Year: 1867

hAuhANhEy VA, aug. -, OIs


GENTLEMEN-Your kind and patri-
otic letter is before me, and l reply
promptly.


| am for peace. feel no inclination
to impugn the motives of men, or to
arraign their past records; nor shall
any one put me down as the advocate
of any peculiar dynasty, or of any
party. The fate of the people of
Georgia is my fate /; and looking upon
the stern realities that surround US, |
have tried to decide what is best for
my countrymen and for our posterity.
No doubt can be entertained by the
dispassionate mind but that it is our
duty to accept the facts of the situa-
tion-weigh them with prudent .judg-
ment as they are, and not as we may
desire to have them, and, in co6pera
ton with every power and Influence at
work for our rehabilitation, to make
the best government we can with the
materials at our command.


| am we'll aware that in coming to
this wise conclusion, there are many
preiudiceS in our own bosom which we
have to conquer. We have been told
that the people of the North are so
much our enemies, by both tradition
and practice, that we cannot live in the
same government with them. This
cruel work of sowing dragons teeth was
carried on through years of crusade,
until we were called upon in the name
of constitutional liberty, to abrogate
the constitution of our fathers and make
u new one; and in the name of State
rights and State sovereignty, to inaugu-
rate a dynasty which soon inundated
liberty, and which, in the name
OF the dethroncd goddess, and
supported with paradoxical devotion,
by virtuous people, dragging men in
conscript chains, TO defend its unlawful
seizures, its forced loans, and other
measures Of tyranny. The true state,
ment of the matter is that the people OF
the North have committed errors in the
past; so have we. Since, then, none
Of us are totally without fault, why shall
we not admit it-proft by experience,
and address ourselves to the present
| and to the fsture.


But the enemies OF reconstruction
would still have us believe the hCresy
above referred to, and in their anxiety
to present the sum of alleged grievances,
they have failed to notice, or neglected
to advert TO some important facts which
deserve consideration. TO some of
these will briefly call attention.


When the war closed there was a
sufficient debt due by people of the
South to people of the North to have
brought the whole mass of Southern
society to penniless bankruptcy. This,
too, was well known to Northern mer-
chants who mainly held the huge debt.
They did not press. They did not
even avail themselves of legal advant
| ages, whilst thousands of Southern credi-
tors, many Of them, too, bitter anti
econstructionists, who say they love
their Southern brethren too well to be
willing for them to live under the same
vine and fig tree with the Yankees,
rushed into the courts to secure first
liens, and piled their debtors with
merciless legal process whenever and
wherever they could. have been, and
am now, extensively engaged in the
practice of law. | know what | say is
truth, and weigh my words deliberately,
when ] declare that the men of the
North have been at least as much like
brethren in their settlements as South
erners have. | challenge the business
men and the merchants and the lawyers
of Georgia to deny it. And | would,
with the most tender delicacy, suggest
to the women of my country, many of
whom have refused either to be com
forted or to reflect, that these men have
had it in their power to deprive them
of even their homes, and have known
| it, and from motives Of fraternity and
of admiration for a gallant, courageous
and suffering people, have exercised
| forbearance. The many thousand oil
| maguanimous settlements made by
Northern men constitute a great social
fact which is for them a monument, and
| is for us an unanSwcrablc argument
against the further continuance of strife.


There is another equally as potent.
| Our people were impoverished at the
close of the war, and the horrors OF
their situation were increased by the
unpropitiousness of the seasons Of 1868
and 1866. Famine thus found its way
to many a door where plenty had
previously kept her abode. 1t even
put in its long arms and pinched the
inmates of all our homes, so that,
instead Of the corHucopiG, there was
the groan of misery throughout our
much loved South. There is not a
community in the North which did not
contribute something to relieve our
distress. They sent the means OF
subsistence to us along the ready rail
way routes and by the river steamers.
They sent corn, and flour, and bacon,
and lard, and clothing, and all that
sustains life and when they were
uncertain what would do us most good,
they sent checks on their banks through
the mails, so promptly resstablished for
our accommodation by the Government.
No avenue of communication was
spared no organization, social or
! benevolent, but what lent its aid. The
government itself entered upon the
good work, and its officers have been
planning the relief of our poor, and
distributing rations to the hungry.


Even the mighty ocean bore their
bountilul offerings, and its willing waves
murmured the praises of the generosity
they were contributing to assist; whilst,
in many instances, citizens far in the
interior were surprised with consign-
ments of food for distribution from men
whose names they never before had
heard. Does this look like enmity ?
Does it look like plotting our destruc-
ton? Ny countrymen, do not let
politicians or your own passions deceive
you. Such works as these are fruits of
peace. Those who thus signalize our
nisfortunes are not enemies. We should
know more of each other, both North
and South, and we should judge of each
other with fairness and mutual respect.
This was what Washington meant when
he recommended national spirit. Have
the hearts of our people become so
small that we cannot love our whole
country? Is not \ good deed good,