While these sad days and nights of heaviness hung over us, we were
painfully conscious that some of our own people misunderstood my
husband's position in New York. Our having left Virginia was resented
at the time, and now General Pryor's avowed belief that the salvation
of the South could only be assured by acquiescence in the inevitable,
and in the full exercise of justice to the negro, was most unacceptable.
This was before the right of suffrage had been conceded to the negro; in
the interval between the fall of the Confederacy and the Reconstruction
period,—an interval during which the South was in a condition of
resentment and agitation which portended a possible renewal of the
conflict,—one of General Pryor's friends wrote him of the feeling
against him and the cause.
The following answer to this letter was sent by my husband to the
_Richmond Whig_, and puts him on record before the world at a time when
such opinions were decidedly adverse to the feelings of many of his
own personal friends. It required courage to write this letter. Since
that time the prophetic words have been fully justified by subsequent
events, and the unwelcome sentiments are to-day fully indorsed by the
South. They are pregnant with wisdom, perhaps as much needed now as at
the time they were uttered.
"NEW YORK, October 5, 1867.
"MY DEAR SIR: I was apprised before the receipt of your
letter that a certain paper of Virginia had stigmatized me
as a 'Radical' and had otherwise imputed to me sentiments
inimical to the interests of the South. But the silly story
I disdained to contradict, while it rested on the authority
of the irresponsible person who propagated it. Since you say
that my silence is construed into a sort of acquiescence in
the reproach, I empower you to repel the accusation with the
utmost energy of indignant denial. I have not the vanity to
imagine that my opinions are of the least consequence to any
one; but, because they have been brought into controversy,
and have been the occasion of subjecting me to some unmerited
animadversion, I will tell you very frankly and freely in what
relation I stand to the politics of the day.
"In the first place, then, neither with politics nor parties
have I the least concern or connection. On the downfall of the
Confederacy I renounced forever every political aspiration,
and resolved henceforth to address myself to the care of my
family and the pursuit of my profession. But for all that I
have not repudiated the obligations of good citizenship. When
I renewed my oath of allegiance to the Union, I did so in good
faith and without reservation; and as I understand that oath,
it not only restrains me from acts of positive hostility to
the government, but pledges me to do my utmost for its welfare
and stability. Hence, while I am more immediately concerned to
see the South restored to its former prosperity, I am anxious
that the whole country, and all classes, may be reunited on
the basis of common interest and fraternal regard. And this
object, it appears to me, can only be attained by conceding
to all classes the unrestricted rights guaranteed them by
the laws and by obliterating as speedily and as entirely as
possible the distinctions which have separated the North and
the South into hostile sections.
"With this conviction, while I pretend to no part in politics,
I have not hesitated, in private discourse, to advise my
friends in the South frankly to 'accept the situation';
to adjust their ideas to the altered state of affairs; to
recognize and respect the rights of the colored race; to
cultivate relations of confidence and good-will toward the
people of the North; to abstain from the profitless agitations
of political debate; and to employ their energies in the
far more exigent and useful work of material reparation and
development. Striving out of regard to the South to inculcate
that lesson of prudent conduct, I have urged such arguments
as these: That the negro is, in no sense, responsible for the
calamities we endure; that towards us he has ever conducted
himself with kindness and subordination; that he is entitled
to our compassion, and to the assistance of our superior
intelligence in the effort to attain a higher state of moral
and intellectual development; that to assume he was placed on
this theatre as a reproach to humanity and a stumbling-block
to the progress of civilization would be to impeach the wisdom
and goodness of Providence; that, considering the comparative
numbers of the two races in the South, it would be the merest
madness to provoke a collision of caste; in a word, that it
is absolutely essential to the peace, repose, and prosperity
of the South that the emancipated class should be undisturbed
in the enjoyment of their rights under the law, and should be
enlightened to understand the duties and interests of social
order and well-being. But it has appeared to me that the chief
obstacle to a complete and cordial reunion between the North
and the South is found in the suspicion and resentment with
which the people of these sections regard each other. Hence,
while on the one hand assuring the Northern people of the
good faith with which the South resumes its obligations in the
Union, I have thought it not amiss, on the other, to protest
to my Southern friends that the mass of the Northern community
are animated by far more just and liberal sentiments toward
us than we are apt to suspect.
"And thus, leaving to others the ostensible part in the
work of reconstruction, and abstaining studiously from all
political connection and activity, I have hoped in some
measure, and in a quiet way, to repair the evil I contributed
to bring upon the South by availing myself of every
appropriate private opportunity to suggest these counsels of
moderation and magnanimity. Passion, to which in truth we had
abundant provocation, precipitated us into secession; reason
must conduct us back into the path of peace and prosperity.
"Hard it may be to purge our hearts of the resentments and
prejudices engendered by civil war; but until our minds be
enlightened by a philosophic comprehension of the exigencies
of our situation, we shall never recover the repose after
which the wearied spirit of the South so eagerly pants.
"At whatever risk of personal obloquy, and at whatever
sacrifice of personal interest,—and you know it involves both
obloquy and sacrifice to talk as I do,—I am resolved to employ
all the energy and intellect I may command in the incessant
endeavor to promote peace and good-will among the people of
the lately belligerent states. What the country needs, what
in a most especial manner the South needs, is repose; freedom
from the throes of political agitation, and leisure to recruit
its exhausted energies. The experience of the past six years
should have impressed on the mind of the American nation
this most salutary lesson,—a lesson sooner or later learnt by
every nation in the development of its own history,—that civil
war is the sum and consummation of all human woe. Protesting
solemnly the integrity of motive by which I was then actuated,
yet I never recall the names of the noble men who fell in
our conflict; I never look abroad upon our wasted fields and
desolated homes; I never contemplate the all-embracing ruin
in which we are involved, the sad eclipse of our liberties and
the sinister aspect of the future, without inwardly resolving
to dedicate all I possess of ability for the public service
to the task of averting another such catastrophe, and to that
end of cultivating a spirit of forbearance and good feeling
among all classes and all sections of the country.
"These, my dear sir, are the opinions, very briefly and
dogmatically delivered, which I entertain touching the actual
condition of the Southern states, and the policy proper for
them to pursue in the present juncture. They are the result of
anxious and conscientious reflection, of much observation of
the popular temper of the North, and of extreme and unabated
solicitude for the welfare of the community to which I am
attached by the strongest ties of filial devotion. With the
utmost sincerity of conviction, I believe that, by a system
of conduct in conformity to these suggestions, the Southern
people may achieve a prosperity and happiness equal to any
they ever enjoyed; while on the contrary, I am as firmly
persuaded that, by a vain and impatient resistance to an order
of things they cannot change, and to a destiny they cannot
escape, they will infinitely aggravate the miseries of their
present condition, and besides, bring down upon themselves
calamities appalling to contemplate.
"I am not acquainted with the classification of parties, but
if these opinions make me a 'Radical,' then I am a 'Radical';
for they are deliberately the opinions of
"Very truly yours,
"ROGER A. PRYOR."