The interest of the nation demands not the death or the expulsion of the secessionists, and, least of all, of those classes proscribed by the President's proclamation of the th of May, , nor even their disfranchisement, perpetual or temporary;but their restoration to citizenship, and their loyal co-operation with all true-hearted Americans, in hearing the wounds inflicted on the whole country by the civil war.There need be no fear to trust them.Their cause is lost; they may or may not regret it, but lost it is, and lost forever.They appealed to the ballot-box, and were defeated; they appealed from the ballot-box to arms, to war, and have been again defeated, terribly defeated.They know it and feel it.There is no further appeal for them; the judgment of the court of last resort has been rendered, and rendered against them.The cause is finished, the controversy closed, never to be re-opened.
Henceforth the Union is invincible, and it is worse than idle to attempt to renew the war against it.Henceforth their lot is bound up with that of the nation, and all their hopes and interests, for themselves and their children, and their children's children, depend on their being permitted to demean themselves henceforth as peaceable and loyal American citizens.
They must seek their freedom, greatness, and glory in the freedom, greatness, and glory of the American republic, in which, after all, they can be far freer, greater, more glorious than in a separate and independent confederacy.All the arguments and considerations urged by Union men against their secession, come back to them now with redoubled force to keep them henceforth loyal to the Union.
They cannot afford to lose the nation, and the nation cannot afford to lose them.To hang or exile them, and depopulate and suffer to run to waste the lands they had cultivated, were sad thrift, sadder than that of deporting four millions of negroes and colored men.To exchange only those excepted from amnesty and pardon by President Johnson, embracing some two millions or more, the very pars sanior of the Southern population, for what would remain or flock in to supply their place, would be only the exchange of Glaucus and Diomed, gold for brass; to disfranchise them, confiscate their estates, and place them under the political control of the freedmen, lately their slaves, and the ignorant and miserable "white trash," would be simply to render rebellion chronic, and to convert seven millions of Americans, willing and anxious to be free, loyal American citizens, eternal enemies.They have yielded to superior numbers and resources; beaten, but not disgraced, for they have, even in rebellion, proved themselves what they are--real Americans.They are the product of the American soil, the free growth of the American republic, and to disgrace them were to disgrace the whole American character and people.
The wise Romans never allowed a triumph to a Roman general for victories, however brilliant, won over Romans.In civil war, the victory won by the government troops is held to be a victory for the country, in which all parties are victors, and nobody is vanquished.It was as truly for the good of the secessionists to fail, as it was for those, who sustained the government to succeed; and the government having forced their submission and vindicated its own authority, it should now leave them to enjoy, with others, the victory which it his won for the common good of all.When war becomes a stern necessity, when it breaks out, and while it lasts, humanity requires it to be waged in earnest, prosecuted with vigor, and made as damaging, as distressful to the enemy as the laws of civilized nations permit.It is the way to bring it to a speedy close, and to save life and property.
But when it is over, when the enemy submits, and peace returns, the vanquished should be treated with gentleness and love.No rancor should remain, no vengeance should be sought; they who met in mortal conflict on the battle-field should be no longer enemies, but embrace as comrades, as friends, as brothers.None but a coward kicks a fallen foe; a brave people is generous, and the victors in the late war can afford to be generous generously.
They fought for the Union, and the Union has no longer an enemy;their late enemies are willing and proud to be their countrymen, fellow-citizens, and friends; and they should look to it that small politicians do not rob them in the eyes of the world, by unnecessary and ill-timed severity to the submissive, of the glory of being, as they are, a great, noble, chivalric, generous, and magnanimous people.
