Year: 1867

Aiitaiy, oue uHtii your COnVenClOnS nave
formed such constitutions as are required to
assume the rights of all men before the law,
this government must remain and perhaps
new burdens be imposed. It is trusted BY
Congress that it will not appeal in vain to the |
citizens Of North Carolina.


1t does not appeal in vain to those 80, 900 /
loyal hearted men in this State who, though
compelled to bear thesw in battle against
their country, looked with an unfaltering
hope to see the flag of that country waving
again over the soil of their native State
those men who, when they saw that flag in
the ranks Of opposing battle, shed tears that
they were compelled to raise their hands
against it, but pricked by the bayonets of
treason, rushed into the conflict, disbelieving
almost that there was a heaven under which
such sacrilege could be committed who,
when they saw at last that emblem of liberty
and protection flung to the breeze over your
capitol, replacing that banner under which
there had been misrule, anarchy and death,
wept again at the greeting. 1t does not
appeal in vain to those citizens of North
CAROLINA who, having tasted the bitter fruits
of treason, have again renewed in their
hearts their allegiance to the country of their
| boyhood. These men only need the gift
from the government of their lest franchise
of citizenship to render them the most useful
| citizens of the South. It does not appeal in
vain to the black men of this State, those
| people who for two hundred years awaited
the gift of freedom; whose instinct, during
the four years war, kept their eye upon the
| flag of the Republic thinking that they saw
| its stars brighter than ever before, with the
meaning which should bring them deliver
ance.


| Why should the Congress appeal in vain
to any citizen of North Carolina who under
stands his own interests or those of his
State. for the restoration of civil government
under the law of Congress repeat it, that
this is the straight and narrow path upon
which such governments can be reached.
The South is impoverished and needs the
help of the North and the general govern
ment to restore her trade, her industry and
her schools. The people of the North are
not unfriepdly to the people of the South.
The people of the South should not be un-
friendly to those Of the North. Descended
from one common ancestry, born of one
common Llood, inheriting the same glorious
recollections of a struggle for freedom, sin
ming alike for century in keeping race of
their fellow men from that freedom they
themselves cherished, alike redeemed from
that sin by the fire of battle and the awful
agonies of civil war, they should again be
friends, allies, associates, brothers.


The people of the North are now pouring
out upon the famishing pVor of the South
the gifts of their abundance as from the
hand of Providence, which knows no dis
| tinction of the Just and the unjust.


Had the North cherished a spirit of hatred
toward the South, then might every soldier
in these Southern garrisons become robber
of your people and pestilence upon your
society. But so far from this has been the
conduct of the United States soldier in the
South, that the military here has become the
acknowledged friend of every class of peo-
pie.


The government of the South to-day, by
securing the rights Of every man, is better
than that which has existed before for ten
years. I may say hundred years-for never
before was it sought here or in the North to
secure Justice to every class of citizens.
No people in the world ever dealt so mag
unanimously toward a conquered people
When the war ended the people of the South,
having staked everything in the hazard,
might have scarcely hoped the boon of life
from the government they had attempted to
destroy. Nota single man has been punish
ed for treason. Yet, Notwithstanding all
these truths, am aware that portion OF
the people in this State Goes, and in the
South will, refuse the terms of the general
government, hoping, in their insanity, for =
I know not what. To such as these it can
only be said that they are beyond salvation
by Andrew johnson. No power under
heaven can put an injunction upon the will
of the Congress of the United States. The
progress and triumph of Republican princi-
piles in this country are as certain as the fact
that these principles are now endorsed by
three-fourths of the American people. Mr..
johnson and his cabinet may check for a
day, if they will, by their vetoes and pro-
nunciamentces, the wheels of this progress
but they will roll onward, crushing only the
more deeply into the earth those who OBJ
structed the way. Nothing can be more
evident than this fact.


In accordance with an opinion of the
Attorney General, Mr. johnson has determ.
ined to restrict the powers of the military
Commanders in these districts Al extra
session of Congress is already called, and
such legislation will be the result as will
forever prevent the President, servant of the
people, from thwarting the will Of the people
l assert it here tonight, to the citizens o1
: North Carolina, that in behalf and in the
name of the American people, that Congress:
will assemble on the fourth day of July, the
day upon which this nation was brought into
being, to decree, by two-thirds vote of it,
members, that the integrity of this Republic
shall be everlasting; that its foundation
stone shall be the rights of oil men; thai
fhof which crnxyno tho nditico sholl ha fhf
sculptured likeness of liberty herself


The condition of these States during tn,
past seven years, is one ofperpetual disunion
disunion not only with the form but with thu
spirit which .anilnates this Republic. 1t il
the decree of the Congress and of the peo
pie that these States shall be restored to thei
place in the Union. with Republican govern
ments and Republican institutions, securing
to every man in these States, black or white
equal rights before the law.


Under the act of Congress, passed las
March, it is prescribed that the initiator
step to the formation of such government
shall be Convention of the people to form
and present to the Congress Republican
Constitution. The question of these Con
ventions is now before the whole South. ]
is the question to-day before you, the cit
zens of North-C Carolina. What are the ou
jections to the Convention2 Let us conside
them. In the first place am aware tina
there is very large class of men who's
: minds have been made so sluggish unde
the system in which they have lived-whos
hopes and sympathies are so wholly swal
lowed up in the g lost cause;" men who dar
not look upon the future-who look onl


backward, as through an opiate mist upol