The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-05-07
An Irish View of ReeOnstruetion.

an AGloA NlCH Va RECOMMENDATION
SLAVERY AT tbs SOUTH TO GIVE PLACE TO
THE LABOR OF TREE EAIGRANTs
From the Northern Be fas) Wing. April IS.
The public writers aud speakers who
during the last three years and 8 hall
have occupied Themselves in demon
strating that the North could never
conquer the South, are now busted
with a very different andAot altogether
consistent problem They establish, 10
their own momentary satisfaction, that
the South, of whose ultimate "subjugs
ton" they scarcely venture to hint q
doubt, can never be held and admins
tered IS part of free republic Ii
will be, they urge, the Poland or Hun
gary-on the continent they are 80 IN.
kind as 70 say the Ireland-of America
If the authors of these doleful presages
had ever been right in any single point
arising ouJ OF the rebellion--if they
had not blundered from FIRST TO last on
the military problem-we should en-.
terrain greater confidence than il is
possible for US now TO feel in their polit-
zeal Vaccinations On every element
OF the great theme they have gone
wildly astray. They understood neither
the material strength nor the moral
character of the Northern and South
ern populations, nor the social organ
izations which are divided from each
other by Mason and Dixon's line This
ignorance-including a total indifier
ence to the facts Of American history
and Observation-Disclosures their political
representations as completely as it has
reversed their military prophecies.
Their fundamental error lies in sup-
posing that the federal government
will have to deal in peace, mainly, il
not exclusively, with those they have
been combating in war. This is not the
case. Even if we look solely TO the
present population Of the South, we
must distinguish between the armies
of the Confederscy and the bulk of its
inhabitants. The great slsveowners OF
the South-the ten or Twelve thousand
men for whose interesfS and at whose
ipstigation the war began-will be i'm
poyeTished and discredited Their as
cendancy will be forever overthrow.
The class of poor whites" by whose
docile suffrages, aided by the three
fifths vote, they maintained their polit-
iosl influence, has been thinned by the
war; and those of them whom disease
and the sword have spared have been
taught something as 10 the guidance
which they so blindly followed The
clements OF disaffection have been, TO
very great degree, burned out by the
war. The class which remains-mOr-
ally stronger than it ever was before,
and proportionslly far moro numer-
ous-never had any quarrel with the
free States, and Is not now, so far as
eau be Judged, iNaffected to the
Union.
But even if the entire population OF
the South were animated by the bitter.
est hostility to their Northern fellow
citizens and to the federal government,
and transmitted this feeling 10 the
next generation. the difficulties cuniur
ed upln the way ofpeacefUl reunion, on
the basis of equal rights and free instj-
iu.ions, would be by no means insuper-
anle. Ii has often been shown that the
direct defendants Of the Americans OF
the revolutionary period form an ex
ceediugly small element in the present
population Of the United States That
consists chiefly Of emigrants and the
defendants Of emigrauts, from Europe
whose course has been directed exclu.
sively 70 the Estates Of the North and
Northwest The moral plague Of sla
very has kept free industry outside the
regions which are cursed by humsn
bondage. The South is still largely an
unocculied territory. Land once culti-
waited is nov waste and deserted. Land
which elsewhere would have been re-
claimed generations ago is still virgin
forest In Virginia, the free popula-
ton numbers only fifteen persons to
the square mile. In the adjoining free
States Of the Atlantic coasts, in them
selves far less inviting 10 settlers, the
population, over an equal erea, Is eigh-
ty-two persons 20 the square mile
Slavery, and slavery alone, has made
this difference. IL has defrauded not
merely the negro Of his birthright, but
the snPerabundant populations OF Ba-
rope OF land of uuequalied promise
The wrong done by It 10 millions ofthe
Old World is only less than that infict-
ed on the bondsmen Of the New.
When once il is removed. and
peace iR restored, there will be A rusb
Of eniigfasts from Europe and
Northern Ststes 10 the South.
new population viii arise, which
not only viii have nc quarrel
with the North and [ Rion, but
Will owe everything to them. and
which, together with its descendants.
Wal IN the course Of generation form
Tue great bulk Of the population Of the
seGta- in this human deluge, the
Homestead act for the South would
Ssing to Virginia the prosperity of New
aoFk and enable Florida and Alabama