The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-07-22
Terms Etght Dollars per annstan, S1s adyonce.


Whlle the battle against slavery was pend
ing the dnimus of the leaders on the side Cf
liberty was cruelty misrepresented. They
were accused of making their philanthropy !,
mere shallow pretense for giving effect to feel
inss Of the most malignant hate toward their
fellow citizens of the South. Why they should
oe supposed to cherish such sentiments was,
"nu sui is, a mystery. for they certainly
.oui' not nope to attain any object useful to
themselves by iniuring the prosperity of any
par. oi tne country. But recent events have
ehaoied them to vindicate the purity and dis
interestedness of their motives in a most cou-
plete and satisfactory manner. The oreater
number of them have shown that thew ware
actuated by feelings of benevolence for tho
whites quite as much as for the blacks. Tbav
hated the Southern stakeholder but not the
Southern man. Since the war they have TAX
en- the lead in demanding a humane and mod
crate policy, and have given the whole weight
OF their influence for the promotion of frater-
rnal spirit between the people of the North and
South. In few instances their zeal for the
restoration of harmony has led them to take
more advanced ground in this direction than
any other class of loyal citizens.
Gerrit Smith may be regarded as repre-
sentative man Of the old-school Abolitionists.
He has taken frequent occasion to declare him
self in favor of liberal measures in dealing with
| the South. We append some extracts from
| his recent letter to Thaddeus Stevens, which
| ought to give him high rank as a philanthro-
| pist, WHATEVER may be thou sht of the practical
| wisdom of his views:
You are too old and too intellectual to be
| making concessions to passion and predjudice
| There are two reasons why the North should
| be glad to help the South First, the South is
poor-very poor, and the North is rich-very
| rich. Second, the North is largely responsible
| for the poverty of the South. Our fathers
| united with the fathers of the South in maxi
| ing this a land of slaves; and in our own day
| the North has gone with the South in uphold
ing and extending Slavery. Uutil the break
| ing out OF this war, every Congress was for
slavery. The repeal of the Missouri Compro-
| mise was The work fthe North as well as the
South. SO, too, was enactment of that infer
nal Fugitive Slave act, which even the good
| Abraham Lincoln was compelled by the pro-
i Slavery sentiment of the North well as of
| the South to enforce so vigorously. With COM
/ paratiaely few exceptions, our Northern col
leges, theological seminaries, and political and
| religious parties were on the side of Slavery.
| The commerce of the North was emphatically
/ in the interest of Slavery.
In the light of such facts, it surely cannot be
enied that the North made herself largely re-
sponsible for American Slavery. But the war
| came of Slavery; and the poverty and desola-
/ ton Of the South came of the war; and, hence,
| to the same degree that the North was Iespon-
sible for Slavery, is she responsible for the war
/ and for its ruinous results to the South.
| You call my sympathy with the South, and
| my desire to have the North help her, "sickly
| humanity" / call it simple honesty. IT my
| neighbor and l join in getting each other
| drunk, and he in his frenzy goes to tearing
| down my house, and in self-defense demolsh
| his, II am not to disown his claim upon my sym
/ pathy I am to feel that honesty requires me
| to help him rebuild
/ Would to God that Congress were so just
/ and wise as at this very session, to lend fifty
| millions of dollars to the Confederate States
i to each of them so much of it as would be pro-
/ portionate to her population and to what she
i has suffered from the ravages of the warl The
share falling to each State to be distributed
/ Throughout her territory in loans upon ade-
uuate security. This, by proving the love and
| pity of the North for her, would win the heart
| Of the South, and would thus produce a true
| and lasting peace between them. And then it
| would be worth to the nation, il only in a f.
| nancial point of view, many times fifty mil
/ lions of dollars. Gold would no longer bear
among us premium of 40 per cent, and the
/ Government would no longer have to pay Z
per cent, nor much more than half per cent
interest on its loans. at.rs. .. Hs..5.