Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-05-14
NORTH AND !SOETW.
May 4th, 1876.

NORTH AND SOtIU.
While there is general feeling at the
North in favor of complete reconciliation
with the South, there is also a sentiment
as wide and strong that TO be permanent
it must be effected through the republican
party and upon the principles to which it
holds. An editorial in Harper's Weekly
takes notice of the expressions OF good
will towards the South recently made by
General Bartlett at Lexington and Rich
mond, also of the loyal words spoken by
General Evans on the Confederate Memo
rial day in Georgia, and remarks as fol-
lows:
.'These are pleasant words to read and
hear. nor can there be any doubt that they
express the sentiment of great multitude
of those who were in arms against the I'm
lon. Still less can it be doubted that the
reconciliation urged by General Bartlett
is indispensable to the national welfare.
Indeed, so general is that conviction, and
so truly does he speak for the best senti-
ment Of this part OF the country, that we
doubt if there is any considerable number
of persons who favor policy Of admins
tration which assumes a general hostility
to the government in the Southern States.
But. on the other hand, it is not to. be de-
MED that the conciliatory sentiments which
General Evans and johnson now express
in the name of their late comrades in
arms have not controlled the political ac-
ten eff the white leaders in the Southern
States since the war closed. First, the
positive action taken in those States I'M
der the hopes aroused by the malign acct
dent of Andrew Johnson's Presidency ;
then the abstinence from political affairs
or the indifference to them then the ap-
parent acquiescence in the Ku-Klux and
the White League-these. as illustrations.
oil showed a feeling which was far from
conciliatory, and which necessarily gave
1.-THE South no other political sympathiz-
ers in 1.-THE North" than the Copperheads
Of the war, body of men most justly and
universally distrusted, and who have hith-
erto controlled the democratic party. Had
Generals johnson and Evans and hun
dreds OF their associates opposed as open
ly and frankly and strongly the many un-
questionable wrongs done to the new citi-
zens in the Southern States as they now
approve the generous words of General
Bartlett, had they shown hearty desire
and 1t was not difficult 10 show it-of cor
dial cooperation with honest and patriot
ic republicans in the Northern States,
they would have found a quick and salts
factory response. But the speeches made
BY Wade Hampton at the time of the
nomin alton Of Seymour in 1868. and the
tone Of the democratic National Conven-
ton, in which the Southern States took
part, forbade patriotic men, when the SIM
pie alternative was the republican or DEM
ocratic party, to hesitate for moment in
sustaining the former.
The republican policy, which is de-
nounced by the late Confederates-as for
instance, in Fitz Hugh Lees letter to Gen.
eral Bartlett, approving his speech-as
vengeance. was, in fact not vengeance
at all, but a policy which the con-
duct of the Southern leaders imposed
upon the majority. Aud while we and,
we venture to say, the great mass of re-
publicans sympathize to the utmost with
the fraternal spirit and aspiration of the
speeches of the soldiers upon both sides to
which we have alluded, the practical ques-
ton is, in what way can we all make
those good wishes effective and promote
that reconciliation 1t is a question tina,
we shall all have to answer practically in
1876, and to answer by deciding upon
simple alternative, as in 1868. Assuming
that the republican party will not renom-
mate General Grant, but will present
some other republican of the best charac-
ter and type. We must then choose be-
tween the republican and democratic par
ties. If the ex-Confederate soldiers sup
pose that in sustaining the republicans
the intelligence and industry and charac-
ter Of this part of the country mean 10 de-
clare for a policy OF vengeance and to
postpone reconciliation, they are pro-
foundly mistaken. As the patriotic intel
ligence of the North knew during the war
that the party of ,he Copperheads was
not the party of real peace, SO it in
stinctively knows now that the same par
" Is not one OF real reconciliation. 1t
is the party of the cause that lost, not Of
that which won; and its success would be
) disastrous surrender Of the principles
and policy which must mould and guide
In new Union. Those eX-Confederate