Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which has
passed over the Southern States still remain. The immeasurable benefits
which will surely follow, sooner or later, the hearty and generous
acceptance of the legitimate results of that revolution have not yet
been realized. Difficult and embarrassing questions meet us at the
threshold of this subject. The people of those States are still
impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest, and peaceful
local self-government is not fully enjoyed. Whatever difference of
opinion may exist as to the cause of this condition of things, the fact
is clear that in the progress of events the time has come when such
government is the imperative necessity required by all the varied
interests, public and private, of those States. But it must not be
forgotten that only a local government which recognizes and maintains
inviolate the rights of all is a true self-government.
With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to each
other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and perplexities
which exist in those States, it must be a government which guards the
interests of both races carefully and equally. It must be a government
which submits loyally and heartily to the Constitution and the laws--the
laws of the nation and the laws of the States themselves--accepting and
obeying faithfully the whole Constitution as it is.
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