The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-01-11
Amnesty for the South.


There is one question awaiting Congress at
its coming session, which ought to be courage
ously met and made an end of: There may De
no popular clamor to pass it; it may be posi-
BILE again to postpone action on it wit hout I'M
! mediate and yisibly ruinous consequences /; yet
every consideration of patriotism and states
| mansbip demands that action be taken.
/ At present, a large number of the Southern
people;-the class who in any way aided the
| rebellion; after taking the oath to support the
National Government are excluded from all
political Office. Whatever necessity may ever
have seemed to exist for this exclusion has
passed away. All experience goes to show that
L was originally a mistake The danger which
It was aimed against had already ceased to ex-
ist, There was never any danger of new re.
beilion after Lee surrendered 1t was settled
then, and settled finally, that the South was
not to go out of the Union. 1t was wholly
needless to provide additional security by dis
franchisements and exclusions. And if the
idea was ever entertained that these measures
would be useful as enforcing lesson on the
!, South, events have dissipated any such notion.
\ Resented as an injustice, they have only inten-
/ sifed in the class they were aimed at the sense
! ofbeing deeply-wronged people: The whole
policy of political punishment OF the South has
failed to answer one good end
| But it has been powerful to work evil. IL
1 has been the most effective agent against that
! union of feeling which become the nations SUI
preme need after external union had been won
| by the sword. ''--!' ~
| It is not enough that the stars and stripes
should wave over Richmond and Charleston.
The flag ought to be the symbol to all who look
upon it there of what they respect and love-
| It Is not enough that The Union asserts its au-
| IL ybntrt no
| South. We need to have the Carolinian and
the Louisianian as proud of being Americans
as the men of New York and Illinois. And
the South itself supremely needs that its differ
entclasses should sincerely respect each others
rights. and feel in their common citizenship
bond of sympathy.
How wide of this are the actual facts need no
telling. The old white population of the South
is in part sullenly Indifferent, in part bitterly
resentful, toward the rest of the Union. The
blacks and the whites are in two hostile camps,
mutually distrustful, hurting their common in
terest through malice and through ignorance.
| On one side we have the Ku Klux, on the 9th
er corrupt and demoralized State Governments.
The devastations of the war, and the ill-adjust-
ments of new social state, are aggravated IN
their consequences by these embitterments OF
feeling.
The causes of this deplorable state of things
lie ia part too deep for any treatment but that
of time; in part educational agencies are re-
moving them but while the National Govern
ment leaves grievous wound untended which
it might heal, the government, and we whom
it represents, are guilty parties in the matter.
Realize the position of the average South
erner He sees all around him men respected
and honored by the community, the old leaders
in politics and society, marked with stigma
of political disability. They cannot go to the
legislature, they cannot sit as judges on the
bench. This, for their suppor; of a cause which
he himself supported and probably still be-
lieves was good one. This, too, while men
Just out of the degradation of slavery, and
| worthless white adventurers, have these places
of honor and trust open to them. Is it in hu-
man nature that man who sees and feels these
things should not be exasperated by them? Is
| it in human nature that he should not be more
embittered by such treatment after defeat itself
in the open field? Can we altogether wonder
| that he is somewhat careless as to Che negro's
rights, when the power that maintains the ne
| gro inflicts what he considers grievous wrong
| on him? We do not say that this average
Southerner is right in all his reasonings; we
| do not say that his sentiments or actions are
according to the highest Christian standard
| But we do say that they are according to the
| standard of ordinary human nature and that
the government that viii not recognize and ad-
dress itself to such facts in human nature does
not know how to govern.
We say, then, let lis have done with punish
ing the South. Let US no longer humiliate
! those who have had SO many humiliations: Is
| not the nation strong enough to risk the admis-
sion of these men to full political privileges? :?
Are we not forgiviDg enough to have done with
the infliction of pains and penalties? Are we
not wise enough to cease trying to promote
peace by policy yofexasperation Of
There is especial reason for decreeing Uni
| yersal Amnesty at this time. The control of
| the National Government was never so secure
| to the Republican party. There is no longer
any danger of reversal Of the measures that
secure the black mans rights. Towards the
other great source of disturbance, the outrages
of the whites upon the blacks, Congress and
the President have taken every measure of re-
preston. Let them now turn to the other half
| of the work. They have struck at the out
cropping yii-weed; now let them deal with
the soil whence the weed springs. we can
never get to the root of the Ku Klnx trouble,
we can meyer restore the South to prosperity.
and WELD it in union. of heart with the rest OF
| the nation, simply by measures of repression.
There is work of magnanimity and trust TO
| be done. as well, and it is full time that the
work was wrought
The great measure should not be narrcd by
any reservations and exactions. If FIVE hum
dred or fifty or five men are singled out to re-
main under the ban, the practical benefit of the
measure will be greatly impaired. Wewant it
| to speak to the Southern people message OF
free and fearless goodwill. 1t can only bear
that message effectively, as it is unqualified and
| absolute in its terms.-Henry Ward Bescher IN
| the Christian Union. -.
.; - a cynical old bachelor says that it is the
privilege of hoops to surround the loVeIlest OF
all things, among which are girls and whlskey.
oe- 1t was saying of Guthrie: eff you want
to keep dead man, put him in 'whisk;ey; II
you want to kill living man, put the whlskey