Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-08-21
CARPET-RAGGERS.

The people of the North have great
sympathy for the overburdened States
below Mason and Dixons line, that
mourn over an impoverished country, and
a bankrupt treasury. We little under
stand the losses they have suffered, in
the depreciation of their property by the
ravages of war, especially when we
take into the estimate the fact that many
millions were invested in slaves, that
were as absolutely lost as was the value
of burned cotton or Neutrality-suspicious. !;
but we solemnly protest against the South
ern people charging uponus of the north
the incubus of the carpet-bag rule that
has settled upon the South. The war
itself was the work of the South, and the
consequences following directly from
that cause, they have only themselves to
thank for, and heavy as the burden may
be, the North can not be charged with
unnecessary cruelty in conducting the
war to a successful termination. When
they invited trial with fire and sword,
they had full knowledge that fire would
burn, and the sword cut keenly, and
they must fully have understood that
they must prevail by the weapons they
appealed to, or submit to be conquered
by them.
But the great complaint comes from
the refusal of the loyal north, when the
fight was over, to permit them to recover
in the political arena what they had lost
on the battlefield The Southern poll
ticians refused to abandon their old
notion of the subsection of the colored
race. This made harsh methods of re-
construction necessary, to secure justice
to an entire race. The disorganized So
ciety and uncultivated fields of the
South, invited northern enterprise and
capital to bring back peace and order to
the one, and fertility and heavy crops
to the other. With the enterprise and
virtue that we sent them there was
large per cent of INSCRIPTIONS adyen-
tuners; but the boosted chivalry and re-
nowned craftsmanship of the South must
not blame us that they allowed the mis-
cradle carpet-baggers to assume and con-
troll politics, and burden an impoverished
people with unjust taxes.
1t appears to us that the South has the
remedy in her own hands. They must,
however, overcome the Ku-Klux law
lessness of their own people; they must
demonstrate to the colored race that
they intend to administer an even hand
ed justice, and that no person is to be
prescribed on account of race and color,
before they can expect the negro vote to
be bestowed in favor of their measures
or candidates. When the leading white
men of the South will accept, IN good
faith, some such plan as that suggested
by General Beauregard, and stop their
war of races, they need not fear that I'M
principled carpet-baggers will usurp the
affections and secure the votes of the
negroes; but as the law of self-defence
is the first law of nature, they may ex-
pect the dusky voters of the State, viii
seek the best protection offered to them,
SO long as the Southern white men show
disposition to Cypress them.
Then our Southern brethren will bear
with US while we suggest that their treat
ment OF Northern men who come to re-
side with them should be modified some
what before they can expect the best re-
suits. The negroes look to Northern
men as their deliverers from slavery, and
every act of 1aWlessness arainst these
friends is correctly understood, as an as
sault upon them and upon others on their
account.
Vermont has no cause for self-upbraid-
ing on account of her sons in the South.
She sent such men as Dickinson to live
in and enrich the South, and the rebelli-
Gus spirit which kills them, makes it |
possible for her James III. Plat, Jr., to