Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-01-19
FORMING PUBLIC OPINION.


Northern vengeance for the Southern
market progresses. The supply is pretty
large already, but is increasing With great
rapidity The shops of the pictorials are
busy from sun to sun; while at all hours
in the sanctums of the dailies, the din of
the hammers beating out and forging
letters for the South, rises in continuous
harmony The lecture room is in up
roar-the lecturer himself VULCAN,
while his material yields and glows I'M
der the steady strokes. From city to
city, from village to village, from factory
to factory, the uproar travels The pull
pit, once the sanctuary of religion that
teaches peace and good will on earth,
roars a furnace of wrath. There, the shot
and the shell to be employed in the sab
jugation of proud people are moulded.
There, hate is nursed as flower, and the
sentiment of mercy forbidden to grow.
There, the form Of god!iness initiates IT.
self with the spirit of intolerance, and
unfurls, not the banner Of the cross, but
the murky ensign of hell. There shall
be no peace, say the clergy, LEAKING on
their cushions Of softest velvet There
shall be war, havoc and ruin, say the
editors, bending over their editorial
desks The South shall be rent and torn
and mangled, say the iron mongers,
the cotton spinners, the shoe peggers
and the shoddy mushrooms that grew up
in single night of war. We tell tn ese
Southrons that their proud spirits are not
to be tolerated-we tell them that their
late slaves are their equals, and they
must so recognize them, say the strong
minded women. We will damn the South
in rhymes, and sing its people down to
infamy, say the poets of New England.
They shall know no peace, cherish no
hope and enjoy no prosperity, say the
members of Congress. We will hedge
them about with statutes and bind them
to the triumphal car Of the North.
If they ask for bread, we will give them a
stone. If they pray for peace, we will
rive them war. If they ask for mercy,
we will grant them vengeance. This is
the spirit of the Jacobins of the North
and of Congress, 1t is not spirit that
listens to either Justice or mercy. 1t is
domiciled in calculation, and burns with
the fires of selfexaltation. Lest it
should lose particle of heat, those who
fan it, when destitute of real horrors to
fling into its flames, maliciously invent
false ones. They have summoned to
their councils the aid of art, and prosti
tuted its powers ito the foul interest of
Islander. Underneath the artists pencilthe
South assumes the form of wilderness
inhabited by beasts in the shape of men
beasts, whose destruction it is every
mans mission to accomplish. They are
looked upon as tresspassers upon the
property Of others, and as if they gath
cred their subsistence from soil to
which they possessed no titlei whatever
Their very existence is resented, their
history scorned and their future declared
to be that of slavish inferiority. Yet,
there may come change. The grass
viU grow over the graves Of the archi-
tects who construct the ruin of the
South. Their successors may yield, in
course of time, to the promptings of
Justice. They may yield to an argu-
ment still stronger. Who knows2