MY DEAR SIR:--All Tennessee is now clear of armed insurrectionists.
You need not to be reminded that it is the nick of time for
reinaugurating a loyal State government. Not a moment should be
lost. You and the co-operating friends there can better judge of the
ways and means than can be judged by any here. I only offer a few
suggestions. The reinauguration must not be such as to give control
of the State and its representation in Congress to the enemies of the
Union, driving its friends there into political exile. The whole
struggle for Tennessee will have been profitless to both State and
nation if it so ends that Governor Johnson is put down and Governor
Harris put up. It must not be so. You must have it otherwise. Let
the reconstruction be the work of such men only as can be trusted for
the Union. Exclude all others, and trust that your government so
organized will be recognized here as being the one of republican form
to be guaranteed to the State, and to be protected against invasion
and domestic violence. It is something on the question of time to
remember that it cannot be known who is next to occupy the position I
now hold, nor what he will do. I see that you have declared in favor
of emancipation in Tennessee, for which may God bless you. Get
emancipation into your new State government constitution and there
will be no such word as fail for your cause. The raising of colored
troops, I think, will greatly help every way.
