I  would  not  put  considerations  of  money  in  competition  with  justice
and  right;  but  the  expenses  incident  to  "reconstruction"    under  the


Andrew  Johnson  567

system  adopted  by  Congress  aggravate  what  I  regard  as  the  intrinsic
wrong  of  the  measure  itself.  It  has  cost  uncounted  miUions  already,  and
if  persisted  in  will  add  largely  to  the  weight  of  taxation,  already  too
oppressive  to  be  borne  without  just  complaint,  and  may  finally  reduce
the  Treasury  of  the  nation  to  a  condition  of  bankruptcy.  We  must  not
delude  ourselves.  It  will  require  a  strong  standing  army  and  probably
more  tljan  $200,000,000  per  annum  to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  negro
governments  after  they  are  established.  The  sum  thus  thrown  away
would,  if  properly  used,  form  a  sinking  fund  large  enough  to  pa^^  the
whole  national  debt  in  less  than  fifteen  years.  It  is  vain  to  hope  that
negroes  will  maintain  their  ascendency  themselves.  Without  military
power  they  are  wholl}'  incapable  of  holding  in  subjection  the  white  peo-
ple of  the  South.
