Excerpt from An Address, Delivered at the Custom-House, New-Orleans, on the Fourth of July, 1865 No We say, on the other hand, that, while we no longer pursue men because they were enemies, while we disclaim all desire for vengeance, while we offer to receive them with kindness, and accord to them all privileges consistent with the safety of the nation of which they are a part, we must deny them temporarily, not permanently, in sorrow not in anger, the right to resume the political power they abdicated, or to direct the reconstruction of the government they madly sought to destroy. All other questions are transitory. This alone is vital. With this reservation, there can be no substantial obstacle to the permanent restoration of government, or to the union of hearts and hands in the North and the South, the East and the West, when, as it has been already said in words of eloquence touched with divine wisdom, and addressed to the throne of our Heavenly Father, the flag of our nation will be honored throughout our country by all her children! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.