Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-08-31
THE SOUTHERNER.

Neither the native New Englander
nor the native Southerner have never
lost his identity with his forefathers.
Charles Francis Adams and Wendell
Phillips are types of character that were
seen in the cabin of the Maytower.
Robert L. Lee and Lucius Q. G. Lamar
are known to us as faithful descedents
of those adventurous, chivalrous throng
that first sought the banks of the James
and the Savannah. The Southerner has
changed less than any other American.
He has bred in andin, and to-day he has
the large bones, the spare side-face. and
sober, earnest look of his ancestors. He
is still timid and honest in affairs of bu.
siness, courteous in affairs of society,
and keen in affairs of politics. The lei
sure given to the whites by slave labor
developed two traits in the South. One
was the habit of study, and the other was
a devotion to the sports OF the field; and
though the philosopher-like Madison
loved adventure, the traits distinguished
two different classes of men: the learned
and the unlearned. But these two classes
met on the common ground OF politics.
The township system in respect to Its
political development was stronger in
the South than in New England. And
the political system developed was local
and wholly Southern. Democracy was
narrow and undemocratie; and the South
was never able to look upon the North as
ANYTHING but motley incongruous mass,
to be used, but not respected. 1t met
the North only in convention, and though
it permitted the Democratic party to
have Presidents from the North, it would
permit it to choose only the weakest
men. The moment so strong a man as
Stephen A. Douglas was spoken of, the
South lost control of itself and OF the
nation.
The Southerner always got from Eu
rome what he read, and from the Europe
of long ago; SO that his opinions had a
conservative, old fashioned flavor. He
He did not know the signs of American
times. but no man so well knew the little
details OF European history and politics.
In climate which induces contempla-
ton rather than arduous struggle with
the practical .events of life, he pondered
problems that we're half century old !
though in the fierceness of conventional
or congressional debate he had way of
giving his problems smack of original
flavor. Even during the war, when
Northern generals were winning battles
by expedients and by lessons learned in
an hour, such Southerners as jackson
and Lee we're fighting battles with the
tactics of the best soldiers of the past,
learned in frontier barracks, but applied
with their own genius. But they never
could understand the character of the
men they were fighting. They were a
different race.
What most surprises us in the South
ern character, is that extreme honesty
with which it approached everything.
The Southernor' political intrigues were
matters Of science applying affairs OF
sentiment. He was honest in maintain
ing slavery, and the men who are now
able to acknowledge the wrong OF the
old system are very few. We have new
er felt disposed to curse the first settlers
on the James River for receiving the
Dutch vessel with its slaves because we
were always checked by the thought that
near the time when it arrived the ances-
tors of our New England Abolitionists
we're hanging witches. The training OF
the South, aud the influence of slavery
itself, deprived the Southerner of ability
to see the fundamental error of his po-
liticsl and social system.
In our day, after nine years of suffer
ing and patience, the Southerner rouses
from his political lethargy, aud with new
conditions of society around him, re-
sumes his old habit Of political planning.
II is not surprising that his plans relate
wholly to himself He is honestly sci.
FISH, and he does not love a North who
defeated him. His plan is necessarily
a startling one. He seeks power alone;
and there is favor both Of genius and
of the absurd in his effort to take a new
step towards it. As the Republican
party and Grant are two elements OF
power, he will rob one from the other.
In 1872 he took Republicans like Gree
ley and Schurz from Grant Failing to
get power, he now offers to take Grant
from the Republicans party. Political