The Portland daily press., 1873-05-08
The Texan Fayorite.

The most singular effect of the late action
of the Texas legislature in substituting an in
vitation to JEFF Davis to visit the State in
place Of one Offering its hospitality to Grant.
is the disclosure of the fact that nobody cares.
The complete apathy with which the entire
country has treated this silly exhibition of
confederate pgheadedness and spite is
pretty exact measure of the loss of considers-
ton and influence which the South has suf.
Tered In consequence of the failure Of its re-
volt and the resulting industrial, social and
political prostration. That part of the coun-
try uarollIted by slavery and treason has SO
outgrown and overtopped the enervated
South, that the recurrence of the old symp-
to-2. c1f 20 chivaliy, however violent, has
ceased to be even good item of news, and
the simultaneous happening of rail
road disaster or of first rate de-
falcation pushes it ignominiously into COM
plets oblivion. Had the Memphis insurance
.gent who has now fallen into such obscuri-
tythat few Northern people any longer take
thetrouble to hate him, accepted the invitation
Of hi Texan friends, and had the principal
entertainment offered him been the burning
OF Gen Grant in efigy, the interest excited
in the Mrth would have been only little
more liely than at present. Its
chief expression would have been, "poor
Texasp' ''oor South! Will its people
never learn wisdom? Will ignorance
and disloyalty brewer condemn part of our
countrymen to their present condition Of
moral and finanial stagnation? Must this
dark spot on the hap always remain e'' The
great, free North his gone forward while the
South has stood still or gone back, has in
creased its wealth ant sharpened its intelli-
gence by constantly improved education, and
extended its power and influence N all di-
rections while the sulky Confederats have
impoverished themselves, blunted ther wits
and made themselves contemplate by cher
and refusing to adopt education and progress
as the foundation of new civilization
Such North can afford to be magnanimous
toward such a South, especially since the rel
ative importance Of the latter is constantly
declining, and its power for active mischief
is no longer regarded as worthy to excite ap-
prehension. But once, and not a great
many years ago, what fever of consterna-
ton this Texan news, or its Gnte-bellam equiv
alent, would have excited in the North
What visions of hordes of long-haired, mys-
terious rangers issuing from the wilds of the
Lone Star State to destroy the Union and lay
waste the North, would have disturbed the
oofE E;xa,iJ aho1J Cue
ostentatious disloyalty would have sent an
electric thrill through the entire South, and
while in that section of the country the fire.
eaters were maddened by the reasonable
orations Of the Wigfalls and Yanceys, and were
meeting daily to drill, in the North the COM
promisers would have brought forward their
compromises, and the pacifcators would have
come forward with their soothing prescrip-
tons. The doughface would have come to
the front, and the abolitionist would have
been the object of general public detestation.
But to-day there are only a few people, who
remember to have seen in the last weeks S
papers an obscure paragraph stating that an
old gentlemen living in Memphis, who once
led his Southern neighbors in a crazy enter
prise that wholly failed, who ran away from
the consequences of his crime in his wife's
clothes, and who since his retirement to pri-
vate life has supplemented his disloyalty tc
the Republic by public disloyalty to the wife
whose loan of her attire almost enabled him
to escape the Union troops-that this bad old
gentlemen is regarded by the lawmakers ol
Texas as a filter guest than the Chief Magis
trate of the country on whose public and pri
vate loyalty there is no spot And those who re-
member the paragraph do not find themselves
moved to execration, but to pity They ex-
claim, "Such State needs emigration, and,
above all, more schools" Nearly all the
measures lately considered in Congress for
giving national aid to education have recog-
nized the claims ofthe Sonth to especial con-
sideraton, as is most just. We can imagine
no more profitable investment of public mon
ey than in purchasing enlightenment and
consequent happiness and prosperity for the
South. It will matter relatively little to the
country at large when Texas prefers Grant tc
JEFF. Davis, but 1t will be of the highe st con
Germ to Texas.