The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1872-10-03
THE OPPRESSION OF THE SOUTH.
from the N. Y. Post. I


made about the military oppression of the
Southern States, as if the people of that
region were kept down by the bayonet,
with soldier in every house ard corn
tield. But how utterly unfounded the
charge is will appear from the following
letter, addressed to US by gentleman Of
the South, who, during the war won as
gallant q name as any man in the Confed-
crate service but who, when the war
closed, laid down his arms, suned his
obedience and became reconcied to his
former allegiance. He has never gone
about counselling his late.allies not to ac-
cept office, to refuse to vote, to look sulky
and discontinued, to abuse the govern
ment and organize clubs for the assassin
alton OF negroes bat like man and o
soldier, as he is, he has endeayored to
heal the breaches of the past by cheer
full recurrence to his civic duties, and an
earnest effort to recover by his own indus
try and the encouragement of industry in
others what has been lost in war.
AS the letter is marked private and was
only written as a suggestion to ourselves,
and not for publication, we do not feel at
liberty TO give the name or address of the
writer; but we prefer his own words 10
any comment that we might make. in the
same direction:
To the Editor Of the EOening Post:
81 desire to call your attention to a
charge often brought against General
Grant, namely, the military occupation Of
the South. This is all fiction. There is
not to-day a federal soldier in Virginia,
outside of Fort Monroe. have no doubt
it is just the same in the other Southern
States. If there is any State in which
General Grant would use the military to
over-awe the people for political purposes,
it would be this, for it has all the time
been against him. In South Carolina
there is an overwhelming majority of Re
publicans, who can protect themselves
without protection from the federal gov
ernment What would be the us of sead-
ing military force, when he already had
a majority
Another point: There is great cry
about carpet-baggers. Very true. In
some of the Southern States-for exam
pie, South Carolina-the legislature Is
composed of negroes and carpet-baggers !;
but this is the result of universal suffrage.
1t would be mockery to invest me with
the right of suffrage, and then say the
majority must not rule. We are not
plundered by federal but state officials.
am subscriber to your paper and would
like to see these charges editorially ven
tilated.
81 would call your attention further to
the fact that in no Southern State has
there been for five years any restriction
on the right of suffrage that did not
equally apply to white and black. No
one was prevented from voting for his
participation in the rebellion-only few
from holding office. But we always lad
plenty of good men-Confederate SOL
diers-who had never held office before
the war, who were not disqualified from
holding Office, if they could be elected to
them. I have myself always been eligi-
BILE both to office as to the right to vote"
Here Is an ardent southerner,one Of the
foremost men of the rebellion, who does
not discover the terrible despotism with
which the orations of tie stump-orators
ring; and who is not unwilling that the
process of reconstruction and reconcilia
ton should go on under the moderate and
justminded rule of General Grant.
Charles G. Williams spoke at St. Paul,
Minnesota, last Thursday to an immense
audience. The Press of that city refers