Volume 18 — NEW YEAR’S DAY.

Article in the New York Independent, January 5, 1871.

The Old Year is dead. Hail to the New! How alike! How unlike! Each is a measure of time,—the Old belonging to the infinite Past, the New to the infinite Future. But each has its own trials and its own triumphs. Be it our aspiration to smooth the trials and assure the triumphs before us!

Sorrow and grief there must be. May they be tempered with mercy, and may we bear them with submission! Work and effort there must be; for such is the condition of life. And then there is Duty always, which we are justly told is “more than life.” What is life where duty fails? Companion with all is Hope, with too flickering sunshine. All these will be surely ours in the New Year, as they were during the year that has passed.

Looking beyond the microcosm of individual life to the macrocosm of the world, other trials and triumphs are before us. God grant that the triumphs may surpass the trials, making the New Year an epoch in human progress!

Unhappily, we are not yet relieved from anxiety on account of the Rebellion. Though Reconstruction is in our statute-book, it is not yet established in the universal heart of the Nation, as it must be before peace can be permanently assured. There are painful reports from States lately in rebellion, showing that life is unsafe and society disorganized. North Carolina is always considered less mercurial and violent than her Southern neighbor, with whom the Rebellion began; but this slow and staid State is now disturbed by bad spirits, menacing revolution and blood. A private letter says: “I am assured, by men who know, that blood will be spilt, if Congress does not interfere. The excitement of ’61 bore no comparison to this.” In certain counties the Ku-Klux-Klan so far dominates that to be a Unionist is to brave death. Nor is this evil spirit confined to North Carolina. It shows itself in other States, and threatens to extend. Alas, that, after all the terrible sacrifices of these latter days, we should be called to this new experience!

And yet the Rebellion is said to be suppressed. This is a mistake. So long as men are in peril whose only offence is that they love the Nation, or that their skins are not “white,” the Rebellion still exists. Force is needed; nor is this the time to remove political disabilities. Our first obligation is to those who stood by the Nation, and those others whom the Nation has rescued from bondage. These two classes must be protected at all hazards. Here is a sacred duty. And not until this is completely performed can we listen to the talk of Amnesty.

Amnesty! Tempting and most persuasive word! Who would not be glad to accord it? Who would not delight to behold all in equal citizenship? But the general safety is the supreme law. The people must be secure in their homes; especially must the Unionist and the Freedman be safe against all assault, while dear-bought rights are fixed beyond recall. When this is done, how happy will all be to remove every bar and ban! Nought in vengeance, nought even in punishment; but all for the sake of that peace which is the first condition of national welfare.

If Reconstruction and Amnesty perplex us still, it is because we did not begin to deal with them sooner. Promptly on the surrender of Lee the just system should have been declared,—being Reconstruction on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, with a piece of land for every adult freedman, to be followed by Amnesty and Reconciliation. Our present embarrassments proceed from failure to comprehend the case, or from perverse sympathy with Rebels,—all of which we inherit from the misrule of Andrew Johnson. It is for us to apply the corrective. Too late it may be for the piece of land; but it is not too late for the vigorous enforcement of Reconstruction, involving necessarily the adjournment of Amnesty.

Specie Payments should accompany the completion of Reconstruction. Both have lingered too long. Not only did we err at the surrender of Lee in postponing Reconstruction, but also in postponing all effort for Specie Payments. The time has come for the consummation of each. May the year we now greet witness these two triumphs! Peace and security are the specie of Reconstruction, as gold and silver are the specie of Currency. We must have both.

It is hard that these questions should now be complicated with a machination to annex a West India island by violence, and without any popular voice in its favor. Ships of the National Navy uphold an unprincipled pretender, thus enabled to sell his country. This is violence, as much as if a broadside were fired. It is according to the worst precedents. To this crushing fact add an unknown expenditure from the cost of our navy engaged in enforcing the capitulation; also the debt to be assumed, the money to be paid down; and then the climax of war on a tropical island where already Frenchmen and Spaniards have succumbed. The whole story is painful, and forms a melancholy chapter of the national history. At a moment when there should be unity among good men for the sake of peace, it is strange and incomprehensible that this project should be pressed for adoption. Better far bestow our energies in the guardianship of Reconstruction and the establishment of civil order within our borders, including specie payments.

This attempt is aggravated, when it is considered how it proceeds in grievous indifference to the African race. Not content with setting up an adventurer in Dominica, it menaces the Republic of Hayti. An American Commodore was found who did not resign rather than do this thing. What are fairest fields with golden harvests as compensation for such an act? But, if indifferent to the means of annexion, and content even with violence, there remains another question, overtopping all others: Whether the whole Island of San Domingo is not set apart by Providence for the African race?—nay, more, Whether the whole Caribbean Sea must not be African? A private letter from New Jersey gives expression to humane sentiments:—

“As a great people, instead of swallowing up small republics, we should encourage their growth, and, above all, leave a small portion at least where the African and his descendants may work out the problem of self-government.… I speak to you in behalf of the colored Sabbath School of this city, numbering one hundred and eighty-one members, from seven years of age up to ninety-five,—I speak in behalf of our colored citizens, (we are all agreed upon it,)—I speak in behalf of myself, a sufferer and a laborer amongst them for ten years past, when I say we are all opposed to the annexation of San Domingo.”

This is natural. It is not easy to comprehend how it can be otherwise. Colored persons, unwilling to see their race sacrificed, will make a stand against an ill-omened measure. New Year’s Day will be elevated by vows to keep our Republic true to her great mission, as benefactor, rather than conquering annexer.

Not without anxiety can we see how, contrary to the promise of his Inaugural, the President proclaims a “policy,” and insists upon its enforcement, even to the extent of disregarding the treaty power of the Senate, and menacing annexion of a foreign nation by Joint Resolution. Is Congress to be coerced? All this may make us reflect with more than usual solemnity at the beginning of a New Year.

Such an effort is adverse to the Republican Party, with which are associated the best interests of the country. Every Republican must do his best to keep the party strong. Questions calculated to divide must not be pressed. The party must be a unit; but it cannot be such at any mere word of command. No one man by ipse dixit can establish the test of fidelity to the party. Its strength is in its principles, and especially in the Declaration of Independence, which is its corner-stone. Let us stand by these, without any new shibboleth, unknown to the party, and which many can never utter. General Jackson’s great words for the Union should be adopted now: “The Republican Party; it must be preserved!” And may every project inconsistent with its harmony be allowed to slumber! This is a fit vow for the New Year.

On this day the thoughts cannot be confined to our own country. Wherever man exists, there must our good wishes travel, with the precious example of our Republic, making Liberty everywhere an inspiration. To the whole human family must the benison go,—adding especially that most precious of all, the benison of Peace. Humanity stands aghast at the barbarous conflict yet prolonged between two most civilized nations. Who can gauge the mighty dimensions of the fearful sacrifice? Soon must it end, and out of its consuming fires may a new civilization arise! The time has come when the War System, which is still the established arbiter for the determination of international differences, must give place to peaceful substitutes and the disarming of nations. Let this be done, and there will be a triumph with glory serene and lasting, undimmed by a single tear. Forbear, at least on this day of aspiration, to insist that such a good cannot be accomplished. You wrong Human Nature, when you proclaim that the colossal barbarism bestriding nations must be maintained. You wrong Justice, when you degrade it to the condition of successful force, making Might the substitute and synonym for Right. You wrong Charity, with all the virtues in her train, when you put them under the hoof of Violence. International War, like Slavery, is a monster chartered by Law. Why not repeal the charter? That this may be done is another vow worthy of the year we begin.