The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1858-07-30

w hetake pleasure IN laying before ou
readers the following article from the New
York Express:
NORTH AND SoUTH-The reciprocal kindnes
between the citizens of New York and tn
citizens Of Virginia, of which the recent re
moval of the ashes Of the late President Mon
roe has been the occasion, is one of the mos
agreeable incidents of the times 1t will dt
good. 1t will teach the people of the Nortl
that Southern gratitude, Southern kindness
and Southern chivalry, are things which hav,
an existence beyond buncombe speeches il
| Congress, and editorial essays in notification
journals. On the other hand, it will teaci
our countrymen of the Old Dominion, and o.
the whole South, that, outside the 'scurvy
politicians" circle the people of New York
and the people OF the North, are animated by
patriotic affection and fraternal regard
for them, which recognizes no lines of latitude
or longitude, Ours is such q vast country
so wide in territorial eXtent-that it is no
wonder so many of us are strangers to each
| other-no wonder that the dweller on the
Hudson, or the Connecticut, or the Merrimac,
should experience only conventional sym.
pathy, and a conventional affection for his
brethren, on the Chesapeake. the Alabama,
or the Gulf We need to know more of each
already, it is true-but the bulk Of that
knowledge is filtered through the medium of
abolition and notification speeches in Con-
gress. and upon the stump-or through the
mnrky rays of partizan newspaper press
Book or newspaper knowledge of remote
people, even when derived from unquestiona.
bic authorities, is at best but poor substi-
tute for ones own personal experience and
observation. We live in an age of electric
telegraphs, which transmit thought and sen.
timeut as quick as lightning lightning,
If 1t can annihilate space, cannot move the
feelings like the warm grasp of the hand, it
cannot stir the nobler impulses of our nature
as do words exchanged by affection, face to
face-nor can it kindle those electric fires,
which light up the eye of friendship, and
leave their imp ession long in the future,
deep and ndelible,-superor to all the cir
cumstances of separation--and the obliter-
ating operations of time. The real people of
this countryside masses, we mean-really
know but very little of one another and it is
unquestionably in this want of familiarity
and intercourse, that the professional dema.
gogue finds it so easy to excite the prejudices
of one section against another, in order to
promote the sinister purposes Of selfish ambi-
tion. A stranger coming among us, and lis.
al agtators in the Senate or House of Repre-
sentatives, to the unkind epithets applied by
the gentlemen from Virginia to the gentle
men from New York-and Uice versa-might
be pardoned the inference that the two SOW.
ereign States thus represented were all the
while at the swords point and could enter.
tain but one sentiment towards each other
that of cordial resentment and hate But, if
that stranger had been in Richmond one day
this week-a few hours journey from the
Federal Capitol---and beheld the genuine
brotherly affection which distinguished ev-
erything that took place there he would nat
uraly infer that the politicians at Washing
ton constitute class of humanity wholly
distinct from the masses of the citizens at
large. He would see that we are all friends,
not enemies brothers, not strangers; one
people, not twain He would see--and our.
selves may see-that, whenever there is op-
portunity to reach the hearts of the people of
these opposite sections-as in the case of this
visit of onr Seventh Regiment to Richmond,
the individual beatings of that heart are all
for unity, and friendship, and peace, and good
will, irrespective of geographical lines, or
the peculiar local distinctions of different So
cia institutions