American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-04-25

NUMBER

"PPoais w the news
papers The Southern press had de.
bauched the public mind so absolutelv
that il became intolerant of anv o,bo.
mental ailment than that WHICH aattered
the white people, proclaimed slavery di.
vine, and denounced Yankees and sboli.
tlonism- The war does not appear to
have improved Southern literature in anv
marked degree. Newspapers and maya.
zines are conducted by the samo men and
written for by the same writers as before
the war. De Bows Repiew, with Dr.
bow at its head, again appeals to public
favor with its old corps of contributors
George Fitzhugh, of Virginia, in the
April number gives as characteristic ar.
ticle on " Boys" and, just ag might be
expected, fills subject that ought to in !.
spire him with generous emotion with the
bitterness of his rebellious spirit. aUp
to puberty" this writer says, 'the pleas.
ure Oh giving pain seems to be the NV
pieSsurable sensation of which boys ar o
susceptible. Asayoung man what course
OF life would you have him pursue p
should ne become laborer, and instead
OF cheating others be cheated by every.
body Is not he the greatest of cheats
who che ats himself, and, thereby impoy
erishes wife and children Mol He
who resolves to live by his wits, by cheat.
ing and exploiting, is right, because ex.
isting social arrangements necessitatc hi,
course"
Now, What sort of social education
must that man have received who puts
forth such views as this? Are they not
in themselves the saddest comment that
can be made upon the state of society in
Virginia Is it true of our MARYLAND
boyhood that its only pleasure is in civ.
ing pain up to the ago of puberty2 We
surely think not Our social condition ia
certainly not so bad as that. We have
not had, thank God, quite 50 many nc.
groes to whip as to make it chief amuse.
ment for our childyen. We think that
the natural instincts of boys are noble
apd truthful, and generous, and that Il
would require very perverted educa.
ton, or a loag line of ancestral petty tv.
rants, to produce so monstrous brood as
that. 1t may be possible that this is a
fa'r picture Of what many boys are, and
the way they grow up, drawn from the
life and education the writer has seen
Examples of injustice and the exercise of
violent passions before children may de.
velop such natures, but we had hoped
they were exceptional. If, as Mr.. Fitz.
hugh assumes, the boys are to be eiassed
as cruel, VIC should bo glad that change
IS likely to come over the social condition
that has made them so
Nor do we think that De Bow will i'm
prove tho morals of the community by
intoxicating the view that ale who re.
solves to live by his wits, by cheating and
exploiting, is right, because existing SO.
cial arrangements necessita.e his course
Such sentiments are the morbid emana-
tions of disappointed traitors, who vent
their spleen upon the whole nation by i'm.
plying that they are cheats ond adven.
turers. Minds so possessed are not sound
or healthy, and we cannot expect pure
water from an unclean spring. IF De
Bow expects to be of any service to tho
country, or to aid the Southern people in
adapting themselves to the requirements
of the situation, he must get new corps
of writers for his magazine. Geo. Fitz-
hugh, in his February number of 1861,
wrote:
" 1t is gross mistake to suppose that
abolition is alone the cause of disunion
between North and South. The Cava-
80
liers, Jacobites and Huguenots Who set
tied the South, naturally hate, contemn
and despise the Puritans who settled the
North. The former are master races;
the latter slave race, the deeendants of
tho Saxon serfs." 7sw
Such opinions as these would naturally
tend to the development Of generation
Of boys, such as Fitzhugh describes, and
it may be that all the boys he sees are
more or less the offspring and victims Of
these brilliant ideas, for Satan himself
could not devise a better plan for making
fools and monsters Of them. His notions
of Government, in the same agiiele, are
thus expressed "Wc of the South must
so modify our State institutions as to re-
more dte people further from the direct
crereise Of po,eer." -
" 1t is a characteristic of the progress of
opinion in the South that all men sec the
necessity Of more and stronger gorern-
nasnt.'