Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1866-10-05
What should the South Do!

Every day furnishes renewed indications
that the republicans will at the approaching
elections sweep the entire North and West
by tremendous maiorities. We see this in
the number present and the enthusiasm man
itestcd at their State conventions, at their
mass meetings. al. their county and munich
pal primary meetings and in the vgor and
determination evinced in private conversa-
ton. If they quarrel among themselves, ii
is only because they feel themselves strong
enough to do 50 without enda1gering victo-
ry, as the democratic party of old once did.
That "cohesive power" which sealed the de
funct democracy in cordial embrace when
ever the final issue ut the ballot box came
now imbues the republicans, and il will be
only through miserable management. imhe.
cility and corruption, which killed the dem.
ocratic party, that a similar fate will attend
the present dominant party. The democra-
cy have been consigncs to Il tomb rs silent
and dead as that TO which the remains of the
old know-nothing party were committed
years ago. The South cannot hope to revive
it by any ghlvanc battery they may bring
to bear. Before final consignment to its ev-
erlasting resting place the democratic party
pursued a policy that had not kept pace
with the progress of the age for thirty years
prior to the rebellion. 1t pretended to be
the especial guardian Of the South and her
rights, and. like spoiled children in lavish
and prohi9ate household, the Southerners
were led to believe that anything they might
attempt TO accomplish they could succeed in
by the assistance of the Northern democra-
cy. This fatal error was taught them by
poor Pierce and poorer Buchanan and their
old bunker pro-slavery and copperhcad sat
elites. II the South had not accepted the
advice of these men in 1860, when the Peace
Convention in Washington offered them
comparatively fair and liberal terms of set
tlement, the Southern people at this time
would not have to regret the loss of their
property in slaves nor to be menaccd with
perpetual confscation. disiranchsement and
utter ruin. Now. in 1866, only six years
later, Congress offers the South terms of ad-
justment, certainly not so generous as those
offered before the terrible ordeal of four
years carnage had been gone through, yet
under all the circumstances, and especially
in view Of the greater evils which the por-
tentous gates of the future may open to
them, they cannot but be regarded as mag
unanimous, and it can be no dishonor to the
South to accept them. TIL 'se terms are
found in the pending constitutional amend
ment proposed, 1t must be distinctly under
stood, not by the radicals and bitter foes of
the South, but by the moderate and conserv-
alive members of Congress.
The issue upon this question of restora-
ton between the President and Congress is
not a difference of principle it is n differ
ence of temper-bad temper, it may be des-
ipnated. The President has ut several times
the very plan Of restoration and
adjustment which the conservatives in Con-
gress have proposed. The South should re-
member that it is no work of Thad Stevens
and his Jacobins. But it is no time now to
exhibit narrow and acrimonious spirit in
the settlement Of our national difficulties
II should be no partisan matter. 1t involves
higher and grander considerations than
weSe uver bora Of political parcntage The