Belief 3 - Reading 20 of 31, The Reconstruction Convention

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Belief 3 - Reading 20 of 31

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GOVERNOR HAMILTION OF TEXAS

Harper's Weekly, August 26, 1865, page 531 (Editorial)

In the letter in which he advises the rebel leaders to remain in the country "whose future has so little of hope," Mr. Wade Hampton speaks of the United States Provisional Governor of South Carolina, Mr. Perry, as "an honest man and a true patriot." As he had just mentioned the Union men of the State as those "who forsook her in her hour of need, and who would gladly pull her down to irretrievable ruin," he evidently does not consider Mr. Perry to be one of them. We are sorry that Governor Perry should have received such praise from such a man.

But there is one Provisional Governor whom Wade Hampton will not praise. That is Andrew J. Hamilton of Texas. His proclamation to the people of that State is just what it should be. It speaks soberly, emphatically, and faithfully, what we believe to be the intention of the people of this country. It does not affect in any way to palliate the rebellion, nor to identify the writer with it. It neither speaks of "our" armies, meaning rebels; nor of "our" cause, meaning treason. It informs the Texans that slavery died because it challenged freedom to mortal combat, and he begs to assure his fellow-citizens that the Government will protect the freedmen. He recommends the freedmen to engage with their former masters until the end of harvest; but he warns the employers that all combinations to coerce the laborers or to ostracize those who hire them will meet with no favor. He adds: "And candor compels me to say to the people of Texas, that, if in the action of the proposed convention the negro is characterized or treated as less than a freeman, our Senators and Representatives will seek in vain admission to the halls of Congress."

If the other Provisional Governors had spoken as truly and plainly the task of reorganization would have been made much easier. Governor Hamilton was one of the Union men of Texas who proved his faith by his works and was driven from the State. He knows the awful fate of his friends who could not escape. He knows what the spirit of the rebellion was. He knows that it is not extinct. He has learned by constant contact with loyal Americans during the war what they think and mean; and he does not look for permanent pacification either to men like Wade Hampton or to those whom Wade Hampton praises, but to those who believe that the country has been saved and not ruined by the war.

Harper's Weekly, August 26, 1865, page 531 (Editorial)

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