Following these simple rules, clemency will be a Christian virtue, and not a perilous folly.

The other proverb has its voice also, saying plainly, Follow common sense, and do not, while escaping one danger, rush upon another.

Rush not upon the opposite terror, where another shipwreck of a different kind awaits you, while Sirens tempt with “song of death.” Take warning: Seeking to escape Charybdis, do not drive upon Scylla.

Alas! the Scylla on which the Republic now drives is that old rock of concession and compromise which from the beginning has been a constant peril.

And now that the war is over, it is proposed to invest the same Rebel Oligarchy with a new lease of immense power, involving control over loyal citizens, whose fidelity to the Republic has been beyond question.

Here, too, are Sirens, in the shape of belligerent traitors, suing softly that the Republic may be lured to the old concession and compromise.

And when the Republic sought to suppress the Rebellion, it was replied, that a State could not be coerced.

To overcome these pretensions, and stamp E Pluribus Unum ineffaceably upon the Republic, we contended in war; and now we surrender again to these tyrannical pretensions.

Again, we are reminded that military power must yield to the civil power and to the rights of self-government.

Therefore the Rebel States must be left to themselves, each with full control over all, whether white or black, within its borders, and empowered to keep alive a Black Code abhorrent to civilization and dangerous to liberty.

Every exercise of military power is to be regretted, and yet there are occasions when it cannot be avoided.

But transition from war to peace must be assured by all possible safeguards.

Civil power and self-government cannot be conceded to belligerent enemies until after the establishment of “security for the future.” Such security is an indispensable safeguard, without which there will be new disaster.

Therefore, in escaping from military power, care must be taken not to run upon the opposite danger,--as from Charybdis to Scylla.

Again, it is said solemnly, that “we must trust each other”; which, being interpreted, means that the Republic must proceed at once to trust belligerent enemies who have for long years murdered our fellow-citizens.

In trusting them, we concede political power, including license to oppress loyal persons, whether white or black, and especially the freedmen.

For four years we have met them in battle; and now we run to trust them, and commit into their keeping the happiness and well-being of others.

There is peril in trusting such an enemy, more even than in meeting him on the field.

Consider how everything of worth or honor is bound up with the national security and the national faith,--and that, until these are fixed beyond change, agriculture, commerce, and industry of all kinds must suffer.

Cotton itself will refuse to grow until labor is assured its just reward.

By natural consequence, the same Barbarism which has drenched the land in blood will continue to prevail, with wrong, outrage, and the insurrections of an oppressed race; the national name will be dishonored, and the national power…

Every day’s delay is a loss to the national wealth and an injury to the national treasury.

But if adequate guaranties cannot be obtained at once, then at least postpone all present surrender to the Oligarchy, trusting meanwhile to Providence for protection, and to time for that awakened sense of justice and humanity which must…

No day of our lives seems brighter than that upon which the foremost champion of Freedom boldly directs the attention of the nation to a series of clear, sound, statesmanlike measures looking to the complete enfranchisement of America.

God bless the Christian gentleman and scholar, the ablest of American statesmen!