But the inevitable and irrepressible conflict was upon him, and he met the responsibility with courage and sagacity.

A higher power than Abraham Lincoln, a power that rules and governs the universe of men, decreed the war as a necessary and unavoidable event, to prepare the way for a new south and a new north, and a more perfect Union.

Now fellow-citizens, the new south is founded upon the ruins of the old.

No wise man will overlook this, and should not expect that the southern people will at once yield to the logic of events; but every patriotic man ought to do his utmost to bring about, as soon as possible, a cheerful acquiescence in the…

You cannot in a single generation, much less a single decade, change the ideas of centuries.

And we who come from the north must not expect them at once to lay aside all ideas with which they were born and which they inherited from their ancestors for generations.

Remember, at that time, before the war, this country was a confederacy, not of states, but a confederacy of sections.

On every question, great and small, that division in American life and American politics arose.

The parties in this country were sectional parties, and even up to this time we have not broken down the asperity which existed, growing out of this sectional condition of affairs.

Now that slavery is gone, parties ought to be based on other conditions than sectional lines.

There is no question now existing between the north and the south, and politicians will soon find that they must base their divisions of party lines upon some other question than between the north and the south.

I see growing up every day the evidence of that feeling that this sectional controversy is at an end.

Although the ghost is not buried--the dead body lies mouldering in the grave.

There never was a time in the history of this government, from the time the constitution was framed to this hour, when there was less party spirit among the mass of the people of the United States.

Immense capital is seeking investment, and millions of idle men are seeking employment.

The south, from a state of chaos, is showing marked evidence of growth and progress, and these two sections, no longer divided by slavery, can be united again by the same bonds that united our fathers of the revolution.

If these elemental conditions are accepted fairly, as I hope they will be by the south, the union will be complete without either north or south or sectional or party lines.

First, there must be recognized in every part of this country, without respect to race or color or condition, the equality of rights and privileges between man and man.

This fundamental principle is now ingrafted upon our constitution.

There it stands; and although, from time to time, parties and men may refuse to observe the spirit of that great provision in the constitution, there it will stand, and in time--and I trust a not far distant time--it will be recognized by…

A right plainly given by the constitution and the laws, withheld or denied, is an uneasy grievance which will never rest.

Whatever may have been thought of the wisdom of the policy of emancipation, it was the logical result of the war, has been finally adopted, and will never be changed.

It is idle to discuss schemes to separate these races except by voluntary and individual movement, but they will live and increase, generation after generation, the common occupants of the new south.

What is needed above all else is to secure the harmonious living and working of these two elements, to secure to both the peaceful enjoyment of their rights and privileges.

As long as any portion or race or class of the people of the new south are deprived of the rights which the constitution and law confer upon them, there will be unrest and danger.