The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-22
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
Upon Current Topics-UOmpiiod kyerV
Day for tho Evening Telegraph.
THE CURE FOR THE SOUTH.

will probably have been settled before this
reaches our readers, and, if there were no
other States still to apply, we might let the
subject drop. But the discussion the case of
Virginia has called forth, as well as the policy
which is in course of execution i'll Georgia,
has revealed n state OF mind on the part OF
some Republicans which is pretty sure to
raise again the very points which Congress is
now passing upon. Nay, the very demand
which we already hear for the relegation of
Tennessee to territorial condition, by way
of punishing her for the conduct of her Legis-
lature, promises to carry us into a still
stranger and more difficult region than any
we have yet traversed in the work of recon-
struction.
1t is impossible to deny most of the asser-
tions which the advocates of the continued
inhiction of pains and penalties on the South
make as to the temper of the people and the
administration Of criminal justice We sup
poso it would be easy to count on ones fin
gers the number of 'rcpentant rebels" south
of Mason and Dixon's line-that is, of men
who a. not simply sorry on grounds of expe-
diency for having revolted against the Gov
ernment of the United States, but who look
on their conduct with horror as sinful and
Immoral, and therefore needing to be ex-
plated by some process OF atonement or purl-
fication; and yet it is this latter kind of re-
pentance that some radical Republicans are
Clamoling for as o condition of reconstruc-
ton. In other words, they refuse to con-
slider an ex-Confederate a good citizen, and
entitled to his political rights unless, besides
acknowledging that he has been foolish, he
also acknowledges that he has been wicked.
That ninety-nine hundredths of the South
ern people, however, will make no such con-
fession, and are satisfied that the Rebellion
was not wicked, but holy and glorious, is
quite true. We cannot gainsay it; but for the
purposes of our argument we do not need to
gainsay it. All we have to say about it is,
that this state of affairs presents to the people
of the United States u new problem of which
they have hitherto only read, but with which
they have never had to deal though it is one
of the familiar problems of history, over which
the statesmen of the Old World have been
Cudgelling their brains for thousand years.
That problem is, how to deal with a disaffected
population, who, whether rightly or wrongly,
look on us as oppressors and themselves as
victims, amd hate us accordingly. We may feel
satisfied that they are mistaken, but this does
not help us to solution. Their delusion is
simply one of the symptoms of their disease;
and dwelling on it perpetually as q reason for
not going any further strikingly resembles
the conduct of doctor who should keep con-
stantly repeating his diagnosis, but stoutly
refuse to prescribe any medicine until the
patients condition became more satisfactory
have by us a recipe for just such cases in
which we have the utmost confidence, which
we have been recommending to foreign
powers ever since the foundation of the
United States Government. 1t consists
simply in conciliation; in giving the dis
affected the management of their own affairs
as far as possible; and in constantly present
ing the sovereign force of the country to
them in the attitude of a protector,
or help, or agent, and not that
of schoolmaster, or taskmaster,
or inquisitor. And the theory of this remedy
the theory, indeed, which underlies the
whole American system-is that men in the
mass on the whole incline towards good rather
than towards evil, and WILL if let alone, i'm
prove in morals and manners; and in support
of the soundness of this theory we constantly
point to the whole history of civilization
The world has progressed, not by means of
Government checks and stimulants, but
largely in spite of them. The South affords
us just now field for the trial of the theory
such as we have never had. If it will not
stand this test, if we dare not try it at the
South, we ought in decency to give up urging
it on the attention of the Spaniards anc
British, and ought to be ashamed of having
once urged it on the Austrians.
Besides, the plan of bringing communities
to the frame of mind in which other people
think they ought to be, by coercion, has beer
frequently tested before our eyes, and ha
always failed, and failed lamentably. There
is hardly government in Europe which ha
not resorted to it, and the great triumph o
liberalism which we are now witnessing ther
means simply that tie plan is being every
where abandoned, and people are being lef
to their own devices. Since they can't bt
made good, statesmen are saying, let then
get good in their own way. If the people o
the South will not of themselves reach tn
conclusion that honesty is the best policy
that crimes of violence and injustice toward
individuals are injuries to the community
that every man is interested in the mainte
nance of order and justice, then free govern
ment on this continent is failure.
But it may be said that Southern disloyalt
is peculiar in this, that it is accompanied b
or results in hostility towards the freedmen
or, in other words, that the Southern probleu
is complicated by the existence of intens
caste feeling, that, If it consisted simply i
hostility towards the Government, it woul
be simple enough, and what we say woul
probably apply; but that the ''unrepentan
Rebel shows the hardness of his heart i
Expressing his colored neighbor. The answe
10 this argument lies in the question, Are W
prepared to protect his colored neighbor 2?
in other words to provide an efficient polio
for the South, and maintain it there unt
society has become peaceable an
law-abiding. Everybody acknowledge
that we are not. We offer til
colored man not zone shred of real dsfens
against any of the outrages or exactions {
which he is exposed. We have no force fC
the purpose, and no one-not even Gener
Butler or MIR. Sumner-proposes to proyiC
one. The operations of the Ku-klux Kla
oil forbidden hu law aIpaaHv rhara