The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-05-08
VOL. 2.

VUL. &.
| of the people. The heart of the people is
broken, and their spirits humiliated. Two
wears of drought, one season of floods,
months of positive hunger, have followed
four years of war, made up Of lombard
ments,. sieges, fires, loss of life and proper,
ty. Congress, with its harsh policy OF
negro suffrage, military monarchels, regis
trations. arrests and punishments, stay
laws-as in South Carollna-ls an easy
master of the situation; only you must
not expect the smitten to love the smlter,
for as blood is thicker than water, nature
stronger than coercion, this is simply i'm.
nossible. EDO with us as you will, and
we will obey,'' is the general purpose, and
Georgia is good for it by 10000 or 10000
majority, Notwithstanding the letter from
Governor jenkins. If / were q Southern
man, with my home and friends destroyed,
a war. prosecuted against me two years
after had laid down my arms, with no
permanent peace or stability in prospect,
with hope of something permanent and
established by further concessions, would
do the same thing, for until there is an
end OF exactions by obedience to DEGREES,
there can be no peace. War is not politics,
but revolution. The South is in the hands
of Government as clay in the hands OF the
potter. In seeking to overthrow the Gov
irnment of the United States, ii destroyed
itself President Lincoln has been over
ruled, President Johnson is overrnled, the
Congressional policy of 1861 and 1852 is
overruled, and now all the civil, provision
al and elected Governments of ten States
are In the hands of five United States Mil
itary Governors. Writing here in sight
of Stone Mountain and Lookout Mountain,
and the Kenesaw, watching where Sher-
man swung his army in one direction, and
General Johnston in anoter-resting at
the headquarters of Hood and Polk-walk-
ing over the ground where the brave Nc
Pherson fell-seeing yet the smouldering
ruins of war all along from the borders of
the Tennessee to this "Gate City,"
thousand miles above the sea-one can
better imagine the necessities and penalties
than upon nursing under his own vine and
fig tree at home. am not surprised,
therefore, at the eager desire of brave and
mistaken men to rebuild what has been
torn down. The needs of thousands of
widows and orphans demand this, even if
there were no higher appeals. ''You take
my life when you take the means Whereby
j i've is as true at least of the Christian
as of the Hebrew. Therefore let no North
ern man venture to blame the South for
submitting to, inevitable necessity. The
principle laid down by Blackstone, that
aany Government is better than none at
all, in this case decides the issue. Military
monarchy, in our part of North America,
is so. .repuguant to all our ideas of liberty,
that any peaceable means of getting rid OF
it is excusable, if not commendable.
One thing, however, creates burning
fever in the South, and that is the demand
made upon the people, through the Con
stitutional Amendment, to dishonor the
learders of the rebellion. All these lea
ders were made SO by the people them,
selves, or by their representatives. IT
Congress chooses to dishonor them, they
will submit with becoming grace. and the
end secured through this act, like many
others, will be in violation of the Consti-
tuition; but do not, they implore us, com
pell the Southern people themselves to
strike down men they placed in the front
rank by their own acts. Such an appeal,
surely, ought to be appreciated, since al
most every other demand, and indeed
every other exaction, will be conceded.
The writer gives the following summa-
ry of his convictions, after returning home
from this brief tour in the South
The South accept the situation, not from
choice, but from necessity-not because
they like it, or think it wise or just, but
because they cannot help it. We think
we speak advisedly upon this point, and
certainly aftcv a personal communication
with a large rumber of Southern gentle
men, including the editors of journals re-
Gently in session in Georgia, with whom
we enjoyed a long, frank, and free commu-
nication. The acquiesence we speak OF, is
no doubt, most sincere, and the motive to
it is the hope of seeing the country settled,
business made stable, property made Sc
cure, and the general interests OF the
Southern people subserved. This is GER
tainly true of Georgia, South Carolina,
Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, and,
as we believe, of the whole South. The
people of Georgia, for example, may the
orize with Governor Jenkins, who has
placed his State before the Supreme Court
in antagonism with the acts Of Congress
but they will rather act in registration,
in calling a Convention, in acquiesclng
with the results of the Convention, with
ex- x-Governor Brown-than whomperhaps,
no man at the South did more to fire the
Southern heart" against the North, and to
place the people in open rebellion against
the General Government Indeed, Tor this
matter, the boldest of the secession lead
ers in 1860 are very often the foremost
submissionists in 1867. Somessof them are
honest enough to avoW their former acts.