The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-03-21

"There can no harm In our treating the
southerners as though they possessed all the
bravery which ge put to their account In the
days Of war; and there can be nothing but
harm in treating them rs though they had
given us reason to charge them with the
spirit or bearing OF cowardice "-Se,1 York
Times.
Exactly. This every man with three
grains of sense knows, and every man
with one scruple OF conscience would
consider as an indispensable basis of the
public policy Of this acknowledgements
alike to its peace and prosperity. But we
see that the majority Of the people who
now monopolize the Government either
themselves take an entirely different view,
or sustain the law makers and high otti-
Gals Of the land in the measures which
entirely reverse the excellent and truthful
view Of the Times. 1t is one OF the Won
ders Of the age in which we live no" d
great multitude of men can be m'sled IN
this manner by body Of fierce and vindic-
tive partisans, who are employing all the
oowers and resources of the Government
| with view to their own interests, for the
purpose of keeping in their own hands all
the honors and emolumcnts Of Govern
ment.
The people OF the South, who did acquit
themselves in a manner the whole North
confessed to be heroic, being overcome,
| surrendered and repaired to their homes.
| 10 the shortest possible time there was not
an armed man opposing the authority OF
the Government in the whole South. The
people had universally acknowledged
defeat, and given their adhesion to the
| Government which had again become
| theirs by the fate Of var, andwhich 1t also
became their duty as citizens to maintain
and to make the best government their in
huence and participation could make it.
A people so acting, after heroic attempt
to defend principle left unsettled by the
fathers of the Republican which effort
they showed no mere lactious spirit, bnt
! manly and loyal devotion 10 what they
deemed the very essence Of the rights Tor
| which our fathers Of the Revolution
| ught-deScrYcd to be respected, and more,
TO BErRUsrED. Had they been SO treated
as every principle Of honor, magnanimity,
nay, justice and policy, dictated they
should have been-the country would now
be prosperous and happy, and peace and
harmony would prevail Throughout! the
land.
But the dcvilish suggestions and fears OF
partisanS ordered otherwise. The heroic
people who had been thus overcome and
who had thus surrendered were regarded
as revolted slaves, and subjected to per-
sccutions and disfranchse and in
suited with daily opprobrium ard curses
in the national councils. These acts, being
grossly unjust and contrary to every prin-
ciple Of civilized society, could only be
sustained by passion; and thousands OF
Radical spies and sianderers, with their
hundreds Of presses, were employed
with unequaled energy and dcviliry to
(abricate accounts of crucltics and out
RACES in the South, in order to inflame the
public mind and nurse the ierocious tenn
per under which alone the greatest wrong
Of this or any other age could be perpe-
trated upon the people of the South.
They were subjected to the prostratirg
and desolatiug effects of prolonged state
Of uncertainty as TO their political fate;
their industry was demoralized by the
most outrageous and dangerous system of
agitation that ever sought to array the
classes of community in deadly hate to-
wards each other : hordes Of officials were
sent down TO prey upon the substance Of
the people 10 all manner Of forms and, to
crown the series of outrages, the late
slaves Of the South, ignorant, and intlamed
by the arts Of the ruling party in the ma
ton, were enfranchiscd, and put into the
position of the governing class. Is it sur
prising that the South should go from bad
to worse under this state of things, and
that there should be "nothing but harm"
in this selfish and brutal policy?
The present period will ever stand as
disgraceful, monstrous, and barbarous
page in the history of this nation. That
the uncivilzcd and ruinous measures now
in operation and proposed to DC enacted
so destructive to the wallare Of the whole
nation, in the destruction of the thrift
and production Of the faircst part of the
Union can long prevail, we do not believe.
We can but wait and hope. The harm "
that is must be cured by its doors. The
North is sowing the wind, and it will reap
the whirlwind Of disgrace and ruin that
must follow, and which will, sooner or later,
make it repent in sackcloth and ashes for
its present crimes and inhumauities.
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THE QUESTION OF BRIBERY.-In another
article we have stated the charge that has
~ Il ~.