and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests would be more satisfactory to all if it contained 50,000, or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about 12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.

Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relations with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State government? Some twelve thousand

voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State government, adopted a free-State constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 12,000 persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State committed to the very things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants and they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to make good their committal.

Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless or worse; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you. Το the blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the

hearts and nerve the arms of the 12,000 to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by threefourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the question: Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new and unprecedented is the whole

case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper.

APPENDIX A

GLOSSARY OF POLITICAL TERMS

AMERICAN OR KNOW-NOTHING PARTY. This party came into prominence about 1852, following the enormous immigration caused by the Irish famine of 1847 and the continental European revolutions of 1848-1850. At first the party was a secret order whose real name was "Sons of '76, or Order of the Star-Spangled Banner." All questions regarding the order were answered, "I don't know," whence the popular name. It opposed the seizure of political control by immigrants. Its motto was, "Americans must rule America." At first it exerted its power by secretly indorsing selected candidates nominated by other parties, and in the elections of 1854 and 1855 it elected the governors and legislatures of several States. At its first national convention, held in Philadelphia in 1856, it nominated Millard Fillmore of New York for President on a platform which attempted to avoid a strong committal on the slavery issue. But that issue had become paramount, and the adherents of the American Party thereafter transferred their allegiance to the parties which seemed to have a program regarding slavery, most of them joining the Republican Party. Fillmore polled 874,000 votes but secured only 8 electors.

COMPROMISE OF 1850. The Compromise of 1850 was made necessary by the renewal of the question of extending slavery into the territory west of the Rocky Mountains. This country included Oregon, which had become a Free Territory in 1848; California, which sought admission in 1848 under a Free-State constitution; and Utah and New Mexico, which it was proposed to organize as Territories. By the terms of the compromise California was admitted as a Free State; Utah and New Mexico were organized as Territories with the stipulation that when admitted as States they should be received "with or without