Wilmington daily commercial., 1872-08-10
WILMINGTON, DEL.
Saturday Afternoon, August 10.
THE "CHAsM'-sHALL WE CLASP HANDS
ACROSS IT Yi-OR HEAL IT UP?

The war undoubtedly left wounds. 1t could
not be otherwise. With combatants 30 intense
ly in earnest with conflict maintained 80 long
and bitterly; with so fearful slaughter and 80
wide a destruction, there was left, when hostili-
ties ceased, wound upon the public feeling,
which it is, perhaps, not an exaggeration oil
terms, to call 4" chasm."
But there should be no difficulty in healing up
this wound. The cause of the war was the ag-
gressive spirit of the Slave Power. That cause
is destroyed. The demon which plunged us in
to conflict has been cast out, forever, and upon
the moment Of its departure, there remained
no serious impedinent to peaceful and harmo-
nious adjustment of relations between the white
people of the Southern States, and the other
citizens of the Republic. They would, in IL
probability, never have been alienated from
their brethren, except for the bsneful influences
Of the Slave System. and, with it destroyed, they
have no further cause of division. They will
assimilate and harmonize, undoubtedly, unless
the processes of peace are interrupted or frus-
trated by the absurd and dangerous experiments
OF political quacks.
During the War, the desire for ''Peace at any
price" was, fortunately for the country, not
granted, but the better purpose of obtaining
such peace as would be worth maintaining
prevailed 1t is just so in the present instance.
Instead of ''casping hands across the chasm,
let the chasm be filled-or better expressed, let
the wounds of the War heal. This will be per-
mauent health for the body polite it will close
up forever, the ulcer of Sectional division ; it |
will make our Republic, what it ought to be, an |
indivisible Union, not only Of territory but of |
people. 1t will make, what we ought to have,
Nation, in which the citizens of the remotest |
States, meeting each other, will meet as the sin
cere and truly-united brethren of a common citi |
zenship
Such peace will be permanent. 1t will en-
dure while our race and our civilization continue.
Ages will not destroy it. Such peace will come,
and only can come, by yielding sincere assent /
to the political results produced by the War.
The war, itself, was conflict OF ideas. They /
fought out their conclusion. Any peace which |
is not in logical harmony with that conclusion |
will not be permanent. Any policy which pro- |
poses to yield, either little OF much, to the spirit
of the Rebellion and to compromise, IN however |
small degree, the results Of the War, is poll |
cy dangerous to the harmony of the country
No one demands that hardshipH be placed |
upon the white people of the South They are
now all Americans citizens no more and no less
than all others. They have equal rights in the
Republic They cannot be oppressed, or burden
cd or injured. No Republican desires that they
should be. But they must not cherish hopes of a
new Rebellion; and they must not expect to
recover by political tactics, or party chieanery,
any part of that which was forever lost, when
Lee yielded at Appomattox. The Union con-
quered there the Union must not lose one iota
OF that tremendous result. Its cost was terrible
its value is equally great.
The true policy of the South is that Of cordial
cooperation with the Republican party. Its poll
cy has led straight and direct from the close of
the War in line of logical deduction. 1t has
simply administered the Government in a
course consistent with the decision which was
arrived at and it has preserved to the people
Tue fruits which were earned by their ter
nble struggle. The amnestied Southern
people cannot, in reason complain of this,
Tor their surrender made it logical
and appropriate consequence. Nor is it a hard
ship to them, for it involves no further surren-
der on their part When they gave up the fight
they gave up the feudal, slave-system idea for
which they had contended and with it's aban-
donment, in sincerity and honesty, they come
into perfect harmony with the Republican or
ganization.
Let the Southern white people cast out the
lingering hope Of re-establishing come parts of
the system which has been destroyed Let them
prove the good faith Of their position, by cor
daily uniting with the party which maintained
the Union, aud is maintaining the Unions VIC
tory Let them come into it as a guaranty of
permanent and real peace. If Mosby, himself.
come let him be welcomed. Let us heal over
the wound the scar may reman, but there will
he no 'chasm,' no division, nothing to reach
"aeross.' Pbe union of the people will be real,
and established upon basis that will endure
not Fictitious, and liable at any moment to in
teruption.