41 appeased—and they are about to be rekindled more warmly than ever. For, in fine, you do not suppose that the North will renounce defending the oppressed negroes, and that, after having freed them, it will consent to see them perish. Neither do you suppose that the South, restored to the possession of its political life, will show itself more patient and enduring towards abolition interference than in the past. You do not suppose, lastly, that the negroes, before whose eyes you will have flashed a promise of real emancipation, speedily contradicted by facts, will submit without resistance and anger to a yoke sanctioned henceforth by nothing, neither by Divine nor human laws. You are marching, therefore, to meet the tempest, under the pretext of waiting for fine weather. The struggle of the races once entered into by your fault, it will be pursued, I fear, without shrinking or pity. All questions will be subordinated anew to this one. Parties will be formed, as of old, in proportion to the sympathies or antipathies which have been the cause of so much bloodshed. This (let us show things as they are)—this is what you run the risk of signifying by the sentence, so wise in appearance, “ We will resolve the question of negro suffrage by-and-by.” It is, on the contrary, by deciding it at once, whatever, moreover, may be the prudential conditions with which you surround negro suffrage, it is by profiting by the only moment at your disposal, that you will show yourselves truly wise and clear-sighted. Then, Mr. President, the virile counsels which you have lately given to the negroes will assume their full value. If I did not fear to weaken them by appropriating them to myself, I should say in turn, Be laborious, be peaceable ; overthrow by your good conduct the prejudices which exist against you. Prove yourselves worthy of liberty ; prove it by using it ; prove it by not having recourse to violence ; prove it by confiding yourselves to that great American people which has xiot always been equitable to you, but which has just suffered much for your cause, and which has just broken your fetters 6
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