Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-04-18
Northern Letter-Writers on the South.

Northern Letter-Writers on the South.
Appeals have from time to time been made
to Northern and Southern writer's urging the
Importance of abstaining from abuse and ridi-
cule, elimination and recriHiination. SO far as
Northern writer's, especially Northern letter
writer's from the South, are concerned, these
appeals have been, for the most part, made in
vain. They write for Radical newspapers, are
paid for abusing and ridiculing the Southern
people, and they know well enough that their
pay will cease when their ISLANDERS stop
They therefore continue to pour them out.
The special correspondent Of a Cincinnati
paper thus commences a letter from Raleigh !;
my friend B. remarked to me the other day
when not in very good humor, that there WASH d
single lady or gentleman In the whole SCUM thal
they were not cultivated as a people; that tney
didn't know how TO cook nor how to eat, and that
in fact in a moral sense, there was no health IN
them.
What Northern man coming here cannot see how
inferior the people in almost all respects from
the people Of his own section OF country; and think
so too not bOastfully or arrogantly, but because
facts make him, and because, under the circum-
stances he cannot think otherwise. The old saying
is 'straws tell which way the wind blows and little
things that happen daily in the South show very
plainly the character and disposition Of the people.
What would we think in the North Of setting a la
boring TO cut wood with an axe, j. e., cut logs
of wood into pieces instead Of using a buck and
saw-the much easier and more expeditions way =
What would we think Of a city Of over eight thou
sand inhabitants that did not possess single free
school, decent burial ground, or properly paved
and lighted streets What would We think If
hi sc . Ha ..HrW HWW
TO teach our Northern children and yet the only
instruction white and cOlOred children are receiving
in this place is from Northern teachers sent BY
Northern men and paid for by Northern money
What would we think If we allowed our young men
to grow up perfectly useless so far as working with
the hands was concerned, and allow them TO go
around streets drunk as they could be- brawl-
ing about their honor perhaps, which seems to
trouble the noble SOutherners more than anything
else"
The same writer represents Southern people
as thus ordering negro servants " You black
negro, bring some wood here"
It's useless to defend ourselves against these
maligners and calumniators, but if they don't
like the South why don't they keep away The
freedom with which they write about South
erners, and the perils of living among them,
gives a fat contradiction TO all their Stories.-
Think of paper pretending to responsibility,
endorsing by publication such a charge as that
"there is not a single lady or gentleman in the
South"
This INSCRIPTIONS correspondent cites the
use Of an axe to cut wood" instead Of 50 a
buck and saw" as evidence of Southern infe-
riority, and points triumphantly to the absence
of free schools, decent burial grounds, and Of
paved and lighted streets, as indications Of the
same. Were not all our saw mills, tools, farm
implements, and all other cOnveniences de-
stroyed by the Northern armies' Were not
our burial grounds, in numerous instances, IA
Vaged and the monuments erectedt to the dead
broken to pieces or defaced As to free
schools, we had no use for them before the war,
being so fortunate as to possess the means to
pay for the education of our children. As to
the presence of Northern teachers, they come
without any invitation from US, and we would
only be two happy if such as come here since
the war had only staid away. They are pes
tilent set, male and female, and it is from them
chiefly, we believe, that most of the ialsehOodS
about the South emanate. The preachers and
teachers that came here when the cessation Of
the war made it safe to come, came for nothing
but "6Hhy lucre," and such as they earn
richly merits that designation, for their acqui-
sitions are the wages Of misrepresentation and
calumny. The clatter of their tongues is
doing more to produce and perpetuate sec
tional alienation than did the roll Of musketry
or the thunders of artillery during the war.
A writer in The Nation closes his thirty fifth,
and, we are happy to say, his last letter from
the South, with a complaint that the Veto
rious people, of the North are not "well
liked in the South. Than that writer no one
is more responsible for the state Of feeling Of
which he complains-if, indeed, it exist. 1t is
not his fault if the 50 victorious people" are
"well liked" To thirty-fve numbers of The
Nation he has contributed thirty-fve long let
tiers, full of abuse, ridicule and SANDER Of the
Southern people. He has industriOusly sowed
brambles, and now complains that brambleS
have sprung up. If to be lied upon is a reason
for loving such people as these correspondents
are, then we have abundant reason to love
them.