Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-11-09

out OF SIght the natural feelings OF men
suddenly deprived Of what they conceived
to be then property Of men. too whom
We respected for their courahe and endu-
rance even in bad cause. But we believed
then, as We believe now, aud as events have
justified us in believing that there could
be no grayer error than to flatter our own
feebleness and uncertainty by calling it
magnanlmlty, 4 virtue which does not sc0rn
the society6f patience and prudence, but
which cannot subsist apart from courage
and fidelity 60 principle A people so boy
ish and conceited as the Seutherners have
always shown themselves to be unwilling
ever to deal with facts, but only with their
own imagination Of them, would be to inter
pret indccisioR as c0Wardiee, If not as an
unwilling tribute to that superiority (which
men who really possess it are the last to
boast. They have learned nothing from the
war but to hate the men who subdued them
and to misinterpret and misrepresent the
causes of their subduing and even now,
when feeling has been steadily eP6Eing in
the rest Of the country for the Lass nine
months, deeper and more intense than any
during the war, because mixed with an
angry sense Of unexpected and treacherous
disappointment, instead Of setting their
strength to the rebuilding of their shattered
social fabric, they are waiting as they wait
ed four years ago, for division 10 the North
which will never come, and hailiug in An
drew johnson "a scourge of God who is to
ayeage them in the desOlatiOn Of cur cities
Is it not time that these men were trans
planted az least into the nineteenth century,
and, il they cannot be suddenly Americana
zed, made to understand something Of the
country which was too good for them, even
though at the cost of a rude shock for their
childish self fconceit ? Is chat properly
reconstructed Union in the Southern half of
which no Northern man 5 life is safe except
at the sacrifice Of his conscience, his free
dom OF speech, of everything but his love
OF money ? To our minds the provideutial
purpose OF this intervention Of Dir. johnson
in our affairs Is to warn US of the solemn
duty that hes upon as in this single crisis in
our history when the chance is offered US Of
stamping our future with greatness or con
tempt and which requires something like
craftsmanship in the people themselves, as
well as in those Who act for them. The
South insisted upon war, and had enough
Of it it Is now our turn to insist that the
peace we have conquered shall be so settled
as to make war impossible for the future.
THE PROSPERITY OF THE SOUTH
But how is this to be done The road
to it is a very plain one. We shall gain all
we want if we make the South really pros
porous Tor with prosperity viii come roads,
schools, churches, printing presses indus
try, thrift, intelligence, and security of liio
and property. Hitherto the prosperity of
the South has been Fictitious ; it has been
a prosperity Oh the middle Ages, keeping
the many poor that few might show their
wealth in the baFbarism of sh0Wv equipagos
and numerous servants, and spend Ia foreign
cities the wealth tbat should have bulls Up
civilization and made way for refinement at
home. .Ihae were no public libraries, 40
colleges worthy Gr Che name; there was 10
art, no science, still worse, no literature hUt
Slmms s there was no desire for them. We
do not say ID Ia FcpT0ach, we are simply sta
ting q fact, and are quite aware chat the
North is far behind Europe in these things
But we are not behind her in the value We
set upon shem, are even before her in the
price we are willing to pay for them, and
areia the way to get them. The South was
not IN that way could not get INTO 1t, indeed
so long as the labor that made wealth was
cut of from any interest in its expenditure,
nor had anygOal f0G such hopes IS scared
away from the droaTy level Of lis lifelong
dTUdgery, but IN the 9r3 the world
beyond it, We are not Lnaa TO ~ at may
he said on the other side, nor to that fatal
plcturesqucncss so attractive 10 sentimental
minds and so melancholy to thoughtful
ones, which threw o charm over certain
exceptional modes Of Southern life among
the older families in Virginia and South
Carolina. But there are higher and manlier
kinds Of beanty.-barcr and sterner some
would call them, with less lofty rounded
edges, certainly, than the Wolf Crag pic
turesqueness which carries the mind with
pensive incidence toward the past, instead
Of stirring it with sense Of present life
or braeing it with tie hope Of future op-
portunity and which wells at once and
betrays the decay of ancient civilizations
Unless liieis arranged for the mere benefit
Of the novelist, what right had these bits of
last century Europe here? Even the vir-
tues Of the South were some Of them ana
chronisms . and even those that were not
existed side By side with an obtuseness Of
moral sense that could make a hero Of
Semmes, and a barbarian that could starve
prisoners by the thousand.
THE ADVANCE AND TIE OFFICE or A5IERI-
CAN DEMOCRACY.
Some philosophers, to be sure. plead
with US that the Southernors are rcmarka
bic for their smaller hands and feet, though
50 good an observer as Thackeray pronOun-
ccd this to be true Of Che whole American
people but really we cannot think such
arguments as this viii give any pause to the
inevitable advance Of that democracy, some
what rude and raw as yet q clumsy boy
giant and not too well mannerad, whose
Office is nevertheless to make the world
ready for the true second coming Of
Christ in the practical supremacy Of his
doctrine and its incarnation after so many
centuries Of burial in the daily lives Of men.
We have been but dimy, if atall, conscious
Of the greatness Of our eTrand, while we
have already accomplished a part 0i It in
bringing together the people Of all nations
to see each other lpo longer as aliens or GUc.
mics, but as equal partakers 8i the highest
earthly djgai,y, y,+-a common manh0ods Ne
have been forced whether we wouh oi no,
first to endure, then TO tolerate, and at last
to like men from att the four caru9rs Of the
world, and TOO see that each added certain
virtue Of his own to that precious amalgam
Of which we are in due time 20 fashion
great nation. Weare now brought face TO
face with0ur duty toward one of those dus-
ky races that have long sat IN he shadow Of
The world we are to be taught TO see the
Christ disguised also in these, and 10 lind at
last that part Of ou salvation is inextTi
cably knit up with the necessity of doing
them justice and leading them to she light.
This Is no sentimental fancy Il IS written