Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1865-05-18
THE SITUATION.

The battles of the rebellion are closed, our
affairs are rapidly being converted from mil
jtary to civil character, and men must now
look TO civil afFaiys and relations in place OF
military. We have been living in an unnat-
ural condition for the last four years and have
become babituatcd mcnsureably to new and
unnatural modes of life and thought. The
time is come when these must be changed and
different pursuits must take their place
Perhaps no people on the face of tho earth
can and do change their pursuits and thoughts
with as great facility and as little derangc-
ment of social order as the American people.
In few months from state of profound
peace and mighty commercial enterprise, we
were converted into the most military nation
on earth. A condition which it required
the labor of many months, running into years
for European nations to acquire, was acquired
by us in few weeks, and in year VIC had
as Il military power surpassed the efforts of
generations of European military power and
knowledge. Events indicate that this will be
as suddenly changed to its opposite. Let us
not be misunderstood We shall not 60 back
to the position we occupied four years since.
Revolutions never 60 backward, and altho
we shall soon 90 back to condition of peace,
mighty changes will be found to have been
wrought by this rebellion, which have recolu-
tionizcd our nation, socially and politically
We shall find that We cannot, if we wished,
80 back to, and occupy shc platform on which
We stood in 1860.
The onward march of time almost without
orr knowledge and without prcmeditated de-
sire has effected changes almost imperceptibly,
mighty changes, in the social relatono of our
people. The political changes arc not less
marked aud indellible Slavery which had for
years been the ruling institution of the eoun-
try and absorbed all other interests, making
them subscrvicnt..to itself, was thing which
had for years been our Gordian knot, and ex-
ercised the profoundcst thought and anxiety
of our purest and most patriotic statesmen,
with the gloomiest and most fearful anxiety
for its best and safest ISOLATION, without ac-
complishing any thing, has been in one short
hour ripped out as political enigma, by the
Emancipation Proclamation of President Lin
CON. The institution is this day as dead as
tho an African foot had never been set on our
soil. The change has been wrought amid the
din and turmoil of war and has been effected
without producing pcrceptiblc sensation
Our wisest and our worst statesmen have been
handling this subject for generation and the
multitudnous legislation it produced had cf-
fected nothing for or against it;-yct in one
short hour the whole thing has been accom-
plished.
This is one mighty change or revolution in
our national history or existence which We
cannot go Luch to. 1t is change in our po-
litical status of the mightiest consequen ces.
1t 4 change in the social relations of one half
OF our country of equal greatness and signiG-
cation. This change is one which FORTS sue
cessful and best elimination is yet not COM
plete, and is already exciting the attention
and anxiety of the Statesman and philanthro-
pist. The old anxiety is at work and working
in the olo direction. The lessons of the past
do not seem to have brought wisdom out of
experience. The old question is still pro-
pounded with its old anxiety and its old asso-
citation of ideas, "lVhat shall VIC do with the
ncgrocs!"
First divcst yourself Of your preconccived
ideas and old prejudices in regard to him.
He is man, though degraded and de-
moralzcd by years of slavery and ignorance,
held and forced into circumstances which
made many white man beast, and that the
bcastial imprint is not greater and moro uni
versal among them is the best evidence Of
their manhood and their susceptibility of i'm
provemcnt and elevation. Let this be the
first and most important object of attention,
then the problem will be less difficult of sou-
ton. Improve them by airording them
the means of useful knowledge. Elevate
them by higher political status and by
compensated labor. They were made free
by the Presidents Proclamation, on entering
the military service. They did enter it and
have proven themselves as good and eflicicn,
soldiers as our own race, with the reward OF
freedom placed before them;-placo before
them the reward of compensation for theil
labor and they will become as useful as the
white man. Place before them the reward
of the elective franchise and they will become
as faithful in the field of politics as they have
in the field of battle. When these thingc
shall have been done, the problem of "what
shall We do with the ncgro!" will be solved.
So much for his status in hAiical point
Of view. What shall VIC do With him socially:
The hand of the Almighty Creator has drawn
a line between the Caucasian and the African
which forbids the idea of miscegeucation OF
social equality. Let both be placed on pro,
per or natural basis break up the artificial
rel4:.on established by iOTee AID wrong, ard