Public Ledger

Letter from Gen. Thomas Ewing, Jr.

We find in the Leavenworth (Kansas) Commercial a terse and pointed letter of General Thomas Ewing, jr., upon the political situation. It is addressed to Col. O. A. Bassett, of Lawrence, Kansas, and is as follows:

Washington, November 18, 1867.

Dear Colonel: I have your letter of the 10th instant, advising me of the formation of Grant clubs by many of our comrades in Kansas, and asking my opinion of the movement.

I earnestly wish to be in accord with the great party of my Kansas and army friends, and still hope to unite with them in supporting General Grant for President. But I want first to know whether he approves the reconstruction measures: for if he does I cannot support him I regard them as mischievous—begot of revenge, misdirected philanthropy, and lust of power. I would as soon expect a house to stand on the crater of a living volcano as a State, where whites and blacks being nearly equal in numbers, the whites are proscribed, and the blacks made rulers. Such a government can not long have the heartfelt sympathy of any large body of white men anywhere. Blood is thicker than water, and Northern whites will sympathize with Southern whites in their struggle to shake off the incubus of negro rule. If there were no prejudice of race to affect their action, the Northern people would still refuse to reproduce in the States of the Union Hayti or San Domingo, or any other government and civilization the negro race has established since the flood

To punish the Southern whites for their treason, the Northern people might possibly for a time be willing to afflict them with such governments: but selfinterest forbids it. It were like the fabled war of the belly and the members. The North already groans under the punishment being inflicted on the South, and must, besides, pay for the whip. The negro governments, when formed, must be propped up by Northern bayonets; and, however costly, they can never safely be withdrawn. When reconstructed, each one of those States will be like a magazine all secure while carefully guarded outside, but when left unguarded a chance spark will blow it and all about it to the devil.

Entertaining these views, I would not support any candidate for the Presidency who indorses the reconstruction measures, even if they were lawful, still less as I consider them wholly unconstitutional, and full of danger as precedents.

I write you thus explicitly, because I value your good opinion, and want you to know how I think and feel and mean to act on the stupendous questions which lie around and before us

Yours, faithfully,

THOS. EWING, Jr.