From the practical question of Civil Service Reform I pass to
Reconciliation, being the most important issue ever presented to the
American people,--reconciliation not only between the two once warring
sections, but also between the two races. This issue, so grand and
beautiful, was distinctly presented, when Horace Greeley, in accepting
the Republican nomination at Cincinnati, wrote these memorable words:--
“In this faith, and with the distinct understanding, that, if
elected, I shall be the President, not of a party, but of the whole
people, I accept your nomination,--in the confident trust that the
masses of our countrymen, North and South, are eager to clasp hands
across the bloody chasm which has too long divided them, forgetting
that they have been enemies, in the joyful consciousness that they
are, and must henceforth remain, brethren.”[195]
The issue was again presented, when thereafter the Democratic Party
in National Convention, acting under an irresistible movement of the
people, nominated the author of these words.
It is difficult to see how this noble aspiration can find other
than a generous response. Nothing but a party spirit which forgets
the obligations of Christian duty could treat it with indifference,
much less make it the occasion of misrepresentation. By no effort of
ingenuity or malignity can it be tortured into anything but an offer of
reconciliation, while the very letter of acceptance, where it appears,
declares the established supremacy of Equal Rights. Observe also that
it is made only when the work of Reconstruction is ended. Here is the
testimony of a Senator of South Carolina, in a speech in the Senate,
January 22, 1872:--
“The last of the Southern States is admitted to its full privileges
as a member of the brotherhood of States; the Constitutional
Amendments intended to secure the principles established by the war
and subsequent events have been accepted as valid. There can be no
fear or danger of their being disturbed.”[196]
But these things are forgotten; the Sermon on the Mount is forgotten
also; the Beatitudes are put aside. A great writer of the Middle Ages,
after dwelling on what is best for us, says:--
“Hence it is that not riches, not pleasures, not honors, not length
of life, not health, not strength, not comeliness, was sung to the
shepherds from on high, but peace.”[197]
The supporters of reëlection will not hearken to this song, and the
proffered hand is rejected. If not war, they would preserve at least
the passions of war, and instead of peace would scatter distrust and
defiance. The old fable is renewed:--
“Emboldened now on fresh attempt he goes,
With serpent’s teeth the fertile furrows sows;
The glebe fermenting with enchanted juice
Makes the snake’s teeth a human crop produce.”[198]
For me there can be but one course on this issue, and the moment it
was presented I seemed to behold, for the first time, the dawn of that
better era in our country when the Equal Rights of All should be
placed under the safeguard of assured Peace and Reconciliation. Had I
failed to sympathize with this endeavor, I should have been false to
the record of my life. My first public utterance, as far back as July
4, 1845, was to commend the cause of Peace, which from that early day,
amidst the contentions of public duty and the terrible responsibilities
of war, has never been absent from my mind. While insisting on the
Abolition of Slavery, while urging Enfranchisement, while vindicating
the Equal Rights of All, and while pressing Reconstruction, I have
constantly declared that all these were for no purpose of vengeance
or punishment, but only for the security of the citizen and the
establishment of government on just foundations, and that when this
was done nobody should outdo me in those generosities that become the
conqueror more than his conquest.