Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1865-03-10
TuEN AND NOW.

Four wears ago Charleston was in blaze Of
excitement The fire kindled there few days
ago by the runaway chiyalry was of other kind.
-Four years ago you might read in the Charles
| ton Nercmy how Cotton king, how Eng
| land would haste 10 make friends with and re-
cognize the cotton kingdom, how the starving
paupers Of Lancashire would force Parliament
TO help the South, how grass would grow in
Broadway while the harbor aud guays of Char
lesion would be crowded with the ships of Eng
land and France coming on that errand OF 'dI
rect trade" which was the fondest fancy of these
curious free traders whose declared purpose
was to wrench commerce from its natural into
unnatural channels. After four years Carleston
is mass of ruins, deserted and fired by the
boastful aristocracy; It's batteries has fine crop
of grass dinits harbor solitary blocksde-run-
ner would hoist a foreign flag ifher crew had
not prudently abandoned her.
Four years ago Cotton was declared king
the other day his majesty was hastily burned
up. Four years ago the Yankees were declared
a cOwardly set of abiect creatures hundred of
WHOM were scarcely match for one Ofthe chiv-
airy: the other day the chivalry did not wait
for these Yankees. but ran away in the night,
leaving bchiud only the wives and children of
the poor whites whom they have forced into
their armies-aud leaving those without provis
IONS TO sIarve, unless the cruel aud barbarous
Yankees had compassion on them!
-Four Yeas ago the Sea Islands about Char
lesion were the pleasant residences of the proud
est families of South CarolIna-the other day
General Sherman gave these islands to the blacks
and there remained not white man to dispute
possession. Four years ago the rice coast yield
ed a handsome annual revenue to few naughty
worshppers of King CottoD--now these fami-
lies are flying they know not whittier, looking
in vain for secure hiding place. Four years
ago Alexander Fl. Stephens, of Georgia III I'M
pressive language, foretold that out of the at
tempt at rebellion could come ruin, rum, and
only ruin. To-day there is 10 state i'll the South,
and scarcely a county, which does not discover
the truth ot his words. If there Is such thing
as beating common sense into the heads OF the
chivalry, some of these must have discovered
before This that, 10 southern phrase, they
have walked up the wrong passenger. They
persuaded themselves there would be no war;
but they have been utterly destroyed by the
war they provoked. They saw themselves. in
fancy, masters of the civilized world-and be-
hold they are fugitves from their own houses.
They promised the southern people peace plen-
iy and proud eminence ali strangers:
they have brought up their deluded tools war,
pesiilence and famine, bloOdshed, widowhoOd
and orphanage. They promised them liberty
which they had already-but they have given
them, instead, what Governor Brown of Geor-
gia calls au irresponsible despotisnl, turning in
TO anarchy.
This is the work OF the far famed southern
statesman. A statesman is wise manager of
the affairs Of the Commonwealth a man who
knows how to adapt means 10 ends, who fore
sees the future, who guides in the safest paths,
for their happiness, the people over whom he
rules What sort Of statemanship is il to sow
the wind, or 10 reap the whirlwind? What man
ner of fslatesmen will impartial history declare
fhnSfp n have hogan 4 iOr ihp SDTpaU
slavery, hut counted the cost so badly that in
the end they freed their own slaves to help de-
fend their persons? What sort of statesmen are
they who four years ago fired al our flag FIRMLY
convinced that we would not fight-in other
words, that it was perfectly safe 10 bully us?-
What sort of statesmen are they who have in
four years reduced their own States almost 10
wilderness?
1t cannot be said of the rebel leaders that they
ventured with their eyes open; that they delib-
erately risked all the ruin they have wrought.
it was their blindness, it was their invincible
concet, their ignorant pride, their barbarous
contempt for quieter and more industrious peo-
pie il was this which led them TO the fatal rash
ness Of rebellion. They were well, they would
be better, they went To war, aud they are irret-
rievably and Justly ruined. The condition of
the South, of which the desolatOn of Charles
ton is a fair picture, is the work of these south
ern statesmen; these ambitions demagogues,
foolishly thought because they had bullied their
way through Congress, because they had meas
ufed the meanness and sounded the cowardice
ofdoughfaced democrat politicians, because they
had won easy triumphs in conventions, because
thev had carried elections, as they raised cotton,
by the force of threats-therefore they could
manage affairs of real magnitude, and could dab
bic successfully in actual statesmanship.--Ne,
YOTLc Egenip0 Post