The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-07
THE SOUTH.
ITS Condition and Sentiment DR.. Sears
Report.

Educational Fund, has returned to the North,
after an extended tour through the Southern
States, and the other night gave the results of
his observations in an address before the Bap-
tst Social Union at Boston. We gather the
following from the Travellers report
The North and South do not yet understand
each other. The chief medium of information
the press-is not to us a wholly correct re-
presentation of Southern opinion. Very many
OF the best men of different shades of Southern
sentiment agree that the worst set OF men are
those who figure sometimes in politics, and
chiefly IS writers in these papers, A great
change has begun-not completed. A very
great and radical change has begun in the
minds OF the people OF the South, aud is 90 be
carried through to the end. Slavery is abol-
ished, and emancipation has been proclaimed
throughout the country. And this is accepted;
accepted at first as a necessity, accepted very
reluctantly and with much indignant feeling,
but now there is a growing conviction among
sober-minded men that heaven is to be thanked
for this unforeseen aud unexpected result
which the war has brought about. There
are constant references of il to q higher
power that overulss all things, sometimes
mysterOusly, but in a way which they are
compelled to acknowledge is for wise aud good
purposes, and they thiuk they are beginning
10 See some Of these purposes. the tone OF
their preaching in this respect is changed.
There is a prevalent opinion among the bstter
men, both in the clergy and the laJty, that the
abolition Of slavery is one of those great dis
pensations of Providence before which every
man is to bow, sincerely aud without reuG-
tanCe. Sometimes II costs a struggle their
property is gone; the institution winch they
once loved is gone; the whole order OF things
is passing away, and many of them are doomed
to pass the rest OF Reir days in poverty. Aud
yet they believe that a higher good is come
about aud they view things with a Christian
submission, they await the developments OF
Divine Providence.
Without reference to party politics, the
sober, earnest element Of Southern society has
come to the conclusion that slavery is forever
dead; that CalhOunism was a curse to the
South, and that the abolition of slavery must
bring great aud fundamental changes. Some,
indeed, of the thinking men aIs in despair.
Unable to accept the new condition talrtirs,
they imagine that everything is going to ruin.
But they are few compared with those who are
endeavoriug 70 make the best of the situation,
and whatever their views may he rs to the
fact, the conviction is every day becoming
more general among them that all their So
ciety and institutions are 10 be reeast AMI
Northern principles to prevail. They say
this in a Whisper but they say 1t. Dr.
Sears continued
While was in the South attended, meet
ing of the Teachers Association of the State
OF Virginia, and was very much interested by
q report and discussion on the subject OF
public system Of education and free schools,
such as we have in the Northern States. The
report advocated very strongly the e'tabish-
ment of such a system for Virginia. The dis
cussiOn went all over the South, and the
meeting was made up of the leading Professors
of the University of Virginia, and other col
leges and high schools III the State-men of
high talent and learning. At last there was
al I'd
army clothes, who, every one supposed
would be the last man in the State who
would advocate such a thing, who was
regarded as the very Uulwari Of conserva-
tsm. This old man arose and said: d:-"Ilad
l lived IL the time Of the flood, | should
have been opposed to it. Had it been
proposed to me to build the ark, should have
said it was altogether too big. But the flood
has come, and the ark is afOat and lest | be-
come fossil and known only as
fossil of that period, l go for universal
education" (Applause) And that senti-
ment was received as well in that audience as
in this, and the report was adopted unaui-
mously, not a dissenting voice. And how else
can you account for what has been accom-
plished and been going on at the present day
j will now alude TO the fact that il is the
easiest thing in the world to introduce free
schools in all the large towns, and they will
be Well under way in a single month, or per-
system of universal education, no matter
what the politics of the individual may
be, or the theories which may have
existed, because it is seen that on no
other basis can the South now prosper
or be saved. The consequence is, that men
of the highest Intelligence aud influence are
foremost in carrying forward this work.
have scarcely found a man who entered more
heartily into the subject than the treasurer of
the Confederate Congress, and men of similar
positions. Without alluding in any way to
anything that is past in our history, they take
up this work in earnest and apply themselves
to it with persevering energy and a measure
of success that would astOnsh any one We're
it proper to give details. The South is at
the present time-I speak of it in these
generous terms, though we are to make
great distinction between the extreme
South and the Border States--in absolute
need of the things that we only car
give. They feel the necessity of economy
they are determined to be economical and tC
waste no money, but they don't know how
They have not been trained, They often
waste great amount Of means when they aTe
perfectly unconscious of it. There is very
little proportion in their transactions between
the means and the end to be accomplished
There is almost always one-third more means
employed than is called for, for lack of skillfu
application They are conscious of their de-
fects, and say that they need an influx o
Northern men to initiate practical economy il
things which they understand but Southerneri
don't.
He concluded by saying that the opposition