Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-12-25

social Reconstruotion Of the South.

Social RecOnstruotion of the South.
War is BY no means without great ad-
vEntsges. II it tears down, it can also
buiId up. Il carries at once both banner
Of blood and banner Of progress.
Silently, and by the operation Of great
social laws, the tidal waves Of q new life |
are being poured across the continent;
and when the nation wakes out Of this ter.
rible incubus Of war, new conditions Of
society viii exist
Toe whole pOpulstion Of the South is
divided into three classes: mean whites, |
small farmers or yeOmen and planters or
ehivslry. And below the bottom, the ne
gro, are the mean whites composing three
sights Of the population Of the Southern
STATES. The social and moral condition
Of this class is pitisble in the extreme.
They manage 10 exc out a life OfignOrancs
and poverty by stealing from the plants-
tions OF the chivslry whatever corn, ba-
con, tobacco or cotton they can lay their
hands on. Their homes are Indian wig
vans, huts with one room, through the
erevices Of which the winds whistle and
the rains pour Their moral condition is
Of q very inferior species. Brother inter
marry with sisters, and husbands are fire.
qusntly known to sell their wives for an
old rifle or keg of red eye"
The second Glass are in the possession Of
9 little land and sometimes own one slave,
with whom they plow and chop, dig and
COW. They take no newspapers; six
sevenths can neither read nor write. In
Tennessee alone are such things as free
schools known and they were dOled out
by the ehivslry with much grumbling.-
Their chief political knowledge is derived
from the speoiOus PrO-slavery speeches
which they hear at barbacues.
But new era has been ushered In BY
this war. The million soldiers whom We
have sentiu the fsld are missionaries to
enlighten and instruct these men. They
ara Being educated by them to sense of
their degradation and ignorance. This
process must 90 on for years to come
The tidal waves Of population which have
been urging westward their richly freight
ed treasures, are to be turned SOuthward
over the magnificent farming lands Of Ten
nessee, Alsbama and Mississippi Tens
Of thousands Of soldiers have already Sc
lected the spot Of land on which, with gen.
uine Yankee instiot they pitched their
tents. Tnvarisbly on their return North
do they bear testimony to the lnexhausti-
bic wealth Of the Southern soil, to its ge-
NAL climate and magnificent scenery. If
once the larger, over-Worked and efete
plantations ere put under the thorough
civilizations Of Northern farmers, the
South viii be regensrated with new in
dustry and new social institutions Hun
dreds of thousands from the busy, crowded
hives Of Europe will find welcome asy-
lum in land whence they we're rePelled
By the oYsrshadowing iniquity Of human
bondage. Westward the star OF empire
takes its way, must for q few years give
place to the new Soulhwsrd impulse Of
population and civilization.
"With all that is said against the Uni
ted States BY aristocratic writer's and
speakers abroad, is is still q fact that even
in the midst Of our great war, this country
il regarded by the oppressed Of Europe as
the only refuge and plsce Of safety. They
are coming to our shores by thousands;
they End here homes, bread and work in
abundance for all who come schools for
their children; share in the Government
as soon as they are naturaliEed, and fair
chance to make their way in the world
Let them come; the war is opening up
hslf continent, and the most, fertile
parts of il to free workingmen, we have
room for the half Of Europe; we want all
who can work and who are sober, virtu-
ous, industrious. Hsre are homes andli
erty for al"
The preliminary stages Of this new dis
pensation, we are already passing through.
The whirwind of war is making our pop
ulstion to seethe throughout all its depths.
While our EOrthern, newspaper reading
soldiers are carrying the torch Of civilizs-
Ton to the deluded whites and enslsved
blacks Of tue South, the South is also pour
ing its e1ilss to the North. Already half
million Of them have sought temporary
refuge in the North. For months they
have been finding their way along all the
lines Of travel They come by sea, from
every port at which vessels might touch /;
BY the Mississippi by the Cumberland
and Tennessse-by the Nashville Rail-
road through the mountsin passes Of
Western Virginia into Ohio and Pennsyl-
vania; through Southwestern Missouri )
from Arkansas and Texas across the
Chesapeake and POtomso; by every tOrtu-
ous outs,thrOugh every wind and weather,
hsvs come the negro, the anti-slavery man,
the loyalist the business men Of the
South.
But still more. The prisoners Of war
taken, numbering in all over one hundred
thousand, who have been brought North,
viii not return without new ideas Of
Northern life. They have seen the land
flowing with milk and honey they have
felt for moment the inspiration of free
schools, asfsss press snd jubilAnt, joy
Gus civilization.
As the ocean currents traVerEe the sea
, al d;rsction The waters Of the tropios