New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-11-14
To BE RecOmciIed.

| The business of reconciliation is not yet
over. There is a chasm, not very bloody
but pretty deep, that still needs bridging
The Liberal leaders need not exert them
selves any more to reconcile the people o.
| the North and the South to each other, but
they can find plenty of hard work to do in
reconciling the Southern people to them.
selves.
What farce, what an open and transpar'
ent humbug has this "chasm'' business been
from the beginning! A bid for sickly senti,
ment. An attempt to create sympathy fol-
the people of the South, who stood bewil-
dered at the suggestion, and chuckled inn
mensely at this new trick in political warfare.
How wretchedly the whole thing has failed
is shown by the returns. The South pos
sesses more sterling sense than we gave ii
credit for. 1t vies with the North in rcbuk-
ing the fraud, and the new gospel of peace,
as taught by the apostles of Greeley, is repu-
dated by the whole people from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, and from Maine to the Gulf OF
Mexico.
There Is something better to be done than
standing on the brink Of mythical chasm
and twining digits in ecstatic transport.
There are fields to be titled, laws to be
shaped, debts to be paid, and a commerce to
be developed. We are not to range our
selves in two lines on the borders of States,
and toss empty compliments at one another !;
but to mingle freely, deal fairly, act gener-
ously, as one people, having common lam
guage, common origin, and a common end
to accomplish. In this regard We ought to
forget the things that are behind and press
forward to those that arc before. The South
has shown itself wise in its political action.
Let it 90 further. We want to see the re-
proachful epithet of carpet-bagger" disap-
pear. This Government is not congrega-
ton of independent planets, but, in large
sense, a union of dependent States-depend-
ent each upon the other. What matters tho
imaginary line drawn between Indiana and
Illinois, or Kentucky and Tennessee? Wher-
ever our laws are enforced, wherever our flag
floats, wherever our Constitution obtains re-
cognition, there should be free home and
hearty welcome to every citizen of the Union.
The foreigner coming to our shores is kindly
greeted, and after brief period is given all
the privileges and immunities of the citizen
of lifetime. At least an equal recognition
should be granted to those passing from one
State to another. The South needs immi-
grafton. 1t is to her advantage far more than
ours that hospitable reception should be
granted to those passing from one State to
another. The South needs immigration. 1t is to
her advantage far more than ours that hos
pitable reception should be extended to all
who enter her borders. The man who leaves
Illinois to seek home in Mississippi takes
one from our population and adds one to hers.
He takes a hundred, or a thousand, or five
thousand dollars from our wealth and trans
fers it to that of sister State. We do not be-
grudge the one or the other. Let Mississippi
in the same spirit "welcome tho coming or
speed the parting guest" A spirit thus
manifested will gradually bring about an era
of good feeling which neither platforms nor
politicians nor laws can ever manufacture,
and love and reconciliation will become some
thing more than mockery or the shibboleth
Of desperate party. Meanwhile, let the
people watch the men who have been engaged
in an attempt to estrange them, to embitter
one section against another, and to set up
lines of demarkation between the North and
South. There will be new DISCUSSES, new
pretenses, more lifting of pious hands, and
fresh EXPLANATIONS of horror. So far they
have deceived nobody but themselves. Let
us see to it that in the future they are equally
harmless, and that these men are religiOusly
permitted to remain on the back seats to
which they have been 80 unanimously "rcle-
gated" by the voice of the people. Chicago
Inter- Ocean.