The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-09-12
CHE Aurfulk gost.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 70, 1866.
from the Washington National Intelligencerl


From the Washington National Integencer.l
There are some people who talk of the
South as if they were a race of semi-bar-
barians. Very true and very sad it Is to
know that terrible disclosures have been
made of brutal acts which occurred du-
ring the war. And for men of such
deeds we have hearts all pitiless. But,
nevertheless, the poetry of the South is
not dead its sentiment isnot destroyed.
The elasticity which pertainsto it is fast
rebounding towards the condition that
signalized the better days of the Repub-
lie, when the colder but truer North
loved, perhaps too blindly, the Southern
intellect and Southern romance. 1t was
our pride to speak of her great names
and to elevate her great sons. 1t was our
delight to open wide the doors of hospi-
tality to their social mornings, and we
always parted from them with reluc-
lance. There was dash and fervor, an
epic vein about the Southron, that had
dazzling charms for us of colder
cline; and what we only gave in
Difference, from respect, and out of
social affection, our often misguided
brothers esteemed to be the homage OF
interiors, because it proceeded from a
class of people who felt that the true
dignity of life was in the daily discharge
of its practical duties-duties that per-
tain to labor, and which the plantation
life of the South led them, too frequent
ly, to despise. They did not know how
the North was veined with valor and
chivalry throughout its granite. But
| the war has taught them better to appre'
ciate that section of the nation Wherein
really rest its material foundati0ns-tht
fountains of industry, Of invention, ano
of education. They find that the
"Yankee' has patriotism and courage
| that he has skill in diplomacy and fore
| in arms that he is their Anglo-Saxol
brother; that he is of race upon which
| no blood can look do,0n, and that ha
| not degenerated. This stern introduo
ton has come from such shock ofarn
as mankind never before have witness
| ed. And now that the sun of peace
shining forth again, let US not forget
foster the bright things that its bean
are calling into life. The dark cloud
slavery has burst and is exhausted.
has proved to be the very curse, natio
| al and social, that Jefferson predictt
that il would be. The semi-rebelliot
training taught by some Old-time Soutl
ern politicians has yielded to the broa
and clear lessons of that COnstitutio
which sprung out of the old COnfed
| racy. and which created us one peopl
And now once more the birds are sin.
ing and the turtle is heard in our Ian
From out the repulsive ruins of syste
which was never American, and whit
has gone down amid the thunders
:. war, we see here and there the gre
and lovely things in the South that O
born ofthat sentiment which is a dist
gushing feature of the Southern peopl
% It colors their oratory, it drapes tn
literature, it speaks in their domes
and social relations, as these exist
Y tween the whites, and it marked tn
desperation in O battle fought wholly
an abstraction, u plucking up, ev
from the bottom of the sea, OF fancI
honor by the roots. This imagine
10 power in the South lent 1t great force
well as a great charm. 1t wOoed I
Of sentiment Of the North and welded
d so that among our youth of both seq
;e there always existed devOtees who I
its influence and who followed
Il Southern lead blindly. And this fe
,r ing prevailed to some extent during
m war, and up to a period till the Sor
seemed reckless and ruthless.
Il But now that the Southern heart
y chastened its sentiments not dead. I
mere vanity of that people has, it
!! true, received well-needed and hun
iating lesson. But vanity is at hes
small vice, born of adulatiOn and adj
TX ration, and the North is greatly resp'
" sible forts cultivation in Southern 81
y A manly pride, heightened sentime
=, a deathless valOr, springing up out
this war, and centred i'll comm
ed patriotism, are the fruits, yet, as
We hope, to mature gloriously, and VIII
y Young shoots we see sprirging ey
en- thus early over all the South. Let
Is cultivate such sentiment by su
re American interchanges of affection a
of magnanimity as will fall upon
souls of that people with cOEqueri
force that does not lie in bullets and
steel. whichat most can kill, while II
! and a wise and prudent generosity 9
z, due and regenerdte the fallen, the {
len, and the desperate, and thus ere
for all the inspiring hope of happy
ct ture under the stars and stripes,
ns loved symbol of ourinfancy, from WI
At. folds only can be gathered the eXal
m. influences that belong to our comm
mi traditions. We have but one cOun
and but one people. Let each be 81
pied t0each with hooks of steel, 81
7, pied by cement of patriotism as str'
as are the natural links of mountains
lakes, and of rivers that unite the
tons SO indissolubly. In such W
the heart and the sentimental the 80
lei are indeed elements of restoration no
be disregarded, if these can only
H. thoroughly purified and rightly dir
ed. And do not all the signs say,
the hour of Southern redemption DIR;
VS. nigh?
1t is gratifying to observe the sp
cry with which the Southern people Ell
into the national banking system. /
L raonix-nd Inv