The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-09-19
raining, became SHAREHOLDERS and ,e-

We see the women and clergy Oh tne
South, those true opponents OF soclni
feeling and ideal thoughts, unreien.Ie
defiant and regretfll only OF tne WI
of success OF the unholy attemPI " ~
vide the Union and sci up lns tn,th-
eracy, and with a frankness anu ti utn
fitness which at least Is comnlenuaDie,
hnving no motive for concealment which
actiIate the politicians and time servers;
still ayowinp their undying hate ana
u~nchan0eabie adherence OF the Union
and the loval North, their admiration
and love OF the rebel soldier, and their
d;sda;n and dislike of our victorious
heroes even while the latter are protec-
TING and preserving them from the sad
effects of their d~isloyalty. .t,
We do not understand how these
teachings of years how this hate, EN-
Uttered by loss of sons and brothers,
fathers, husbands and lovers, property,
position, political power, prestige, self
love and ACKNOWLEDGMENT, as the re-
suit of four years Of bloody, relentless
wnr, carried on on their part with an
unscrupulousness of means, unparal-
ieled even 10 the burning of their own
capital, as they We're driven from it, lest
it should be of use to the despised Union,
can all be obliterated and changed 20
tONSg hAii'ihNE1 ailu IVY aLlN , w
the Union in a moment, Sin the twink.
ling OF an eye by an oath of amnesty
and allegiance taken by force to save
the swearer from the pains and penalties
OF treason, and for the purpose of restor-
ing him to social, political and proprie-
tRry rights and power?
We have, unfortunately, less faith ia
the efficiency of an oath than the intOX-
icated soldier, who, when his comrades
had caught Il copperhead snake, and
were consulting what to do to render
the reptile harmless, exclaimed, either
IN satire or drunken wisdom "Swear
IN the .varmint, and let him co."
daughter and applause 1t is true we
see in favor of the policy of recon-
struction the very general acquiescence
in the South in the proposition that,
IN form, at least, slavery is no more
But the we are painfully convinced that
the spirit Of s.duelY Is not dead, and that
the desire to limit the rights OF the me-
gro ; to take his labor without reinume-
ration to hold him degraded, disfran-
chised and enthralled in serfdoin, by
means of vagrant acts deprivation of
the right of testimony in courts of JUS
tiee combinations not to employ them
III remunerative wages to abandon the
old, feeble and helpless TO starvation and
death; TO Cypress him with armed or
ganizetions Of police companies and
home guards is still as rampant as ever
III the rebellious States. We see evil
dences everywhere that the former slave
holder is determined, as far as he may,
so to fix the social status of the negro as
TO show that emancipation is a mistake;
that a state of freedom Is unsuited and
useless to him and endeavor either to
reduce him To peonage, or drive him out
from among them. Indeed, We hear
mutterings everywhere as TO what they
will do with the negro when they shall
nave obtained their full powers as States
and can treat his condition as a question
of domestic and State policy only. 1t
is needless To say that the loyal North
mas spent too much of its treasure and
substance, and sacrificed too many of its
best loved sons upon the altar of the
country's safety, eel to consent to such
g state of injustice and wrong, at least,
without equal sacrifices to prevent it.
We are grieved, also, to say that we
do not see those evidences oflove of the
Union which ought to have been called
forth by the kindness of PresidentJohn
son. We do see that on the Both of Au-
gust three young men of the first fami-
lies In Augusta, Georgia, called out from
his house a captain OF colored troops and
murdered him Ia cold blood, for no
other offence than commanding Union
soldiers. We see q Union meeting,
called at Richmond and only some two
hundred Union men attending, and that
the quality of Unionism does not seem
10 have been SO much strained as to
keep men away, because the orator of
the occasion, Mr.. James Lyons, who,
unmindfuI Ofthe horrors of Libby Pri- |
son and Belle Isle, then declared that
the people of Virginia chad done moth
ing TO forfeit their rights in the Unionn
the true theory, az we have seen, of
all rebels and their sympathizers-was
the same person who in March last,
from the same spot, proclaimed that he
would wade up to his arm-pits in
the blood of the detested Yankees be-
fore they should have possession of our
beautiful capital" Is Lyons n of the
kind of whom you would say-.'swear
him and let him go ~ Laughter.
We see nc evidences Of fraternal feel
ing in the facts recited in the well-con-
sidered and admirable order of General
Slocum, the candidate of the New York
for Secretary of State, which
1 believe has been c0untermanded by
the government because 1t was not SUBJ
mitted for approval before it was issued,
which recites the fact that armed bo-
dies Of guerrillas in Mississippi are en-
gagged In committing outrages upon and
robbing negroes. Northern men and
government couriers, apologizing to a
Southern man when they stop him by
and that these villains are pro-
tscted In so doing by the citizens of the
several counties. Shall We saw of these ;
y . of the Copperhead snake. fSwear
them; and let them go?r /
We are constrainedt to believe thattb;. !
experiment is not a success, because we ,
see thatin the only three States in which =
elections have been held, Virginia. Ken g
lucky and Tennessee-and these FOO /;
border States-martial law had to he +,
by the department comman. I
Ter OF each before any election was nos. y
ible. That in Kentucky q majority Of :
Observation-Disclosures were elected upon !
he direct issue made, and in Tennessee
wen, some of the most bitter personal
Of the President and former Sc
have been elected, aud Gov
rpor Brownlow is investigating the
rauds of perjured rebels on the cleo
ions,
And again, in Richmond, where alone,
inee the wal ended, in a rebel State has
election of officers having local pow
RS and authority been held, so deter
hostile to the Union were the
Ulcers chosen, that it was necessary to
+ aside the elantion hacause the yoforo