Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-12-17
MALICE AGAINST DESTINY.

Whoever sets an example must not
complain il its fruits be rendered bitter
to his taste. RoBEsrIERRE fell a victim
to the guillotine with which he had de-
luged Paris with blood, and mankind
have pronounced the retribution just.
Our American Jacobins are jubilant over
the woes Of the South. They do not ap.
pear to anticipate any possible change in
the future, but act as if their victory OF
to-day is TO adorn malice with per
petual crown of authority. They rely
on numbers to enforce their measures,
and suppose that the bitter sectional
passions which now control Northern
politics, will experience no abatement IN
the light of future years and inevitable
domestic and foreign complications.
They dance around the conquered South
as Indians dance around their chained
victims whom they have resolved to tor
ture to death. No dream that the South
will, by any possible conjunction of cir
cumstances, stand upon its feet again
and find itself in position to retaliste,
wanders through the muddy minds ofour
Jacobins. With them the past is secure,
and the future quite assured. Such is
rot, we trust, to be the order of progress.
Ireland is sterile, incapable of popula--
ton, and therefore is heidi subjugation.
Poland possesses neither the, territory
nor the facilities of an independent
State. Hungary cannot sustain a popu-
lation sufficient to maintain the dignity
of nation. Italy, with the aid of
France and Prussia, energies into great
kingdom
The South is vast in circumference
ans diameter, and the most fertile coun.
try on earth. 1t is comparatively unoc-
cupied, and imperfectly developed, Its
very wildernesses are greater than New
England and the middle States com
bined. That portion which is developed,
has enriched the North and clothed the
world. Its mineral resources are vast,
and locked in, the archives of nature.
Its mountains are ribbed with iron, and
rest upon exhaustless fields Of coal,
laved by streams clear as those immort-
allied by the poets of antiquity. Its
valleys yield whatever the industry of
man invokes, and enriehe him who ap-
peals to their fertility From Kentucky
to the Rio Grande, from Charleston to
the Pacific, it will yield cotton, and
whatever else is needful for man. There
is no character of enterprise to which it
is not adapted. 1t can sustain ten
times the present population of the
United States, and still produce enough
surplus to control the commerce of the
world. It is the masterpiece of nature,
and destined to become the powell, the
glory and admiration Of the w.rld.
Whom the Jacobins of our day are in
their dishonored graves, their children,
citizens of the South, it may be, and identi-
fed with its progress and its institutions,
will peruse with astonishment that page
of history which records the attempts Of
their fathers to combat distiny by war
ring upon the South. They will hardly
credit the story, for it will appear to
them too absurd to be charged upon men
of ordinary nationality. True, never
theless, it will be, to the shame Of those
who shall inherit their blood, but not
their madness -tJU
These Jacobins have prescribed the
South politically and socially. They
are about to tear down our State govern
ments and erect territories, to be placed
under the domination of military satraps,
upon their ruins There is nothing in
our section, however endeared TO US by
time and memories Of glorious past,
which they would not ruthlessly crush
under their feet They offer US an ex-
ample which we may follow if we like.
1t il a dreadful one, it is true, but human
nature can bear just SO much, and nc
more, and is swift in retribution. After
outlawing US, they complain that theil
emissaries amoA US are not taken tc
our bOsoms and petted like lambs. Won
derful assurance indeed Have we sunk
so low that we must, like the dog, lich
the hand that smites ue9 While We
abide by their laws and conduct our
selves as quiet citizens, we can return
to them the fruits of the example they
have given US. When the men of the
South are honored at the North, then the
men Of the North may complain Of socia'
ostrscism in the South When the North
learns to do justice to the South, oui
national troubles win be over. Nevel
before. rt-