New-York tribune., 1874-07-31
BRIGHTER DAYS For TIE SOUTH.


and powerful race, which once swayed the
destinies of the Republic, still lies, nearly a
decade after the close of the war, In certain
sections, in almost complete political subjec-
ton to the rude and untutOred men who once
titled their fields and picked their cotton In
the overthrow of the Rebel cause great for
tunes were swept away, and men who had
counted their negroes by hundreds became ms
poor as the poorest of them, and sometimes
were fain to acknowledge their former slaves
as their employers. The whole ediiice OF
slave power that had grown to such hight
fell in one crash and the ruins yet cumber the
ground. And nine years of peace seem, after
all, to have done little in the work of recupcr-
alton and growth. The political rule OF the
ignorant blacks is sill almost unbroken.
South Carolina, once the proudcst of this belt
of naughty States, cries out TO mankind Tor
the pity which every one bestovs and for the
help which no one can give. Her Governor
is a proclaimed and shameless thief, but the
tribunals of the people are poweriess to bring
him to Justice, and at the same time tha he deiies
.aGG mandates of the courts he ranges himself
openly on the side of convicted felons, aad
he does not intend to resign. TIE estates OF
the people, already impoverished by unrant-
ting thieving, are sold by the hundred for
taxes levied to support prosperous DaAd OF
robbers and poor as the victims are they
seem to grow poorer and weaker every day.
As citizens OF the United States they are even
more helpless than as citizens OF South Caro-
lima. When they succeeded, after much eXer-
ton, in procuring the punishment OF an
offender against the suffrage, pardon was
promptly forwarded from Washington; and
when, in desperation at the enOrmity and
relentlessness OF the oppression under which
they were groaning, the most influential men
of the State appealed to the President for
sympathy anl possibly aid, they were re-
warded with an insulting rebnh. The hand
of every man seemed against them.
In Louisiana a Governor who was chosen,
not by the people but by the unanimous voice
of President Grant and Collector Casey, pre-
sides over the dcStinics of the State. Here Is
the historic ground where the Administration
has committed its darkest crimes against the
liberty of the individual and Of the State.
Here the seal of Federal appreciation has been
Here, by the criminal Obstinacy OF the Presi-
dent and the equally criminal indecision of
Congress, Government has been perDetuated
which never had any rigatful existence, and
which could never even exhibit any election
returns on which to base Il serious claim to
being In Arkansas, the Governor who was
not elected was installed, and the Governor
who was elected after a time attempted to
unscat him. A state of war ensued In which
lives were lost and blood was shed; but the
Administration was for weeks aS deaf to
demands for mediation as III the case OF
Louisiana it had been eager to seize the first
opportunity for an unlawful aud unwarrantcd
In these three unhappy States
the inevitable results Of the war and It's sub
versions, aud of the alternately criminal and
stupid policy of the Administration, have had
their most marked effects; but scarcely
of the South though in some
of them the work of real reconstruction has
gone on bravely, is without its scenes OF desc
Iation, decay, and despair. And as If to cap
the climax of misfortune. the mighty river
which feeds and drains a great division of the
Southern territory not long since burst It's
bounds and became devastating flood.
Plantations were literally washed away, crops
were destroyed, homes Obliteratcd, and the
labor and savings of years wiped out.
But there is q SUMMER side to this dark pic
ture. In many respects the future of the
South was never so promising as 1t Is to-day.
At the close of the war her people accepted
the situation with frankness which required
no small effort, for it is the beaten man who
finds it hardest to forgive and forget the
victor can afford to be magnanimous. But
long before the -COnfederates ceased to feel
the smart of defeat. few of their late antag-
onists, led by Greeley and Chase, had stretched
ont to them the right hand of fellowship.
What was then considered an act of political
suicide has now become one OF the favorite
postures of the politicians, and the number of
neople has surprisingly diminished who would
he willing to admit, as the War Governor of
PENNSYLVANIA did the other day, that they
would not have been sorry to see judicious
use of the rope when the conflict ended. so
far has this feeling melted away that the
Union veterans hailed with delight at one of
their recent meetings proposal that next
wear the close of the first decade of peace
should be celebrated by a reunion of the Blue
and the Gray of q more friendly character
than those to which they had been accus-
toned; and this has been followed by stray
propositions that an effort should be made to
gather as many as possible of both armies at
the Centennial. So that the sun which rises
on our hundredth birthday bids fair to behold
a wholly united people
National reconciliation, however. has not
been the only change in progress. The South
erner has been brought to see the necessity
of working in this world to make a living
This one wholesome discovery has accom-