The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-06-27
THE RELATION OF THE SOUTH TO
THE UNION

Extinct from an article in the n. y. Tribune.
Some of us expect tho Southern States.
now that the war is over, to become in.
stantlY ms quiet, us prosperous, as low
al, and as thoroughly anti-slaverv in
sentiment, us Massachusetts or New
York, and every incident That proves
this not as yet to be the case carries
alarm to the public heart-
4hlS is unreasonable and absurd
Such n tornado as has swept the South
leaves in its track n deSolation which
years cannot remove, Society is nm
rooted, and must be raised again from
the seed. The whole Structureof South
ern industry has been overthrowm, and
it can be rebuilt but slowly. Mons
minds have been diverted from the or
dlnnry channels of active thought, and
1t Will be slow task to bring them
back. -Four millions slaves, who for
merly did, by compulSion, all the work
of the South, are now free, and will
work or not, as they and their old mas
tiers can agree. Their relative positions
are not favorable to rapid compuctS, and
years may clapse before this treInen-
douS practical problem is fully solved.
We must be prepared for Il long and la
borious struggle, for many defeats and
discouragements; and if at the end of
twenty years we find the relations of
the two races i'll the Southern States all
we could desire, we shall have done
more than any other nation ever did in
n century.
We are too eXacting also i'll regard TO
the political action of the Southern
people. We expect them, now that the
war is over and they are beaten, to be-
come at once not only loyal citizens,
ObeYing all the laws and sustaining
fully the National authority, but tho
rough-going Abolitionists and advO-
Gates of negro suffrage. Anything
N I,I
and think they have not been whipped
quite enough yet. We lenounce them
as still seccssionistS at heart, and call
for their exclusion from the rights of
citizenship.
This is unreasonable and unwise. We
have really nothing to do with their
hearts. We have no right to exact the
complete change of sentiment and feel
ing which we demand. We have right
to insist that they shall obey the law,
that they shall acknowledge and re-
Spect the National authority and CON
duct themselves as peaceful, lnw-Rbid-
ing citizens. If they do this, we can
demnnd nothing more. Nor is il ren-
1 sonable to expect that the mass of the
Southern people can or will become
suddenly deVoteeS of doctrines and SEN
timents which they have abhorred, and
against which they have stnlIed their
fortunes and their lives. Men do not
! mus AIlSlSlully CHunBe Inelf whole n;l-
lures on cOmpulsion. And any osten-
tatious pretensions of such change
would be hypocritical. \ radical change
i'll the sentiment of the southern Deo-
pie concerning slavery and the purpose
and temper of the national authority
can only be wrought by time, by wise
laws wisely administered, and by their
experience of the new condition upon
which they hnve entered.
] Nor should we desire to break the
! spirit or crush the self-rcspcct of tho
people of the southern States. Their
courage, their resolute and determined
spirit, is now among the priceless pos
sessions of the whole country. It has
been our enemy, but hereafter it is to
be our friend. 1t has been turned
against us, and has vainly. sought our
destruction; henccforth it fights only
on our side and SwellS the power and
the courage with which we may CON
front II world in arms. 1t wonld be
suicidal in us to crush or destroy it
we should be destroying part of that
which is to give us the proudcst place
ever held by any milton OH the face oi
the earth.