Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1866-09-07

of the people. Then there is another
class, an utterly irresponsible class,
composed mainly of young men who
were the bucks of southern society
before the war, and chiefly spent their
time in lounging round the court
rooms and haro, in ohiokUn-iighting
and gambling. These have been great
ly broken up by the war; many Of
them have been killed; but those who
remain are still disturbing elements
in the community, and are doing much
mischief II is this class Of men, and
a number of the poor whites, who have
formed gangs for horSe-stealing. 1t
is they who in some instances have
made attacks on officers of the freed
mems bureau, and have ill-treated' the
freedmen. 1t is they who afford the
main pretext for saying that there is
among the people Of the South feel.
ing of hostility toward the United
States government. But they are not
the representatives of the southern
people. They form but an insignifi
cant minority in the community, and
even they are actuated not so much
by a feeling Of opposition to the gov
eminent as by a reluctance to carr
their own livelihood by honest labor
and individual exertion.
"For five years the southern PEG
pie have been the subjects of gros:
misrule. During the war, their gov
eminent was a military despotism, de
pendent solely on the dictum of an in
dividual. Since the war, they have
been left more or less in a chaotic
state-their government semi-civil
semi-mittary, or rather, division o
misrule between he military, thu
freedmen's bureau and the provisional
governments. What might have beer
the result Of a different policy it is no
altogether idle to speculate. Ever,
military man who served in the Soutl
during the war, will agree that tn
heart of the great mass of the peopl
was not thoroughly in the struggle
| The number of desertions from tn,
rebel armies abundantly establishe
this fact. Had a policy Of wise ant
statesmanlike Cancellation been fol
lowed out Immediately after the clos
of the war, it is more than probabl
that the condition and disposition c
the people would now be far bette
than they are. But on the su6jugf
ton of the South, the national author
ty in the lately rebellious states wa
divided and broken up into oppo8in
factions, whose action greatly hindere
the re-establishment Of civil law an
good order so much needed among
people demoralized by the most d
moralizing of all agencies-civil wa
The country was flooded with treas
~ agents who, with their accOmplic
and imitators, feeced the people rig
- and left, returning into the Unit
States treasury for all the enormo
amount of property they seized a
confscated barely enough to pay
|. cost of confscation. Agents Of t
l. Freedmen's bureau stepped betwe
l. the planter and the laborer, stirri
I up strife, perpetuating antagoni
and often adding to their quotaof ct
> ton and oppression. On every ha
y the people saw themselves robbed g
l; wronged by agents and self-appoint
s. agents protesting to act under
F sanction of the United States COVE
~ menu. Need it be wondered at t
=. among a community thus dealt W
II powerless to resist and too weak {
Frustrated for successful compla
some bitterness and ill-feeling sho
arise? None but a brave and v
meaning people could have endu
INTERESTINGLY all that the South
he undergone.
tn "What is needed to restore har
In ny and prosperity to the entire &C
IS; try, both North and South, is Gle
2; andI etter acquaintance with each
lte er. | have been asst onished to no
ac- how little people, even whose so
lal relations are all southern, know
sse the true state of feeling In that
ml ton of the country. We need or
lst Ter political, social and commercial f
ras1 dom, more frequent intercourse,
atkinder appreciation of each 9th
vt peculiarities. The advantages to
, is country in its present financial ST.
9th of q reunion Of heart and sentim
nu- would be beyond enumeration.
ON broad lands of the fertile South
an now lying almost in waste for wan
res means and capital to cultivate th
ng- when every acre of the benefcent
hat might be gold mine to its posses
ers were the political relations of the
bis pie better understood and acted up,
ern Springfield Republican.
fac