The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-17
THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH.
On Which Side Does tho Prejudice Pre-.
ponderatet

both sides. as soon as the war closed, a
splendid spirit Of chivalrous generosity in
keeping with the proud prestige of the
American people, as self-governing nation,
and in illustration of the high manhood
claimed by both sections when protesting to
fight for the same great principles of the
Constitution If, with the surrender OF the
last Southern soldier, and an acknowledge
mont of the irrevocable failure of the Con-
federate cause, by those who had been ardu-
ously aiding it, the Federal Government had
at once rendered terms of reconstruction
manifesting confidence in our people by per
hitting them to reOrganize their State Gov
ernments, free from all interference, we
should have had far better state of things
than we have had since the war.
There would have been prompt return of
peace, with all the blessings and benefits of
peace. We should have had order in the
society of all the Southern States almost
with the cessation of the echo of the last
cannon of the conflict. Our industries would
have been resumed with higher hopes of
rapid recovery from the desolation and de-
preston that weighed down the hearts of
our people, Prejudiccs would have disap-
peared. Strangers from the North would
have come amongst us by thousands to in
vest money and make their homes here.
The government would have gone on almost
as if it had never been disturbed. We
should have had no such unwarranted and
| illiberal legislation, no such usurpatiOns
and prosecutions, no such sectional antagOn-
| isms in place of national harmony, as have
retarded the return of good feeling and i'm
paired the prosperity of the whole land.
| Nine years have passed now since the close
of the war; and there are men high in place
and in power in the councils of the country
who have yet less friendly feeling for the
no, fGov hnu for
How long it will last it is impossible to tell.
But it is to be most heartily hoped that two
years hence, when the contest for the Presi-
Dental succession is about to begin, the
anti Radical party of the Union will have
in it's platform plank of nationality so
plain, so broad, an6 so distinctively declared
to be with reference to impartiality in enact
ing the Federal laws, that no man who re-
fuses to stand upon it can have the hardi-
hood to deny that he is an enemy of the
Southern people, incapable of doing them
Justice as American citizens entitled to.fair
aud full consideration in the adoption of any
governmental measure avowedly designed
for the national good.
We are satisfied that the masses of the
Northern people are either not in sympathy
with the prejudices of their party leaders,
who hate the South, or if they are, that they
are shamefully deceived and misled by mis-
representations made to them To take no
higher view of the matter, life is too short
and these times are too progressive for
great country like this to be held back by
the prejudices of partisans in power who
lose sight Of the fact that the South, as well
as the North, is within the Union, under the
Federal Government, and equally entitled
to be benefited by legislation looking to the
material interests of the American people.
Our Northern enemies will say that the
proponderance of prejudice is Oh the side of
the South and not of the North. 1t is not
true. The history of the world affords no
parallel for the heroic magnanimity of the
people of the late Confederacy, in meeting
and greeting, as friends in peace the men
who bravely fought them, and whom they
bravely fought in war. The support of
Horace Greeley, by tens of thousands of
Southern citizens who had been Confederate
soldiers ought to have been enough to sweep
away forever every vestige of doubt as to
their desire for reconciliation, their forget
fitness of the past-their earnest, honest
purpose to be truly friends, in fraternal as
ISOLATION under the pgis of the Union, in
rtead of strangers and enemies in the mock
cry of a brotherhood with nothing but the
name to give it the semblance of assimila-
ton.
Northern men in the South are as warmly
welcomed as though there had never been a
war. Our people are pleased to take them
by the hand as fellOwcitzens, as friends, as
neighbors-glad to help them, and glad to be
helped by them. Our representative men in
Congress, while standing up boldly and firm
ly for the rights of their own section, make
no exhibition of prejudice against the North,
or of ill-feeling toward the men by whom the
South was borne down in arms in her strug
gle for independence. There is certainly
inf in
that It could not be otherwise, with human
nature as it is, under the circumstances that
have provoked hate for hate. But the preju-
dice here compared to the prejudice there is
as drop to draught of gall. The contrast
is striking; and it cannot be long before the
world will observe it.-Richmond Enquirer.
The FLOOD IN ALABAMA.-The Demop-
oils Neus reports that the Tombigbee River
overlooked its banks to such an extent as to
carry away houses, which looked like the
old black gunboats of the war as they pass
ed Demopolis on their way to the Gulf
The waters have now subsidized so that the
overlooked portions Of the Alabama and
Chattanooga road could be examined, and
the injuries ascertained. They are so
serious, says the Meridian Murcury, that the
road will not probably be run through again
for month to come. Between the bridge
and DemOpOlls IS considerable amount OF
trestle work and embankment utterly de-
molished
Supposing that there might be perhaps
score or so of the Peninsular and Waterloo
veterans still alive and in impecunious cir
cumstances, the new Minister of War at
Westminster announced that the Govern
ment would pay to each and every old sol
dier of this class pension of half guinea
4 Il .,,ko Hoo{
become known than more than four hundred
of these hoary veterans suddenly started up
as it were from the grave; and Mr.. Hardy
finds that he has let the Government in to
the tune Of about eli 900 year. No one
will grudge the old soldiers their unexpected
good fortune; but if the new government
is to 90 on in this way, it will soon spend all
the surplus which Mr.. Gladstone left it for an
Inheritance.
The Virginia City (Nevada) Enterprise says
that, 1t having been proposed to send Sir