The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-30
facts that only fool Oan honestly give it

cTedence.
The South is not "new Ireland in any
respect. Its treatment by Congress bears no
analogy whatever to the treatment OF Ireland
by the English Government. Not single
Irish grievance has parallel under the Rs
construction acts. Not solitary right now
claimed by or in behalf of the people of Ire
land is withheld from the people Of the South.
The Republican policy in regard to the latter
can have no more complete vindiCaton than
in the contrast it affords TO the policy OF Britain
as the conqueror and ruler of Ireland.
England, as the ruler of Ireland, has shown
MS how a powerful nation may deem itself at
liberty to vndicate the authority of the con-
queror and to uphold the attributes of gov
trDipg power. 1t has never dealt generously
with armed oppression or leuiently with sup
pressed rebellion, It's acquisition of control
has from the first been signalzed by harsh
punishments and stern repression. 1t did not
wait for rebellion to justify oOnfsoation; it
found excuse for that in a mere difference Of
religious forms. 1t prescribed aud prosecuted
men simply because they were Catholics
1t hunted them like wild beasts because in
matters of faith and opinion they differed
from their English masters. 1t robbed
them of lands and houses, and sent them
forth as Outcasts for attempting to exercise
the commonest privileges of frsemen, Aud
having by tyrrany and wrong driven them
into insurrecton, it shot or hanged all it
caught, appropriated their possessions, and
transferred the lands Of rebeliou5 districts to
its loyal adherents. 1t imposed upon the
country an insolent hierarchy, representing
an insignificant minority of the people, de-
graded the tillers of the soil to the level of
serls and instituted a policy designed to
depress domestic industry and render depend
ence upon Britain abject and complete. The
severe measures recently called out by Feni-
anism, and the sufferings inflicted upon Fenian
agents and leaders, prove that the British
Government has not materially changed its
tactics when resistance to its authority is in
question.
Supposing, then, that Frank Blair means
what he says when he asserts that the Repub-
liCan policy has created q new Ireland in the
South, what might we expect to fad in that
section of the Union In the first place, every
captured leader of the Rebellion executed as
an example. Next, the Punishment of thou
sands OF their more conspicuous adherents.
Next, the forfeiture of all their landed estates
and their subdivision among the freedmen.
Next, the erection OF strong military govern
ment, with officers instructed to punish sum-
marily all who attempted to produce disaffec-
tion or indicate resistance. Such would be
partial reproduction of the British policy
toward Ireland, which Blair tells us has been
adopted and applied by Congress.
But mark the difference ! Not single
Southern Rebel has been hanged or banished.
On the contrary, they go about unmolested,
travel to the North to construct Democratic
platforms and nominate Democratic candi-
dates, abuse and DEFY the Government which
has treated them magnanimously, and aotu-
ally boast of their determination to trample
upon its laws and overthrow its work. Nor
has there been any confiscation of Rebels
plantations, or any continued interference
with the political privileges of those who
would have destroyed the Union if they
could. They cultivate their farms and pursue
their avocations unmOested. Beyond the ex-
clusion OF a very limited class from Federal
Office, the whole people of the South share
They nave aDsoIuIe control of their local
affairs, and participate freely in national gov
ernment.
For the "proscription and persecution"
which General Blair declares distinguish the
Reconstruction policy, We look in vain any
where. In the seven States which have been
restored to the Union under the law, not one
citizen is disfranchsed by the General Govern
ment. No disability OF any kind, in connec-
tion with the suffrage, is attendant upon recon
struction. With the triing exception We have
named, no penalty whatever is inflicted by
reconstruction upon any class; Rebel and
loyalist are equal in the eye of the LAWN
their freedom and opportunities. They share
Federal representation and the management OF
their States concerns. Reconstruction, there
fore, gives the Southern people the fullest
liberty. No oppression taints any part of it
If the Rebels are not content, it is not because
they are prescribed or prosecuted, but be-
cause the law which restores them to the
freedom of the Union provides guarantees
against the infiotlon OF injustice upon the
| freedmen.
General Blair and his party violate truth
when they represent the South as the victim
OF Federal tyranny. Sorrows it may have, the
penalty of its own guilt; but it suffers NJ
wrong from Congress, and should rather bt
grateful than rebelliOus.