The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1866-01-07
Grant and scAurz ora tAc Condition of the
Southern States

Two military men-General Grant and
General Schurz-have written reports on
the condition OF the Southern people. The
reports differ somewhat, which is, perhaps,
not remarkable, as the men differ a little al
So Grants is very short and ShurZ's is i'm
measurable long-thirty times longer than
Grants This lie, perhaps, natural too.
Schurz has done thirty times less fighting
than Grant, and so it is only proper that he
should do thirty times as much writing.
This viii preserve an equilibrium. Schurz
has hitherto been distinguished for what he
mas written about the battle of Chancellors-
vile. He was in the very midst of that me-
jse our readers viii remember, and led the
way TO the rear with magnificent impetuosi-
~. lie led his division away from the ene-
NV IN such fine style that he forced back
.sard a whole army. 1.-The had only had the
sense 70 20 ia the other direction he might
ave aaa glorious victory at the price he
Did for shameful disaster. His principal OBJ
.euU in life ever since has been to prove that
lie did not run away, and that there was no
defeat lie has written this theme up and
down and cTosswise, just as Butler wrote and
argued to prove that Fort Fisher could not
be taken. Butler did not stop his aTgu-
ments about Fort Fisher even when the
thunder OF saluting cannon announced its
capture. Nor would SchuTz give way to
couent evidence as to the Charlottesville
defeat He wrote so fercely about it that he
was once more intrustSd with the command
| of troops, and SO it happened that he was at
the battle of Gettysburg There his blum
nto the hands of the enemy. Since that
Sehurz has kept out of sight with some sue
cess, and now he comes forward with this
vsIuminous report.
Like all Schurz's efforts, his report
amounts to very little. He kicks tremend-
ously at the dead lion, and to no purpose.
Was there not want OF delicacy, of manly
courtesy, towards brave foe in sending a
| person like Schurz to examine into the con-
dition Of that foe after tho battle2 The
South could receive Grant as the soldier who
had beaten it down fairly in good fight.
Hundreds of others it could have looked up
on,in the same spirit, But the sending Of
the eyeT-bea6en Schurz it might justly look
upon as an indignity. He went, however.
He had tried to penetrate the Southern coun-
| try several times, and always in vain. But
one day the Southern soldiers laid down
their arms and then Schurz went ahead
He wandered about in the cotton States for
| three months, and he wrote for three months
| more Six months were thus occupied In or
der to tell US very little, and that little we
| knew before he told it. His tedious report
does not even give the results of his own OBJ
servations-poor as they might be. 1t gives
instead a rehaSh of what he heard. 1t echoes
/ the GTumblings of all the soreheads he met
| on his travels. 1t is tedious rigmarole OF
| mere gabblc, and only touches points of in.
terest by accident There is not fresh idea
| or q practical suggestion in this vast agglom-
Grafton of words. His reasons against the
rehabilitation of the State governments and
the Withdrawal of the troops are lost in the
| last stage of puerility. He would delay the
restoration of civil authority. for reasons
such as these:-1 Because there are men in
the South who ridicule the oath of allegiance
,. Because they call the Northern people
Yankees (and probably called Schurz a
Dutehman) 3 Because there are some fool
ish persons who believe the South ought not
| to pay taxes. and ought to be paid for the
nigger. 4. Because the Southern people be-
lieve a freesnigger won't work if he can help
it. 5. Finally, because the Southern people
love tpe persons they suppose to be their
friends better than those they have fought
against for four years.
Just such empty nonsense makes up the
report. Schurz is 1auded as a radical, but
| he mas made sad havoc with the radical ar
guInents against reconstruction, and that
merely by admissions from which he could
not escape. He leaves them only this point
to stand upon; that we must occupy the
Southern States with troops merely because
the Southern people do not love the United
States government with the same devotion
with which the Northern people love it. He
says that all Southerners are agreed that
further resistance to the power of the ma
tional government 10 useless, and submission