to become
guardians of the rights and liberties be-
queathei to US by the fathers and founders
OF this republic, if they could accept, with
uncomplaining submissiveness, the limita-
tions thus sought to be imposed upon
them. Resentment Of injustice is always
and everywhere essential to freedom
and the spirit which prompts the States
and people lately in insurrection, but in
surgent now no longer. to protest against
the imposition Of unjust and degrading
conditions, makes them all the more wor-
thy to share in the government Of a free
commonwealth, and gives still frmer as
surance OF the future power and freedom of
the republic.


REBELLION HAS EEFE EXPIATED.


For whatever responsibility the South
ern people may have incurred in resisting
the authority Of the National Government.
and in taking up arms for its overthrow,
they may be held to answer, as individuals,
before the judicial tribunals OF the land :;
and for that conduct, as societies and or
ganized communities, they have already
I paid the most fearful penalties that can
tail on offending States in the losses, the
sufferings and humiiations OF unsuccessful
war. But whatever may be the guilt or
the punishment Of the conscious aut hors of
the insurrectlon, cardor and common ius>
tice demand the concession that the great
mass of those who became involved in its
responsibility acted upon what they be-
lievcd to be their duty. in defense Of what
they had been taught TO believe their rights,
or under compulsion physical and NOR
al. which they were powerless to resist
Nor can it be amiss to remember that, ter
ribie as have been the bereayements and
the losses of this war, they have fallen exs
clusively upon neither section and upon
neither party-that they have fallen, in
deed, with far greater weight upon those
with whom the war began; that in the
death of relatives and friends, the disper-
sion Of f,milies, the disruption of social
systems and social ties. the overthrow of
governments, Of law AMI order the des-
truction of property and Of forms and
modes and means of industry. the loss OF
political, commercial and moral influence,
in every shape and form which great cal
antilles eau assume, the States and people
which engaged in the war against the
Government of the United States have
suffered tenfold more than those who re-
mained in allegiance to its Constitution
and laws.


These considerations rlay no.. as they
certainly do not, justify the action of the
people of the insurgent States; but no
just or generous mind will refuse to them
very considerable weight in determining
the line Of conduct which the Government
of the United States should pursue toward
them.


ACCEPTANCE OF IT'S PENALTIES.


They acc cpt. if not with alacrity, cer>
tainiy without sullen resentment, the de-
feat and overthrow they have sustained
They acknowledge and acquiescc in the
results, to themselves and the country,
which that defeat involves They no lon
ger claim for any State the right to secede
from the Union; they no longer assert for
any State an allegiance paramount to that
which is due to the General Government.
They have accepted the destruction of
slavery, abolished it by their State Consti-
tutlons. and concurred with the States and
people of the whole Union in prohibiting
its ;istence forever upon the soil or within
the jurisdiction of the Unitel States
They indicate and evince their purpose just
SO fast as may be possible and safe, TO
adapt their domestic laws to Tie changed
condition of their society, and to secure by
the law and its tribunals equal and impar>
tlal justice TO all classes of their inhabi-
tants. They admit the invaldity of all
acts of resistance to the National authority,
and of all debts incurred in attempting its
overthrow. They avow their willingness
to share the burdens and discharge all the
duties and obligations which rest upon
them, in common with other States and
other sections Of the Union and they re-
new, through their representatives in this
Convention, By all their public conduct, in
every way and by the most solemn acts by
which States and societies can pledge their
faith, their engagement to bear true faith
and allegiance, through ali time to come,
to the Constitution of the United States,
and to all laws that may be made in pursu-
ance thereof.


APPEAL TO TIE NATION.


Ftl'Ow Coantfymea: We call upon
you in full reliance upon your intelligence
AID your patriotism, TO accept, with gen.
erous and ungrudging confidence. this full
surrender on the part of those lately in
arms against your authority, and to share
with them the honor and renown that
await those who bring back peace and con-
cord to jarring States The war just
closed, with al Its sorrows and disasters,