bject in our public affairs which all thoughtful and patriotic
citizens regard as of supreme importance.

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.

Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the superstructure of
beneficent local governments can be built up, and not otherwise. In
furtherance of such obedience to the letter and the spirit of the
Constitution, and in behalf of all that its attainment implies, all
so-called party interests lose their apparent importance, and party
lines may well be permitted to fade into insignificance. The question we
have to consider for the immediate welfare of those States of the Union
is the question of government or no government; of social order and all
the peaceful industries and the happiness that belongs to it, or a
return to barbarism. It is a question in which every citizen of the
nation is deeply interested, and with respect to which we ought not to
be, in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but
fellow-citizens and fellowmen, to whom the interests of a common
country and a common humanity