Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-11-03
0bio Statesman,
Cam a Northern Man Travel in the

Cam a Northern Man Travel in the
fysa5 snA 'tDsW souths'scs on SEX
rforsD s,Oilils ALBANYs Oct. "a, 1865
70 the Editor Of tie World: ais $50
SIRAFro1ni 1886 totels46 y I was a
Denocrat, and voted the D Democratic
tickets. In s1s4S voted the Free Soil
ticket, headedsby Martin Van Buren.-
The corruption of political parties, hut
areal9 jealous antisfaveryl sentiment,
induced me- to. the step. &oThe great
party, then created, and started on its
course, said slavery, tthus far, butlno
farther, ashalt, thou go..4 hank God
slavery ,iso deadO asthingDof the past.
blot, ,sbut bl lot now. surToanded with fair
writing ,ono the page of history. The
slave power, when Eitusfound.. >. itself
thwarted, attempted boTdisseverD the
! bUnion-to, ruin whatpit could not rule.
EinIn April. 1861, ]. entered the military
servicen and, as. a, private soldier and
officer, served the cause of the Union
until near the close, of the war, having
arrived home broken in health in Feb
ruary, 1865, The Unien was restored,
slavery obliterated from the map of the
United States, not a hostile foot, trod
our territory, and, ], aoas satisfied, 1
|rejoiced at the glorious result. The fact
that a Government ike ours, based upon
the popular will, possessed an inherent
power competent for our preservation
had been demonstrated.
I 4 believe that that much-abused
statesman, the martyred Lincoln, then
understood the situation. He was so
well satisfied that thelrebellion had been
crushed out; that those lately IN rebel
Flions were honestly sick OF war and de-
sired peace; that the more intelligent
and the controlling power in all the
Southern States were honest when they
declared Their anxiety and the single de-
sire to be allowed to repair and set in
motion flfeir'A State Z governments, and
that, by peaceful pursuits, the people
might be allowed to repair damages, to
provide themselves with food, clothes,
and houses and to raise themselves from
the condition of abject poverty and want
in which the war had left them. 1 then
supposed, and now fully believe, the pro-
fessions of those Southern people sincere
and made in good faith. E ne -a
On this supposition civil governments
were SO far set in motion in the South
ern States that their adoption of the
amendment to the United States Consti-
tuition abolishing slavery was declared
valid. IF no such civI governments er-
isted IN those States, then that amend
,,,o.,f 6oa o,ora,- 6oo,, ,,1Io -Te tbo ~,
sassin's hand had not reached President
Lincoln, I believe no different State gov
ernments would have existed at the
South. Military governments, to give
places and positions to the army officers
created by the war, contained no sufi-
cient reasons or arguments to his mind.
He was man of peace, and, when there
was no prospect of war, believed large
standing army was useless, except to eat
out the substance of the people. The
Southern people asked to be put upon
their good behavior, and I believe no
child after a severe chastisement was
ever more anxious to regain the good
will of a parent, than were the great ma
jority, including all the better people OF
the South, to satisfy the people of the
North of their sincerity in asking to be
reinstated, and of their future fidelity to
the Union. They then said, and they
now say, that they had staked every
thing they possessed on the effort to dis
solve the Union, and had failed; and
as the Union is indissoluble, all they ask
is to be as States portions of the Union
Neither holding nor desiring Office,
possessing means for my own support, on
my own motion, to satisfy myself /
have recently passed over most of the
Southern States. Alone, unmolested,
without insult or abuse, without any
thing to excite fear orapprehension, fire.
quently announcing myself recent
Union soldier, seeking the acquaintance
of Southern people, neither seeking nor
avoiding military or bureau officials,
treating the colored population as /
would here or in New York city, went
wherever it suited me. Reconstruction.
as inaugurated and carried on by Con-
gress is failure, and mast, in the
nature of things, continue a failure
To-day the Southern people, as a
mass, are, and wish to be, peaceable
and quiet. They have had war enough
and if they desired war, are too very
poor too prosecute it. AS at the North
as in England and France, so in the
South, there are bad men of all the va
rious sorts. If had gone into drink
ing saloons, brothels, gambling hells al
the South, or in New York City OIL
Washington, on my way thither, could
have had fights and troubles, and may
be 1 might have been killed; and, if il
the latter cities, little would have beer
said or thought of it, while if my deatl
had thus occurred at the South, it would
have been charged to the Ku-Klux
Klans. or some other almost imaginary
cause. 1 satisfied myself that in gen
eral terms, all the outrages at the Soutl
are just such as occur daily at the
North. r-a--..s-.
One cause of trouble there does no
exist here. A horde of colored people
now they are free, possessing rather ex
tended and indefinite ideas of freedom
naturally indolent, herding together il
villages and cities, leaving the countr,
without its usual or necessary amoun
of labor, with their fashions for meeting,
of all kinds, petted by designing mer
from North and South, who see in then
elements of power, fed and thereby KEEP
IN idleness by the Freedmen's Bureau
they get up, or are the cause of broil'
and drunken fights among themselves, o.
with the white loafers, who herd or mi1
with them. These are the sum and sub
stance of the Southern outrages (whert
any do occur) of which we read and heal
so much. .....s-.-
The whole country needs peace anc
needs statesman for President. Know
ing what 1 do, believing and feeling al