Year: 1872

GRANT INCAPABLE OF RECoNCILING THE SOUTH


That is the material aspect of late recon
struction, as it had developed under the
auspices of the President Does it not show
in q gls ring light how certainly the worst
r suits of social disorder will follow close
upon the attempt to substitute personal for
a constitutional Government. or military
for a civil rue? And do not the two aspects,
when taken together-tLe political and the
material-demonstrate in their delineation
that policies more at variance with any sue
cess in restoring cordial good will in sec
tio0s recently tranq Utilized could not have
been fallen upon 2 IF the Union is to be
henceforth bond, indeed, en- it must re-
present common protection, at the South as
well at the North its Federal authority
musr be the exponent of the whole country,
the whole people. 1t cannot in state of
peace continue to enact conquest and re-
fleet free Government. If it is to assume
the task of reconciliation, then it must lay
aside the role of arbitrary power. If it is
to mean peace, it can not with impunity con-
nive at plunder. Yet it was peace and re-
copciliation which ths President pledged
himself to accomplish.


And now answer, my fellow-citizens, in
all sincerity, and banishing whatever of
partisan feeling may have been aroused, can
it be possible that a rule Sc unpropitious
toward reconciliation as is thus demon
strated out of the facts of reconstruction
could possibly have emanated from sincere
desire TO dumlnlSGor our QdLlOndl duAlTS IN
that interest? Is it not evident that this
great public demand has been unhesitating
ly sacrificed? And to what end !? 1t was
not in the behalf of order; for, with few
local exceptions, no disorder has been pro-
jected. 1t was not as a morality. for 1 have
shown that it has put to the blush all past
experiences Of corrupt spoliation. 1t could
have been only, therefore, to perpetuate
power for the Administration and its follow
ers. And is it not equally evident to you,
in fact, is it not the one deduction that flows
freely forth from all this abuseof power, this
disregard of popular rights, this unparalleled
devastation of communities which 1T claimed
to govern that the present Administration Is
now utterly disqualified for longer assuming
the task of reconciling the people Of the
South to the new order and OF wedding them
firmly to the life of the Republic? Against
it there ia every prejudice, in it no qualih
cation. Its agents are not patriots who may
be trusted with such work, but plunderers
intent quite other accom- plishment. Its
lines have been set and hardened in alien
policies, and only those who value partisan
success more, aud peaceful restoration less,
can henceforth justify to their own convic-
tion longer support of the President and
his policies, or a further extension of his
official term.


THE SUBSECTION OF WHITES TO BLACKS AN I'M


POSSIBILITY.


The second great problem about which the
people of the United States have been most



its achievement was the sole guarantee OF
any abiding peace hereafter, has been the
reconciliation of the races at the South, and
the establishment of such civil order there
as would insure that result. Again, and in
this respect has the Administration proved
| a success?


In discussing this branch of the snbject
it will be we'll first to discriminate as to what
success implies. You will readily concede,
know, that all our experience of the sub
| nf he white race
| under the old forms of slavery was not a
success. 1t was was not a. success, although
| for many years sustained by the whole
| power of the Federal Government, by the
| army and the navy, the Congress and the
President. 1t was not a success, although
| subjection had tanned its spirit and almost
| extInguished any courageous aspiration Tor
achieving its own liberty. And so likewise
1 may claim that any attempt to subject the
| white to the black race, to govern by
virtue of caste, to rule in the name OF color
| will equally fail to prove a success. Dwell
lers together in the same land, 1t must DC
either peace or war between the races. Ii II
| is to be peace, then far other pelitics, as
| shall undertake to show, will have to be in
| stilled g. commended there to the conh-
| dence of both races than any which nave
| yet been advanced by the Administration
If it is to be war, t1en rest assured the sym
| pathies OF this nation will follow those
against whom injustice and oppression anc
deprivation # rights may be wantonly en-
forced. If 1T is to be war, then the fellow
ship of kindred blood will connect over THU


land, and they who have needed the entir'


moral support of a freedom-lovIng people Il


rescue hem from bondage will stand isolatet


in the attempt to perpetuate the same in


Justice from which they themselves hav'
lust been delivered. Nor will it be success


but failure so d small tn 1t history will


weep to record it's misfortdnes. Let it no


be war in any event, if the patriotism of tn
| nation can avert such ending.


HARMoNIzATIoN OF THE RACES.


The nine Southern States whose recon
struction, as it is called, has been under
taken hY the Administration, contain, az