Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1866-03-30

HENRY WARD BREouER ON THE srruA.
TON.


TON.
On Monday evening of last week Hen
ry Ward l5eecher delivered lecture on
Reconstruction, from which we make the
following extract:
" ] will now glance at the state Of feel
ing in the South. When we consider
what they suffered, who they were that
suifered when / consider where they
started from and where they brougb, up
when ] consider the whole history of the
case the state Of public feeling South is
far more peaceful than we could expect.
Il is bad enough !; but is far better than
we could expect. Letter writer's, travel
lers, say constructed South a nice
condition the South is in 10 be reconstruct
cd. They are our bitter enemies they
gnash their teeth and all. / wonder if
you think that after you soundly whip a
man thai he is going to thank you for it.
Do you suppose that General Lee, when
he surrendered, should have thrown his
hands around General Grants neck and
thanked him for whipping him and com
polling him to surrender or that Cen
eral johnson should have regarded Sher-
man as his beneiactor? And should The
South go upon its knees when il sees
yankee, and say, " God bless you, Yam
kee, for all you have done for me ?'-
These men that talk thus do rot like the
state offeeling in the South. The Yam
KEGS tell us that the South is not fit to be
reconstructed. If you do not take the
South in till she heals Of her wounds, you
viii not take her in for long time 10
come. Human nature does not run this
way. II is not a question cf abstract JUS
tice +; it is practical question and you
must decide according to known law and
to human nature.
| know the South viii feel sore. They
believed in their cause they were de-
feaied, and greater disaster could not
befall them. They lost everything
money, fame, ambition, character, and all;
deep gloom over-hangs them, and pro-
found sorrow Expresses them, and they
are expected to give evidence Of thankful
ness and joy. They must first have the
hand Of kindness stretched to them. You
must give them new hopes. New bush
ness will lead them to forget old graves
new thoughts will check old tears
Kindness and business that is what they
want hold no community can do bet
ter than to take the example Of Christ in
this matter, who, though pure and just,
was the object Of all offence, The most ior-
giving and forbearing, and who suffered
rather than that we should suffer and as
He MSS TO US let Us be to others. There
is a Christian nagnanimity in il for wounds
and woe that no other medicine will touch.
II is asked, why not leave them out till
hey learn better? For the same reason
hat the father and mother do not throw
The rebeliious son out Of door and expel
MIN till he learns. No, but by kindness,
and love, and patience, they endeavor to
-einspire him with hope they open anew
he spent fountains of virtue, and he is
lgain taken into the family.
n uaI.8I q 4 ,..r..lJ taLa m c,,.< 49,
my church knowing him to be a sinner
If didn't take them in while they were
till sinners ! wouldn't hare enough in the
,hurch to say "we.' / take the sinner in
o reform him. II they do not want for
Qiveness and patience ! dol I know what
aeed they would have for a church at all.
would let them walk on their own legs
brow away the cru,ches and ordinances
# the church. The South want kindness,
words Of graciousness and truth. They
iced no paironizing, but they need fraier-
al sympathy, and that, with them, win go
arther and bring them better mind than
ny denunciations you can utter. have
made war for thirty years against slavery,
md wherever saw the serpent without
esitation smoie him. thank God the
work is done. The Constitution stands
ow as the summer sky stands--advanc-
lg and advancing /; and though no dali
les blossom, nor sun warns, do we not
now that every advancing month brings
IS nearer to The summer and to the per-
sct day Of liberty ?" aim a
PutnAx, rrduetr;a1 Association