Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-08-12

CLOSING THE BLOODY CHASM.


idea and the attempt to carry it into prac-
tice grew the evils of his administration.
Greeley and Sumner are but following in
his track now, although they opposed him
when he was President and would have
impeached and removed him if they could.
What is the RECONCILIATION" which
Sumner and Greeley urge Who are to
be reconciled and what are the conditions
What have the people of-the North done
of which the South can reasonably COM
plain and for which we should express
contrition and make PREPARATION?
We deny at the outset that there is on
the part of the people of the North any
feeling of uniriend.iness toward the peo-
pie of the South. The spirit OF some of
Mr.. Summers speeches in the Senate and
the writings of Mr.. Greeley in the Tribune
against the South might imply that the
North had a malignant hatred against the |.
South, but such is not and never has been
the case. The North went into the war
reluctantly. We were forced into it. We
had to fight or see the the nation die. All
that we had was at stake. All that we
required was that tbs South should sub
nit to the government Upon our part
the prosecution of the war was not stained
with cruelty and inhumanity. We had no
Libby Prison or Andersonville, and sent
no agents into the South privately to fire
their cities and spread loathsome and
deadly diseases. At the close of the war
the soldiers and officers of the conquered
armies of the Confederacy were permitted
to return home, where they have remained
unmolested ever since. With the excep-
rebellion out of Congress, also officers
who were in the judicial, military and ma
val service of the United States, heads of
departments and foreign ministers of the
United States, who joined the rebellion,
all have been restored to every right of
citizenship which they held before the war
and forfeited forever by becoming reb-
els. Not rebel has been executed or pun
ished by the government for treason.
Mr. Jefferson Davis traverses the country
freely to-day and advocates the election
of Mr.. Greeley
These facts are sufficient to show that
the government in its present hands and
the northern people are not actuated by
hatred 10 the South. Who then are to be
reconciled? or what does reconciliation
mean or with whom and for what are
we urged to clasp hands "across the bloody
chasm."
Reconciliation according to Greeley
means Just what It did in Andrew John
sons policy. 1t means to give the rebels
control OF the government. They have
all the rights of citizens, the same protec-
ton under the Constitution and laws of
the United States that any other men have,
but they wish to get their heel upon the
neck of the negroes again. grind down
into the dust ahe loyal Union whites and
republicans of the South, and bend the
government to recognize secession and
put the rebel who fought against the flag
on equality with him who fought for it.
Were they to get the power they would
seek to repudiate the national debt and
obtain recompense for the loss of their
slaves in the war. Their soldiers would
be pensioned equal with ours. They
might undertake to assume the payment
of the Confederate bonds, which have re-
Gently shown an improvement by the NOM
ination of Mr.. Greeley.
This is the reconciliation to which we
of the North are invited by Mr.. Gree
ley. Mr.. Greeley is already on record
as favoring the payment of the South
for their slaves and pensioning rebel SOL
diers. He is therefore prepared to clasp
hands "across the bloody chasm" Not
by meeting the rebels halfway, but by GO
ing entirely over and putting the North
and all that it fought for under their feet
Is this reconciliation or surrender? Is it
closing the bloody chasmP or opening it
wider? Is it the gospel of peace? or the
signal for warp Is it justice to the dead
who fell fighting rebellion, to the soldiers
manned in their country's cause, to the
patriotic people who bore the burdens OF
the war? or is it scheme so unjust that
it would be abhorent to every loyal heart
and provoke resistance even at the can
non 5 mouth?
Before we clasp hands with those who
fought the government four years, they
must acknowledge and accept the results
Of the war IN good faith They must deal
justly with the freedmen and the white
tnionists of the South, cease their pro-
scription and oppression of republicans,
and abandon the idea of turning this gov
eminent, il they can obtain control of it, to
recognize secession and exalt rebels above
loyal men. This they have not done and
do not propose to do if they can elect
Mr.. Greeley. The republican party is