Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1867-05-09
RECONSTRUCTION In THE SOUTH,

1t is to be regretted that Governors
Sharkey and Jenkins|are throwing the
weight of their influence and efforts
against the reconstruction of the
South under the late act of Con-
gress. How these men expect to
promote the welfare of the late rebel
states but such course, we are una
BILE to conjecture. If these men
should succeed in keeping out their
respective states out from an organ
ization under the act of Congress,
they will only postpone their politi-
cal status, and as natural sequence,
suspend all business, Improvement,
Investment, and everything calcula-
ted to quiet and advance the inter.
ests of the people and states. We
are glad to see that many of the
leading men, and newspapers of the
Southern States are repudiating the
action of these two men. A leading
Georgia paper asserts that the ill-ad.
vised course pursued by these men
occasioned great gloom and despon.
dency in that state. 1t asserts that
the people had become reconciled to
the bill, and had made up their mind
to accept it cheerfully, and go to
work in good faith under the provi
sions of the law. The proceedings
taken by Gov. Jenkins have thrown
everything out again. The people
are driven into suspense. Confidence
is unsettled, capitalists hesitate tc
invest their money n.the state, anG
the adjustment of the political ant
industrial affairs of the South is in
definitely delayed. Another year O
uncertainty, distrust and delay, can
not fail to infict immense injury up
on the South and as it is for the in
terest of the whole country that al
questions growing out of the war
should be settled with as little delay
as possible, the obstinacy and folly
with which the Georgia papers fine
fault, should be equally depiored by
the Northern press.
There seems to be little doubt that
the Southern people, but for this in
judicious movement, would soon set
tie into the quiet recognition of the
altered relations which the war has
brought about, between the blacks
and the whites. The Freedmen arc
already taking an active part in poll
tics, with the encouragement and co
operation of their white neighbors
who show no disposition to interfere
with or to coerce them. Since the
passage of the Military Reconstruc-
tion Bill, the outrages against tht
per sons and property of Freedmen
have ceased. School-houses are NJ
longer burned, nor are scholars OF
tea chers threatened with violence
This is very great advance ovel
last year, and is full of promise fol
the South in years to come. But in
view of these facts, how pernicious
and reprehensible is the action Of
men like Gov. Jenkins, who would
put stop to the fraternization oi
the whites and blacks at the South
and throw back for a year, at least
the settlement of society. These
men have learned nothing and for.
gotten nothing. They seem to have
walked out of long sleep, with the
same ideas they had when they Law
down. 1t is to be hoped that their
day has gone by, and that the South
will repudiate their action with the
,promptness which the exigency of
'the time requires. They should be
taught that moral revolutions never
go backward, and that the South of
today is as different from the South
of six years ago as Europe is from
Turkey. Their leadership should be
a very dim remembrance from the
past, so 1t will be, if the people of
the South are just to themselves.