American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-08-07
Hf(isttllanfons,
Our Southern COIIeues.

From the New Eclectic Magazine, of Aug. 1869
The physical conquest of the South
is only part of the far-reaching
plans of the dominant section of this
country, and political and social
humiliation only small portion of
the machinery which is to crush out
the life of resolute and high-spirit-
ed people. Until we renOunce with
the heart our independence in mat
ters of religion until we take into
our system false principles of morbid
growth; until we give up without re-
serve our ideals of manliness and
honor and true worth until, in short,
we cry out with unaffected zeal,
" Evil be thou our good" and "Bit-
ter, be thou our sweet" and Black,
be thou our white,"-we may expect
a war, without truce and without
herald.n Too numerous and too
tough to be eXterminated, too
naughty and too resentful to ANAL
gamate, the Southern people cannot
be weeded out by the Yankee sword,
cannot be regenerated, like their
Western neighbors, by the infusion
of Yankee blood. What is to be
done with these millions of recalci-
trant barbarians How is such a
lump to be leavened The first
thing to be done is to destroy our
system of education. The South
erner, as a rule, believes that the
healthy growth of learning is from
above downward; that the crude sap
must be elaborated by the leaves,
and that the sturdy trunk is the re-
suit of a steady process which can
not be artifcially quickened. His
first demand is for higher education
his first desire is the thorough train
ing of the upper classes; his motto
is pull, not push. His aim is to reaI
teachers and leaders for the people
such teachers and such leaders as
those to whom the United States
owe all that is nobly distinctive i'll
their history for if you cut out the
SOutherners from the American roll
of honor, the record would not mere
ly be Jagged and SCARED, it woulC
fall into shreds and tatters. Under
such teachers and leaders the South
ern people not only maintained theil
importance IN the control of nationa
affairs, but year by year the masses
were rising in intelligence; year b,
wear the influence of sound learnin,
and thorough culture was maxim:
itself felt, even to the remotest fibre
of our social system; and if safet,
and solidity be elements worthy o
consideration, we need not dread tn
comparison of our real progress il
;. the matter of education with sell
+ cOmplacent communities which affec
e to believe us barbarians. Had no
that great uncivilizer, war, inter
vened, the last ten years would hav
been marked by an advance of whic
any nation might well be proud an
as it is, although the rude hand {
arbitrary authority has struck dow
many of our cherished institution
of learning, and the poisoned breat
of malignant faction has blasted ne
a few, even under the weight of OF
manifold calamities the Souther
spirit bears up, and our Souther
ideal has been heightened ratht
than lowered by our adversitie
All this the enemies of our peculit
civilization know full well, and undt
the guise of Christian charity, to eI
large benevOlencc, of philanthrOph
sympathy with the ignorant and tt
err1ng, they are waging a crusaC
against our educational systeI
Zeal for the common school is on
another name for hatred of the &C
lege and the university; for so lOI
, as these remain i'll the hands
Southerners, they cannot hope
. mould the rising race. To do the
; Justice, however, some of the mi
!. sionaricS of the Yankee faith real
: believe that they would be doiI
q service to humanity, as well as pU
e ting money in their purse, by alb,
: ishing all our higher institutions
!, learning, and erecting i'll stead mod
d school houses. Such barbarians
c might exhibit capacity for a mo
expanded course of study would
better taught in Massachusetts tn
in Virginia, and in course of til
Plymouth Rock would become t
Caana of the Southern as it is of t
: Northern country. TO judge by t
, tone of some of their journals, we
n the South are little better than Alb.
slnianS, and Richmond a kind
Magdala. King TheodorOs dead
a half tragic, half comic suicide,
son is carried off to be reared by
fathers enemies, and taught to en-
h his fathers friends. And so, our
bellion over, our cities burned, {
country ravaged, our colleges clos
the youth of the South are TO
=. carried away captive to North,