the acts he brought the States
from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they
never having been out of it.

The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana
government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if it contained
50,000, or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about 12,000, as it
really does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective
franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that
it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve
our cause as soldiers. Still, the question is not whether the
Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable.
The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to
improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought
into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or
by discarding her new State government?

Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana
have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful
political power of the State, held elections, organized a State
government, adopted a free-State constitution, giving the benefit of
public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the
Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man.
Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional
amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout
the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed to
the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State--committed to the very
things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants--and they ask the
nation's recognition and its assistance to make good their committal.

Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and
disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless
or worse; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you. To the
blacks 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, where, and how. If this course, discouraging and
paralyzing 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, we recognize and sustain
the new government of Louisiana, the conver