The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-21
The Troubles In tho south-Whither
Are We Driftingt

narrative upon them so tar as that State is
concerned local quarrel about the possess
sion of State Office has famed out into q
controversy threatening the peace of the COM
monwealth. Into the merits of this contro-
versy we have no desire to enter. We aues-
ton seriously whether there are merits on
either side. The President has shown dis
erection and firmness by refusing to be dragged
into the quarrel At the same time his action
in the matter of the telegraph Office shows
that he is not insensible to the duty of pre-
serving the peace. So long as the partisans
OF Baxter and Brooks confine their controversy
to the illumination Of proclamations and the
drilling of armed men it will not concern
him. He will not lend the power of the ma
ton to serve any party. For if he began in
Arkansas where would he stop? Why not
with as much grace interfere in the quarrel
now pending between the Aldermen and the
Board of Police? There would be no end to
the new duties and irritating responsibilities
of the general government if this policy Of
miscellaneous interference in local affairs were
to become system. So long as the Brooks
and Baxter factions quarrel between them-
selves the administration will say nothing
but when one of the parties, as was the case
the other day, seize the telegraph Office and
claim the right to stop and revise
dispatches the President directs his troops
to protect the wires Beyond this action
and an admonition from the Attorney
General to strive and keep the peace and refer
all disputed questions to the people the Presi-
dent has done nothing.
We can understand the temptations that
would surround the President and lead him
to take a positive attitude in these
Southern State quarrels They are the
scandals of our republican form of gov
ernment. Much of this is due to the i'm
patience of our policy of reconstruction The
anxiety of Mr. Johnson to win favor from the
Southern politicians and become the Moses
that would lead the democratic tribes back to
the land of political promise and plenty in
duced him to hurry projects OF reconstruction.
He reasoned that it was only necessary to with
draw the troops from the South to enable the
Southern people to resume the political mastery.
But in this he was mistaken. The major general
was followed by the carpet-bagger, the soldier
by the plunderer We now see that had the
military occupation Of the conquered States
been prolonged for five years more it would
have been better for every class. The pas
sions of war would have subsidized. The de-
feated classes would have become reconciled
to the necessities of peace and the madness of
continued disaffection- The freedmen would
hau Lao cd CDR he I,,f,a
as the amenities of freedom. The new men
who came into the South, not simply as adj
venturers but to make their homes in that
rich and highly favored land, would have
been encouraged in the honest development
| Of enterprise. When the time came for re-
construction the worthiest classes would have
ruled, and government would have been the
honest expression of the peoples voice. The
army of occupation under the enlightened and
honest rule of the Northern journals would
have been the surest plan of reconstruction.
But the major generals offended the sensitive
Southern mind and they were sent away by
a complaisant President anxious for the South
ern vote. If one was the rule of whips
what came after was the rule of scorpions
Arkansas is only another chapter Of distress
ing history. The most painful circumstance
about the South has been the disappearance
of the marked men who served her before the
war and who led her through that extraor-
binary episode of the Confederacy. What
ever were the faults Of the Confederacy the
men who guided it possessed high order of
craftsmanship. We certainly expected that
with the return of peace and the unprecedent-
edly generous amnesty which attended peace
these men would retain their leadership.
They owed this to their people, even if they
had lost the inspirations Of ambition. Never
did a people need counsel and aid more
than the Southerners after the rebellion. They
were in cruel attitude War had desolated
their homes, destroyed their industry, over
turned their social institutions, decimated
their families and deprived them of q fran
chise which was conferred upon class who
had hitherto been bought and sold as slaves,
and kept in condition of deliberate and
criminal ignorance that they might be
docile as slaves. They needed the utmost
wisdom and good advice. But the men who
led them in the past were no longer leaders.
Lee retired into seclusion from which he
never came and died without saying word,
as far as we know, to counsel the people who
followed him with their lives and fortunes to
Appomattox. Benjamin became an exile and
is now a British subject Breckenridge has
initiated the reserve and silence of Lee.
Hunter made strenuous effort to re-enter the
Senate, but failed The only prominent
Southern leader who has come back
to Congress is Stephens, and he
comes like ghost awakening curiosity
but no longer inspiring obedience or conf
dence This sudden fading out Of the old
Southern statesmen is an extraordinary circum-
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