Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-03-27

toward their old OppressOrs, and ask
nothing beyond security for the future.
scratch a SoutheTner, aud y0u find
an lntOlerant. He Is not willing to
70 have yon vote as your conscience
ulctaJes. Defy his local despo1sms,
and You VIII be socially ostraeised,
your name viii be publishedin In a black
list, YOU viii be sneered at and insult
ted. If TCu are Northern man ae-
qGire citizenship by the legal period Of
residence and get nominated to Office,
y0u viii be ridiculed as a Yankee ad-
venturer-a .'carpet bagger.2 Witness
the Alabama election In February, wit
ness the Southern newspaper treatment
of all the constitutional conventions.
How about Southern loyalty ?
About thrae-fOur1hs of Ihe Southern
people are passively dislOYal. Could il
be other wise For four years they
rained death on the national flag and
the national uniform They shot at
and cursed them. Ia every church in
the Confederacy they prayed and sup
plicated with ferv0r aud with tears TO
haye them 60 down in disgrace. Can
it be that their gorge does not rise now
at their sight2
On the boat coming mp the Potomac
from Aqua Creek heard a Sout herner
confess that though he tried to subdue
the emotion, he still 1eIt a hatred of the
stars and stripes. He had fought un-
der Lee, from firstt0 last, and during
that time had seen the flag so often IN
battle when the Army of the Potomac
swept down upon him and his compan-
ions in arms. that be feaTd he would
never again be able to look upon iJ as
his flag.
The dominant class IN the South nev-
er was republican, II traits, tastes or
habits. Tue revolution pow going on
in its industries aad system of labor
tend to make it So, but as long as this
generation lives the change cannot be
com pIete. The Southern man and wO-
man still deem themselves a better or
der of beings than the Yankees. They
viii die IN that faith. The vanity is in
grain.
I have been astonished to find how
generally the SOuJherners believe the
North TO be on the verge Of civil con-
vulsiOn. Reading only sheir own news
papers and the most violent Copper
mead journals published in the North,
they are firmly convinced that nothing
is more likely to happen than the en-
brOilment of the western with the Mid
die and New England States. That
they would delight IN such calmity is
as certain as the fact that the next gale
that sweeps from the North viii not
take to them "the clash Of resOunding
arms.'' They cannot understand the
elastic temper and Wholesome tolerance
OF the North, where elections come aId
20, crises ripen and decline, with no
thought Of blo0dshed, nor black-lists,
nor social disdain, contempt and pers e.
cutiOn.
The Southerner is generous in some
things, and honorable in many, but he
is not yet a good citizen for a republic.
That Is the whole trouble. He must be
Inadeso, or stand back for his children.
He needs a firm, resolute guidance-not
unkindly, unless he viii have 1t So
bat firm, always firm. The moment we
waver, he Wavers. When he fully and
finally understands that his old undue
political Importance is irreVocably
thing Of the past, he viii take the first
step on the road to valuable citizenship.
But between Andrew johnson and TIE
FGreat Democratic Reaction" he has
come to believe in the speedy over
throw of the Republican party, and in
the restoration Of the slave dynasty to
reign over a dominant party, composed
Of Southern extremists and Northern
dOughfaces.
The South to-day is not divided iuto
parties, unless 1t be white vs.. black. The
whites do not call themselves Demo-
Gratis, though they pray for the success
of thai party in the reasonable hope
that its triumph will again commit it
and the country to their maltgnaGt con-
troll.
Such a political revolution would be
a horror beside which oppressive taxa
ton and Congressional excesses (if eth
er exist or have been committed) count
as nothing. Weighed against that
contingency, Impeachment is but a
feather in the scale. The South has de-
ceived and we'll nigh ruined us once
That was their fault. If they do il
again it will be ours.
Before starting South 1 thought I
should vote the Republican ticket
Now, know it. Whatever the moral
of this Southern Journey has been to
such of your readers as have followed
it, the moral to me is an exalted faith
in the Republican party, and a pro-
found, uncomprOmising distrust of
SOuthern character and Southern SEN
ument. A prominent Alabamiau as
sured me that the rebels were crushed
because they fought against God. Yes,
and they are fighting against God to-
day. J. w. NJ.