ADDRESS
OF THE
Hon. JTolxxi Pool
TO THE
PEOPLE OF NORTH-CAROLINA.
Coleraine, Bertie Co., March 25, 1867.
To the Editors qf the Standard:
Genti.emex :—There continues to be, in
some of the newspapers of the State, a con¬
stant repetition of former misrepresentations
respecting me, without any regard to the
correction of them which appeared in the
Standard of the 1st of January last. Per¬
haps I ought, before, to have publicly af¬
firmed the correctness of the statements made
in that issue of your paper in regard to my
course during the rebellion. I do so now.—
Your statement of my present position is
also correct. But I have concluded that it is
my duty to expresss, more in detail, to the
people of North-Carolina, my views upon
the present unfortunate and embarrassing
condition of public affairs. You will add to
my obligations for your past kindness, if you
can make room to publish the address which
I now send you.
Yours respectfullv,
JOHN POOL.
To the People of North-Carolina:
Having been honored by the representa¬
tives of the people of North-Carolina, more
than a year ago, with an election to the Sen¬
ate of the United States, it seems proper that
I should make known to them my views
upon the present disturbed state of public
affairs, formed, in part, by the assistance of
information to which my position as Senator
elect gave me more ready access.
A brief retrospect of the distressing events
of the last six years will aid in arriving at
a clear understanding of our present politi¬
cal condition.
For many years previous to the attempted
secession of the State in 1861, there had ex¬
isted in the Southern States a well known
class of men who labored continually to
prepare the popular mind for that measure.
It had been the objective point of all their
political actions and teachings, as the first
and indispensable step to the consummation
of their purposes. No one in the South can
be forgetful of the means resorted to, and
the appliances brought to bear. Arrogating
to themselves a peculiar solicitude for the
institution of slavery, and an especial guar¬
dianship of Southern honor and interests,
they proceeded to appeal to sectional pas¬
sions and prejudices, and to load with vio¬
lent abuse the northern section of the Union,
to scoff at every sentiment of nationality,
and to denounce as untrue to his section and
personally degraded every public man in
the Southern States who was not, in some
way, privy to their treasonable designs.—
Many of their leaders gained seats in the
public councils and responsible places in
the national government, where they con¬
tinually precipitated the agitation of meas¬
ures calculated to arouse sectional hate, and
keep ever alive and increasing the fires of
discord which they had lighted in the South¬
ern heart. Whenevrr the voice of warning
was raised as to the inevitable tendency of
their conduct, they became the loudest in
protestations of attachment to the Union;
and even set up pretensions as its especial
defenders. So deep seated was the popular
veneration for the government, rendered sa¬
cred by the memories of the past and the
blessings of liberty and justice which it had
uniformly secured to every section, that they
found it necessary to conceal their real pur¬
poses, up to the last moment, and to precip¬
itate a rebellion in violation of official oaths
to support the Union, and with its praises
upon their lips. The people were thus de¬
ceived, and finally coerced into a bloody
and disastrous civil war.
In the beginning, a majority of the peo¬
ple of North-Carolina were opposed to the
secession ordinance, and accepted it only as
2
ADDRESS OF THE HON". JOHN" POOL
0
an inexorable necessity, forced upon them
by the action of the adjacent States and
the dangerous excitement of the times. But
many earnest Union men, especially the
young and inconsiderate, were soon borne
along by the madness of the day, or became
unable to withstand the derision and taunts
of cowardice with which they were con¬
stantly assailed by the press, in public
assemblies and in the social circle. Others
were deceived by the tardy and vaccilating
action of the national administration, into
the belief that no adequate resistance would
be made to the attempted separation, and
that upon the establishment of the Confed¬
eracy, perpetual dishonor would attach to
those who refused to support promptly the
action of their State. But, the most potent
agency resorted to was the bold, systematic
and unscrupulous misrepresentations of the
designs of the United States in waging war
against the secession movement. The object
was asserted to be to abolish slavery, to force
negroes upon a social equality with the
whites—to compel their admission to the
best society—to the table, and even to mar¬
riage relations—to deprive the Southern peo¬
ple of all rights—to plunder, confiscate,
murder and reduce to a state of dependence
and abject vassalage. The whole Northern
people were denounced as hypocrites, rob¬
bers and vandals—and the Union soldiery
as hirelings and licentious vagabonds. The
assemblies of the people, the legislative halls,
the press and the social circle teemed with
this scurrility, coupled with still viler epi¬
thets and threats of infamy towards such as
were supposed to sympathise with the gov
eminent in its struggle to suppress the re¬
bellion and preserve the Union. All at¬
tempts at contradiction were suppressed by
arrests and imprisonment, or by mob violence.
A system of the basest espinage sprung up
spontaneously in every neighborhood, and
every man had a spy and informer at his
door. Good men were thus deceived—the
timid were appalled, and the boldest could
see no hope of success in any effort to stem
the general current. Could the truth, at
that time, have been plainly told to the peo¬
ple of North-Carolina, and heeded by them,
how much of calamity would have been
averted, and what untold miseries spared us !
But, after the lapse of about two years,
the truth began to force itself upon the pub¬
lic mind. The overwrought excitement be¬
gan to work its own remedy, while the en¬
ergetic action of the Federal Government
exposed the falsity of the assurance, so re¬
peatedly given by the instigators of the re¬
bellion, that it dared not resist the separa¬
tion of the States. Volunteering in the Con¬
federate army nearly ceased, and the people
began to think and speak of peace on the
best attainable terms. It was then that the
instigators and leaders of the rebellion threw
off the mask which they had so long worn,
and instituted a despotism so complete and
merciless that scarcely a vestige of liberty
or right was left. It was discovered, when
too late, that power had been placed in the
hands of men, who scrupled at nothing that
might be requisite to the accomplishment
of their ends, and hesitated not to set at de¬
fiance not only the wishes and rights of
their fellow-citizens, but even the sentiments
and feelings of humanity. They had a well
trained army under their command, officered
by men of their own choosing. Almost ev¬
ery civil position in the Executive, legisla¬
tive and judicial departments of the State
and Confederate governments, was filled by
their most violent partizans and willing
friends. Thus resistance became impossible
and remonstrance.dangerous. They enacted
laws of wholesale conscription, and executed
them with the most searching rigor. Im¬
pressment laws, so framed that the property
of the citizen was practically at the disposal
of irresponsible military subordinates, were
executed in such manner as to awe or ruin
every one suspected of disaffection or per¬
sonally obnoxious to the petty tyrants sent
out to scourge each locality. Scouting parties,
composed of the most desperate and aban¬
doned of the soldiery, ranged in every coun¬
ty, and were changed sufficiently often to
prevent any kindly relations being formed
with the people or any influence gained over
them by men of character and justice. The
suspension of the linbeas corpus placed under
military control the persons of those whose
ago* sex or condition exempted them from,
conscription. Prisons, kept in the most
loathsome condition, were established in
Richmond and in other localities. To over¬
awe the struggling Union sentiment of our
people, the one at Salisbury was set up and
made the sconce of horrors, at the recollec¬
tion of which the blood still runs cold.—
Hundreds of our private citizens, exempt
from conscription, were there, and at Castle
Thunder in Richmond, incarcerated upon
mere suspicion of Unionism, and met their
death by starvation and other indescribable
cruelties.
But the failing resources of the Confeder¬
acy would not allow the expense of sufficient
prison accommodation for as many victims
as was necessary to suppress the struggling
Unionism of North-Carolina. The rest was
left to the neighborhood scouts and author¬
ized bands of guerrilla robbers, not only un¬
restrained but encouraged in lawless violence
and outrage to suspected Unionists, their
wives and children. In remote places, upon
TO THE PEOPLE OP NORTH-CAROLINA.
the public highways, in the humble dwell¬
ings of the poor and around the family
hearth, from which the husband and father
had been dragged in chains to the army and
prison, or driven to the mountain caves and
forests, scenes were enacted that can never
be described, and, if told, would not be
credited as possible in a Christian age. For
the crime of not betraying husbands and
sons to death, the virtues and claims of wo¬
manhood were set at naught. Holders were
taken from helpless infants, and kept for
weeks, in outhouses and pens in the woods,
at the mercy and disposal of depraved and
brutal men, until, in some instances, their
breasts burst with the accumulation of milk
which the merciful God ot nature had provi¬
ded for their starving infants at home. In
Randolph county the thumbs of a poor wo¬
man were put under the rails of a fence, and
two soldiers seated themselves upon it, until,
screaming with pain, she disclosed the place
of her husband's concealment and consigned
him to death. And this was done in pres¬
ence of her two little children. This state¬
ment of particular instances is made upon
the authority of public representations in
the newspapers, at the time and since, and
upon the authority of private gentlemen in
whose locality tliey occurred. And there has
been no contradiction or extenuation, except
that the victims were " untrue to the Confed¬
eracy." The Polk county murders, the
'' Laurel massacre," the horrible murder, by
guerrillas, of Thaddeus Cox, and his wite
and children, in Pasquotank, and the shock¬
ing atrocities in Buncombe, Haywood, Ashe,
Wilkes and Alleghany, are but isolated in¬
stances of what was done in almost every
county. They can be truthfully multiplied
by hundreds. These things were done by
authorized parties, in uniform and under of¬
ficers. Add to all this the want and mourn¬
ing that sat in every humble household, and
even then but an inadequate conception can
be formed of the terrible condition to which
we were reduced.
Remonstrances were sent to the State and
Confederate authorities, and representations
of many of these facts ought to lie, and prob¬
ably are on file in the Executive office at
Raleigh. We have not heard that any of
the perpetrators have been brought to trial
or punishment. But on the contrary, the
present Legislature of the State has been
swift to pass an act of general amnesty and
pardon in order to screen them from all fu¬
ture investigation. It would have been far
more proper and more conducive to the fu¬
ture peace and welfare of the country, had
the Legislature instituted in each county a
commission to take affidavits respecting the
occurrences in it, to be published in a vol¬
ume and preserved among the public arch¬
ives, as a perpetual warning to posterity.—
Such a record would certainly serve as a
guide to future Legislatures in making just
discriminations in such acts of amnesty as
good policy may from time to time require.
The untimely haste of legislators to draw a
curtain over it all, leaves room for suspicion
that the purpose was not only t>o secure the
guilty from punishment, but more especially
to save the instigators and leaders of the rebel¬
lion from the disgrace to which the truth might
expose them before the tribunal of mankind.
These things are brought to mind, not for
purposes of crimination, but to be used in
discussing our present condition, and the
motives that now actuate the conduct of.
some men among us.
The open and deliberate preparation for
the rebellion was clearly treason, and would
have been checked by punishment as such
in any other form of government than that
of the United States, before it culminated in
a bloody and destructive war. In a mon¬
archy, absolute or limited, where oppression
becomes intolerable, treason leading to revo¬
lution is extenuated and even justified,if con¬
ducted with humanity and justice for the
purpose of securing liberty and right. For,
in such forms of government, revolution is
generally the only resort against oppression
and tyranny. But in a free republic, the bal¬
lot-box, a written constitution, and the courts
of law are safe-guards rendering the neces¬
sity for revolution next to impossible. Even
should wrong and oppression exist, until
these peaceful remedies have been exhausted,
treason in a republic is the highest of crimes.
It can be nothing less than the plotting of
wicked and ambitious men against the liber¬
ties of the people and the peace and welfare
of their country.
But, during the initiatory proceedings
leading to the late rebellion, it seemed to be
supposed that the spirit and theory of repub¬
lican government forbade interference with
the free action of citizens until it assumed
the form of an actual levying of war. And
even then, it was strenuously contended that
the theory of State sovereignty rendered it
unlawful for the Federal government to re¬
sort to coercive measures against States in
actual rebellion, or to raise an arm in defence
of its own existence. Had such a theory
been acquiesced in, the future of the Ameri¬
can States would have been continual disin¬
tegration and the setting up of petty con¬
federacies, leading to intestine feuds and
bloody wars between them, until, from ne¬
cessity, the people would have submitted,
as a choice of evils, to a consolidated des¬
potism and the complete subversion of re¬
publican liberty.
4
ADDRESS OE THE HON. JOHN POOL
But, however great the turpitude ot inau¬
gurating the late rebellion, without wrongs
to be complained of or any resort to the
peaceful remedies so fully provided by the
illustrious founders of the Republic,—and
however shocking to the moral sense of man¬
kind the inhuman and barbarous manner in
which it was conducted—the crowning
guilt of its instigators and leaders was in
continuing it, with increased horrors, after
all hope of success was plainly at an end.—
It is charity to attribute their conduct to
overbearing pride and a reckless disregard
for the lives of their deluded and conscrip¬
ted followers, and not to the baser feeling
of delight in blood, or the desire to render
their work of ruin mere terrible and com¬
plete.
We all recollect the peace movements in
North-Carolina in 18G4, by primary meet¬
ings in the several counties, which were sup¬
pressed by the authorities, and by the cruel
persecution of the participators. In the
elections of that year, notwithstanding
threats and violence, and armed soldiers at
the ballot-boxes, to deter the people from re¬
turning peace candidates to the Legislature,
nearly a majority of such were returned in
each branch. During its session in the lat¬
ter part of 18G4, and the beginning of 18G5,
bold and earnest efforts were made to" effect
a termination of the war, and to treat for
peace, on the best attainable terms, through
the agency of the individual States. The
cause of the Confederacy wras then clearly
desperate, and the further effusion of blood
useless and wicked. But the leaders of the
rebellion, with their supporters and sympa¬
thisers, pronounced the movement treason.—
Its advocates were pronounced traitors, and
loaded with every opprobious epithet calcu¬
lated to degrade and destroy the reputation
of men. The movement failed—the war
raged with increased fury for a few terrible
months, and peace came by subjugation.—
But in those few months how much of deso¬
lation and woe fell to our lot I How many
hearts were made desolate—how7 many
households robbed of their only light!—
Upon whose hands is the blood of husbands,
fathers and sons thus uselessly shed in the
mere wantonness of pride and obstinacy, or
from the viler motive of desperate revflflge?
But it is more to our purpose to consider
the obstinate persistence of these men in its
bearing upon the present. Had the peace
movements of 18G4~'5 been allowed, we
could then have easily stipulated for an im¬
mediate return to the Union, the restoration
of political rights and representation in Con¬
gress. Such terms, and perhaps better, were
offered at the Fortress Monroe conference,
as late as February, 1865. Those who re¬
fused to stop the war upon any terms, based
on the restoration of the Union, and persis¬
ted in the bloody contest to the point of ab¬
solute subjugation, are responsible for our
present unfortunate relations with the Fede¬
ral government.
It is necessary to a correct understanding
of subsequent events to inquire into the ac¬
tual political condition of North-Carolina,
at the germination of the war, and to exam¬
ine thd^olicy pursued by the government,
and the reasons upon which it was based.
Secession was treason. When the war be¬
gan, it was rebellion. When it was contin¬
ued, from obstinacy or revenge, beyond all
reasonable hope of success, it become whole¬
sale murder. Thus will posterity character¬
ize the guilt of those who inaugurated it, and
persisted until disarmed and subjugated by
actual force from legitimate authority. When
that occurred, the personal position of the
voluntary participators wras that of culprits,
whose only screen from just and lawful pun¬
ishment was the mercy of the conqueror.
But the position of the State was anomolous.
The anomaly grew out of our peculiar form
of government. If secession was void, how
could a State be considered out of the Union ?
If in the Union still, how could it be denied
the right to place in power, again, the most
guilty and rebellious of its citizens ? If this
were permitted, could the nation escape the
present dangers ; and if so, could it long sur¬
vive the precedent of having those fresh and
unrepentant from the bloody fields of trea¬
son and rebellion, immediately re-instated,
as a matter of constitutional right, into the
high positions of trust and power, which
they had recently so criminally abused ?—
They might take advantage of such restitu¬
tion of power to repeat their former, un¬
punished treason, and renew their efforts
against the nation's life. They were too num¬
erous tor the remedy which the executioner
might justly afford, and such a resort was
forbidden by the spirit of the age, and by the
dictates of Christian mercy. The only other
remedy was disfranchisement, either partial
and temporary, or complete. These difficul¬
ties had to be met, and it was desirable that
it should be done upon established princi¬
ples.
However much disputed before, the result
of the war decided that a State in the Union
could not, by any act, legally withdraw its
territory or its people from the authority of
the Federal Government. In this sense a
State could not go out of the Union. But a
State is an organized political community.
Without an organized government, it lacks
the essential quality requisite to consti¬
tute a State. Although the citizens residing
within certain established boundaries may
TO THE PEOPLE OF NORTH-CAROLINA.
5
still retain the political right to have such
an organization set up, still, until this is
done, the corporate rights appertaining to a
State as such, are necessarily in abeyance.—
The insurgent States, by rebellion and vio¬
lence, destroyed their organized governments,
and while they were not able to withdraw
their territory or their people from the right¬
ful authority of the general government, they
did succeed in upsetting their constitutional
organizations, and thus put in abeyance every
political right of their citizens, save one.—
And that was the right secured in the Con¬
stitution ot the United States, by the clause
guaranteeing " to every State in the Union
a republican form of government." This
right subsisted even during the war, and is
as indestructible as the constitution itself.—
But until its practical application is secured
by the necessary action on the part of the
government, every other political right must
remain in abeyance. As soon as the constitu¬
tional State iioveruments were destroyed by
violence, it became the duty of the United
States to remove the disturbing force by the
military power of the nation, so as to enable
the civil authority to discharge its constitu¬
tional duty to the States, by re-establishing
therein governments " republican in form." If
instead of rebellion, some foreign power had
destroyed those governments, the same duty
would have devolved on the United States.
It makes no difference whether the disturb¬
ing force came from without or within. The
same duty to remove such force, and open the
way for the practical application of the right
guaranteed in the constitution arises in the
one case as in the other. Such is the safe¬
guard provided to protect republican liberty
in the several States, and to secure.their per¬
petual existence against both domestic and
foreign violence. The theory and principles
of the government of the United States will
not permit the permanent loss of a single
State. It could not be submitted to except
from overpowering necessity.
But this duty to " guarantee to every State
in the Union a republican form of govern¬
ment," does not devolve on the President
alone, but is a matter to be provided for by
Congress, (subject, of course to his veto,) and
to be executed by him as any other act of
legislation. The constitutional governments
of the insurgent States having been destroyed
by violence, and there being no law or pre¬
cedent under which they could, themselves,
proceed to re-establish those governments,
the emergency contemplated in the constitu¬
tion was presented, and it became the duty
of Congress to provide for it by necessary
legislation. The proceedings of the President
in setting up provisional establishments to
preserve peace and order temporarily, until
Congress could act, were in strict accordance
with his duty as head of a conquering army.
But his further proceedings in regard to es¬
tablishing permanent governments, however
well meant, could have no validity until
sanctioned by the law-making power. They
might have been, and were doubtless intend¬
ed to be of conveuience and assistance to
Congress in the discharge of its constitutional
obligations to the disorganized States, if that
body had deemed it consistent with the pub¬
lic safety to have sanctioned those proceed¬
ings, and declared those establishments valid
by the authority ot law. But in war and in
times of great public danger, the safety of
the commonwealth is paramount to all other
considerations. The constitution requires
the concurrence of the legislative and execu¬
tive branches of the government in the pas¬
sage of every law, unless the veto of the
President can be overcome by the requisite
majority. If by disagreement between the
two branches delay occurs, it is in contem¬
plation of the provision requiring concur¬
rence, and cannot be justly complained of.
The President proceeded upon the right
assumption. He declared the States to be
still in the Union, but that their legal gov¬
ernments had been destroyed. Under this
assumption the question of the execution or
disfranchisement of the guilty was left open
—and might be resorted to at once, or held
dependent upon future developments. But
he cut off the resort to general executions, by
a proclamation of limited amnesty, to which
he added, from time to time, many special
pardons. Still holding the population un¬
der the restraints of martial law, and acting
under his power as commander-in-chief of
the conquering army, he ordered initiatory
steps to be taken to re-establish civil author¬
ity. In this proceeding he resorted to dis¬
franchisement to a very limited extent, ho¬
ping by such display of magnanimity to in¬
spire the insurgent citizens with a feeling of
gratitude, and by thus bringing them back
to a sense of reason and duty, to avoid the
necessity of severer measures. This proceed¬
ing was experimental only, and served to
test the temper and purposes of those who
had .been so lately in rebellion. The whole
was forced on the insurgent States by military
power and at the point of the bayonet. It
was at variance with all republican forms,
and could therefore have no validity, except
under the supervisory sanction of the civil
authority. Congress was, perhaps, more
properly the authority to have commenced
those proceedings in the beginning. But, it
could, by its sanction, possibly have waived
the informality, and confirmed them at any
time. It had the same power to set them
aside and commence anew, at any time. It
6
ADDRESS OP THE HON. JOHN POOL
was a question of policy only. And that
policy was dependent on the success of the
President's humane effort to subdue the re¬
bellious spirit of the insurgent citizens by
magnanimity and kindness, and thus avoid
a resort to the more stringent measures of
personal punishment and disfranchisement.
Congress decided to await the result before
confirming the President's proceedings, and
threw itself upon the nation in the fall elec¬
tions of 1866. We all know the result.—
They are satisfied that the President's ex¬
periment is a failure, and that the peace and
safety of the republic require Severer meas¬
ures. And we are obliged to admit that this
conclusion has been reached with so much
show of reason, and in consequence of a
course of conduct on the part of the leaders
of the rebellion bordering upon actual mad¬
ness. But it may be a principle of human
nature, that men too full of evil lose the
common prudence of temporary conceal¬
ment. Or is it that Providence has again in¬
terposed in behalf of the republic, by inspi¬
ring them with the restless audacity to dis
play their designs before it came too late to
defeat them ?
After having spread desolation and ruin
around them, led their fellow-citizens to sub¬
jugation and become themselves abject sup¬
pliants upon the mercy of the conqueror, it
was reasonable to suppose that the instiga¬
tors and leaders of the rebellion would not
stand in the way of a settlement of our
troubles, but would leave to others, less
guilty and obnoxious, the delicate task of
restoring the State to its former relations
in the Union. This course on their part
seemed to be plainly dictated by a common
regard to propriety and self-respect, to say
nothing of public policy. All knew that
there had been aroused in the Northern
mind a want of confidence, at least, in those
who had put in imminent jeopardy the life
of the nation, and who had just been sub¬
dued at such immense expenditure of blood
and treasure. It was much to expect that
mercy would be so far regarded as to spare
their lives and estates. But it was absurd
to hope that power in the government would
be immediately permitted to go into their
hands, and the most guilty leaders restored
to the position, the influence of which they
had so recently turned to such a disastrous
use. That such would be permitted was.
clearly forbidden by common prudence, by
a regard for the national safety, and a de¬
cent respect for the calamities and outraged
feelings of the loyal masses. The base as¬
sassination of President Lincoln, growing
out of the rebellion, if not instigated by
some of its leaders, had impressed the pub¬
lic mind deeply with the reckless desper¬
ation and wickedness that had been engen¬
dered by the dispersion of the rebel ar¬
mies. The successor of President Lincoln
had often, in the most emphatic, forcible
language, set forth the necessary policy—de¬
claring that if but five thousand loyal men
could be found in a State, its government
would be committed solely to their hands.
The people of North-Carolina seemed, at
first, to respond to the evident requirements
of the situation. In the election of dele¬
gates to the Convention ordered in 1865,
they chose a large majority of such as had
been eminent-for disaffection to the Confed¬
eracy and averse to continuing the rebellion.
To this judicious and reasonable action of
the people little opposition was raised by
those who were then trembling with fear of
punishment for their unpardoned crimes.—
But before the election for members of the
Legislature called by that Convention, the
extensive amnesty of the President's procla¬
mation, and the indiscriminate grants of
private pardons, instead of awakening grat¬
itude and repentance, served to inspire assu¬
rance and hope, and to embolden the insti¬
gators and leaders of the rebellion* to a uni¬
ted, but then cautious effort to regain their
power in the State and national councils.
They did not, indeed, dare at that time, as
a general thing, to put forward their most
notorious characters, but took the more pru¬
dent course of uniting upon such of their
least objectionable opponents, as they had
reason to believe had been rendered most
disaffected to the federal government by the
loss of slaves, and most likely to be won to
their purposes. When the Legislature as¬
sembled such of the rebel leaders as had
been returned to seats in it, and such others
as they had succeeded in gaining over to
their interests, united in unwavering sup¬
port of those measures and candidates for
office that seemed best calculated to regain
and re-establish their power and influence.
In many instances they succeeded in carry¬
ing their points. So damaging was the ef¬
fect of this conduct upon the federal rela¬
tions of the State, and so unexpected to the
national authorities, that the President of
the United States, who, from motives of mer¬
cy and magnanimity, had unwittingly
opened the door to it, felt called upon to ad¬
minister his rebuke and remonstrance in the
following telegram :
Washington, Nov. 27th, 1865.
Hon. W. W. Holden, Prov. Governor:
* * * * " The results of there-
cent elections in North-Carolina have greatly
damaged the prospects of the State in the
restoration of its governmental relations.—
Should the action and the spirit of the Leg-
TO THE PEOPLE OP NORTH-CAROLINA,
7
islature be in the same direction, it will
greatly increase the mischief already done,
and might be fatal.
It is hoped, the action and spirit manifes¬
ted by the Legislature will be so directed as
rather to repair than increase the difficul¬
ties under which the State has already placed
itself." ANDREW JOHNSON,
President of the United States.
This courteous but pointed advice was im¬
mediately communicated to the Legislature,
but was not only unheeded, but treated with
defiant contempt by those for whom it was
intended. As was to be expected, when our
representatives, elected to Congress under
the President's preparatory proceedings for
the restoration of the State, arrived in Wash¬
ington, they found the Congress fearful and
indisposed to confirm and perpetuate the re¬
sult of those proceedings by the sanction of
civil authority. So unexpected and danger
ous seemed the united action of the rebel
leaders, since the commencement of those
proceedings, that Congress deemed it essen¬
tial to the national safety to await further
developements. It was hoped that such de¬
lay, in itself, would serve as a salutary
warning, and recall, the Southern mind to the
just appreciation of the condition of the in¬
surgent States, and of what the peace and
safety of the nation required as security
against a future repetition of the dangerous
disturbances from which it had just es¬
caped at such immense and distressing cost.
But this warning, too, was unheeded. Not
only so; it was made the basis of a more
thorough organization of the secession
element in the southern States. There was
immediately a repetition of the means and
appliances by which the rebellion was first
inaugurated and then upheld, as far as the
movers dare go in the presence of military
supervision and under the threatening aspect
of the government. The passions and sec¬
tional prejudices of the people were again
most vehemently appealed to. The Con¬
gress was denounced as an unlawful assem
blage of tyrants and fanatics ; and the guil¬
ty leaders of' treason dared even parade the
epithet of traitor as applicable to those in
the blood of whose sons and brethren they
had so recently stained their hands, and un¬
der whose counsels of mercy they had just
escaped, unrepentant and ungrateful, a trait¬
or's doom. v
Congress, with dignified inactivity, re¬
mained earnest spectators of passing events.
But in charity, setting down much to
wounded pride and chafing restlessness, the
Constitutional amendment was finally offered
as the least that was consistent with the
safety and future peace of the republic.—
This,too, was spurned as an insult to Southern,
honor, and was seized upon, as was the cus¬
tom previous to the rebelllion in regard to
acts of Congress, to increase the violence of
sectional appeals, and the shameless abuse
of all men who raised a voice in defence of
nationality. The rebel leaders pretended to
found great hopes upon the pending elec¬
tions in the Northern States, last Fall; but
instead of strengthening the hands of their
supposed friends by silence, or by propriety
and moderation of conduct, they unbecom¬
ingly thrust themselves, covered with unfor-
gotten treason, into the affairs of a people
with the blood of whose sons and comrades'
they were freshly dripping. Inflaming the
unfortunate difference between Congress and
the President, and magnifying its impor¬
tance, they arrogantly smothered his influ¬
ence and popularity by the odium of their
support. Through their presses, and in har¬
angues before the Southern people who had
no power and could exert no influence in the
elections, they ostentatiously coupled their
denunciations of Congress with praises of
the President and with claims that he was
their especial champion and upholder.—
Such conduct, at that time, was either the
extreme of most unaccountable folly, or it
was for the well considered purpose of pro¬
voking among the Northern people serious
civil dissensions auspicious to concealed de¬
signs. The previous character and conduct
of the movers favored the latter construc¬
tion. The result of the elections was such
an overwhelming rebuke to every one, con¬
taminated with their touch, as to amount
to instructions to Congress that could not
be'disregarded. But, not at all abashed by
this result, they eagerly seized upon it and
increased their efforts again to fire the
Southern heart—to make past treason a test
of honor, and brand past and continued
loyalty in the South as a stain of social and
political disgrace. Sounding the same hol¬
low professions of loyalty with which they
inaugrated the rebellion, they scoffed at ev¬
ery sentiment of nationality, covered with
bitter contumely and reproach every stead¬
fast supporter of the national authority, and
amid all permissible preparation, but illy
concealed their future hopes and purposes.
An irresponsible press wras made to use the
weapon of public defamation, found so po¬
tent preparatory to and during the re¬
bellion. to deter the timid and cause the mod¬
est and sensitive to shrink from the coarse
and wanton vulgarity of its attacks. The
thoughtless ardor of youth was imposed up¬
on by appeals to sectional pride, by a coiv
stant parade of the glory achieved by Con
federate heroes, and by fulsome demonstra¬
tions of flattery to the most notorious actors
8
ADDRESS OP THE HON. JOHN POOD
in the rebellion. Even the boyish admira¬
tion for Knight Errantry was invoked by a
perpetual round of ridiculous tournaments,
attended by rebel leaders most distinguished
in field and counsel, who would have
been ash Mined of the puerility of being seen
at such [naces but for the well understood
object in view. Thus they succeeded in
again dece ving and exciting the masses of
our people to such an extent that they car¬
ried the Fall elections in this State, and re¬
turned to the Legislature a large majority
of their friends and sympathisers. During
those mad proceedings every remonstrance
from the more considerate Union men of the
State was spurned with contemptuous de-
rison and abuse. Those who warned the
people of the danger and sought to save
their State from the consequences of the
hardihood and reckless ambition of men
who were about perpetuating the ruin they
had already wrought, were denounced as
enemies of their State, and defamed with
epithets so degrading and vulgar that com¬
mon propriety would be shocked by repeat¬
ing them.
The Legislature elected under these appli¬
ances was swift to show its readiness to
co-operate in the general plan, by honoring
the " true Confederates" on the one hand,
and on the other, passing undignified and
derisive resolutions of censure against those,
whom loyalty to the Union and lovo of their
native State induced to venture an effort in
opposition to the crime and folly of a fur¬
ther disturbance of the public peace and
prosperity of the country. And this signi¬
ficant exhibition of legislative predilection
was followed by the more substantial favor
of an act of " general amnesty and pardon,"
by which it hoped to consign to oblivion a
multitude of disgraceful crimes, from the
dark infamy of which it would save the rep¬
utation of its friends. But in drafting this
act, it was not unmindful of its duty to " Con¬
federate" memories.
The Unionists of the State are ingenious¬
ly excluded from the benefit of its provis¬
ions. Every Union citizen of the State who
resisted an outrage from Confederate author¬
ity, or defended himself and his household
from the authorized violence of rebel despo¬
tism, or who in the excitement of outraged
feelings transcended the nicely balanced
law of self-defence, is left to be turned over
to juries summoned by Sheriffs holding their
election from those who once loved treason,
and now revere and honor its memory.
No one unblinded by the fanaticism of se¬
cession could fail to see what must necessa¬
rily be the effect of these things upon the
prospects of the State in its federal relations.
It was evident, that the Congress about to
assemble in December last, would not be
blind to these indications of a dangerous
public sentiment in the insurgent States. It
could not be supposed that it would look
with much charity upon such a defiant rep¬
etition of the leading features of those
scenes of preparation which culminated in a
gigantic and bloody rebellion, from the
dangers of which the nation had not yet
fully recovered ; but rather that it would be
painfully anxious as to the consequences,
and, perhaps, indiscreet and over severe in its
measures to protect the future peace and in¬
tegrity of the Union, considered as again in
danger.
In this condition of our affairs, I deemed
it a duty of my position, as a Senator elect
from North-Carolina, to go to Washington
City and endeavor to get for my own State,
at least, the best terms yet possible ; and
under them to seek its earliest practicable
restoration to its rights and privileges as one
of the recognized States of the Union. I
was fully aware that any effort contrary to
or outside of the plans and purposes of the
instigators and leaders of the rebellion, would
bring upon me the usual denunciation and
abuse, and expose me to their increased ani¬
mosity. But so much ruin came upon us
because our public men shrunk from facing
this unmanly warfare in 1861, and again in
1864-65, that it seemed criminally unpatri¬
otic to heed it any longer.
In Washington, I went to those only who
had power over the subject, and held coun¬
sel with those members of Congress whose
names have been designedly made most
odious in my own section, and upon whom
have been unsparingly heaped every epithet
of opprobious and degrading import. I
met only courtesy and kindness from them.
There was no expression of unlcindness to¬
wards the Southern people—not even to¬
wards the most guilty leaders in the rebell¬
ion. They seemed to regret that the con¬
duct of these leaders had necessitated a
watchful delay on the part of Congress,
and that later developments of Southern
sentiment and the present attitude of lead¬
ing men, had made the safety of the
nation dependent on more severe and harsh¬
er measures against them, than the most ul¬
tra radicals had. at first, contemplated. But
there was one thing unmistakable. It was a
determination, firmly set, to adopt and tc
have executed such measures as the contin¬
ued contumacy and rebellious bearing of
the insurgent leaders might make necessary
for the public safety, however harsh and se¬
vere those measures might require to be. It
was announced on all hands as already de¬
termined—1st. That the experimental or¬
ganisations set up in the insurgent States by
TO THE PEOPLE OP NORTH-CAROLINA,
9
the President, under martial law, would not
be legalized by Congress, but superseded by
governments based upon the civil authority
of the nation. 2nd. That those who volun¬
tarily engaged and persisted in the rebellion
would be disqualified from holding office
under the new governments to be estab¬
lished. 3rd. That there must be impartial
suffrage, irrespective of race or color. In
addition to these three points, considered as
settled, it seemed to be the general opinion,
1st. That territorial or military governments,
of indefinite duration, would be set over the
insurgent States. 2nd. That there would be
universal colored suffrage, and the exclusion
from the ballot-box of those who had vol¬
untarily engaged in the rebellion. Confis¬
cation of the estates of the instigators and
leading participators in the rebellion, and
other action still more extreme, were refer¬
red to and advocated. Jt was urged that
the preparatory policy of the President, con¬
ceived in leniency and mercy and well meant,
at the time, had been seized upon by the still
rebellious leaders as a means of again rising
to power, and thus early setting up a dis¬
tinct political organization of sectionalism,
threatening to the peace and integrity of the
Union—that it had become evident they
could be put down only by disfranchise¬
ment, and other measures calculated to make
treason odious and.dishonorable—that the
admission of negroes to the ballot-box was
the only effective means of silencing the re¬
newed appeals to old prejudices and pas¬
sions, dangerous alike to the freedmen and
to the public peace,—and that only by their
enfranchisement could the whole people be
nationalized. The anarchy and' confusion
incident to breaking up the present estab¬
lishment, and the shock to the public senti¬
ment resulting from the exclusion of a large
part of the whites from the polls, and the
immediate enfranchisement of the whole of
the blacks, were thought by many to be
evils, but were considered as less deplorable,
because the necessity for such measures had
been forced on a reluctant government by the
persistent insubordination and insurgent
spirit still manifested by those whose interests
they would principally affect.
I presumed to interpose an effort in behalf
of North Carolina, alone. Mr. Stevens, of
Pennsylvania, consented to introduce, on the
13th day of December, into the House of
Representatives, "A bill to establish civil
government in North-Carolina, and to ena¬
ble it to resume its former relations as one
of the constituent States of the American
Union." This bill avoided most of the
harsher features of the proposed measures,
and was consented to only as an experiment
with a single State. It provided for a Con¬
vention, on the basis of the House of Com¬
mons, to be assembled as early as the 20th
of May, 18(57, to frame a State Constitution
and organize a permanent government. All
whites who have heretofore exercised the
right of suffrage were admitted to the ballot
box, and only such blacks as could read and
write, or owned real estate of the assessed
value of one hundred dollars. The. present
government was to continue in the exercise
of its functions until such time as the Con¬
vention should fix for the commencement of
the permanent government, and the admis¬
sion of the State into the Union—thus avoid¬
ing the anarchy and confusion incident to a
sudden termination of the present order of
things. The disabling provision extended
only to eligibility to seats in the particular
Constitution provided for in the bill, and
was confined to those who voluntarily per¬
sisted in the rebellion after the 4th day of
March, 18G4. It would have been fortunate
for the secession leaders had this bill been
enacted into a law; and had the proper spir¬
it been manifested by them in regard to it,
Congress would, in all probability, have
promptly tried that experiment with North-
Carolina. But it was immediately assailed
by them with the most violent denunciations,
as is everything else which runs counter to
their purposes.
My supposed connection with this bill
brought down upon me much vulgar and
shameless defamation, especially in the scur¬
rilous secession newspapers. But self-respect
forbids any answer to scurrility except to
characterize it. The time has fortunately
come, when a Union man in North-Carolina
may depise the aspersions of a hireling press,
whose editors, having little character or
ability, are dependent on the favor of their
employers for daily bread. This defamation
of those who attempt to restore the State to
peace and prosperity, and dare expose the
machinations of baffled but struggling trea¬
son, is meant to intimidate and deter, as was
so effectually done in the dark days of the
rebellion. Men generally hesitate to en¬
counter violent existing prejudices, and to
stand against those who fall in with and en¬
deavor to inflame them. But there are times,
when it becomes the highest duty of a citi¬
zen to disregard all personal considerations
and to speak boldly the naked truth, how¬
ever distasteful it may be, and however re¬
pugnant to settled notions. He is not per¬
mitted to be deterred by the clamor of those
whose evil designs and purposes depend on
taking advantage of the general bias to in¬
flame and nurse the passions of men for
future use upon the first safe occasion. It
may be a safer personal policy at such times
to go with the current, or at least be silent.
10
ADDRESS OF THE HON. JOHN POOL
But I cannot consent, either as a man or a
citizen, thus to become a party to the present
mischievous purposes of the secession leaders
—not as as a man, because it requires hy¬
pocrisy and deceit—not as a citizen, because
the tendency is, and unless checked, the re¬
sult must be the ultimate disruption of the
Union and the ruin oi my country. How-
much have we suffered, because those of us
who saw and felt the truth in 1861, had not
fhe courage to proclaim it boldly to the peo¬
ple ! We should then have firmly spoken
what every good and reasonable man felt—
that the secession movement was the work of
bad and selfish leaders—carefully planned
and pursued for years by the most insidious
and deceptive means, playing upon sectional
pride to deceive honest men into assisting
them to compass their ambitious ends. What
accumulation of misery would have been
spared the Southern people, had it been per¬
mitted men to tell and act on the plain truth
in 1864'65 ! It was then apparent that the
mad ambition of 1861 was sacrificing pre¬
cious lives in vain, that the contest was hope¬
less, and that those who persisted .in prose¬
cuting it further were murderers of their
deluded and conscripted followers. Let it
now be known that foiled ambition, and des¬
peration tremblingly defiant, are inviting a
common ruin, which by the completeness of
its desolation may serve to obliterate the re¬
membrance of baffled guilt. Let all good
men be exhorted to forget the past, and con¬
form honestly to the requirements of the
present and the future.
It is time for the people of North-Carolina
to realize their true condition, to unite in
removing every obstacle to the return of that
peace and prosperity which they have lost by
following evil counsels. We shall wait in
vain for a confession of error on the part of
those who brought upon us this ruin. They
still thrust themselves between us and a set¬
tlement of our troubles. They are endeavoring
to make past errors and crimes a test of honor
in the eyes of the Southern people—to so warp
the tone of political and social sentiment in
the South as to make that alone honorable
among us, which the rest of the civilized
world unites in pronouncing infamous. To
make treason honorable in so large a section
of the country is to perpetuate it. By con¬
tinuing to instill its poison into the minds
of our young men, and connecting it with
their admiration for whatever is good and
noble, they would keep the nation ever in
jeopardy, and its safety continually threat¬
ened by every unfortunate occasion auspi¬
cious to a renewal of the rebellion. They
profess to submit temporarily to what they
cannot, at present, possibly resist, and they
call such submission loyalty. But they boast,
as a point of honor, that they submit only
so far as compelled, and because compelled.
This is their present test of a " true South¬
ern man" or secessionist. They denounce a
willing and cheerful co-operation with the na¬
tional government as disgraceful and de¬
grading, and sneer at it as the test of a
" Union traitor." This conduct but illy dis¬
guises their longing for an opportunity to
resist the hated authority of the Union,
while it serves to keep up a public senii-
ment favorable to such resistance, whenever
a safe occasion may occur. They would
consent, from necessity, to a return of the
State to the Union, provided such return
could be effected with themselves and their
treason honored, the Union men degraded
and proscribed, and no safeguards required
to prevent their seizing upon the first suita¬
ble occasion, which a foreign war or some
domestic trouble may present, for another
effort to establish their confederacy. Indeed
they demand, a return to the Union upon
such terms, as a matter of right. They most
inconsistently affirm the correctness of the
first branch of the President's assumption,
that the State was never out ot the Union and
heartily claim the benefit of it. But they
pass by the other branch of his assumption,
that the State governments were destroyed,
and denounce the Congress as usurpers and
traitors for proposing to proceed under it in
discharge of the constitutional obligation to
the States which it imposes. If their long
cherished and blood stained theory of seces¬
sion be true, then the first branch of the
President's assumption is false, for if the
ordinance of secession was rightful, the States
were legally out of the Union, and must be
dealt Avith as conquered territories. They
can set up a claim of rights as appertaining
to a State continuously in the Union only by
admitting the falsity of their secession teach¬
ings, and confessing that they deluded their
fellow citizens to ruin by a most disastrous
heresy, because traitors and rebels maligned
and persecuted those who continued true- to
the lawful government of their country, and
finally imbued their hands in the blood of
innocent patriots. But they have the ef¬
frontery to couple this confession of guilt
Avitli a demand that it shall not only receive
no punishment, but that its unrepentant per¬
petrators shall be permanently invested Avith
poAver to make it a test of merit and honor,
and to brand Unionism in the South, during
the rebellion, as a perpetual shame and re¬
proach. And because the allowance of this
preposterous demand is delayed they have
the shameless audacity to assail the Congress
of the nation, and to arouse their adherents
to assume, as far as they dare, a threatening
attitude towards the government. They
TO TIIE PEOPLE OP NORTH-CAROLINA.
11
slander the honest, substantial citizens of
North-Carolina by publicly declaring that
the great mass of the people partake of their
sentiments and purposes; and by impressing
this upon the minds of Northern men, they
involve the whole State in the consequences
of their guilt and folly. They sneer at the
30,000 white Union voters of the State, as
" mean whites," and misrepresent the thou¬
sands of others, tvlio but for deceptive teach¬
ings and continued appeals to sectional pre¬
judices and passions, would also be true to
the interests and peace of their country. A
large majority of the people of North-Caro¬
lina regret the part they took in the rebellion,
and earnestly desire not only a return to the
Union, but that it may be perpetuated for all
time as the only hope of securing liberty and
peace to themselves and their prosterity.—
But the conduct of the instigators and
leaders in the rebellion for the last eighteen
months, appearing to be approved by a ma¬
jority of the people, has produced a contrary
impression as to their sentiments and feelings,
and has kept the State in its present distress¬
ing and unfortunate relations to the general
government. While this continues to be al¬
lowed, what hope can any reasonable man
have of bettering our present condition ? It
must continue to grow worse until we be¬
come involved in irretrievable and hopeless
ruin. Confiscation, executions for treason,
suspension of the habeas corpus and a long
and rigid probation under military govern¬
ment, may yet be our fate. We owe all the
distressing calamities of the past to the in¬
stigators and leaders of the rebellion. To
them we owe our present troubles. The
darkness of the future is the continued work
of their hands. If they had any magnanimity
or gratitude to those who have lost all in
their service, they would no longer attempt
to mislead, nor stand longer in the way of a
restoration of the rights and prosperity which
a misguided people forfeited under their
selfish and mischievous counsels. The people
of North-Carolina should heed them no
longer. Let the guilty and conscious insti¬
gators and leaders of the rebellion be separat¬
ed from the honest and misguided masses of
the people, and rebuked by them, and then
the State will be speedily restored to the
rights and prosperity which it so much
needs.
It may be proper to direct attention more
especially to some of the points upon which
the popular mind is sought to be misled. It
is common to hear that a quiet and orderly
submission to the force of events, and a
voluntary acquiescense in the requirements
of the times, are inconsistent with Southern
honor. We are exhorted to accept nothing
but by the application of continued force.—
And this is insisted upon, when it is known
that the manifestation of such a spirit on our
part is considered as deliberately preparatory
for future resistance and rebellion, upon the
ground that we shall not be bound to sub¬
mit to what is forced upon us any longer
than compelled to do so, and shall be justified
in throwing it off upon the first safe occasion.
Thus would the peace of the nation be kept
in a state of continued peril. Can any one
fail to see that such an attitude towards the
government increases the necessity for strin¬
gent measures, and is likely to bring upon us
not only delay in the restitution of our rights
and privileges in the Union, but subject us
to much more harsh and severe terms ? A
cheerful and prompt acceptance of the results
of defeat is required no less by dignity and
manliness, than is a spiteful and unavailing
restlessness inconsistent with loyalty, and
antagonistic to our interests. The instigators
and leaders in the rebellion attack with bit¬
terness and with the most scandalous scurrili¬
ty, all who dare intimate an acquiescense in
the measures deemed by Congress necessary
for the future peace and safety ot the country.
Union advocates were hissed upon the floor
of the present House of Commons in this
State ; and the House, at the same time, re¬
ceived with applause an avowal of readiness,
made in earnest anger, " to build a hell" for
such as questioned the loyalty of the -recent
proceedings of its secession friends. The
profanity was excused for the sake of the
sentiment. It is quite reasonable that these
men should be nervously sensitive to an ex¬
posure of their crimes and outrages during
the rebellion, and of their present conduct
and purposes. But such unseemly exhibi¬
tions of temper betray a consciousness of
guilt. Men never outrage decency by the
violence of defensive language, unless they be
struggling to crush truth in order to escape
the stigma of some dreaded exposure. Their
newspapers declare their inability to find
language to express their " loathing and de¬
testation" of those citizens who favor the
views of Congress, and expressions of regret
on account of the same inadequacy of lan¬
guage is a favorite peroration of their orators
in the Legislature and out of it. All this is
meant to prejudice and mislead the public
mind. And for the same purpose is their
effort to identify themselves with the people
at large. They even assume'to constitute
the State, and claim that anything said or
done against them is said and done against
North-Carolina. It is really nothing but
their own ambition and folly that is continu¬
ing the evils and troubles under which we
labor. Let it become apparent that their
conduct and purpose^ are not approved by
.the masses of our people, and the State will
12
ADDRESS OP THE HON. JOHN POOL
be restored at once to all its former rights in
the Union, and the influx of capital and enter¬
prise will immediately bring back the dawn
of prosperity and peace. The honest, sub¬
stantial citizens of North-Carolina have
interests and hopes far above the reckless and
baffled ambition of these secession leaders.—
Neither their disgrace, nor disfranchisement,
nor even merited punishment would have
any damaging effect upon the general wel¬
fare, but rather may become necessary thereto,
if they longer persist in their course of mad¬
ness and folly, and continue to be obstacles
to the peace and prosperity of their fellow
citizens.
Another means resorted to for the purpose
of misleading the public mind, is a constant
parade of a claim of rights, as if no rights
had been forfeited by rebellion. With what
reason can the instigators and leaders of the
rebellion talk of rights ? What rights did
they respect during the days of their power ?
They now have no rights, except to have set
over them,by the United States,a government
republican in form, and protected by such
safeguards as may be necessary to secure it
against the threatened repetition of their
late treason. And they have left to them
this right, only because the indestructible
barriers of the Constitution protected it
against their own violence. They madly
staked their rights upon the issue of an un¬
provoked war, and by their folly and per-
verseness lost them all. They wickedly
washed them out in the blood of deluded
followers and unwilling conscripts, and for¬
feited them upon the graves of the loyal sol¬
diers of the Republic, whom they slew upon
the battle-field or starved in loathsome dun¬
geons. They had n© right even to their lives,
until the President heeded their humble cries
for mercy, and in pity, spared them. Where¬
upon they have become again arrogant and
defiant; and now,in place of humble petition,
insolently parade a demand for a restitution
of all their former privileges and power in
a government which they totally abjured by
solemn oaths and attempted to destroy. Do
they suppose the nation has lost all regard
for its future peace and safety ? or that it
has not the courage to despise their long
brandished frowns ? Time was, when these
leaders were indulged as perverse and head
strong children ; but when they abused this
indulgence to purposes of treason and the
shedding of blood, they became guilty crim¬
inals, and may yet compel a reluctant nation
to punish them as such.
There is another subject having much bear¬
ing upon the settlement of our troubles, in
regard to which the public mind should not
be misled. The colored population having
been made free citizen^of the Republic, must
be protected as such. The popular prejudi¬
ces in regard to them are the growth of
years, in which they were not only undispu¬
ted but encouraged. It would be wonderful
indeed for them to die out at once. But
however natural their existence, the fact
that they do exist must be recognized and
provided against by the national govern¬
ment. This much is due to that class of our
citizens as a matter of right and justice.—
The prejudices in regard to them were, in
the recent past, made the mean3 of inciting
a most disastrous rebellion, by those who
hoped thus to gratify their ambition for
place and power. As this population had
no voice in political affairs, appeals based up¬
on charges that an effort was being made in
their behalf, could be safely resorted to. A
repetition of such appeals might again en¬
danger the public safety. But should the
colored citizen be admitted to the ballot-
box, this danger would be avoided, for am¬
bitious politicians would not dare to assail
such a large class of voters. The question
of securing protection and suffrage to the
freedmen has thus become connected with
the national question of providing against a
repetition of the rebellion. This is the view
taken by the general government. Hence,
one of the earliest acts of the President, in
his preparatory proceedings for reconstruc¬
tion, was to recommend, in unequivocal lan¬
guage, qualified suffrage for the freedmen.—
But this recommendation was rejected in¬
dignantly even by those who professed to be
the especial supporters of his policy, as was
that part of his fundamental assumption
that the State governments had been de¬
stroyed, and needed reorganization. They
reject, with facility, every principle of his
policy which may seem to militate against
their own restitution to power. Quali¬
fied colored suffrage has been the position
of the President. Universal colored suffrage
is the remedy deemed necessary by Congress.
Men desirous of avoiding the one or the
other could not fail to see that the only
means of doing so was to remove the neces¬
sity for it, by subduing such former prejudi¬
ces as seemed to threaten the safety of the
colored citizen. The folly of renewing ap¬
peals calculated to inflame such prejudices
cannot be too severely characterized. For,
however much the policy of admitting freed¬
men at present, to the ballot-box, may be
questioned, yet, as they have become free
citizens of a republic, what can be said,
against its justice and rightfulness ? If by
any means it be made consistent with good
policy or requisite theretp, it instantly be¬
comes unwarrantable to withhold it. But,
notwithstanding this plain position of the
question, the same blind fatality which has
rco THE PEOPLE OP ifORTH-CAROLittA.
13
continually inspired the councils of the in¬
stigators and leaders of the rebellion, from
the beginning, seems still to hold its sway.
While professing a disposition of justice and
fairness to the freedmen, they have steadily
contested every step for their advancement,
and have again sought to arouse- old preju¬
dices in regard to them, by denouncing Con¬
gress as "negro-worshippers," and Union
men, who approve the measures of Congress,
as "mean whites," and "no better than ne¬
groes." They have thus rendered necessary
and certain what they profess to be most
anxious to avoid. By their insubordinate
and contumacious conduct they are about
to bring disfranchisement upon themselves ;
and by conduct, still more reprehensible, have
necessitated a measure which they pro¬
nounce the most odious of all. Is it surpri¬
sing that such glaring hardihood raises the
suspicion that it is not so much the result of
inconsiderate recklessness, as of a settled
purpose to keep alive the spirit and passions
of the rebellion preparatory to the accom¬
plishment of still cherished hopes ? While
such proceedings are unrebuked by our peo¬
ple, what can we expect but a continuance
of our present unfortunate and ruinous con¬
dition? We, who have-been involved in a
common ruin and are still reaping the bitter
fruits of its continuance, must, nevertheless,
acknowledge the wisdom and prudence of
Congress in awaiting these developments be¬
fore relinquishing its power to check their
tendency. We cannot expect it to be so far
unmindful of its duty to the country and to
posterity as not to provide such measures
and enforce such regulations as the public
safety demands. The evils that we must yet
endure, and the hard conditions to which
we may vet have to submit, are chargeable
to those who have created the necessity, and
not to those whose painful &fty it has be¬
come to apply the remedy.
Had the leading actors in the rebellion
stood out of the way, as became them, until
the State was restored to its former relations
in the Union, such restoration would have
been long since accomplished. When
they indiscreetly thrust themselves for¬
ward as arrogant aspirants for an im¬
mediate restitution to power, had the
people manifested a practical repudiation of
the spirit and principles of the rebellion, by
promptly rebuking them at the ballot box,
the State would have been immediately re¬
stored to all its rights and privileges, and
the influx of capital and enterprise from
abroad would be now swiftly at work in
strengthening, by social intercourse and com¬
munity of interest, the bonds of an enduring
nationality. Magnanimity and gratitude to
their ruined followers require these leaders
to loose the chains of deception, and to stand
no longer in the way of a restoration of the
rights and prosperity which have been for¬
feited in their service. But their mad am¬
bition seems to smother all worthier consid¬
erations. They still attempt to hold, with
death-like tenacity, their ill-gotten influence
over the minds of better men, and to involve
us all in the fate that justly belongs only to
themselves, by slanderously representing the
present attitude of our people as a spontane¬
ous popular impulse. It, therefore, becomes
the duty of the people to correct this mis¬
representation, and to separate themselves
from these conscious and intentional arch¬
itects of general ruin. Congress believes
that the masses can be won back to loyalty,
and to their old veneration for the Union,
only by removing the baleful influence of the
instigators and leaders in the rebellion—that
the future peace and safety of the whole peo¬
ple require that conscious treason be neither
honored nor rewarded—but that there be
left a warning instead of an incentive to the
rising generation of young men, whose im¬
pressive minds and growing strength are
being moulded and trained for the realiza¬
tion of the hopes still cherished by the au¬
thors of our present troubles. Those who
would involve a people in an unprovoked
war have ever been considered as the ene¬
mies of mankind, and capable of any crime
necessary to their purposes. Our conduct
and temper is closely, and perhaps too sus¬
piciously watclied by a government just
emerging from the excitement of a bloody
and dangerous civil commotion. Its future
safety is supposed to require that there be
inculcated among the lately insurgent States,
a spirit of steadfast nationality. With legis¬
lators to pass acts of amnesty and Governors
to pardon, the federal government may well
doubt the possibility ot finding citizens to
inculcate national sentiments at the risk of
mob violence and personal insult. It con¬
siders loyalty to the Union as something
more than a restless and chafing submission
to what cannot be resisted. Keeping up
agencies and influence calculated to make
resistance effective at the earliest possible
time, is too nearly allied to actual treason to
escape the attention of those who have been
rendered vigilant by recent dangers. That
they should consider those citizens, without
distinction of race or color, who have mani¬
fested loyalty in the past, and cheerfully co¬
operate in measures, at present deemed ne¬
cessary for the national safety, as entitled to
especial confidence and consideration, is rea¬
sonable and natural. But there is a just ap¬
preciation of the position of those who were
really deceived Into a participation in the
rebellion, and a disposition to discriminate
14
ADDRESS OF THE HOH. JOHN POOL
properly between them and the conscious
and persistent leaders who deceived them.—
In shaping our conduct, we must not be un¬
mindful of this evident public feeling among
the Northern people. > It is unfortunate that
it has not been more generally understood
and acted upon for the last eighteen months.
Now, that time has exposed the decep¬
tion, recklessness and folly of the instigators
and leaders of the rebellion, those brave
soldiers who were deceived and forced into
their army, and made to undergo so many
hardships in vain, should indignantly re¬
buke the present efforts of those leaders to
prolong the troubles of the country. That
so many brave men were sacrificed in a war
so useless, and that the sacrifice was contin¬
ued beyond all humane and reasonable
bounds, is a crushing crime and a burning
shame, from which the perpetrators cannot
escape before the tribunal of posterity, how¬
ever exultant they may now be over the mer¬
ciful forbearance of the present, and callous
to the compunction of conscious guilt.
My views of the duty of the. people of
North-Carolina are too plainly indicated in
what has already been said to require a more
explicit statement in detail. By the recent
act of Congress, the State is remanded to a
military government, and many of the condi¬
tions imposed as preliminary to the estab¬
lishment of a civil organization must be ex¬
ceedingly distasteful. We might have orga¬
nized a loyal government in this State under
less stringent provisions than may be re¬
quired in other sections. The effort to sep¬
arate North-Carolina from the other insur¬
gent States, and to restore it to the Union
on milder terms, made by the bill intro¬
duced by Mr. Stevens on the 13th of Decem¬
ber, has already been referred to. That effort
was not only discouraged by the insurgent
leaders, but assailed by them in such a vio¬
lent and abusive manner, that it was dropp¬
ed as unsatisfactory and too lenient. Had
it been properly received and sustained, we
might have avoided the more harsh features
of the present law, so far as our State is con¬
cerned. The necessity for the military fea¬
ture pf the present law is to be regretted ;
and the disfranchising and disqualifying
clauses are such as it was desirable to have
avoided. But we may confidently trust that
Congress, by future legislation, will make
such further provision as magnanimity de¬
mands, in behalf of those who may show by
their conduct that they are true to the Union,
and earnestly desirous to perpetuate the
peace and prosperity of the country.
Our people should not hesitate to accept
the act as it is, and to proceed under it
promptly and in good faith. Let any elec¬
tions that may take place be conducted or¬
derly and without any local disturbances.—
The "Peace men and Conservatives" of
18G4-'65, should again unite in this final ef¬
fort to rescue the State from the destructive
influence of those whose past counsels and
conduct were fraught with so much evil.—
We must not suffer their baleful touch to
blight again the prospects of relief which are
now opening before us. They forced us upon
a career of ruin in 1861. In 1864-'65, they
mercilessly used their ill-gotten power to
suppress our struggling efforts in behalf of
peace and humanity. Since the termination
of the war, they prevented a return of peace
and order by obstinately endeavoring to
make a participation in their past crimes a
test of honor and merit in the Southern
States, and our past efforts in behalf of the
Union, and in the cause of humanity and
peace, a mark of social and political reproach
and degradation to ourselves and our chil¬
dren forever. We shall be fortunate, if our
rights can be restored, and peace and quiet
come to us, at no further sacrifice than the
exclusion from office of a few guilty and
reckless leaders, whose ambition, stained
with the best blood of our State, and loaded
with untold miseries of a ruined people, has
at last met a part of its merited fate. But
their animosity towards those, who would
have saved them and relieved the embarrass¬
ments of the State, will probably increase as
time continues to disclose the character and
consequences of their conduct. To be wrong
may be forgiven and forgotten; but bad
men never forgive an adversary for being
in the right. To convict them of error is
to incur their hatred forever.
Thus have I spoken candidly and plainly
to a people with whose interests mine arp
identified. ^Time will test the truth and
value of thjjBe suggestions. If unheeded, a
consciousness of duty discharged will be
some recompense for the ills that must befall
us all. But rather, let us trust that a kind
Providence will put it into the hearts of men
to permit relief from our long borne scourg¬
ing, and give us a return of those bright
days of prosperity, liberty and peace which
we allowed to be exchanged for the dark
and terrible lessons of the last six years.—
Let us labor to make ourselves, and our
children after us, worthy participants in the
rising glory of this great and wonderful re¬
public of freemen; and let us seek oblivion
upon our connection with the late attempt to
verify the hopes and predictions of its ene¬
mies. JOHN POOL.
March 25th, 1867.
2N» G. standard Book and Job office prints Kalelgh*