The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-07-28

of onnosition to the Government in
fba late war. accept" fully the
8 situation" as thus rendered by Con-
!. press and the Executive, what untold
benefits it might thus confer upon the
, neople! How soon might the last
vestiee of sectional strife be wiped
out. and a reunited people start
afresh on the pathway of peace and
prosperity
And why should it not do so? The
!, terms are reasonable. More reasona-
BILE "a thousand fold than the South
ern people were taught to expect be-
fore the surrender. They had been
told by rulers, politicians and press,
that submission to the Federal au-
thorities would entail confscation,
exile or chains, plumber, and division
of lands among lustful soldiery, be-
sides every conceivable degradation.
Instead of this, the Government
leaves them unmolested in their
homes, their persons and property;
and sends its agents by direction of
Congress, to hunt up and provide for
our starving women and children.
1t now says, go freely where you
will. Take lands and goods and chat
tells, and all things material and per-
ashdble, but let the principles settled
by the war be engrafted in the Gov
eminent and stand through all ages.
And the terms are certainly milder
than the leaders of the South thought
would be imposed.
Every man who was South at or
Immediately after the surrender can
not fail to remember the real or as
sumed submissiveness of those lead
crs, who had chained to carnage and
ruin the brave and bleeding masses of
the Southern people for two long
years after all hope of success had
departed. Pardon and permission to
earn bread and secure shelter for
their families, and to lead obscure
and unObtrusive lives, was claimed to
be the limit of their ambition They
then felt the true situation. A men,
Der of Mr.. Davis Cabinet, Reagan, of
Texas, advised his people to concede,
by liberal constitution, every prin-
ciple involved in the conflict, even
impartial suffrage. And Mr.. Ste
phens was at one time on the eve of
advising Georgia to do the same thing.
1t these men so felt, the masses could
have been induced at once and with
out a murmur to have accepted the
situation in its broadcast sense.
But that time has gone by. The |
pardoned leaders are betraying the
Government and misguiding the peo-
pie. They are intolerant,, superc;li- |
GUS, and dictatorial. They are seized |
with a love for the Constitution that |
maddens them! Mr.. Ben. Hill, of |
Georgia, late Confederate, Senator,
and now a delegate, | believe, to the |
Philadelphia Convention, who went |
out of the Union to fight for slavery
and secession. and who, being dragged |
back, proposes to renew the, fight |
peaceably in the Union for what is.
left of both, said recently that he
went out of the Union to save the
Constitution, and that he had come
back for the same purpose. And
such sophistry is responded to and
made to swell upon every breeze by,
all the "loyalers " from Georgia to
the Penobscot.
| tell you these men are as ready to
deceive and bring to suffering the
masses of the Southern people to-day
as they ever were, if by so doing they
can but advance themselves. They do
to conciliate; nothing to har-
monte. They pander to every weak
ness and passion of the people, and
tearopen every wound afresh that
they may gain an ephemeral populari-
ty. Instead of consoling, they do all
to dispirit and discourage. Instead of
teaching our people to bury the past,
they hold it up before them, clothed
with magnifed horrors. OF the pres
ent they speak despondingly, and for
bode nothing but evil for them.
l know that among the number who
indorse the Philadelphia Convention
there are good and patriotic men. But
these Southern politicians, from van
pushed being victors, having over
come the loyal element in the South.
and being in undisputed control of ali
the State governments except Tennes-
see and Arkansas, flushed with sue
cess, and no longer meek or modest,
contemplate little less than marching
up to Philadelphia on the 18th Of
August and debating terms to the ma
ton, or, uniting with the Northern
wing of the rebellion, sweep from
power the very men to whom thew
surrendered in 1865. What a change
in twelve months No wonder they
should pray for the time, and catch
remote hope, wild as it may seem,
when Lieutenant General Grant shall
report to j. Davis, Cor some other
butcher and plunderer of the South
ern people, as President or Secretary
of War of the United States of Amer
lea.
! fear that the proposed convention
will do but little good, and it may do
Infinite harm to the country, and es-
pecially to the South, for it was by the
action of these ertrenle men that the