The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-22
Radical Treatment of the South.

From Lhe ~. Y. World.
Macaulay, somewhere in his history, draws
spirited and impressive contrast between the
retrospective sentiment excited by the Eng-
lish wars in Scotland and the English wars
in Ireland. Since the absorption of Scotland,
that country has been treated by England
with wise magnanimity which has obliterated
all hostile feelings, and the consequence is
that each people has long regarded with
sympathetic admiration the deeds of valor
performed by the other when they were spill
ing each others blood. The heroism exhi-
bted by both sides is thrown into the com
mon stock of national glory. Burns patriotic
songs are read with as thorough enjoyment by
the people of the southern part of the island
as by the descendants of the "Scots wha ha'
wi Wallace bled." Walter Scott describes
with as keen zest the valor and conduct by
which his ancestors were defeated and made
TO run like towards, as if every throb of his
pulse were not that of an ingrained Scotch
man. But the Irish poet Moore, though a
far lees intense Irishman than the great novel
ist was Scotchman, would sooner have cut
off his right hand than have written a stanza
celebrating the prowess of the English forces
in any of the Irish battles. Every engage
ment on Irish soil is still fountain of ex sspe-
ration to Irish feeling. The memory of Fog
lish valor perpetuates hatred but rouses no
admiration. The consequence is, that the wars
of two centuries ago contribute 70 the Bit
ter alienation which makes the Irish question
to-day the most difficult problem in British
politics.
The Democratic party is aiming to treat the
South, since the close of the war, as England
has treated Scotland; to respect its local feel
ings and prejudices, to encourage its trade, to
build up its prosperity, and efface the unplea-
SAINT memories of former quarrels and contests.
The Republican party, on the other hand, is
treating the South as England has treated
Ireland; forcing upon it institutions it abhors,
exasperating its local prejudioes, repressing its
development, and domineering over it with all
the insolenoe OF conquerors. If the Demo-
cratic party succeeds, the South will be our
Scotland; if the Republican party, it will con-
tpue to be our Ireland. In a country like
England, where there is a state religion, it
would seem consistent and logical that the
national church should be upheld in
every part of the empire. But Scotland
was wisely left to worship according to her
own preferences, and was permitted to retain
her own jurisprudence; while an opposite
system in Ireland has kept that country in a
state of chronic irritation and Unsurpassed
mutiny. The Republican party is more
absurdy tyrannical towards the South than
the English Government has been towards
Ireland. What language would be strong
enough to portray English despotism and
insolence, if instead of attempting to force
England adopts herself, she should use her
power to force the Methodist or the Baptist
religion which she rejects What would be-
said of the tyranny and folly of England
if she should undertake. to force the
Roman Catholic religion upon Scotland
while she enacts laws aganstit at home But
this scarcely conceivable folly would be
similar to what the Republican party is per-
petratipg in the South. Negro suffrage, which
ia Ieiactan and aoOrued in tha North Whara tha
negroes are few and it would do little harm,
has been forced upon the South, where the
negroes are numerous and the danger great.
A more fragrant inconsistency, more exaspe-
rating insult, cannot be imagined. If we are
going to force upon the South anything which
the South detests, we should at least have the
apology of its being something which we do
not ourselves reject No insolenoe can be
more insufferable, no Hypocrisy more odious,
than to be apostles and propagandists OF a
system in which we do not believe and to
resort to persecution and the sword to compel
people to do what we have shown by recent
examples that we scOrn to do ourselves. And
yet this is the hopeful method adopted by the
Republicans for recovering the alienated affec-
tions of the South
The Republicans are making the late war
the hinge of the Presidential campaign. They
invoke all the bitter animosities and sectional
hatred which prevailed when we were drafting
soldiers to fight against the South. To accuse
the Democratic party of slackness in the war
is regarded as their best electioneering wea-
pop, To denounce the Southern people as
Rebels is thought the best justification of
the Republican policy. The subjugation and
humiliation of the South is as much the aim
now as it was six years ago. 1t is not policy
of peace, but of passion revenge, and domi-
nation. The symbol OF the canvass on the