“But one thing more was needed, and that was to chase the scowl from the Southern brow; to revive the old friendship; to clasp hands again in a vow of loving and patriotic zeal. It was given to us last, because it is the greatest of God’s gifts. There never has been such a scene since the earth was born; there never has been such a rupture, never such a conflict, never such a victory, never such a reconstruction, never such restoration of integrity in business, never such a reconciliation and gladness between good men on both sides, as come to us to-day. As yet the eyes of many are holden, and they cannot see how great a blessing God has brought to our unbelieving eyes and timid hands. From the bottom of my soul I believe in the honor and integrity of thoughtful Southern men; and when I get from them such letters as I do, and hear from their lips such declarations as I hear, that they feel at last that they are in and of the Union, as much as we, and point to the flag, declaring, with tears, ‘That is now my flag,’ I believe it; I should be faithless to God and to Providence if I did not. I believe it with an enthusiasm of faith, and with a longing heart of love; for I think they are above hypocrisy or insincerity, and that, if we choose, the last cloud will rise from between us and then pass away for ever.

“Moses, after forty years of toil, was allowed to see the promised land from afar off only. Less worthy, yet more blessed, I am spared to go over with the rejoicing tribes into the land flowing with milk and honey. What am I, or my father’s house, that to me should be given the privilege of laboring in all this drama, and seeing it end nobly thus? The discipline is complete, and to the end of time this great epic of liberty, our struggle with slavery, will shine like the sun.

“Not the least joyful element in this reconciliation is the assured safety and benefit which will accrue to the colored race. That has come to pass which was their only safety. Just as soon as the Southern statesmen accept the perfect restoration of themselves to the great body politic, and find that there is no division, as between Northern men and Southern men, in any of the honors of government; just as soon as they are in and a part of every administration—as, thank God! they will be—just so soon of necessity that will take place which has taken place everywhere, in every community: there will be the party of administration, the ‘ins,’ and the party opposed to them, the opposition, the ‘outs.’ The moment you have these two parties, each party has a sentinel watching it. In the South that will take place which is the salvation of the colored race. As long as they were a fringe upon a Northern party the South was condensed and solidified against it. As soon as they are divided at home between the administrational party and the opposition party, they will be guarded and taken care of. The administration party will not allow its voters to be injured; the opposition party will not allow its voters to be injured. They will be distributed as they should be, and the strength of each party in the South will be the safeguard of the intermediate voters. I regard this now, with schools and academies and various seminaries spread among them, as the final step of emancipation.

“It is in these views that I have acted; and in the calmest retrospect I now rejoice that I was able to act so.

“The greatest mistake of my life has happened twice, as I have been informed.

“I was in 1866 invited to act as chaplain to the convention called at the city of Cleveland, Ohio, of the soldiers and sailors of our army and navy. The object of that convention was to so shape our Northern politics as to bring the Southern States back immediately, or as soon as possible; and in that general tendency I sympathized.

“The question of reconstruction of the seceding States was under discussion, and feeling ran high, not alone on account of the nature of the work to be done, but also by reason of the disturbed relations between President Johnson and Congress.

“President Lincoln had been assassinated, and Johnson had assumed his place. The statesmen whose vigor and courage had carried the country through the civil war were less adapted to the delicate task of restoring the discordant States to peace and unity than they had been to the sudden duties of war.

“In a general way there were two parties: one counselling a speedy readjustment, and the other a longer probation.

“President Lincoln and Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, in the last conversations which I had with them, inclined to the policy of immediate restoration; and their views had great weight with me. It was in the interest of such a policy that the Cleveland convention was called.

“My first letter was in reply to the invitation from the convention:

“‘Chas. G. Halpine, Brevet Brig.-Gen.; H. W. Slocum, Major-Gen.; Gordon Granger, Major-Gen., Committee:

“‘Gentlemen: I am obliged to you for the invitation which you have made to me to act as chaplain to the Convention of Sailors and Soldiers about to convene at Cleveland. I cannot attend it, but I heartily wish it and all other conventions, of what party soever, success, whose object is the restoration of all the States late in rebellion to their federal relations.

“‘Our theory of government has no place for a State except in the Union. It is justly taken for granted that the duties and responsibilities of a State in federal relations tend to its political health and to that of the whole nation. Even Territories are hastily brought in, often before the prescribed conditions are fulfilled, as if it were dangerous to leave a community outside of the great body politic.

“‘Had the loyal senators and representatives of Tennessee been admitted at once on the assembling of Congress, and, in moderate succession, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, the public mind of the South would have been far more healthy than it is, and those States which lingered on probation to the last would have been under a more salutary influence to good conduct than if a dozen armies had watched over them.

“‘Every month that we delay this healthful step complicates the case. The excluded population, enough unsettled before, grows more irritable; the army becomes indispensable to local government and supersedes it; the government at Washington is called to interfere in one and another difficulty, and this will be done inaptly, and sometimes with great injustice; for our government, wisely adapted to its own proper functions, is utterly devoid of those habits, and unequipped with the instruments, which fit a centralized government to exercise authority in remote States over local affairs. Every attempt to perform such duties has resulted in mistakes which have excited the nation. But whatever imprudence there may be in the method, the real criticism should be against the requisition of such duties of the general government.

“‘The federal government is unfit to exercise minor police and local government, and will inevitably blunder when it attempts it. To keep a half-score of States under federal authority, but without national ties and responsibilities; to oblige the central authority to govern half of the territory of the Union by federal civil officers and by the army, is a policy not only uncongenial to our ideas and principles, but pre-eminently dangerous to the spirit of our government. However humane the ends sought and the motive, it is, in fact, a course of instruction preparing our government to be despotic, and familiarizing the people to a stretch of authority which can never be other than dangerous to liberty.

“‘I am aware that good men are withheld from advocating the prompt and successive admission of the exiled States by the fear, chiefly, of its effect upon the freedmen.

“‘It is said that, if admitted to Congress, the Southern senators and representatives will coalesce with Northern Democrats and rule the country. Is this nation, then, to remain dismembered to serve the ends of parties? Have we learned no wisdom by the history of the past ten years, in which just this course of sacrificing the nation to the exigencies of parties plunged us into rebellion and war?

“‘Even admit that the power would pass into the hands of a party made up of Southern men and the hitherto dishonored and misled Democracy of the North, that power could not be used just as they pleased. The war has changed, not alone institutions, but ideas. The whole country has advanced. Public sentiment is exalted far beyond what it has been at any former period. A new party would, like a river, be obliged to seek out its channels in the already existing slopes and forms of the continent....

“‘I hear with wonder, and shame, and scorn the fear of a few that the South, once more in adjustment with the federal government, will rule this nation! The North is rich, never so rich; the South is poor, never before so poor. The population of the North is nearly double that of the South. The industry of the North, in diversity, in forwardness and productiveness, in all the machinery and education required for manufacturing, is half a century in advance of the South. Churches in the North crown every hill, and schools swarm in every neighborhood; while the South has but scattered lights, at long distances, like light-houses twinkling along the edge of a continent of darkness. In the presence of such a contrast how mean and craven is the fear that the South will rule the policy of the land! That it will have an influence, that it will contribute, in time, most important influences or restraints, we are glad to believe. But if it rises at once to the control of the government it will be because the North, demoralized by prosperity and besotted by grovelling interests, refuses to discharge its share of political duty. In such a case the South not only will control the government, but ought to do it.

“‘It is feared, with more reason, that the restoration of the South to her full independence will be detrimental to the freedmen. The sooner we dismiss from our minds the idea that the freedmen can be classified and separated from the white population, and nursed and defended by themselves, the better it will be for them and us. The negro is part and parcel of Southern society. He cannot be prosperous while it is unprospered. Its evils will rebound upon him. Its happiness and reinvigoration cannot be kept from his participation. The restoration of the South to amicable relations with the North, the reorganization of its industry, the reinspiration of its enterprise and thrift, will all redound to the freedman’s benefit. Nothing is so dangerous to the freedman as an unsettled state of society in the South. On him comes all the spite, and anger, and caprice, and revenge. He will be made the scapegoat of lawless and heartless men. Unless we turn the government into a vast military machine, there cannot be armies enough to protect the freedmen while Southern society remains insurrectionary. If Southern society is calmed, settled, and occupied, and soothed with new hopes and prosperous industries, no armies will be needed. Riots will subside, lawless hangers-on will be driven off or better governed, and a way will be gradually opened to the freedmen, through education and industry, to full citizenship with all its honors and duties.

“‘Civilization is a growth. None can escape that forty years in the wilderness who travel from the Egypt of ignorance to the promised land of civilization. The freedmen must take their march. I have full faith in the results. If they have the stamina to undergo the hardships which every uncivilized people has undergone in its upward progress, they will in due time take their place among us. That place cannot be bought, nor bequeathed, nor gained by sleight of hand. It will come to sobriety, virtue, industry, and frugality. As the nation cannot be sound until the South is prosperous, so, on the other extreme, a healthy condition of civil society in the South is indispensable to the welfare of the freedmen.

“‘Refusing to admit loyal senators and representatives from the South to Congress will not help the freedmen. It will not secure for them the vote. It will not protect them. It will not secure any amendment of our Constitution, however just and wise. It will only increase the dangers and complicate the difficulties. Whether we regard the whole nation or any section of it or class in it, the first demand of our time is entire reunion!

“‘Once united, we can, by schools, churches, a free press, and increasing free speech, attack every evil and secure every good. Meanwhile, the great chasm which rebellion has made is not filled up. It grows deeper and stretches wider! Out of it rise dread spectres and threatening sounds. Let that gulf be closed, and bury in it slavery, sectional animosity, and all strifes and hatreds!

“‘It is fit that the brave men who, on sea and land, faced death to save this nation, should now, by their voice and vote, consummate what their swords rendered possible.

“‘For the sake of the freedmen, for the sake of the South and its millions of our fellow-countrymen, for our own sake, and for the great cause of freedom and civilization, I urge the immediate reunion of all the parts of this Union which rebellion and war have shattered.

”My dear Dr. Tyng:

“Your kind letter surprised and delighted me, and has been a great comfort withal. You perhaps are aware by this time that my letter has been excessively distasteful to the great body of men with whom I have acted, and to my own congregation. Nothing but a deep sense of public danger, to which the eyes of our best men seem blind, induced me to write it. The sentiments contained in it I had, in speeches and lectures, openly declared in all the principal cities of the East during the whole winter and spring, and I was therefore not a little surprised at the wonder and excitement with which they have now been received.

“I attribute it to the sharp issue made by Mr. Johnson and Congress, and to the exasperation of the public mind with the President, especially his most unwise speeches made during his present tour. I am far from being a Johnson man. I am an advocate of the principles of speedy readjustment, without waiting for a greater but at present unattainable good. I am, however, constrained to say that Mr. Johnson just now and for some time past has been the greatest obstacle in the way of his own views. The mere fact that he holds them is their condemnation with a public utterly exasperated with his rudeness and violence. The TRUTH is, however, just as important as if it had a wiser advocate.

“Things may go so far that no choice will be left but between a Copperhead Johnson party and a radical Republican, and I cannot for a moment hesitate on which side I shall be, or rather already am.

“The moral sentiment of justice, liberty, and Christian progress is with the Republican side. There are the men whom I most esteem, and with whom I have always acted, and for whom first and last I have wished success.

“For that very reason I have desired and labored assiduously to secure to them more practical views than those at first peculiar to a few extreme men, but which, partly by the President’s indiscretions, partly by the inflammation of the public mind and the adroitness with which things have been managed by a few, seem likely to become the enthusiastic belief of the whole community, or of a large majority. I must submit to things which I cannot control. Should things turn out better than my fears I shall be glad to find myself a false prophet. But I confess that the cause of the freedmen, which lies near my heart, looks gloomy in the future. With a very Southern South and a very Northern North I do not see but they will be ground to powder. But God rules—that is my unfailing comfort. His cause gains as well by disaster as by success. Good and evil both serve Him....”

”My dear ———:

“I am obliged to you for your letter. I am sorry that my friends and my congregation are grieved by my Cleveland letter.

“This feeling, however, has no just grounds, whatever may be the seeming. I have not left, and do not propose to leave, or to be put out of, the Republican party. I am in sympathy with its aims, its great principles, and its army of noble men. But I took the liberty of criticising its policy in a single respect, and to do what I could to secure what I believed, and still believe, to be a better one.

“I am, and from the first have been, fully of opinion that the amendment of the Constitution proposed by Congress, equalizing representation in Northern and Southern States, was intrinsically just and reasonable, and that it should be sought by a wholesome and persistent moral agitation.

“But, from the present condition of the public mind and from the President’s attitude, I deemed such a change to be practically impossible, in any near period, by political action. And a plan of reconstruction based upon that seems to me far more like a plan of adjourning reconstruction for years, at least, with all the liabilities of mischief which are always to be expected in the fluctuations of politics in a free nation.

“It is not the North that chiefly needs the restoration of government to its normal sphere and regular action. Either the advantages of Union are fallacious, or the continuous exclusion of the South from it will breed disorder, make the future reunion more difficult, and especially subject the freedmen to the very worst conditions of society that can well exist. No army, no government, and no earthly power can compel the South to treat four million men justly, if the inhabitants (whether rightly or wrongly) regard these men as the cause, or even the occasion, of their unhappiness and disfranchisement. But no army, or government, or power will be required when Southern society is restored, occupied, and prospering in the renewed Union. Then the negro will be felt to be a necessity to Southern industry, and interest will join with conscience and kindness in securing for him favorable treatment from his fellow-citizens....

“Neither am I a ‘Johnson man’ in any received meaning of that term. I accept that part of the policy which he favors, but with modification. I have never thought that it would be wise to bring back all the States in a body, and at once, any more than it would be to keep them all out together. One by one, in due succession, under a special judgment rather than by a wholesale theoretic rule, I would have them readmitted. I still think a middle course between the President’s and that of Congress would be wiser than either. But with this my agreement with the President ends.

“And now allow me to express some surprise at the turn which the public mind has taken on my letter. If I had never before spoken my sentiments, I could see how friends might now misapprehend my position. But for a year past I have been advocating the very principles of the Cleveland letter in all the chief Eastern cities—in Boston, Portland, Springfield, Albany, Utica, Rochester, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Brooklyn (at the Academy of Music last winter). These views were reported, discussed, agreed to or differed from, praised and blamed abundantly. But no one thought, or at least said, that I remember, that I had forsaken the Republican party or had turned my back upon the freedman. My recent letter but condenses those views which for twelve months I have been earnestly engaged in urging upon the attention of the community. I am not surprised that men dissent. But this sudden consternation and this late discovery of the nature of my opinions seem sufficiently surprising. I could not ask a better service than the reprinting of that sermon of last October, which first brought upon me the criticisms of the Tribune and Independent.

“I foresaw that, in the probable condition of parties and the country, we could not carry suffrage for the freedman by immediate political action. When the ablest and most radical Congress of our history came together they refused to give suffrage to negroes, even in the District of Columbia; and only in an indirect way, not as a political right but as the hoped-for result of political selfishness, did they provide for it by an amendment of the Constitution. What was prophecy with me, Congress has made history. Relinquishing political instruments for gaining the full enfranchisement of men, I instantly turned to moral means; and enunciating the broadest doctrine of manhood suffrage, I gave the widest latitude to that, advocating the rights of black and white, of men and women, to the vote. If any man has labored more openly, on a broader principle, and with more assiduity, I do not know him. More ability may have been shown, but not more directness of purpose or undeviating consistency....

“Deeming the speedy admission of the Southern States as necessary to their own health, as indirectly the best policy for the freedmen, as peculiarly needful to the safety of our government, which, for the sake of accomplishing a good end, incautious men are in danger of perverting, I favored, and do still favor, the election to Congress of Republicans who will seek the early admission of the recusant States. Having urged it for a year past, I was more than ready to urge it again upon the representatives to Congress this fall. In this spirit and for this end I drew up my Cleveland letter. I deem its views sound; I am not sorry that I wrote it. I regret the misapprehension which it has caused, and yet more any sorrow which it may have needlessly imposed upon dear friends. As I look back upon my course, I see no deviation from the straight line which I have made, without wavering, for now thirty years in public life, in favor of justice, liberty, and the elevation of the poor and ignorant.

“The attempt to class me with men whose course I have opposed all my life long will utterly fail. I shall choose my own place, and shall not be moved from it. I have been from my youth a firm, unwavering, avowed, and active friend of all that were oppressed. I have done nothing to forfeit that good name which I have earned. I am not going weakly to turn away from my settled convictions of the public weal for fear that bad men may praise me or good men blame. There is a serious difference of judgment between men as to the best policy. We must all remit to the future the decision of the question. Facts will soon judge us.

“I feel now profoundly how imperfect my services have been to my country, compared with its desert of noble services. But I am conscious that I have given all that I had to give, without fear or favor. Above all earthly things is my country dear to me. The lips that taught me to say ‘Our Father’ taught me to say ‘Fatherland.’ I have aimed to conceive of that land in the light of Christianity. God is my witness that with singleness of heart I have given all my time, strength, and service to that which shall make our whole nation truly prosperous and glorious. Not by the lustre of arms, even in a just cause, would I seek her glory, but by a civilization that should carry its blessings down to the lowest classes, and nourish the very roots of society by her moral power and purity, by her public conscience, her political justice, and by her intelligent homes, filling up a continent and rearing a virtuous and noble citizenship.

“By night and by day this is the vision and dream of my life, and inspires me as no personal ambition ever could. I am not discouraged at the failure to do the good I meant, at the misapprehension of my course by my church, nor the severity of former friends. Just now those angry voices come to me as rude winds roar through the trees. The winds will die, the trees will live. As soon as my health is again restored I shall go right on in the very course I have hitherto pursued. Who will follow or accompany it is for others to decide. I shall labor for the education of the whole people; for the enfranchisement of men without regard to class, caste, or color; for full development, among all nations, of the liberty wherewith Christ makes men free. In doing this I will cheerfully work with others, with parties—any and all men that seek the same glorious ends. But I will not become a partisan. I will reserve my right to differ and dissent, and respect the same right in others. Seeking others’ full manhood and true personal liberty, I do not mean to forfeit my own.

“Better days are coming. These throes of our day are labor-pains. God will bring forth ere long great blessings. In some moments which it pleases God to give me I think I discern beyond the present troubles, and over the other side of the abyss in which the nation wallows, that fair form of Liberty—God’s dear child—whose whole beauty was never yet disclosed. I know her solemn face. That she is divine I know by her purity, by her sceptre of justice, and by that atmosphere of Love that, issuing from her, as light from a star, moves with her as a royal atmosphere. In this, too, I know her divinity, that she shall bless both friends and enemies, and yield the fullest fruition of liberty to those who would have slain her, as once her Master gave His life for the salvation of those who slew Him.

“I am, your true friend and pastor,