Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-02-02

policy TO keep as quiet as possible. We have
no voice or influence in the decision to be pro.
nounced, although all our interests depend up,
on it. We naturally feel lively, painful in.
terest in il, and are sometimes betrayed into
expressions so warm as to be deemed impru-
dent. Seeing the Presidents process of re-
construction gradually developed-permitted
to elect municipal and county officers; allowed
to choose State Legislatures and Governors
and seeing those Legislatures assemble, organ
ize, and apparently exercise all the legislative
functions, and our elected Governors recoG-
nized bv the President and duly installed IN
J ofiice-we began to think that we had resumed
our places in the Union, and would be per.
mitted to speak our sentiments like freemen
We thought the contest ended, but find that il
has hut commenced We forgot that the Pre-
sident's arrangements were only provisional
or could so be interpreted by an unfriendly
congressional majority, and lost sight Of the
fact that martial law still prevails in the South
Every imprudent word we have spoken has re-
turned to plague US. The expressions Of
wounded sensibility have been construed into
evidences Of disloyalty.
We have laid down our arms, taken the oaths
of amnesty and obedience, and cannot strike
blows, even if we so desired. We naturally
chafe under the wanton insults and unmanly
denunciations so freely bestowed upon us in
radical quarters, and are tempted to hurl them
back in their teeth, for it is not the habit OF
Southern men to submit silently to such treat
Inent Let us, however, always bear in mind
that there is more manlinesS and dignity in
silence than in bandying epithets. We should
remember, too, that those whom we are
tempted to abuse have the power of mean
revenge. II we are diSarmed and helpless,
they are not. The position in which we find
ourselves is sufficiently humiliating, but it is
the result of war; and we must reconcile our
selves to it as best we can. Harsh language
cannot save us from wrong on the contrary it
NAV exasperate the Radicals to such degree
as to induce them to superadd measures of still
greater severity.
One very in consequence has followed the
Radical demonstrations in Congress. We had
all. under the pleasant delusion that we were
American citizens, and that our States were
once more States in the Union, begun to ex-
perience a re-awakening of that high sentiment
amor patria. We had begun to feel pride and
pleasure in its indulgence. We have suddenly
found ourselves checked, and the delusiOn has
been dispeued. We have been thrown back
into the ''slough Of deSpond." We are disap-
pointed, discouraged, disheartened. We feel
that our efforts to cooperate with and sustain
the President have been in vain, have even
made it all the harder for us. We have the
satisfaction Of believing that he is this day as
irm as he was three months agO-if any thing
drmer-and that he appreciates the sentiments
of respect and admiration universally felt for
him throughout the South, but it seems that
not his, but Radical counsels are to prevail
All that we have done is to be counted as moth
ing-worsc than nothing. 1t is to be construed
AGAINST us and distorted into evidence Of dis
LOYALTY. We are to be allowed to do nothing
voluntarily, but in all things are to act under
constraint and cOmpulsion. The President
said-s We must trust the South" The Radi-
Gals say. The South cannot be trusted" 1t
must be suspected, discredited, Inundated,
dSgraced and punished to the last extremity oi
rigor. This may not be brave, may not be mag
unanimous, but We are pOwerleSs, and may as
well be silent. Our sentiments are known as
far as we can make them known. Let us bear
our fate, trusting to Providence to strengthen
the hands of the President and to overrule the
evil intentions Of those who despitefully use
and perSecute us.