THE PEDALTO INSTITUTION FOR INCORPORATED ART

OFFICES

ABOUT

uestion. What do the people desire there as to the recognition of the State by the federal government.' Do they expect or desire the reception of their senators and representatives into Congress f Answer. The division of opinion is very clearly marked upon that question. The entire disloyal portion of the inhabitants are very anxious that the State should be immediately restored to its former rights and privileges in the Union; that it should be represented in Congress and in the other branches of the government; while the loyal portion of the inhabitants are equally anxious that the general government should continue to maintain its present control over the State. In this they say is their only safety, in which opinion I most heartily concur. Question. Do the disloyal people expect that when the State is restored and its representatives received into Congress the troops will immediately be withdrawn from the State, and they be left to take care of themselves ? Answer. They think both these events will occur together; that the troops are only beinf kept there while the State is under a provisional government. They are convinced that the present governor, who thoroughly appreciates the condition and wants of his State, u strongly opposed to the removal of the troops. They are equally well satisfied that if permitted to elect or choose a governor, one will be selected who will favor and urge the withdrawal of the .federal troops. Question. What, in your judgment, would have been the effect as to the development of Union feeling and strength in that State if there had been, up to this time, a military government preserved there adequate for the protection of the Union people in the expression tuid advocacy of their Union views and feelings ? Answer. I think that, while at present the Union men are entirely without influence and axe forced to remain silent, iu that case they would have been the predominant or ruling party, because, there as everywhere, there is a large portion of the inhabitants who try to attach themselves to those who are in power, or to those who have most authority. As it is 11. iw, the Union men have little or no voice in controlling the local affairs of the State. I think that a great many men who, at the close of the war, were anxious to be known as Union men, and to act with the Union party, have been deterred from so doing by the influence and strength of the disloyal portion of the inhabitants. Had military rule prevailed, I am confident that the strength of the loyal party would have steadily increased, while the opposing party would have undergone a corresponding decrease, until, in course of time, treason would become unpopular, and traitors would not be chosen as office-holders. There is no disguising the fact that loyalty at the south has become a byword and a reproach to those who have the courage to profess it.