The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-22
NORTH AND SOUTH.
Views II ON English Standpoint of Their
Observation-Disclosures of the Virginia EIec-


RcIations-s Significance of the Virginia Elec-
tOns.
From ihe London Star, Jtly1 10.
We suppose it is quite certain, and the Vir-
ginia news confirms the view, that in any cir
cumstances the South will for a long time be
opposed to the Northern Republicans. Party
and personal feeling drives the leaders into op-
position, and on such points of difference the
rank and file will be even more earnest than the
leaders The Republicans will obviously be at q
disadvantage in influencing the South, as the
party through whose agency the South was
overcome. We need not be surprised, then, at
reconstructed Virginia casting its vote for the
Conservative party 1t is quite ineligible, too
that a large number of the negroes, if the tele-
gram does not misinform us, should cast their
votes on the same side. In any free Southern
election something like this must happen
Opinions 90 by persuasion and favor, and not
by reasoning wherever there are large masses
in action; and the negroes, fresh from slavery,
remarkable has been their display of
political intelligence, must be largely swayed
by the whites who live among them, who
know them, and to whom they have been
accustomed to look up. We doubt how
ever, whether the Southern vote will continue
steadily Democratic; this would almost mean
the permanent enlargement of the South from
the Union to which it is held. A majority of
10000 in Virginia, considering its population
does not imply even now an overwhelming
opinion on one side. The governing party in the
Union is still able to maintain fight and even
return two negro radicals to Congress. If this
can be the state of opinion very few years after
the war, it is at least possible that change of cir
cumstances and of social institutions, and the
lapse of time, may dsintegrate the majority
AS new questions arise, and the old watchwords
get out of date, the minority which is most in
harmony with the new circumstances is likely
enough to be the growing party.
1t is this last question which is perhaps the
most important with reference to the Southern
future. The important feature of the revival of
Southern prosperity is the acceptance by the
people of the social system of the North There
are too many testimonies to leave any doubt of
this fact. For good or for evil, as they say
the Southemers are accepting the abolition OF
slavery as the basis of their Industrial life. No
other course, indeed was left open, the precau-
tions Of the North being too stringent to prevent
the immediate revival of slavery, and single
generation of freedom being enough to make the
revival impossible. Still the cordial acceptance
of the inevitable might have been long delayed
AS it is, the Southerners are now making the
best of the case, and plowing sowing, and reap
ing with all the energy in the world. In Spite
also of some contradictory statements as to
negro idleness, they are mostly well satisfied
with the results, even talking of the abolition
of slavery as good riddance. To quote the
private letter Of gentleman which we pub
lshed some days since:-"The saveowners tell
you, with the most braZen faces, that they
are better now than they were before. One
large saveowner said to me, The Yankees
whipped us out of slavery, but they could not
whip us into it again. Another told me he grew
larger crops with twenty-five free negroes than
he had done with seventyfye slaves They
have found out already than the Rebellion was
economically a bluuder." The question is
whether with the Northern social system, the
South will absorb something of the Northern
sentiment, or will retain the antagonism which
was produced and was fed by war for
the retention of the opposite system There
are many signs that the South can hardly
preserve its animosity, but the experiment
will be every way novel one, tried under singu-
lar conditions. The elasticity of the State system
| of the Union gives it an immense attractive
force, but it furnishes facilities for attempts at
organized secession, which may again prove as
| land, our interest in the matter is mostly indi-
| rect. We cannot follow without interest the
political development of portion of our own
race but there is, fortunately no cause left for
such fierce excitement as that which accompa-
MED former contests