Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-06-01

His views on The situation.

AAAo bAEHS ttAN SStoseSAOAA
The Lewistown Maino) journal gives a
report Of an hours conversation between
the Editor and General Grant in which, if
the report is correctly given, the Lieutenant
General appears to have spoken out more
freely than he commonly does He is re-
ported to have said there were some parts
Of the country where our armies had never
trod particularly Texas which needed to
feel the blighting effects Of the war to bring
thei' people to a realizing sense of the enor-
nifty Of their crime and the necessity Of a
thorough repentance. | find, said he. that
those parts Of the South which have not felt
the war, and particularly those which have
been within our lines aud have therefore
escaped the rebel conseription and taxes, are
much less disposed to accept the situation
In good faith than those portions which have
been literally oyerrnu with fire and sword
Referring to the temper Of the Southern
people, he remarked that they are much
less disposed now to bring themselves to the
proper frame of mind, than they were one
year since. A year ago, said he, they were
willing to do anything. Now they regard
themselves as masters of the nation. Some
of the rebel generals, he added, arc behaving
nobly and doing all they can to induce the
people to throw aside their old prejudices
and to conform their course to the changed
condition Of things. johnson and Dick lay
lor, particularly, are exercising good in
fuence, but he added. Lee Is behaving
badly. He is conducting himself very diff
erently from what | had reason, from what
he had said at the time of the surrender, to
suppose he would. No man at the South
is capable of exercising tenth part Of the
influence for good that he is, but instead Of
using it he is setting an example of forced
acquiescence as grudging and perDicious in
its effects as to be hardly realized The men
who were in the rebel armies, said General
Grant, acquiesce in the result much better
than those who staid at home. The women
are particularly bitter against the Union and
Union men. OF course, be added, there is
some bitterness of feeling among some clas-
ses, but | am satisfied it would have soon
died out if their leading men had not some
how got the idea that treason, after all, was
not very bad, and that the Southern cause,
as they term it, will yet triumph, not in war
but in politics. In my judgment, said Gen.
Grant, the tone of certain men aud certain
papers in the North is such as to do incal-
culable mischief in making the late rebels be-
lieve that they are just as much entitled to
rule as ever, and that if they will only stand
by what they are pleased to call their rights
they will have help from the North. This,
significantly added General Grant, is only
playing over again the ineipient stages of
the rebellion
He was confident that the large majority
of the Southern people would smother. their
resentment and become good citizens if the
mischief at the North, the copperheads,
would only let them alone. For himself, if
he had the power, the first thing he would
do would be to seize the New York Ne,Cs
and kindred sheets, which are giving the
South so dangerous an idea of their own
position andrights. Troopssa Gen. Grant
must be kept in all the principal points in
the South for some time to come. This viii
be necessary to repress the turbulence of a
class Of the South being dangerous to all
well disposed persons, and also to protect the
rights Of the freedmen who are looked upon
with deep hatred by very large proportion
of the people.