The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922 Page: 269
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Edward Hopkins Oushing
letter to President Johnson protesting against the granting of a
political pardon to E. H. Cushing and suggesting that he be
hanged. In all this period, however, he counseled moderation,
urged respect for the good people of the North with whom we must
abide in our common country. His feelings for the negroes were
kindly, appreciating that they had little to do with the fact that
they had been a bone of contention in a conflict between members
of a superior race.
In view of recent occurences an editorial which was written only
a short time after General Lee's surrender, would seem worth pub-
lication at the present time. The views stated are really prophetic.
The sentiment, expressed fifty-six years ago, has lost none of its
freshness and beauty through process of time. How much the
negro race owes to such friends as this, they will never know. It
is largely due to such wise and considerate counsel that Texas
came through that awful period with so much less that was hard
to bear and that the relations of the races were adjusted with less
tragedy than in some of our sister states. The editorial was pub-
lished August 25, 1865, and is as follows:
There has always existed in the South, and in the South alone,
a genuine, hearty, healthy, earnest wish for the welfare of the
negro. Although the Southern people were jealous of the inter-
ference and gratuitous opinions of professed abolitionists, in con-
sequence of the harm to society they had in some instances done,
and were still calculated to do, yet among themselves even the
largest slave-holders frequently and earnestly discussed the whole
subject; some expressing opinions in favor of ultimate emancipa-
tion, and all looking forward to the time when they should have
opportunity, free from embarrassing intervention, to make those
legislative and social improvements necessary to the greater intel-
lectual, social and moral welfare of the black race. And as we do
not stultify ourselves in other things, so we must not stultify our-
selves in this matter, by abjuring and casting aside our old friend-
ship for the black race. We must not give the fanatics the oppor-
tunity they earnestly desire, of proving that we were always ene-
mies of the race, by becoming unfriendly to them in consequence
of 'the annoyances incident to their sudden emancipation.
We are the only portion of the people of the United States deeply
and practically interested in the well-being and well-doing of the
black race. We must, therefore, do all we can for them now that
they are free, as well as when they were our slaves. We cannot
take care of them and protect them as well as we once did. But269
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922, periodical, 1922; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101082/m1/275/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.