Union. We had been told all the time of the contest that our ordinances of secession were nullities; that we were still in the Union. At the end of the struggle, when we sent back our senators and representatives to take seats within the halls of Congress, we found we were still out of the Union. It is not for us to explain the inconsistencies of the government on that point. Suffice it to say that those having the power then, as our conquerors, dictated terms we of the South thought and still think exceedingly hard. We differed among ourselves about the best means of meeting the emergency. Some of us thought we saw no chance but to acquiesce in the dictation of the conqueror. If we could not succeed when we had 500,000 of the gallant sons of the South in the field, armed and ready for battle, how were we to resist further, when we had surrendered our armies and they stood with 1,200,000 bayonets over us? Others thought at the time we might get rid of these measures by means of the Democratic party. We differed and differed, I may say, in an angry spirit sometimes, but honestly on both sides. We went through a hard period. I will not now attempt to enumerate all the hardships of the reconstruction measures. Neither my strength nor your patience would permit it. I need only say that we were finally obliged to come to the point of acquiescing in all the reconstruction acts of Congress and of adopting the three constitutional amendments, the 13th, 14th and 15th, as dictated by our conquerors. To-day, whatever may have been our differences of opinion in the past, we are a unit on that point; we have all acquiesced. We have adopted the three amendments to the Constitution as part of the reconstruction measures, and all of us who have held office since that time have sworn to support them.

We have even gone so far, in our national Democratic platform at St. Louis in 1876, as to declare that we renew our devotion to the Constitution with the amendments. I confess, fellow-citizens, I had never felt devoted to them; but I took them as part of the reconstruction acts. I agreed in good faith to adopt them, and I intend in all good faith to carry them out [Applause.] as earnestly and honestly as if they had met my cordial approval. [Applause.] The reconstruction acts have been enforced. We are now acknowledged to be back in the Union.

Now the question naturally comes up, as to our future, what is best for us to do. Leaving behind us all these hardships, and they were great hardships, burying in a common grave all our past differences, let us come together, attribute to each other none but proper motives, and move forward in a common cause to a common destiny; not only us of the South, but let us extend a hand to our brethren of the North, and remember that while we were enemies in war, we are brethren in peace. Let us clasp hands with them across the bloody chasm and bury the bloody shirt beyond the reach of resurrection. [Applause.]

It can do us no good to enter into any contentions about the past. Who was right and who was wrong is not the question. None of us, I apprehend, now desire any sort of triumph over any other patriot on account of any differences, or on account of any results. What can we best do in future to make the South prosperous and happy? And what can we best do, not only for the South, but for the whole Union?

One of the results of this great struggle that I have referred to was the abolition of slavery. Yes, it is abolished-forever abolished. It must forever remain so. Another result was to settle forever the question of the right of secession. We formerly had that right. I have no doubt of it. [Applause.] It was an inherent right. But when we undertook to exercise it, the Government of the United States denied the right and made war upon us, and we were obliged to go into that struggle and accept the issue, with the

knowledge that if we failed and our armies were conquered the right was forever lost. [Applause.] That was the necessary result, and it is lost, and we all accept the arbitrament of the sword. Let us proclaim it North and South, in future, that we will never again attempt to exercise the right of secession. [Applause.] Every State formerly had the right; no one has it now. War always settles something, and it has settled that question, and settled it forever.

But, while that is true, it has not settled that we have lost all our states rights, or all our constitutional rights. And my reference to certain provisions of the Constitution was with a view to this connection. What have we lost by the war? We have lost property and lives; but I am speaking now of the principles of government. We have lost slavery with the right of secession. And we lost out of the system whatever rights were surrendered in the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. [Applause.] As far as they have modified the original Constitution, we are bound to conform to them and we must, as good citizens, in good faith, carry them out, whether we were devoted to them or not. Patriotism and honor require that. Every principle of good faith requires it, and we cannot afford to do otherwise. But neither the States of the South, nor the States of the North have lost any more of their rights. All the rights of the States that were reserved under the Constitution, except those enumerated, are still reserved, and we still possess them, in all their original vigor, just as we did when the Constitution came from the hands of our fathers. [Applause.]

are.

And allow me to tell you that we are not singular in claiming this. The people of New England are as little inclined to give up these rights as we The Constitution of Massachusetts to-day is probably as good a states rights Constitution as any in this Union. Clay, Webster and Jackson held one construction of the Constitution. Calhoun, that great luminary of the South, and Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, held another. Each school had its adherents. As the result of the war, the Jeffersonian and Calhoun platform has been modified, and we have lost the right of secession and the rights yielded under the three amendments. We have lost no more. We stand, therefore, with all the rights in the Union that were claimed by Clay, Jackson and Webster; and if we are true to ourselves, we will not yield them, and no section will require us to yield them. This is not a sectional question now. Bear you in mind that New England stood as firmly by them under Webster's interpretation as the South did. With the modifications mentioned, therefore, the States stand to-day with all their reserved rights. Now that the slavery question is out of the way, and their rights are understood, I see no reason why we may not move forward in a grand and glorious progress to wealth, to power and to greatness. That is certainly the earnest wish of the people of all sections of the Union. Let us then bury sectional strife. Why should the people of Georgia longer be the enemies of the people of Massachusetts? or why are the people of South Carolina the enemies of the people of Illinois? There is no reason for it. It must not be so. If it is, we cannot prosper. We can only prosper when we all stand by our constitutional rights and practice them in future.

And now a few words in reference to the presidential contest. I was requested to say something about the issues involved there. It is a matter of the greatest possible importance to all of us that we preserve constitutional government with all the rights that we now have. For the last twenty years the government has been in the hands of the Republican party. And I do not say that they are more corrupt than any other party that has had power that long. But no party should be trusted with power for a longer period than that in a free government, without change. Corruption and abuses will creep

in when there is a long reign of power and no other party comes in to overhaul what has been done or to put checks upon it.

It was natural, my fellow-citizens, at the end of the war, as the Republican party had been the great war party, and had been triumphantly the successful party, that they should hold the reins of government for a number of years to come. I would have read history in vain had I not learned that that was to be the result. I foresaw it at the time of the surrender. We could but expect them to control the government for a long time. They have held uninterrupted power till extravagances and corruptions have crept in, as they might have done had the democracy been twenty years in power. And I think it is the interest of the whole people of the United States to have a change. We should have an overhauling once in a while. And now I think is the time for it. [Applause.]

I have already said that a new element has been introduced into the body politic. The slaves were not only set free and slavery forever abolished, but as part of the reconstruction measures, those who were formerly slaves were made our fellow-citizens and placed by our sides with the ballot in their hands. It was a fearful experiment. I so regarded it at that time. But the conquering power dictated it, and there was no other alternative. It has in practice worked better, I confess, than I anticipated, and probably worse as a party measure, than the party in power anticipated.

I am on record in speeches I made in 1868, as saying that in ten or fifteen years the Republicans of New England would regret that they gave the colored man the ballot. The fourteenth amendment provides that if there is any race or class of people (I do not quote the exact language) denied the elective franchise, they shall not be counted among our representative population. Therefore if we do not give the colored race the vote, none of them would be counted in making up the representative population of the South. The colored race counted gives thirty odd votes in Congress and a like number in the electoral college.

In 1876 I was invited by the Democratic executive committee of the Union to aid in looking after a fair count in Florida. While there I twitted some of the gentlemen on the Republican side, saying it would not have been necessary for them to be there trying to get the vote of the State by unfair means, if they had not given the colored man the ballot. "Without it in the count," said I, "you would have had thirty majority and your candidate would have been overwhelmingly elected." One of them, using an expletive that I will not repeat, said, "Yes, the negro is a failure, and we are sorry that we did it." still using expletives. [Laughter and applause.]

It is, therefore, a source of power to us. They have acted well as an uneducated race, given the ballot under such circumstances. They have done probably better than any other race would have done. They are orderly now; and go to the polls and vote by our sides, and many of them for our candidates. By counting them we have this great additional strength that we would not otherwise have possessed. And whenever any constitutional amendment is proposed by the people of the North to take back the ballot from the colored man you will find the democracy of the whole South rallying to the colored man. He gives us power and he shall ever exercise the elective franchise! [Great applause.] He shall no more be a slave; and he shall evermore be a voter. [Applause.] We were apprehensive of danger when they were misleading the colored people, but it has worked out to their advantage and to ours. It is the interest of the colored man to stand by us; and it is our interest to stand by him. We were raised together. We played together in boyhood. We got along finely together; why should either race then abandon the other? Why should he run off after strangers?

It is better for us to act together, deal justly, and all be fellow-citizens together, and do everything in our power to build up this great section of ours, to develop its resources, and to make it rich and powerful.

In this connection allow me to say that there is a national obligation which arises here. By the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of the colored man, the whole race were made citizens. Now that they are citizens it is our interest and duty to make them the best citizens in our power. We ought to do all we can to make them good citizens. And to do that we must educate their children, or help to do it. We have most of the property. The taxation falls mostly upon us. The whole country is poor; I am willing at all times to submit to my part of the burden, to raise whatever sum is necessary to educate the children of the whole State. [Applause.] But I say this burden ought not to be put upon the property and the people of the South alone. The Northern States required abolition. The interest of the Union they said required it. Then if it was the interest of the Union to turn loose these four millions of people and absolve them from slavery and make them citizens, it is the interest of the whole Union now to help them to be good citizens-not only is it the interest but the solemn duty and obligation of the Union. Therefore, I say their children ought to be educated, not out of our tax or our property alone, but out of the property of the Union. And in this connection allow me to say, as I see my friend, Dr. Orr, the State school commissioner, present, that he was in a convention of school commissioners in which most of the Northern States were represented, and they agreed to recommend a measure to Congress, and that measure is now pending there, to appropriate the proceeds of the public lands in future to the education of the mass of the people. [Applause.] What better use could ever be made of it? None, none! Take the proceeds of the public lands, then, divide them among the States in proportion to the number who are illiterate, and let us have it as an educational fund, and we will soon make an intelligent people. We will soon educate not only our white children who have had no such advantage, but we will educate the colored people, and we will advance the cause of prosperity and progress, not only in the South, but all over the North! What could be better?

You tell me that it costs money to educate the people. I know it. But I tell you that you will never find an enlightened, educated people who do not make money. If you want to get rich and powerful, educate the whole mass of your people.

Take Prussia as an instance. Napoleon the First swept over that country like a tornado, and scattered everything to ruin. After his fall, Prussia met to look into her system and devise means to build up the country. The wise counsels of the professors and teachers prevailed; and the King determined to educate the whole people. They said to a man who would not send his son to school: "You are responsible for bringing this human being into existence. You have no right, sir, to raise him in ignorance and vice, so that he will become a pest to society. But you shall send him to school. He shall have reasonable opportunities." The law so required and what has been the result? That little kingdom that the great conqueror swept over almost without resistance, has since risen to be one of the first powers upon the earth, and has humbled his successor and driven him from the throne. Why was it that the Prussians were more powerful than the French in the late struggle? Military men assign many reasons. The universities of France are of as high order as those of Germany. But the mass of the people of France are not educated as in Germany. Hence, in that great contest the French people did not have the benefit of all the powerful intellect of France developed for the struggle. Germany did. Under her system, when

a poor boy is found mentally to possess a glittering diamond, which it is only necessary to polish that it may sparkle, he is taken up and educated accordingly. If he develops a genius for chemistry, they put him through the university and make him a chemist of the highest order. If another is found adapted to the military, they give him every advantage to make him a grand military commander. If he has capacity for medicine, he is thus educated to a high degree for that profession. So, if another is found adapted to law, or another to architecture. And so on. And what has been the result? When the great struggle began, Prussia had all her brightest jewels in intellect polished. She had a man ready for every position, and competent for every duty. Whenever you educate the whole American people, all the bright-eyed boys up in these mountains and down in the wiregrass who to-day may be wholly unconscious of their powers, with the opportunities they have at school, will soon begin to find that they have mental powers, and you cannot keep them down. And when educated the government will get the benefit of this power.

I said soon after the war, and have never taken it back, that if I were dictator of Georgia, I would issue a million of dollars in bonds, put them in the treasury of Georgia and draw the interest annually for your University and its branches. I would make, in addition to the branches we already have, two more, one in the eastern and one in the western part of the State. I would make the University all that could be required, and then advance the public schools till all these bright jewels could be seen by their sparkling. We would then know how to find them. I would put them forward in the schools and in the Universities; and what do you think would be the result within a few years? Talk about the expense-seventy thousand dollars per annum-what is it? Why not a mill on the dollar of our taxable property. Soon it will be only half a mill. Why not pay it to promote the education of our people and produce such a result? Nothing could be wiser; nothing could redound so to the wealth, prosperity and glory of Georgia. You would draw to you first the youth of adjoining States; then, as you build up higher and higher, they would come in all around from Virginia to Texas, and from the Ohio to the Atlantic. You would find youths of every State at your University spending not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in Georgia, and thus advancing the wealth and prosperity of our State. I say. then, let us educate the mass of our people, and let us see to it the colored man has as fair a chance as the white man. That was our compact with them at the end of the war, when we established our school system and a college for each race. Let it be carried out in the utmost good faith.

Well, you may ask what is best for us to do at the present time in our national affairs. In my honest opinion the best course to pursue to preserve constitutional government, the rights of the States and the liberties of the people, and to develop our interest, is to have a change of administration and put such a man as General Hancock in power at the head of the government. [Applause.] I say it in no partisan sense. I believe that the interest of this whole country requires it. And you have this great point to encourage you. During the reconstruction period, when military power was dominant here, when men were sent down clothed with arbitrary power, holding the destinies of life and death in their hands, General Hancock was sent with that power to New Orleans to exercise it in Louisiana and Texas. What was the result? While there clothed with all the plenitude of military power, with the right under the law to do just as he pleased in this matter, subject only to the will of the President, who left everything to him, he refused to permit the supreme power to be military; but placed the civil over the military. [Applause.] Can you not trust a man in times like these, who could act thus in times like those? I think you may. [Applause.]