The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1865-08-31
OTTUMWA, IOWA THURSDAY AUGUST 81. 1865

name, rs superior race, they enslaved
the colored class. But they could not con-
troll human nature. They could not out
wit the heart nor bribe the love Of liberty.
When the crisis came, the master class
carried the overwhelming majority of their
own color with them; but their utmost
power failed to seduce their slaves. The
men who, we are told, have not sense
enough 10 to vote with us. had yet sense to
be true against. all persuasion oftreason.
A late letter in the Herald, from Ala
bama, says that the rebels in that State
confess the free labor of blacks to have
been success wherever it was directd by
Yankees. "They say ifa Southern man
takes up newspaper and reads anything
to a negro, no will not believe single
word of it; but let a Yankee pretend to
read, and make up the most improbable lie
imaginable, and he will take it for gospel
TRUTH Will anybody be kind enough to
prove why, if the slaves would not fight
with their masters, the freedmen will vote
with them?
The degree Of faith in State sovereignty
pu.
but the white population of the rebel States
was a unit before the war. 1t was
practically a unit during the war. Who
will deny that it is practically unit now?
No glozing or gliding will hide the fact.-
No sentimental drivel about "brethren''
will help us organize the results of the war.
Men whose chief point of honor is con-
tn,,, ~ <,ftI I,n ,.,, g.
ernment are not our political brethren.-
Men and women who have gloried in the
torture Of our soldiers for defending that
Government are not or social brethren.-
Their fathers were brethren of our fathers
and their children may be our children
But the generation that hate us and des-
pise our faith and our hope-hovever free
from vindictive feeling our own hoarts
may be, and it is a fact that they are abso-
lutely so-can no more be considered
"brethren" in practical sense than anv
other enemies
Any steps at reorganization which disre-
gard these plain facts will be utterly fu-
tile. The prime necessity of our policy is
a comprehension Of the truth, not state
ment ofthe theory. The possibility that
this spirit of hostility may regain control
ofthe Government must be inflexiblv pro-
vented at watever cost. Ifthore really be
no such possibility, so much the better
But that must be assumed. The presump-
ton is entirely theotherway. While there
there is vet doubt, the force Of the Uni
ted State <hould be- fully maintained ey-
crywhere. Let freedom ofspeech and free
dom Of the press and absolute personal
freedom be established and defended in the
rebel States Letthe whole body of the adult
male population be registered and suffer
Ell to vot, il you will. Let the farms of
truly free republican government be Sc
cured, but DO not commit the fatal fault or
intrusting them, with or without supcrvis-
republic Let the people Of the United
States retain absolute hold of the whole
rebel region until they are satisfied that its
citizens will cooperate in good faith with
the rest OF the country. We believe that
the principles OF the American system are
fully adequate to the perfect pacification
Of the country. But we are quite as firm
ly persuaded that the loyal white people
of the late rebel States are not strong
enough, nor united enough, to secure the
observance Of those principles, and that
this can be done only by the power Of the
whole people.-HuTper's Weekly.