Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-10-12
WHAT THE REACTION NORTH HAS
COST THE SOUTH.

submissiyeIy 10 the end, has the South
waited and watched through the long
night which has preceded it. The prom
ised land which now seems breaking on
our view through the clouds and dark
ness which have so long developed us,
has cost many weary and cherries
day Of wandering in the wilderness
While we recognize, in the result oil the
elections North, the patriotic ana zeal
Gus efforts of those in that section who
were the tried and staunch friends OF
civil liberty and the Constitution through
the darkest days of the war, and when,
for the sake of principle only, they sac
nfced all political power, domestic
peace and personal security, we are also
bound in justice to our own section and
her heroic people, to claim for them
some part of the glory and some instru'
mentality in bringing about the triumph
of Conservatism wherever Conservatism
has triumphcd or gained ground
The South, as people, since
Welding to the arbitrament OF
arms, has borne and submitted to the
burtheus and expressions under which
she has suffered as no people ever sub
mitted before. As one by one Radical
ism has robbed her people of their liber'
ties she has without an act calculated to
proyoke further exaetioHs peaceably and
patiently yielded to the power of the
land-yiolating no law and resisting no
agent or officer intrusted with its execu'
ton. All this the South has done, all
this borne, until by her sufferings she
has awakened sense of sympathy and
sentiment of moderation in the hearts
and minds of the nobler and more mag
unanimous throughout the country. 1t
has been the patient and forbearing sub
mission to her condition through two
long years which has appealed to and at
length reached the great Northern beart.
Her sufIerings have purchased the tri'
umph of Conservatism. To trace the
gradual but steady tendency of cause to
effect, we have but to go back and note
the exactions, one after another, which
have been from time to time i'm
posed upon the people of the
South, noting at the same time the
changes in the sentiments of the North,
which have never failed to keep pace
We are not among those who regard the
political revolution in the North thing
of the past few months, or yet of the
past year. 1t commenced with the first
oppressive measure of Congress, and
has progressed with every step that body
has taken toward the establishment of a
despotism in ten States of the Union.
When these States acquiesced to the
arbitrament of arms and repealed their
ordinances of secession, there we're even
then those in the Republican party who
were satisfied, and neither asked or
expected more. Those who were with
the Republican party as the war party,
and held the preservation of the Union
as above everything else, were satisfied
with the accomplishment Of this end, and
wished to proceed no further against the
South after her surrender of the
right In secede. When the South
went still further, and repudiated her
war debt and ratified the constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery, again
there were those who to this time had
adhered to the Republican party who
we're content With this. They had secured
by the war not only restoration of the
Union. but the abolition of negro slavery,
and mere than this they neither de-
manded or expected. 0mitting all inter
ference with the couris and the establish |
ment of the Freedmen's Bureau, with its
agents in every village and hamlet; the |
destruction of all contracts between |
laborer and employer the paralyzing of
agriculture, and every in
dustry, to all of which :he South submit
ted without murmur, and we come to
the last and greater outrage than every |
other. The States of the South are now
placed under military rule, lorded over
by autocrats with standing armies at their
beck and bid, aud return to the Union rem.
dered thing to be avoided, since
negro supremacy is made the condition
precedent Many in theRepublican party,
very many, we have reason to believe,
who had even gone with it through all
up to this, are brought at last to their
senses and true realization Of the con
dition of things, and are willing to 90 no
further. Such a class has just protested
against this measure of Congress by
vote of $4,000 in Ohio and $4,000 in
Pennsylvania on the eafranc hisement of
the negro North or South. Whatever
effect official Encouragement, profigacy
and corruption may have had upon the
recent elections, we can discover above
all the policy of Radicalism in its legis-
lation for and dealing with the South
operating against it, generating dissatis'
faction, and gradually causing disinteg-
ration. The congressional plan Of re-
construction was fairly submitted to the
people of Ohio and Pennsylvania il the
proposition to do away with all distinc-