Year: 1866

To the PRESIDENT:


SIR: In reply to your dispatch of August
22d, | have the honor to state, in no Instance in
making appointment to Office, or in recommend
ing for appointment, have shown any preference
for persons who have participated in the rebel
lion on the contrary, have been very careful to
prefer and to appoint persons who were original
Union men, and persons who were in favor of re-
storing the authority of the federal government.
Doubtless in many appointments (somc four
thOusand) some have been appointed who ought
not to have been and in some cases even friends
have msled to some slight extent, by their re-
commentators, but, upon the whoie only loyal
Union men have been appointed and recommend
ed at Washington. 1t is my purpose and wish to
encourage and strengthen those who have never
at heart faltered in their allegiance to the federal
government. have proceeded deliberately and
carefully in the work of reorganization, and thus
far l am sure there are no grounds for appre-
hendng that North Carolina will not present an
acceptable constitution. The great body of her
people are loyal and submissive to national au-
thority know there are malcontcnts, radicals,
and not good men, who are engaged in misrcpre-
senting facts, and fomenting strife for certain
purposes but none OF these things move me III
the performance OF duty.


Thanking you heartily for the confidence you
have heretofore reposed in me, and fer tio honor
you have done me in making me provisional gov
ernor of this noble State, am, sir; &c,


Provisional Governor.


We invite special attention to the above
telegram of the President Let our readers
consider and weigh it carefully The Presi-
dent says it is rumored that s the true Union
men are totally ignored" in appointments to
office: that this rumor is intended to embar-
rass his reconstruction policy; that he does
not credit it, but he is so much concerned on
the subject that he specially instructs his
subordinate, the Provisional Governor, to
encourage and strengthen to the fullest e.
tent the men of your State who haze neoer
taltered in their allegiance to the gocernment.n


And he adds most emphatically, every
opportunity should be made available to
have this known and understood as your
policy and determination"


His subordinate replies that he has done
the best he could in this respect, and that it
IS his "purpose and wish to encourage and
strengthen those who have never at heart
faltered in their allegiance to the federal gov.
ernment" This purpose and wish be carried
out to the best ofhis ability. and in doing
SO he was sustained and commended by the
President Il


These instructions, it must be borne in
mind, were given after the great body of our
people had been pardoned by the President.
and while Others were being specially par
doned The fact that pardon was necessary
implied guilt The President did not in
tend that those leaders who had involved
the people in war, or who had held them up
to the war after there was no ground to
hope for success, should, by their mere par
dons, be privileged to step forward and
conduct the work of restoration. He re- t
served this work for those Union men who
had opposed the war, and who strove for
peace during its progress on the basis of re-
storation. He holds the same views now he I
ne'd then. He has not changed. He takes
ho step backwards. If his views have been