The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-25
RecOnstructiun - The South Accepting
the Situation.
From the Times.


From the Times.
Reports from the South daily grow more
cheering; not indeed in their bearing upon the
material prosperity of the people, but in rela-
ton to the political aspects of the reconstruc-
ton question. The fatal policy of inaction is
being discarded. The impracticable counsel
of baflled politicians is unheeded. The possi-
bilities of the future are no more permitted
to neutralize the exigencies of the present.
The situation, with all it's harshness and all
its penalties, is accepted, and the great body
of the people are applying themselves earnestly
to the task which Congress has imposed upon
them. There is no whining, no grumbling,
no abuse; but, on the contrary, there is a
rapidly growing determination to face the
great difficulty promptly, and to make the
best of the gloomy circumstances which now
exist.
The wise example set by Ex-Governor Brown,
of Georgia, has already been much more eX-
tensively adopted than at one time seemed
probable. No more reliable illustration of
the change in this regard could be desired
than that which South Carolina has supplied.
The State where the heresies of secession
might be supposed the longest to lurk, has
been the first to evince its realization of the
revolution in the relation of races; they who
have been considered the least tractable of its
citizens have been foremost in recognizing the
immediate result of the new order of things.
When Wade Hampton and his friends de-
scended from the high horse of Carolinian
chivalry, and hailed their former chattels as
men and brethren equals in the eye OF the
! law and the State, there could nowhere be any
hope of successful resistance. In Georgia, the
movement inaugurated by Gov. Brown grows
apace, while in Alabama a call for meeting
/ to take steps preliminary to a convention has
/ been issued by Governor Swayne and other
prominent citizens. Mississippi is in motion
| under the influence of men who Will feel most
! severely the penalties OF the law Hons. W.
| p. Harris, Amos R. Johnston, Ethel Barksdale,
and former Rebels of the same SatuS are en-
ploying their opportunities to stimulate then
fellow-citizens to compliance with the terms
4 dictated bv Congress. ''lt is very desirable,
writes Mr.. Johnston, ''that this long and
ruinous struggle between the sections should
he Terminated in some way-in the best mode
possible. in view of the situation" MI
Barksdale's appeals are yet more slgnlhcaht
The intimate friend of JEFF. Davis TO the last
his recommendation to accept the ''neVltaoit
fact ;, which cannot safely be Presented will
impOtent malice nor treated WIN sIollu lhuil
ference possesses popularity second only
to the conversion of Wade Hampton
These demonstrations have potency pc
yond the States in which they. occur II
Louisiana, for instance, influential lourna, az
point to them by way of rebuking the 9c,lil loI5l
and obstinacy of their Legislature C99lS ~ :
, our legislature" says the New Orleans BaS
ie1in, ''be prevailed upon to cease their futil m
efforts to amul the acts of Congress ey pre- e
ambles and resolutions" "the State miglls u D y
benefited" This tendency to practical euor
is strengthened by the admirable spiI!!tt r!t
which some of the commanders OF nintal
, districts have entered upon their duties
General Schoheld's order, upon assuming CON
,, mand in Virginia, is the subject OF muo
! friendly criticism. The opinion is receiveq
that while the law win be faithfully, uniiinGl
y ingly administered, only indiscretion on III
u part of the South will provoke the rigors {
military rule. And this impression natural
: strengthens the disposition to yield tocontdi
:, tions which cannot be evaded, and to bow
a an authority which cannot be defed with in
q punity. .IgrG|arI roi EeT t-e,rHfrfa.s
y Here and there an appeal TO the Suprem