The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-09-24


record was bad The accession OF thousands
of such meu 10 any party conld only be an in
jury, and-to the extent to which thev might
be able to mould its polcy-G cUdm9y. Wth
no higher views OF patriotic duty, while the
great conflict was going on, than personal
ACKNOWLEDGMENT, they have no higher con-
cepJiOn of honor and oil right as political
partisans now that the strife IS over. Aud
whatever errors of Judgment there may be
chargeable against the President, or against
conservative Republicans who have given his
policy an independent support there has
been nothing IN the whole record of the Repuh-
liCan party so fatal TO its permanent influence
and power as its association with the tribe of
misChieEmakels whose fortunes were broken
when the armies OF the Confederacy surrendered
to Grant. Their baneful influence has not only
been felt here in their native haunts, where
they daily preach malice and uncbaritableness
at will but il spreads itself all over the country.
and is ielt TO-DAY, more than anywhere else in
the subugated States; stirring up strife between
master and servant, and keeping alive the flames
of dsCord between sections and races.
What does General Swayne, the Freedmen's
Commissioner in Alabama, testify? Surely his
evidence ought TO be listened to even by those
who are accustomed to reject ordinary testimony
as TO affairs III the South. General Swayne says,
writing from Mobie:-"The attention OF parties
has been drawn to the systematic dissemination
of items at the North, apparently by one person,
detailing all SORTS OF sensational occurrences to
persons OF both faces. The scene Is generally
laid in Mobile, and the story is uniformly with
out foundatlon."
Now that is a statement surely of very grave
nature. We know here that it is IN no manner
exaggerated; we know that the most horriiying
reports from Alabama and Mississippi are puO-
lished every day in extreme papers here, and
thai they are published as proper campaign
documents, with the view of eXasperlting the
public mind, and supplying capital for diSunion
agents. Yet General SWayne specially mtrusted
with the guardianship OF the black race in Ala
bama-a man whose record as a soldier gives
authority TO what he declares, and man who
has no personal or party object to subserye,
steps forward and pronOunces the stories of the
barbarOus treatment OF the negroes, and the
antagonism between the freedmen and their
late employ els TO be utterly without foundation
Let this kind Of malicious sectional agency go
on; let those lying reports from Mobile con-
tinue TO be echoed back from this city and else
where-and how much nearer to a thorough
reunion should we be, We're the Constitutional
amendment accepted tomorrow by every State
of the South Supposng we admit that the
acceptance OF THAI amendment by the South
affords the Teadle5t solution of the problem of
reConstruCdOn-suppos conservative men agree
to recommend its acceptancC-are these agents
of strife at Mobile and elsewhere not dong their
utmost to make thorough and cordial restOra-
tion impossible? What possible inducement is
there Tor reasonable and moderate Southern men
to accept the Congressional plan OF settlement
so long aS they ale traduced by organized mallg-
nants, who have as little love for the Union as
they have regard for decencv and truth?
II the lately insurgeDt States have to come
back under such guarantees as the Consttu.
tional amendment lays down. let the intelligent
and responsible portion OF their people at least
understand that the compromise is made in a
spirit of fairness and frankness, and that we
have ceased to treat them as perpetual aliens
and enemies. The attempt to awaken love and
respect by steady and persevering abuse has
been tried among other peoples and in other
times. We do not read anywhere that il has
succeeded. II certainly will not succeed on
this continent among American-born men and
women-not among such Of Them at least, as
are fit to exercise the rights OF freemen and to
enjoy the privileges of citizenship.