Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1866-05-29
Gen. Grants OF inion of the Temper a d
Needs of the Southern People.

New York, May 25-The Lewis
ton, Main, Jou1'Ra gives repors OF
an hours conversation between lis
editor and Gen. 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 reported to
have said, there were some parts of
the country where our armies had
never trod, particularly Texas,
which needed 10 feel the blighting
effects of war to bring their people
to realizing sense of the enormity
their crime and the necessity OF Il
through repentance, 81 find, said
he, chat those parts of the South
have not felt the war and particular
ly those which have been within our
lines and have therefore escaped the
rebel conscription and taxes, are
much less disposed to accept the
situation in good faith than those
portions which have been literally
over run with fire and sword. -
Referring to the temper of the South
ern people, he remarked '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
I gard themselves as masters of the
situation" Some of the Rebel
Generals" he added, "are behaving
nobly, and doing all they can to in
duco the people to throw aside their
old prejudices, and TO conform their
course to the changed condition of
things. Johnson and Dick Tay lor,
particularly, are exercising a good
influence, but" he added, Lice is
behaving badly. Ho is conducting
himself very differently from what
| had reason, from what he said at
the time of the surreAder, 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 so
grudging and pernicious in its effects
as to be hardly realized" "The
men who were in the rebel armies"
said 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, he added, "there
is some bitterness of feeling among
all classes, but | am satisfied it would
soon die out if their leading men had
not somehow got the idea that trea-
son after all was not very bad, and
that the Southern cause, as they
phrase it, will yet triumph not in
war but in politics. In my judg
ment," said Grant, "the tone OF Ger
tain men and certain papers in the
North is such as to do incalculable
mischief in making the late rebels
believe that they are just as much
entitled to the rule as ever, and if
they will only stand by what they
are pleased 60 call their rights they
will have help from the North
This, added Grant, sis only playing
over again the incipient stages of the
rebellion" He was confident that
the large majority of the Southern
people would smother their resent
ments and become good citizens, if
those mischief makers 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 NepS and
kindred sheets, which are giving the
South so dangerous an idea Of their
position and rights.
q" Troops" said Gen. Grant, must
be kept in all the principal points in
the South very 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"
----~-~~nzzN ID -ez-z------