The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-09-08
The Rosccrans Mission.

| The letter of General RosEcRANs and the
reply signed by General LEE, General BEAU
REGARD, the Hon. A. 81. STEPHENS, ex-
Governor P1cKENs, Ex-Governor LETcHER,
and other, distinguished Southern gentle
men, contain nothing Of striking or of new.
It was natural that General RosEcnANs
should feel that consolidation, semi-anar-
chy and gigantic national debt were ruin
ing the nation; and it was equally natural
that he should desire to know whether the
people Of the South were. willing to "pro-
.tect, educate and elevate the poor freed
'tnen," and to apply themselves with the
chiyalrous devotion Of old to restoring the
peace and prosperity of our common coun-
try. Butt it was impossible that this vete-.
ran soldier should state his views more
definitely and eloquehtly than they have
been stated by that grand convention which
Represented North and South East and
West; and it was impossible that the noble
gentlemen, who Joined in the response,
could say more than has been said during
four years by ten millions of people.
venerating, as we do, the namesl Of LEE
and .BEAuREaARD, we were at first inclined
to doubt the necessity Of again declaring
that.slavery and secession are dead; that it
is to the interest Of the whites to extend to
the negroes care and protection; that there
is no hostility towards the negroes in the
South, and that our great want is peace.
Had the Southern people been without a
voioe,-had they been SO gagged that no
public journal could speak in their behalf,
and that no public meeting could be held,
at which they might announce their wishes
and set purposes,-had their tones been so
mufaed and choked that they could not be
heard beyond the confines of their own towns
and villages-then it would have been most
certainly just and meet that one more pub
lie declaration should be made Of their
hopes and their DESIRES.
But the South had spoken and had been
heard. In the halls of her Legislatures,
moro than three years ago, slavery was
abolished forever and the ordinances of
secession were repealed; in the National
Democratic Convention, held in July, the
same principles were affirmed in the pres
enee and with the approval of delegates
and representative men from every State
in the Union. The South could Got have
been more emphatic than she has been upon
the two great issues of the war-secession
and slavery.
Nor has the South been less explicit and
eutspoken in regard to the colored people.
By law they were our slaves; by law we
made them free; without law it was sought
to make them our masters. To them was
given the political power which was denied
to US, and, instigated by designing knaves,
they were insolent in manner, overbearing
in conduct, and unmindful of their every
obligation. Yet the South did not turn
upon and rend them. Ittreated the negroes
as it would have treated wayward children.
The Southern people bore with the inirmi-
ties of their former slaves, looked with q
merciful eye upon their errors, and were
not provoked by idleness, insolence, or even
crime, to measure out to them the punish
ment they undoubtedly deserved. They were
not held responsible for what they did, and
in thousand counties and in the columns
of hundred public journals there were
found, not threats and menaces, but words