National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-02-10
rEHI:rIUaIIUU Inn1our.

business department 10 the new REPUBLICAN
building.
FEII-EI UaIINu IHEHDUN.
Last summer number of leaders in and
sympathizers with the late rebellion, be
longing, with one or two exceptions, to
what are called the wealthy and aristocratit
classes, met at the Virginia Springs and
formed the Southern Historical Society, the
ostensible object Of which was to collect
material for history of the late war, the
real object being to defend the principles Of
.he cause which, after four years of strife,
The loss of hundreds of thousands of lives
and the expenditure of thousands of mil
lions of dollars was crushed out at Apo
nat:ox. The men who led in that move
nent-who formed that socicty-were then
Ind are now actuatcd by the most selfish OF
motives, and have been and are the
worst enemies of the section of our
country for which they profess so much
love and alteration. They never were
aud are not Republicans we do
not use the word in its modern party
and political meaning-and they should be
citizens not of a republic but of monarchy.
They fought for what were unrepublcan and
democratic ideas. They were the repre-
sentatives of class. class which was rep
resented in Europe some hundreds of years
Dgo by the fcuda barons; class which de-
aied and deny to this day the equality of
man before the law: class which held it
30 be the inalienablc right of the blue blood
Of Virginia to hold in perpetual vassalage
tho black blood of Africa. They had a
creed or theory peculiarly their own-they
were to take care of the negro, and, al
though they did not admit it, the negro
was to take care of them. He was to go
without education that they might have all
She culture and education which the
world could give them. The negro
was to produce and they were
10 consume. The planter was to be lord
paramount and the slave was to be slave
orever. The slave and the slaves friends
objected and We had a war, war in which
.hc slave triumphed. in which class privi-
iege was overthrow and in which the DAM
6aane doctrine that man could hold prop
erty in man in this country was forever de-
iested and Overthrown.
The gentlemen who met at the Virginia
Springs die hard. From one end of the
country the movement which they then
md there began was denounced in IN
measured terms by the press and by the
nos. thoughtful men Of the country. The
rober. mature Judgment of the nation saw
N it the seeds Of danger and of discord, of
Iis,Inion and of treason, and as such con-
Iemned it. But notwithstanding that con-
1cmnation, the men who led in It seem de-
ermined to persevcre and to vindicate
themselves, as they call it, in the eyes of
sosterity. Posterity will blush for and dis
own and repudiatc them. Last Saturday
hight they met in the Masonic Temple,
,t Baltimore, and reiterated their plans
md purposes. Wade Hampton defined
hat purpose to be ito justify the strug-
gle and show the motives that animated |
he South" asking the startling questions:
is not this worth struggling for? Are
ge willing that the hands that usurped |
sur institutions should stigmatize lis ! /
Are we of the South ashamed of our his
Tory No, thank God, we are not''-a senti-
ment which the rebel audience of Baltimore
,pplauded. ''To justify the struggled
The expression only shows how far these
men are beSind their generation; how. little
jhey have l.>rncd in all these wears; how
little they unA 'rStand or appreciate the
mighty struggle he. tween the forces of civ
dization and barbaria1, which so triumph
sntly closed nearly nine gears ago. The time
will never come when the treason of Lee can
De justified. His act was treason, and will
remain treason down TO the last syllable of
accorded time, and no action of the South
frn historical or any other society can make
I appear in any other light Volumes may
be written and published, but they will
stand only as so many memorials of the
yanity and the folly of their authors. The
sfuggle in which Lee led was a struggle
which had no foundation in right, which
Sas a crime against his country and against |
civilization.
As VIC said, Hampton and men like him
ire the worst and the only enemies the
bouth has to-day. Why not address him.
clf to the future, instead of the past? Only
few years ago the South was the richest |
md the most prosperous section Of the
Union. Why cannot he and the men who
ire acting with him endeavor to make
il so again? Is 'the justification of
.hc lost cause" the great and the only ques-
zion before it, Has it no railroads to build;
40 factories to establish: no industries to
ioster7 Is it to be the sole business of its
statesmen to grope among tine tombs and,
ike ''Old Mortality" write what they call
history? 1t is really sad to think of the
South; of its follies and absurdities; of its
devotion to ideas which the world has out
lived and almost forgotten. With magnifi-
rent possibilities and, if it could only seize
them. opportunities, it has made itself
gress, endeavoring to stop and retard
the advancement of the century. The
tabor which made 1t the garden of the con-
tinent it is endeavoring to kill; the strong
and sturdy arms which made its fields to
blossom into beauty and loneliness I'M
excelled in all the world it is driving from
1t in ignominy and contempt. The East and
The West and the North invite all the world
20 come to them and share in their fertility.
They offer friendly hand to honest toll,
but the South drives away and repels; signs
for an impossible present and still more
impossible future. Wade Hampton and
his friends, who imagine the chief bust
ness of the South is to write the history of
the past, are clogs upon its prosperity and
The history the South should
write is new and living history of the
present and the future, not that of dead
and forgotten era.
TOO MUCH LEGLSLATION