The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1866-09-01
No. 8

time the imperfect discipline of law, and ex-
cite anew the fears and forebodings of the
patriotic and well disposed.
1t is unquestionably true that local dis
turbances Of this kind, accompanied by more
or less of violence, do still occur But they
are confined entirely to the cities and larger
towns Of the Southern States, where differ
ent races and interests are brought most
closely in contact and where passions and
resentments are always most easily fed and
famed into outbreak; and even there they
are quite as much the fruit of untimely ard
buTtful political agitation as of any hostility
on the part of the people to the authority of
the National Government
But the concurrent testimony of those
best acquainted with the condition Of society
and the state Of public sentiment IN the
South-including that of its representatives
in this Observation-Disclosures the fact that
the great mass of the Southern people ac-
cept, with as full and sincere submission as
do the people of the other States, the rees-
tablished supremacy Of the national author
ity and are prepared, in the most Ioyal spirit
and with a zeal quickened alike by their in
terest and their pride, to cooperate with
other States and sections IN whatever may
be necessary to defend the rights, maintain
the honor and promote the welfare Of our
common country. History affords no instance
where people, so powerful in numbers, in
resources, and in public spirit, after a war
so long in its duration, so destructive in its
progress, and so adverse in its issue, have ac-
cepted defeat and Its consequences with so
much Of good faith as has marked the con-
duct of the people lately in insurrection
against the United States. Beyond all ques-
tion this has been largely due to the wise
generosity with which their enforced sur
render was accepted by the President of the
United States and the Generals in immediate
command Of their armies, and to the liberal
measures which were afterwards taken to re-
store order, tranquility and law to the States
where all had been for the time overthrown.
No steps could have been better calculated
to command the respect, win the confidence,
revive the patriotism and secure the perma-
nent and affectionate allegiance of the peO-
pie of the South to the Constitution and laws
of the Union than those which have been so
firmly taken and so steadfastly pursued by
the President of the United States And if
that confidence and loyalty have been since
impaired if the people of the South are to-
day less cordial in their allegiance than they
were Immediately anon the close of the war,
we believe it is due 70 the changed tone of
the legislative department Of the General
which Congress has endeavored to supplant
and defeat the Presidents wise and benef-
cient policy of restoration; to their exclu-
sion from all participation in our common
Government; to the withdrawal from them
Of rights conferred and guaranteed by the
Constitution, and to the evident purpose of
Congress, in the exercise of a usurped and
unlawful authority, to reduce them from the
rank of free and equal members of a repub-
lie of States, with rights and dignities un-
impaired, to the conduct of conquered pro-
vinces and a conquered people, in all things
subordinate and subject to the will Of their
eonquerors; free only to obey laws in max
ing which they are not allowed to share.
No people has ever yet existed whose
loyalty and faith such treatment long con-
tinued would not ALLEVIATE and impair And
the ten millions of Americans who live In
the South would be unworthy citizens of a
free country, degenerate sons of a heroic
ancestry, unfit ever to become guardians Of
the rights and liberties bequeathed to US by
the fathers and founders of this Republic,
if they could accept, with accomplishing
submissiveness, the humiliations thus sought
to be imposed upon them. Resentment Of
Injustice is always and every where essential
to freedom and the spirit which prompts
the States and people lately in insurrection,
but insurgents now no longer, to protest
against the imposition Of unjust and degra-
ding conditions, makes them all more wOr-
thy to share in the Government Of free
common wealth, and gives still frmer assur-
ance of the future power and freedom of the
Republic. For whatever responsibility the
Southern people may have incurred In resis-
ting the authority of the National Govern
ment and in taking up arms for its overthrow,
they may be held to answer, as individuals,
before the judicial tribunals of the land, and
for that conduct, as societies and organized
communities, they have already paid the
most fearful penalties that can fall on often
ding States in the losses, the suferings and
humiliation Of unsuccessful war. But what
ever may De the guilt Or the punishment of
the conscious authors of the insurrectiOn,
candor and common justice demand the
concession that the great mass of those who
became involved In It's responsibility acted
upon what they believed to be their duty, IN
defense of what they had been taught to
believe their rights, or under a eompulsion,
physical and moral, which they were power
less to resist Nor can it be amiss to remem-
Der that terrible as have been the beFeave-
ments and the losses of this war, they have
fallen exclusively upon neither section and
upon neither party-that they have fallen,
indeed with far greater weight upon those
with whom the war began that in the death
of relatives and friends, the dispersion OF
families, the disruption of social systems
and socialities, the overthrow Of Govern
ments, of law and Of order, the destruction
of property and Of forms an modes and
means of industry, the loss of political
commercial and moral influence, in every
shape and form which great calamities can
assume, the States and people which engaged
In the war against the United States have
suffered tenfoid more than those who re
mained in allegiance to It's Constitution and
laws.
These considerations certainly may not,
as they do not, justify the action Of the peo-
pie of the insurgent States but no just or
generous mind viii refuse to them very
considerable weight in determining the line
Of conduct which the Government Of the
United States should persue toward them.
They accept, If not with alacrity, certainly
without sulled resentment the defeat and
overthrow they have sustained. They ack-
nowledge and acquiesee in the results, to
themselves and the country, which that
defeat involves They no longer claim for