New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-08-05

" NTH WHAT BODY DO THEY COME"
We desire, as heartily as any can, that the
! Southern Rebels, great and little, high and
low, military and civil, poor and rich, violent
and moderate shall all return to the full eXcr-
else of the privileges of citizenship, and that
there shall be no tabOOed class or outcast
pariah race in this country. We are willing
that all should come to the knowledge of the
truth and be saved. Endless political punish
ment is no part of our faith or practice But
chow are the dead raised up, and with what
" body do they cOmep
Ever since the downfall of the Rebellion
there have been two distinct classes of ex-
Rebels, each willing to take part in Southern
politics. Mr.. Reagan, member OF Jeii' Davlss
Cabinet, had certainly been as Jealous Rebel
as need be. He had remained with Davis until
and during his fight, after his navies had been
sunk, his armies had surrendered, and all who
had erst huttered and fawned around the fallen
possessOr of "little brief authority" had fled.
But Mr. Reagan came forth from his imprison-
ment in Fort Warren, aud freely and candidly
advised the Southern people at that early stage
in the Reconstruction question to give civil and
political rights to all, without distinction OF
color, race, or condition. He recognized the
lost cause as lost forever, and neither saw
nor desired to see any halfway hating
ground between Slavery and equality. Gen.
Longstreet, one of Lees favorite corps COM
manders, had attested his devotion to the
Rebel cause by daily stalking his life in its de-
Tense until it was decisively and forever over
thrown. He then, with statesmanlike candor
and soldierly frankness, disdained to kindle
the fires of sectional strife over questions which
had been forever settled, and he, too, recon-
mended the Southern people to place civil
rights, land, education, and the ballot within
the reach of all. Gov. Holden of North Caro-
lima never had faith in the Rebellion or its
leaders, opposing the former while opposition
was possible, and criticisng the latter until all
his predictions of their failure were verified.
Yet he had yielded to the sentiment OF his
State, and dOubtngly served the cause for
whose success he saw little ground either to
hope or to pray. 1t is natural that such q
quasi Rebel should become thorough Union
ist, and should accept equality in place of
Slavery. Yet many others whose course during
the war was like that of Holden, fail thus to
accept the inevitable logic of events. Gov.
Joe. Brown of Georgia was one OF the most
earnest of Rebels, but he too does not
believe in fighting to restore a Slavery
which they were not able to maintain.
All these men desire that the blessings of real
peace shall be brought to the South by giving
all rights to all men, and obliterating all wrongs
or invidious distinctions which might stimu-
late any class of the Southern people to strife
with any more favored class. During the Re-
bellion they CALAMITY fought for that social and
political inequality between the races, which
was the Confederacy's chief cornerstone.
Having surrendered, they do not seek to save
the cornerstone of the edifice, whose defense
they have abandoned. No better friends OF
union and freedom live than these men who
fought for Slavery and disuniOn.
But of a far different type are Gov. Vance,
who declares that all that was surrendered III
the Rebellion will be restored in the election
of Seymour and Blair; Gov. Wise, who as
serts that the lost cause is about to be re-
gained; Wade Hampton, who pressed upon
the Democratic Convention that clause OF their
platform which declares the Southern State
governments unconstitutional, revolutionary
and void" and who now avows that this is as
good as a promise of revolution, and that if
tho Democratic party return to power, their
President can do no less than revolutonize
all the Southern State Governments by force.
We believe that Wise, Vance, and Hampton
express the sentiments only of the precipi-
tate and reckless portion of the Democracy
even of the South. But it is this very portion
who fired the Southern heart in 1860. and
dragged the more sensible Of the Southern
people into the Rebellion, and will do it again
if permitted to do so. We have fought the
Southern people FIVE years to very little pur'