resident said, "If we
now reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse
them. We say to the white man, you are worthless or worse. We will
neither help you nor be helped by you. To the black man we say, this
cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we
will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the
spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when and
where and how. If this course, discouraging and paralyzing to both
white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper
practical relations with the Union, I have so far been unable to
perceive it. If, on the contrary, they recognize and sustain the new
government of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We
encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of twelve thousand men to
adhere to their work and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight
for it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored
man too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance and
with energy and daring to the same end. Grant that he desired the
elective franchise. He will yet attain it sooner by saving the already
advanced steps towards it than by running backward over them. Concede
that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as
the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the
egg than by smashing it."

Mr. Lincoln described also at some length the process by which he had
been induced to try the Louisiana plan. Like all his conclusions it
was reached after much consultation and serious reflection. He was
conscientiously convinced that, all things considered, it was the
promptest and most feasible process of re-establishing civil government
in the insurrectionary States. Mr. Lincoln was especially anxious that
neither the ruling power nor the conquered rebels should be needless
procrastination become accustomed to military government--a form of
administration which he regarded as very tempting, but very sure to
undermine, and in time to destroy, the real spirit of independence and
self-government. It was his belief, as he expressed it himself, that
"We must begin with and mold from disorganized and discordant elements,
nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people,
differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of
reconstruction. As a general rule I abstain from reading the reports
o