The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-12-13
Southern Sentiment.

The Hon Thomas L. Clingman, late
L. S. Senator from North Carolina, has
published an able letter on the state of
public feeling in his State concerning
the policy of the General Government
He thinks that in view of the success
which has crowned the armies of the
Union orr Government ought to exer
else the greatest leniency towards the
South, and not regard treason as involv-
ing any moral guilt whatever, as it has
nothing now to apprehend from the
South. The late civil war was the re-
suit, he argues, of the political hereiies
and ultra sentiments Of minorlties in
both sections of the country, which had
long produced the most intense excite
mcnt in the land, and the i'll conceived
notions of one about the other had the
effect of entirely misleading the Judge
ment of the great majority, and prolong-
ing the war, At the North, it was said ::
''The South cannot be driven out" at
will be crushed in a few weeks :" the
slaves will rise in revolt 1.-THE blockade
will reduce them" while the Southern
fre-eaters didn't believe the North
would fight" Cotton was king" "Eu-
rope would interfere" etc. thus, in
both sections, unreasonable" "arro
CANT" :'insolent" and active measures"
were adopted which have been utterly
destroyed, and the falsity of the ideas on
which they were based has been unalt 81
ably proved The extremists of one
section saw that the South was willing
to leave the Union on grounds which
most men in the North thought slender
and insufficient" and the extremists of
the South We're soon convinced that the
people of the North would not only fight
for the Union, but carry on the war with
extraordinary vigor and upon most ex-
tended scale" and had these things been
properly understood, the war would
| "never have occurred"
Mr.. Clingham says, during the war he
| believed there might be union of all
the States under common govern
ment," in view of the extraordinary de-
velopements at Richmond which indica
ted that the South was not to be al
lowed to succeed" and the utter desti-
tuition of the Confederacy of practical
talent, but now that the North is trium-
plant, the great practical question to be
answered is, what ought to be the action
of the United States toward the South?
North Carolina is claimed to be loyal
and true to the Constitution and the
Government, and ought to enjoy the
right of choosing their own representa-
tives," but Mr.. c , does not know any
man in the State who can take what is
commonly called the test oath" without
perjury" He says:
"If this be insisted on our State will
have only nominal or counterfeit represen-
tatives Sooner than have such, many
think it as we'll to have no representa-
ton at all If the men chosen are true
to the Constitution, the mere talent and
consideration they have, the better for
the Government. In this
manner the Government and the Admin
istration will obtain the entire political
and moral support of the States"
He concludes that if desire for ven
geance against the South is KEEP. up in
Northern minds, there will be quasi war
of long standing, but on the contrary,
1.-The Government of the United States
can have all the Southern States again
its friends by allowing them, when they
have complied with the acquisitions of
the President, to exercise those priv
ileges which belong, according to the
Constitution, to all the States of the
Union"