The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-10-21
Hostility after Surrender.

were not to be renewed. Nothing was said
about the Constitution or Constitutional OBJ
legations. The Confederate generals surren-
dered to the Constitution of the United
States as it glistened in letters of light on
the bayonets of Gen. Grant, and not as inter-
preted in the decisions of Judge Taney.
Not thought of the Supreme Court passed
through the minds of either Lee or john
ston. The best terms for the naked and
starving soldiers who had so gallantly stood
by them were all they thought of. But the
soldiers paroled and on their way to their
homes, the old rebel politicians of the South
and the Copperhead politicians of the North
raised up their snaky heads from the mud
and slime they had been driven to by the
overthrow of the Confederacy, hissed out
Constitutional obligations Supreme Court
decisions the government of our fathers
and all the twaddle they sputtered upon the
country before the war. The fact that they
had ruined the Southern people by mislead-
ing, coaxing and bullying them into cause
less war was not enough to satisfy them No!
Just as soon as they had recovered from
the shock of the surrender and surprise that
the government was so lenient, they began
to intrigue with faction at the North, and
assume the leadership of Southern opinion
in the guise of martyrship to the lost cause,
trying to divert the attention Of the South
em people from their past criminal and dis
astrous leadership by raising the cry of
wolf upon Congress and the loyal men of
the country, both North and South. What
ever is vituperative or opprobrious in the
English language has been skillfully applied
by the Southern press, spurred and set on
by this same class of old-time leaders, to the
people who had carried the war to its close
and had the destiny of the rebel States in
their hands. Why9 Simply because Con-
gress determined that the leaders who had
brought all these manifold evils upon the
Southern people, should never have the
power to ruin them again. Congress pre-
sented the Constitutional Amendment as a
basis of reconstruction, remitting to the
States themselves the question of negro suff-
rage, only insisting that if the negroes were
not allowed to vote they should not be
counted in the basis of representation, plac
ing the rebel States, in that respect, just
where the other States are. Was it unreason-
able? Were terms so lenient ever offered
by the conquerors to the conquereda "No,"
said the leaders, "spurn it with contempt
let us stand upon our reserved rights and
save our honor" If such leadership has
any 'hon6r to save" then by an means let
it be saved; but the only reserved rights
which the law of nations accords to such
leadership is the right to be hung, and
whatever else it may get comes by the grace
of the conquerors and not from reserved
rights.
The contempt with which the Constitu-
tional Amendment was treated, and the evil
dent spirit of intrigue and readiness to
cripple the government has met with its
logical result. An opportunity lost never
comes again. Additional terms have been
exacted, and we have had the Constitutional
Amendment, negro suffrage, martial law and
the bayonet; and still some old Rip Van
Wrinkles shout out, "Save your honor and
stand upon your dignity" Those who are
disfranchised may as well stand there, but
we beg most modestly to suggest to those
men that they have had their day. They
got the people into this trouble, and might
have got them out long ago, had they not
one quality more than Bourbon-they
not only never learned anything" but merer
kneao anything, judged by the standard of re-
suits. The young men of the Confederacy,
though they may have fought the Federal
armies, have violated no oath of fealty to
the United States, are not disfranchised
and have something to say as to what is the
duty of the Southern people in this busi.
ness of reconstruction; and the old "Save
your honor incapables may as well step
aside and let the young men and the loyal
men and negroes have a chance; and let
not the old leaders worry themselves over
much, for the people can stand any govern.
ment if they could stand such leadership as
under the cry, ''Save the honor, glory
wealth and strength of the South,' which
has brought proud and happy people to
poverty, ruin and humiliation.
Negro suffrage has not placed the South
under the control of the negro. Nothing is
more absurd than to suppose that Ignorance
can at any time control knowledge. The
institution of slavery was prohibited in the
South by the votes of those who never owned
slave in their lives, and who were unde1
the control of the leading minds of the South
as absolutely as the negro is now under tn,
control of the leading minds of the North
| If the South is wise she will seize this vast
political power placed in her hands, and il
elevating the negro will leleyate herself. Unit
the negro has attained to physical and men
tai equality with the. white, need the South
fear that she cannot direct and control hi
vote If the white refuses to give him op
portunity and scope for culture and progress
of course the white mast in the end suffer
as all must suffer, in the end, who violate thu
least of natures laws But let the white bt
| Just, and there will be no more trouble il
using the political power of the negro fol
mutual advancement and prosperity, thar