Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-07-27
Temper Of the
Southern PeOple.

The bearing of the Southern people un-
der their defeat and the immense loss of
property involved in the emancipation of
their slaves, is more generous, manly and
sclf-rcspecting than we had any reason to
expect. From the Potomac to the Rio
Grande there's not Il single guerrilla band,
nor any demonstration of resistance to the
Federal authority. The influential states
men of the South, and their trusted militia
ry leaders, are disposed, to man, to acoui-
esce in reunion and make the best of the
situation. General Lee, who the southern
people almost revere, is an open applicant
for pardon and lends his weighty example
to a sincere and faithful submission to the
laws. General Johnston, who stood next
to Lee in the southern consideration, has
publicly given as rational advice to his tel-
low-citizcns as could have been dictated by
the stanchest friends of the Union. Mr..
Boyce, OF South Carolina, Governor Brown
OF Georgia, and other southern statesmen of
equal distinction have made addresses coun-
selling acquiescence in the abolition of slave
rry, and icalty to the federal government
The southern newspapers are almost uni
versally conducted in the same admirable
and manly spirit. There is no contuma-
clous sullenness, no captious refining on the
Constitution, no refractory assertions of
state sovereignty, no harsh criticism of the
policy of President johnson, none of the
naughty tone of self-assertion once so char
acterlstic of southern public men. And yet
there is nothing servile or craven in the
general tone of acquiescence and submis-
sion. 1t is the simple manifestation of good
sense and manly feeling, which accents the
inevitable without womanish petulance, and
NJ OF ,uht a,,l
adapt itself to the actual situation.
As a Americans the South has given us
no reason to be ashamed of our country
men. They made, to be sure, terrible
mistake in gong into this contest; but once
in, they bore themselves with resolution,
gallantIy, persi>tency, and fidelity to each
other, which did no discredit to their public
spirit and soldiery qualities. The hercu-
lean and protracted exertions we were com
PEELED to make to subdue them attest their
vigor and valor and after so tough con-
test, we cannot deny them the possession
Of great qualities without humiliation self
disparagemcnt. But the frankness of their
submission, when they saw they were beat
en-, conspicuous proof of magnanmity
as the chivalric determination with which
they fought against superior odds. 1t adds
to sense of national strength that, ia future
wars with foreign powers, we shall have the
support of men who understand so well the
duties of soldiers and citizens.
Considering thcr present admirable bear
ing, ought we treat them as friends or as
enemies? When we separated from Great
Britain, we proclaimed to the world, in the
Declaration of Independence, that we should
hold the Britons, like other foreign people,
'e"eates IN 'oar, an peace friends" Shall
we treat our own repentant brethren with
less magnanimity than foreign nations prac-
tice toward each other? Having treated
these brave and misguided fellow country
men as enemies in war, shall we refuse to
treat them as friends in peace? Why should
our newspapers teen with calumnies on
their character? When they so frankly ac-
cept the new order of things, and the
mighty revolution in their social system
what sense, what magnanmity, what de-
cency even, is there in subiecting them to
needless humiliation and indignities? No
body fears new rebellion; nobody believes
that the frank submissions of the South is
feigncd; and it is unworthy the character of
a great nation to practice mean, suspicious
and irritating surveillance over proud and
spirited community, who bear themselves
with such sense and selfcommand under
one of the greatest trials through which
any people was ever called to pass.-Ne,o
York DTOrM