Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-11-25

pensible. Despoiio government may
flourish and tyraniEe over aminority at
the same time. But that Republican
government which now undertakes It is
felo dc So. There is no power in the
earth able to afford 10 trample down
eight millions of brave people, and to do
so is to convert the Republican into the
despotic form. an.
We are glad to say that we now dis
Germ the coming dawn. The only doebt
remaining is whether day will come soon
enough to prevent the Southern States
being turned into wilderness, which Is
a grave doubt indeed. Our people have
never been at war with the Constitution
of the Union, and returning justice will
make them as loyal to the government
of the United States, in every desirable
possible sense, as they we're when they
fought together at Lundy's Lane, at New
Orleans, at Cerro Gordo, or at Beuna
Vista The late elections evince that
the Northern people by majority are
friends, ready to indorse degree OF
magnanimity in the government, and
determined to do justice to us. Let
them do il, let them make an end OF
outrage and usurpation outside of the
Constitution, and bring all alike to its
terms, let them do it in time to save the
South from domination by the negro,
and all the States will prosper together,
and we shall again have the indispensable
element Of mutual good will in reunion,
without which the United States can
never be the greatest, because divided
people and power in the earth. A
reunion like this viii be one, indeed,
which will bind us together with hooks
of steel, until, perchance, in the distant
future we touch elbow to elbow, and
with FIVE hundred millions Of people,
whose interests begin to be too varied
and clashing for Union, we divide again,
with the lesson of civil war as a beacon |
light to make that division happy and
peaceful. A wise craftsmanship will
give to this nation the greatest future OF
the world. But the Vandal government
of ignorance and passion will sink us
UNANIMOUSLY to the lowest possible depths.
We subjoin the following extract from
an article Of the Baltimore Sun: /
To the unity of the people in former
days may be traced, in fact, all the ele-
ments of our past progress, the confidence
which it has ELECTED from the capital, as
well as the labor of the world, and the
influence which it has exercised abroad
in favor of free institutions If we had
been mere confederacy of States, held
together by force, unequally and I'M
willingly yoked together under the same
form of government, the moral effect
the world would have been
ANYTHING but favorable to our national
and character. The unity
of feeling was always the real sap OF the
national tree, which furnished it with
nutriment and clothed it with glory and
strength. Any mode of reconstruction
which does not recognize this fact must
necessarily fail of its object, and any
which absolutely aims to destroy it, can
only leave barren trunk, with the mere
outward form of life, but from which the
vital principle has departed.
The forms and technicalities of recon
struction laws may insure future peace
and external order, but the success of
is beyond the sphere of
their influence, and depends upon the
Cancellation of the Southern people.
To bring them back nominally to the
Union, whilst their hearts are alienated
from it, and even embittered against 1T,
would be only to intensity the national
iealousies and conflicts of the past.