Litchfield enquirer., 1868-09-10
The Sentinel and Reconstruction.

The Sentinel and Reconstruction.
 We have few words to offer in reply to
 the Sentiaers article on Reconstruction last
 week. It sets forth the Democratic plan } of reconstruction as follows:
 They believe that the people of the Southern
 States have accepted the situation in good faith
 and that it is no more than just or honorable to
 give them 8 fair chance to prove the honesty of their intentions. Generals Grant, sherman, and other military men have asserted 8 similar belief
 In the foregoing statement the Sentinel
 confounas the matter of ofssintention' with an
 entirely different question. With the best
 intentions" in many cases, Southerners
 have always, heretofore, kept the negro Trace in slavery. With the best s'intentions"
 they would still keep black and white in
 as near their old relations as possible. We idoubt the capacity, almost as much as the
 desire, of the old slave holder to establish
 society at the on free basis. We do not
 feel bound therefore, to question the sshon
 esty of their intentions" Not only Gen.
 Grant and Sherman, but Sheridan, Sickles, Meade, Thomas and a host of less distin- guished army officers, at first favored Pres 
 ldent Johnson's plan of leaving it to the Whites, alone, to reconstruct the labor sys- tenn of the South. The atrocious black codes enacted by the Johnson Legislatures, the prescription of Union men, and the spirit disclosed most conspicuously at the riots of Memphis and New Orleans, conyinc- ed not only Congress, but every prominent officer and nearly every Northern civilian, resident at the South, that the old Slave holder could not be trusted with the whole political power of the South. It is not true, therefore, that ''the Republicans party are still treatin the Southern whites as enemies;" we have only refused to con- tinue white monopoly of political power that has proved as unwise as it was undem- ocratic
 Taxation and representation are no longer united Ignorance stupidity and vice usurp all off, clal positions, and they who have little more than transient personal interest in the State | enact laws for t',a owners of the soil.
 This reads like statement of the politi- l cal condition of the cities of New York | and New wHaven-places where "ignorance, " | stupidity and vice" unite to give our oppo- nents the strength with which they hope to carry thirty-nine electoral votas fnr Sey- mour and Bla1r. The Ex-Federal soldiers, evidently referred to, are by no means an ignorant, stupid and vicious' class, and the South will be far better governed by them than by the ex-slaveholders and ex- confederates the Sentinel wishes to restore to power.
 The blacks, in their present semi-civilized state are governed rather by their savage instincts than by judgment. Under the tuition of Northern Radicals they have become insolent and overbear- ing. They demand everything and take every thing. They recognize no higher law than their own will and commit all manner of social outrage with impunity. The whole country is infested | with them, and no mans property or life is safe. Society is thus continually unsettled. ** * Bu- sness of all kinds is at comparative stand-stlll | in all the Southern States, in the reconstructed i States no less than in those which are still out. The labor problem IS no nearer solution than l befor6 Che people still unwilling to invest cap ital where everything seems so unstable, and all l f he avenues of trade are blocked.
 We utterly deny the truth of the forego- l ing assertions. The blacks of the South | have, indeed, demanded equal rights in all | public schools and public conveyances. l We should think extremely i'll of freemen l who would not demand such rights. That they have entirely put away the evil habits they learned as slaves, we could not expect. Neither have the whites put off all the evil l habits they learned as masters. The Re- l construction acts very wisely give neither race uncontrolled power over the other
 Business is dull, certainly. The class that squandered all it's personal property on rebellion, can expect nothing else The "labor question" will be satisfactorily solved when Southern whites go to work; the blacks are doing more than their share, already. ..-.
 Capital will go South whenever the Ku- Klux will allow it to go there, safely.
 We affirm, moreover, that tho Legisla- lures reconstructed by Congress have pro- ved far wiser and far more liberal to their adversaries than the Johnson Legislatures
 In conclusion, we would ask the Sentinel how it happens that South Carolina State stocks have trebled in value since the pas sage of the reconstruction acts, and that North Carolina has been able lately to ne- gotiate loan on extremely favorable terms, if reconstruction is such failure as it is fond of representing?
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 The New England Fair. @ The Fair this year has been @ magnif- cent success. It began with Horse Trot on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it is estima- ted that at least 25,0o0 people were pres- ent, and 1,SO0 carriages There were about