The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Practical as the President always is, he is sublimely practical in the
Proclamation. "Let us make good out of this evil as quickly as we can,"
he says; "let peace bring in plenty as quickly as she can." To bring
this about, he promises the strong arm of the nation to protect anything
which shall show itself worth protecting, in the way of social
institutions of republican liberty. He does not ask, like a conqueror,
for the keys of a capital. He does not ask, like a Girondist, for the
vote of a majority. He knows, it is true, as all the world knows, that,
if the vote of all the men of the South could ever be obtained, the
majority would utterly overshadow the handful of gentry who have been
lording it over white trash and black slaves together. But the President
has no wish to prolong martial law to that indefinite future when this
handful of gentlemen shall let the majority of their own people
pronounce upon their claims to rule them. Waiving the requisitions of
the theorists, and at the same time relieving himself from the necessity
of employing military power a moment longer than is necessary, he
announces, in advance, what will be his policy in extending protection
to loyal governments formed in Rebel States. If there can be found in
any State enough righteous men willing to take the oath of allegiance
and to sustain the nation in its determination for emancipation,--if
there can be found only enough to be counted up as the tenth part of
those who voted in the election of 1860, though their State should have
sinned like Gomorrah, even though its name should be South Carolina,
they shall be permitted to reconstruct its government, and that
government shall be recognized by the government of the nation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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