Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-10-08
n SPECTATOR AND GENERAL ADVERTISER.
Conduct Of the North towards the South.


The Cdss County Mo- Herald says that
every one familiar with current events must
be struck with the strange inconsistency be-
tween the political and private action OF the
Northern people Politically they are seeking
to crush the life out of the South while pri-
vately they seem to be laboring to build it up.
Politically, they are trying to make the South
ern States a desert; while privately they seem
to regard the prosperity of those States as
matter of great importance. Politically, they
force upon them policy which prevents their
financial prosperity; while privately they seem
anxious that the Southern people should pros
per- The party in power reduces the States to
military provinces and threatens the people
with confscation, thus preventing the immigra
ton of Northern capital and population, both
of which are essential to the prosperity OF the
people of those States. On the other hand,
the representatives of Northern commercial
houses are traversing every section OF the South,
soliciting trade and business. The people OF
the North, as citizens, are eager Tor Southern
trade, while, at the same time, the policy OF
Congress tends directly to the destruction of all
trade, by depriving the people of the ability to
produce anything to trade with. So long as
the South is kept in its present condition otop-
preston and suspense, so long as the threat OF
confiscation is held over them, SO long as they
are held in military servitude, SO long will the
progress of the country be retarded, and so long
will the energies Of the people be paralyzed. =
If, at the close of the war, the Government had
considered the interests of the whole country,
rather than the means ofrevenge. the condition
of affairs would to-day have been very different.
The impoverished and desolated South needed
everything. Its wealth had been destroyed. =
1t required capital, population and labor to re-
vive its productive energies, and these could
only be obtained with the certainty that the
country was not still to be the object ofrevenge
and hatred Until its status was fixed, and it
was reduced to a certainty that property would
be secure, and equal laws would govern, there
could be but little hope for the restoration Of
the prosperity enjoyed before the war. Men
feared, they knew not what. lfthey had saved
anything from the wreck of the war. they dared
not risk it in business lest it should excite the
cupidity of the party in power, and expose them
to further prosecutions. The abolition OF slave
ry had made it impossible to procure the neces
sary amount of labor, and yet the condition o.
the country prevented the influx Of population
which would have aided materially in increasing
their productions, and ere this would have giveI
these States something with which to reward
the enterprise OF Northern merchants and man
ufacturers, whose agents are now In every por
ton of the South
Yet it cannot be disguised that thousands ane
tens of thousands Of the very classes who are sc
industrieusly seeking the trade of these States
vote for the men and sustain the policy by
which the country from which they are seeking
trade is Frustrated They incur heavy expense
to send agents to solicit trade in a country which
is desolare, and at the same time they cast thei
votes for the party whose threat Of confseatior
deprives them of millions OF dollars worth O
trade per annum. 1t is a remarkable instance
of the failure of the Northern people to fine
where the almighty dollar is hid. Their usua
sagacity has deserted them in this instance. =
They have lost sight Of their interest in thei
pursuit of revenge, which is as Rngeneross a
it is unjustifable. Gg