Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-05-31
Gem. Grant or tire South.


The Lewiston, Name, Journal, gives q re-
port of an hours conversation between its
editor and General 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 re-
ported to have said, there were some parts
of the country where our armies had never
trod, particularly Texas, which needed to
feel the blighting effects Of war to bring
their people to realizing sense of the
enormity of their crime and the necessity Of
thorough repentance. "I fnd,' said he,
" that those parts of the South which have
not felt the war and particularly those which
have been within our lines and have there
fore escaped the rebel CONSUMPTION and
taxes, are much less disposed to accept the
situation in good faith than those portions
which have been literally overrun with fire
and sword" Referring to the temper of the
Southern people, he remarked :" They are
much less disposed now to bring themselves
to the proper frame of mind than they were
one year since" ga year ago." said he,
s'they were willing to do anything. Now
they regard themselves as master Of the sit
uation" stSome of the rebel Generals"
he added, s'are behaving nobly, and doing
all they can to induce the people to throw
aside their old prejudices, and to conform
their course to the changed condition of
things. johnson and Dick TAYLOR, particu-
larly, are exercising goodinfuence, but,
he added, ''Lee is behaving badly. He is
conducting himself very differently from
what had reason, from what he said at the
time Of the surrender, to suppose he would.
No man at the South is capable of exercising
a tenth part Of the influence for good that
he is, but instead of using it he is setting
an example Of forced acquiesoence so grudg
ing and pernicious in its effects as to be
hardly realized" "The men who were in
the rebel armies" said Grant, g acquiesce
in the result much better than those who
staid at home. The women are particularly
bitter against the Union and Union men,"
ssOf course" he added, ''there is some Bit
terness of feeling among all classes but l
am satifed it would soon die out if their
leading men had not somehow got the idea
that treason 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 Judgment" said Grant, ''the
tone of certain men and certain papers In
tie North is such as to do incalculable mis-
chief in making the late rebels believe that
they are just as much entitled to rule as
ever, and if they will only stand by what
they are pleased to call their rights they
will have help from the North g This,
significantly added Grant, sis only playing
over again the incipient stages OF the re-
bellion'' He was confident that the large
majority Of the Southern people would
smother their resentments, and become good
citizens, if those mischief makers at the
North, the Copperheads, would only let
them alone. For himself, ii he had the
power, the first thing he would do would be
to seize the New York News, and kindred
sheets, which are giving the South so dan
gerous an idea of their position and rights.
"Troops," said Gen. Grant, :" must be
kept in all the principal points in the South
for some time to come. This will be neces-
sary to redress the turbulence of a class Of
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,