Year: 1866




Chief among the results thus accepted is the
universal conviction that the Union of these
States is an established and enduring fact, and
that the whole future of our people is lndls-
solubly bound up, for veal or woe, with the
success or failure of the Government OF the
United States. We recognize that Government
as our Government. Its Constitution is our
Constitution the duties which it requires are
our duties, and the rights which it promises are
our rights.


Another great result alike accepted by our
people is the final overthrow of the institution
Of slavery This has been completed by con-
which is universally admitted for although
we were not represented in the Congress by
which it was proposed, the failure to be so rep
resented was of our own choice


The condition of the freedmen among us, and
the policy to be adopted with regard to them,
will be recognized by you as calling for the ex-
erclse OF the highest faculties Of the statesman
and the best feelings of the Christian philan-
thropist. The General Assembly of Virginia is
engaged earnestly in the consideration Of these
subjects, and in anticipation of the results of
icy may be adopted, will be addressed in good
faith and with kind feeling to the improvement
of the physical intellectual and moral condition
Of our freedmen


You can understand, and will readily believe,
that the feelings OF our people towards these
freedmen are those Of kindness, sympathy and
good will, and that to treat them with harsh
ness or injustice is opposed as much to our feel
ings as it is to our interests and our sense of
right.


The policy pursued by you Mr. President,
toward Virginia and other States in like condi-
ton, has its strong foundation in broad and
comprehensive views of constitutional light and
of national policy, and must rely for it's ultimate
success upon the conservative sense of justice
of the people of all the States It is due, how
that when our General Assembly declare the
universal approval of that policy by the people
OF Virginia, they express what each one of this
committee here present knows to be living
truth.


1t happens that your position places you be-
tween us and threatened danger, and the Cen
eral Assembly have but given voice to the real
feelings of our people when they tender to you
the warmest thanks of Virginia for the firm
stand you have taken against the facility with
which it is proposed to change the fundamental
law. We would not, however claim as the on
ly, or even the chief merit Of the course you are
taking, that it affords to us protection III time
of trouble.


It is as defender of the general Constitution
that you deserve and command the confidence
and support of the people of the United States,
and it will be, hereafter, remembered as your
highest claim to the character Of Republican
statesman, that under all the trying circum-
stances, by which you are surrounded you have
not only proclaimed the Constitution of the
United States to be the supreme law of this
land, but have defended it alike from violation
and from innovation.


On the conclusion of Mr.. Baldwins speech
the President began, at first, hesitatingly, but
as he proceeded, he grew earnestly eloquent in
manner and matter. His remarks in full, as
follows, were reported for the National Repub-
ucan:


In reply, gentlemen, to the resolutions you
have just presented to me, and the clear and
forcible and concise remarks which you have
made in explanation of the position of Virginia,
l shall not attempt to make formal speech,
but simply enter into plain conversation in re-
gard to the condition Of things in which we
stand.


AS premise to what [ may say, permit me
first to tender you my thanks for this visit, and
next to express the qualification | feel in meet
ing SO many intelligent, responsible, and res
pectable men Of Virginia, bearing to me the
sentiments which have been expressed in the
resolutions of your Legislature, and in the re-
marks accompanying them.


They are, SO far as they refer to the Consti-
tuition of the country, the sentiments and the
principles embraced In that charter OF the Gov
ernment. The preservation Of the Union has
been, from my entrance into public life, one of
my cardinal tenets At the very incipiency of
this rebellion | set my face against the dissou-
ton of the Union Of the States. [ do not make
this allusion for the purpose of bringing up any
thing which has transpired which may be re-
garded as of an unkind or unpleasant character,
but [ believed then, as [ believe now, and as
you have most unmistakably indicated, that the
security and the protection of the rights of all
the people were to. be found in the Union; that
we were certainly safer in the Union than we
were out of it.


Upon this conviction [ based my opposition
to the efforts which were made to destroy the
Union. | have continued those efforts, not
withstanding the perils through which have
passed, and you are not unaware that the trial
has been a severe one. When opposition to
the Government came from one section of the
country, and that the section in which my life
had been passed, and with which my interests
were identified, / stood, as [ stand now, con-
tending for the Union and asseverating that the
best and surest way to obtain our rights and to
protect our interests, was to remain In the
Union, under the protection of the Constitution.


The ordeal through which we have passed
during the last four or five years demonstrates
most concusively that that opposition was right !;
and to-day, after the experiment has been made
and has failed after the demonstration has
been most conclusively afforded that this Union
cannot be dissolved that it was not designed to
be dissolved, it is extremely gratifying to me to
meet gentlemen as intelligent and as RESPONSE
bic as yourselves, who are willing and anxious
to accept and do accept the terms laid down IN
the Constitution and obedience to the laws made
in pursuance thereof


We were at one period separated; the sepa-
ration was to me painful in the extreme; but
now, after having gone through a struggle In
which the powers Of the Government have been
tried, when we have swung around to a point
at which we meet to agree and are willing to
unite our efforts for the preservation of the
Government, which [ believe is the best in the
world, it is exceedingly gratifying to me to meet
you to day, standing upon common ground, raj =
~ IL VI..,0- n4