Whitelaw Reid: “Whatever the fortune of South Carolina, the Sea Islands must henceforth be flourishing.”

Congress is supreme, and, for all the purposes of this department, has all the powers of the people of the United States, except such as have been expressly or by implication reserved in the prohibitions of the Constitution.

Fully believing the debts of their Rebel Government legal and just, they were prepared to repudiate them at a hint from Washington.

We must, then, be prepared with a policy for maintaining it ourselves.

The question about the slaves being self-supporting, is a question no longer.