which guards the interests of both races carefully and equally.
It must be a government which submits loyally and heartily to the
Constitution and the laws--the laws of the nation and the laws of
the States themselves--accepting and obeying faithfully the whole
Constitution as it is.

Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the superstructure
of beneficent local governments can be built up, and not otherwise.
In furtherance of such obedience to the letter and the spirit of the
Constitution, and in behalf of all that its attainment implies, all
so-called party interests lose their apparent importance, and party
lines may well be permitted to fade into insignificance. The question
we have to consider for the immediate welfare of those States of the
Union is the question of government or no government; of social order
and all the peaceful industries and the happiness that belong to it,
or a return to barbarism. It is a question in which every citizen of
the nation is deeply interested, and with respect to which we ought
not to be, in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but
fellow-citizens and fellow-men, to whom the interests of a common
country and a common humanity are dear.

The sweeping revolution of the entire labor system of a large portion
of our country and the advance of 4,000,000 people from a condition
of servitude to that of citizenship, upon an equal footing with their
former masters, could not occur without presenting problems of the
gravest moment, to be dealt with by the emancipated race, by their
former masters, and by the General Government, the author of the
act of emancipation. That it was a wise, just, and providential
act, fraught with good for all concerned, is now generally conceded
throughout the country. That a moral obligation rests upon the