ications 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 are dear.

The sweeping revolution of the entire labor system of a large portion
of our country and the advance of 4,000,000 people from a condition
of servitude to that of citizenship, upon an equal footing with their
former masters, could not occur without presenting problems of the
gravest moment, to be dealt with by the emancipated race, by their
former masters, and by the General Government, the author of the act of
emancipation. That it was a wise, just, and providential act, fraught
with good for all concerned, is not generally conceded throughout the
country. That a moral obligation rests upon the National Government to
employ its constitutional power and influence to establish the rights of
the people it has emancipated, and to protect them in the enjoyment
of those rights when they are infringed or assailed, is also generally
admitted.

The evils which afflict the Southern States can only be removed or
remedied by the united and harmonious efforts of both races, actuated by
motives of mutual sympathy and regard; and while in duty bound and fully
determined to protect the rights of all by every constitutional means at
the disposal of my Administ