Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-05-02
VOLUME XXXIII.


4 the graver parts of the great drama just
enacted in the eyes Of the world. To ex-
pose and unravel the intricate tissue of de-
ceitfu and cunning devices and artihces
developed in the subordinate parts connect
ed with it, assume to be impossible; but
| some approximation 10 it may be made by
a careful study Of the history Of the times
and the public men who were the chief ac-
tors on the stage of public affairs, when the
causes which led to the late catastrophe had
their origin.
From long observation and personal asso-
citation with many Of the leading men OF
the North, who were conspicuous in the
thirty or forty years Immediately preceding
the late war, became satisfied that there
was decided and deep feeling of dissatis-
| faction on the part Of many Of the most able
and aspiring among them, produced by the
| long and disproportionate term Of the whole
! period of the government since 1889, that
| Southern men occupied the Presidential
| chair, and had the disposal Of the patronage
of the government-not quite, but nearly
! fifty years Of the seventy-two, estimating the
time from 1889 to 1860; but which, even
| closing the estimate at 1850, would show a
| Southern domination, if 50 il may be called,
Of forty-eight or say fifty of the sixty-one
years Of the entire existence of the Re-
public. Though complaints of dissatis-
faction and i'll feeling created by the long
Southern control of the affairs Of govern
ment, have been a thousand times expressed
and commented upon by many men Of or
binary pretensiOns and in many of the pub
lie journals for party effect, yet but little
proof can be made of the deep sense Of in
Justice and Of the hard fortune imposed
upon men Of distinguished merit, character
and pretensions at the North, by the sort Of
ostracism which the dominant influence Of
the South exerted for their pride and deli
cacy Of feeling restrained them from
giving utterance 10 their personal griefs, as
it was their high deserts, making them
worthy of such exalted stations, that in
spired the pride and delicacy forbidding
the expression Of any griefs of that nature
but at the same time, they may have deeply
felt their exclusion, and their partlcu-
lar friends and admirers in all parts Of the
country sympathized with them, and secret
ly, and, perhaps, unconsciously at first, but
naturally and in despite the injustice of the
sentiment, jealousy and hate of the South
and Southern ascendency, sprung up and
was cherished and aggravated by their APP
parent assumption Of superior ability and
craftsmanship implied in accepting the rule
of the country to the exclusion of other
sections.
A powerful auxiliary in creating or slim
ulating the growth and giving intensity to
this feeling of jealousy and hatred of the
South, in the hearts of the aspiring and
leading men of the North, was the appear
ance of a class of men, few of whom became
the pests Of both houses of Congress. They
were generally a class Of men, ready and
fluent in debate, spirited and personal, having
but little regard for the feelings of Others, or
the courtesies of debate as regards per-
sonalities, but having no real pretensiOns
TO craftsmanship, and naturally fell into the
habit Of seeking such distinction among
their constituents as would give them popu-
larity and secure their reflections. Some
times a man of superior talents from the
South would show himself similarly dis
posed with those already described; nor
were there wanting men of like habits of
debate at the North who were quite as ready
to engage in the encounter of wits, and run
a tilt with fiery Southron. The great
mischief that might result to the country
from the indulgence and encouragement
Of this class Of men in Congress, became
apparent 10 all men of discernment in
the days Of notification; at which time
the more orderly and sober debating
was conducted with some degree Of i'll
feeling, and the light skirmishiHg was made
up Of sarcastic and bitter taunts, biting tests,
jeers, and gibes, and sometimes. on the
part of the south, Haunting raillery, insult
ing and offensive bravadO and ridiculous
pretensions Of superior manhoodtRnd chiv-
airy But | need not further paTicularize
All will see at once what extremes of ma
tional animosity and hatred this course of
debate would naturally provoke. So in
tense was the feeling of resentment of these
insults, which many men of acknowledged
ability and talents participated in the public
can never know; yet | remember, for |
know from personal knowledge, that Mr.. Clay
had great difficulty in his effort TO allay the
growing hatred and animOsity which he saw
springing up between the two sections, for
some of his own particular friends at the
North were not AZ all pleased with the
compromise by which he effected a paci-
iication, and avoided a conflict of arms;
this they rather courted than Stunned, one
of them saying TO me at the time that he
wished to see whether one Southern man
could whip five Yankees, feeling, ! suppose,
that under the lead of Jackson, the country
could scarcely meet with any serious disas.
tiers, or lave any thing serious to fear in an
encounter with South Carolina and her
allies, whoever they might be. The rebellion
threatened bv notification, having been
crushed i'm the bud by Mr.. Clay's compro-
mise tariff of 1888, the fell spirit of strife
and sectional dissention survived in the CO.
temporaneous dnti-Sidrcry movement kept
alive and i'm full blast all the mischievous
and incendiary nature and character of the
debates in Congress, and all the sectional
luminosity and hatred engendered in the
course Of the recent tariff controversy, the
most effective and exciting provocauons to
which continued until they eliminated in
actual war.
This brief reference to the source or
causes naturally tending TO engender and in
flame the hatred on the part of the
leading men of the North and East,
may sufficiently explain or account for the
extraordinary degree of personal resentment
manifested against the rebels of the South,
by which most Of them seem TO be actuated
in what they say and do, but it does not
offer so satisfactory an explanation Of the
support given TO the measures and policy of
that revolutionary faction by the mass of the
Republicans at the North. 1t is inconceiv-
able that the Radical leaders could have so
instilled into the hearts Of the mass Of their
Republican followers, in Its full intensity,
their own resentment and malignant hatred
of the Southern people, without the aid of
some more general, effective, and auxiliary
cause than the protracted domination of
Southern statesmen, and the exclusion of able
men of the North from an equal participa-
ton in the honors and emoluments Of the
executive department Of the government rs
to reconcile them to become the mere tools
and servile instruments of their leaders.
May this not also be partial explanation.
u il well known what pains were taken,
through the medium of the press, the
pulpit and the lyccums Of the North,
TO iustill into the minds Of the North
crn people for long period before
the war, particularly the less enlight-
encd and mtravelod classes the idea that
Southern shareholders were universally aris-
tocratic in feeling, manners, and conduct; or
what was more odious still, that they consti-
tuted an oligarchy, or rs they were some
times denominated, a slaveocracy, that man
aged to rule the States in which they resid-
cd. and treated the poor white people with
no more respect and consideration than
their own slaves that their plantations and
farms were little better than Turkish ha-
rems. under the discretionary control and
dominion Of their masters, and, of course,
that they, by their arrogant assumption OF
superior privileges and immunities, not less
than by their prohigacy, had forfeited all