Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-06-10
SOME OBSERVATIONS.

Inc ehrOnttrg Win NhiCh thc oAhSc
holders 60 before the country with sor
of liberal platform in one hand and thu
records OF the conduct Of the admins
tration in the other, startles the public
with an exhibition of GOODNESS rarely
given this side of the north pole. We
are not sure that when the north pole
hears of it, there will not come q row.
What Grant is, and what the record
of his administration is, Sumner and
Schurz, sprung from the loins of the
great war and devastation party, have
told the country. Fierce as they were
against the poor South, they could no
longer s,ultify their manhood and write
ultimate destruction to their reputa-
tions BY remaining in it. What had they
to gain by leaving it, except to vindicate
their honor as public men2 No; that
platform, intended to wear the sem
blance Of an olive branch, is false
in every particular Of its seeming, so far
as the South is concerned. Olive
branch, indeed Offer an olive Branch
to a people the leaves Of whose pros
perity have been withered by the black
frosts of despotism's hate1 Let no
one, for any reason whatever believe
that the Grant party feels any kindness
for the South. Southern men in this
matter will act for themselves, but it is,
nevertheless, true that the Grant party
treats to-day, and has treated since the
war. the Southern States as conquered
provinces and their people as interiors
in the government, proper subjects for
the raids Of csrpetbaggers and the
bloody mercies of martial law. If the
party sings like an angel in its platform
of principles, it is after storming like a
devil in its administration of affairs.
The first act of the party after
the war was to break up the
harmony that had existed in the South
between the two races. The colored
man was hound by oaths to remain in
political antagonism to the white man.
The better to stimulate the dark mind to
the work assigned it from Washington,
the colored man was given, under the
direction of mean whites from the North,
the control of States, counties and com
munities. Ruined in fortune and under
the ban Of government fercely hostile,
the white people had no protection, no
government and no friends on the earth.
They must either sit down in despair in
the midst Of the wrecks Of their for
tunes, or go manfully to work to recon-
struct them. Their great souls rose
above despair They are now not what
they once we're, but comparatively indie
pendent. While they we're struggling for
the necessities of existence, the carpet
baggers were issuing millions Of bonds in
their name and loading them and their
posterity with debt that only generations
can pay Grant saw, knew all this, and
pulled his approval through the smoke
of an infinite number of cigars. And
yet, and yet, we see old Governor Orr,
of South Carolina, who saw his people,
men Of character. men who adorned
every station in life, driven through the
streets before a squad of Federal cav
airy, and followed, cursed and screamed
at by the dirtiest black rabble that ever
crawled up from the regions Of filth, fig
uring in the Philadelphia Convention.
1t is not for us to judge him. He has
his reasons and acts from them. But
to us, atleast, it seems inexplicable how
a Southern man can, with the memory
of the sufferings and outrages put upon
the Southern people by Grant and his
party still active, at this late day kneel
to the genius that has ruined him.
|