The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-01-21
PEACE OR WAR.


to appoint a special committee, with power
to investigate outrages alleged to have
been perpetrated in the South since 1867
cannot be productive of any good, either to
the party or the country, unless the Presi-
dent and Congress shall decide to remit all
these States back to the condition of pro-
vinces or colonies, to be held in military
subsection for long term of years. Half
way measures will effect nothing. We
must either place a company of Federal
cavalry in every county, and substitute all
the civil courts by military commissions,
or change our enemies here into friends by
proclaiming a full pardon to all. We
have been engaged in patching" and
"tinkerins" long enough.-and now must
adopt policy that shall be thorough and
radical, no matter which course we decide
to take. We cannot do anything by weak
ness and vacillation, or by detail. This
petty skirmshing that has been going on
for the past five years, has accomplished
nothing. 1t has wasted our strength, and
left US precisely where we started. And
now we must bring it to a conclusion,
either by a bold advance or mas.
terly retreat. We must either occupy the
South with an armed force, from the up
per line of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri to
the Gulf and the Rio Grande, strong
enough to protect and defend every man
who lacks the courage to defend HIMSELF
and these complaints of outrage show that
there is a lamentable lack of manhood
somewhere--or we must resort to the only
other alternative, which is, as we have
often before indicated full amnesty and
kind aud just treatment. We must trust
the people of the South, if we would have
them trust US in return. We cannot COM
pei them, by the use of force, to return to
their old love for the Union, and to resume
the fraternal relations which existed among
us before the war; but we can bring them
back by real kindness and honest sym pa
thy. Let us not judge them too harshly.
That there have been wrongs committed,
no one will deny; but after so long and SO
fierce a war, in which the worst passions
were aroused, and the most deep-seated
prejudices were planted and nurtured in
the hearts of the people, SO well pre-
pared by long agitation, to receive them,
we could not have reasonably expected
more rapid restoration of perfect peace
or an earlier return to good feeling These
Outrage" very naturally occurred, just as
all sensible men looked for them to hap
pen. Intelligent Republicans expected to
pass through an ordeal of this sort when
ever the governments 10 the South should
be RENTED back to the keeping of the old |
rulers, and especially in the first moments |
of their extravagaut joy at finding them.
selves in power, did we look for some
ebullition of their pent up feelings of hatred
and revenge. But there was far less of |
this spirit shown, particularly in Virginia,
than was anticipated, and nowhere has
there been anything like the prescription
and persecution we had schooled ourselves
to be prepared to experience.
Speaking calmly, and as one who has
studied the matter deeply from every
standpoint, and with all the facts before
US, we believe the Southern people have
been guilty Of fewer excuses than would
have been committed by any other race
on the face of the earth, similarly situated
and surrounded. They should receive full
credit, too, for those outrages they might
have committed and yet did not commit
while we are denouncing them for those
with the perpetration of which they now
stand charged. Their general good con-
iu't, quiet behavior, and accomplishing
hough proud, submission, should be
Weighed against their evil acts, land even
hough the scales were equally balanced we
would temper judgment with mercy, and
asting charity in, bid them "goin peace
nd sin no more.
Either we must do this aud make friends !
t them, and thereby secure peaceful :
button to the problem by a radical J
leasure of amnesty, which shall sweep /
way all disqualifying tests and disabling
auses, and place every man in the
ountry on an ennal footinr x,;th III. | q