A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 7, part 2: Rutherford B. Hayes
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 7, part 2: Rutherford B. Hayes
Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, 1822-1893; Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government
Many of the calamitous effects 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 belong 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 fellow-men, to whom the interests of a common
country and a common humanity are dear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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