The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-05-16
The Misrule in the Southern States.

The Governments of some of the South
ern States have been great scandal to the
country, while affording fruitful theme TO
that class of politicians whose acts were the
primary cause of the deplorable state OF
affairs complained of, and to that other
class, who, failing to procure front seats
in the Republican party, endeavored to set
up housekeeping on their own account, and
christened themselves Liberals" That
the condition of affairs in louisiana, in
South Carolina, Arkansas, and in other OF
the secession States to less degree, has
been deplorable, none pretend to deny or to
excuse.
The disagreement in these States has
been a great material loss to the country,
as we'll as scandal to free institutions. But
those who have suffered most directly from
the rascality of Adventures are the most to
blame for their misfortunes. AS matters
have turned out, it would have been much
better for the property owners, had the
revolving States been reduced to territories
when the rebellion was conquered, as was
recommended by Sumner or Thadeus Steph-
ems; or the property of the leading rebels
confscated and protection guaranteed to
the purchasers by the Federal Government.
These measures seemed like harsh remedies
at the time, but they would have been lenient
compared to the ruin which has fallen upon
the property of the whole State, or rather
of all those States. The magnificent es-
tates of the influential leaders in the rebel
lion have wasted away, and with them the
whole property of these commenwealths in
which they were located, has been ruined
as we'll. Under territorial government this
deplorable condition could not have happen
ed. Protection to life and property would
have been made secure and order evolved
out of chaos, by proper management
Emigration and capital would have poured
into the war-wasted States at the return of
peace, had proper protection and encour-
agement been secured to them, and an
industrious, intelligent and honest constit-
uency would have controlled the State gov
ernments.
But in place of governing the late re-
volted States as history teaches that all
conquered States have been governed, till
labor and society had been completely re-
organized, halfway policy was pursued,
which neither punished the guilty or pro-
tectcd the innocent. The classes accus-
toned to rule in the days before the war,
while it was thought unsafe to trust them
with the control of political affairs, imme-
diately on the restoration of peace, were
left free to make their neighborhood very
uncomfortable for those who were not dis
posed to adopt their way of thinking about
the war, and its calamities; and the honest
and enterprising men who went South to
seek new homes and make the country
what it should be, land of plenty, inteli-
gence and order, were met by the old set
tiers as enemies, ostracised, thwarted in
their business and in numerous instances
robbed and murdered. This spirit speedily
put stop to the immigration of desira-
BILE class of citizens, who honestly pro-
posed to build up and restore the waste
wrought by the war and the shiftless sys-
tenn of slave labor which existed prior to
the rebellion. While successful in driving
away the detested Yankee strangers who
had come to benefit the helpless people,
and stopping almost entirely that desirable
class of immigrants, they but added to
their own calamities. Another class speed
lily appeared in their midst, who went to
stay but not to develop the resources of the
country. This class soon received the cpl
tibet of arpet-baggers." They asked
no favors or countenance from the ancient
aristocracy. These new Adventures were
politicians, political adventures, who had
nothing to lose. They had very sharply
defined purpose. That purpose was to
organize the newly enfranchised colored
voters. They made no professions of I'M
Outstanding how to develop mines, restore
exhausted soils, or establish furnaces and
factories; but they understood all about
running conventions and legislatures and
developing the rich placers in the shape of
Office to be found in those States. The
results of their skill and ability in this line
is known to every newspaper reader. But
who is to blame so much as the men who
have suffered most by these adventures?
By their own acts they effectually prevent
ed honest settlers and men of wealth and
enterprise from going among them, and
thus invited the very class who despoile6
them and others who deserved a better
fate. While the general Government re-
strained the former governing class from
assuming control of the State governments,
because it dared not trust it them, left
their property in their possession and them
the power to obstruct every attempt to
restore the country by immigrants from
the Northern States. Far better would it
have been for these States had they been
reduced to the condition of territories, and
the estates of the leading rebels confiscat-
ed. While this course would have hardly
been worse for the men thus despoiled, for
they are in vast majority of cases about
as hopelessly ruined, as if confscation had
s"SPe sANiA PAoPSAsJ Aheo WV eAoooui > tliC
great mass of comparatively innocent citi-
zens would have been spared the miseres
and want which have fallen upon them.
The plumber of South Carolina, the anarchy
of louisiana and Arkansas, would not
have disgraced the nation. 1t was human
nature, if left to pursue its inclination, to
act as the Southern people have done, and
it was deplorable piece of mismanage-
ment, in the Federal Government not to
save them from being the architects of their
own ruin, by enforcing order and protect
ing life and property. Far better that a
few of the guilty should have suffered
severely, than that the whole people be
brought to the condition which they have
suffered, and are still suffering.
THE VALUE OF COUNTRY WEEKIIEs AS
ADVERTISING MEDIUMs.-Extract from a
paper read by Howard Owen, Editor of the
Kennebec Journal, before the Association
of Maine Editors and Publishers, at the
annual meeting held in Augusta, Feb
ruary 23rd, 1874: "There are small coun-