New-York tribune., 1875-11-26
A CENTURY HENCK!

History Is like picture-it must wait'
through few generations Mt least, for ats tone.
We can speak wisely of the deeds OF our
fathers. but seldom wisely of our own. Ihe
reader. full of centennial zeal and study, under
a plethora of anniversary particulars, sits III
Judgment upon deeds and characters, upon
the doings of the Continental Congress, the
selfshness and cowardice and ambition ana
conceit of some of its members, the military
jealousies of Lee and Gates and Arnold, the
blunders of the field and of the forum. but
what will pOsterity say of the way In which
we have managed the delicate business OF re-
construction In what spirit will the historian
write of the news which is now published
from morning to morning Try to put
one of the great men of to-day into
the volumes of some future Iacitus
or Macaulay, and think not only now
superfluous dimension will be abated, but now
mean motives and venality and sellshness
and stupidity and clumsiness aud inelhciehcy
will blot and blur the record
"We are making history hand over hand
wrote q young and accomplished officer TO his
friend, just as the rebellion was taking iorm'
and lust as the writer was about to fall, the
proto- o-martyr Of the struggle. But we are max
ing history just IA certainly now. Ihe Ban
croft or the Hildreth of the next age, when ne
has finished the record of the fight, VIII come
to this very matter of reconstruction, ana VIII
need all his equanimity if he would preserve
the dipnity of his narrative. What a crowd
he will have before him of senators and rep
reseutatiyes and secretaries and soldiers-of
tbe honest and the dishonest, of greedy te-
trarchs and selfish intriguers OF the weak, the
distracted, the sly, the soft. and the savage
One hundred years hence some historical writer
will read and quote IA authority the
letter of Senator Alcorn describing the present
state of affairs in Mississippi, which we pub
lishcd on the 10Th of October He will photo
eraph Brown and Ames and Smith and the
horde of misled men of color-the stealing, the
killing, the burning, with a Government at
Washington partly responsible for the anarchy
and yet surely intermeddling to increase It,
Weakness and wickedness will seem just what
they are, in the eye Of the historian then, es-
pecialy as he will not be writing for the sake
of an Office or to advance the interests OF
party.
Let US not be misunderstood. We are not
speaking in behalf of either faction; we select
neither the whites nor the blacks for condem-
nation; we are censuring nobody, and still less
are we prasing anybody. We are only asking
what they will say OF these matters one hun
dred years hence. We can see easily enough
now how miserably England has misgoverned
Ireland: we can see the mistakes of the
French Revolution we can understand how
mismanaged empire wrought the ruin of Rome;
but it is not so plain to us what a sore upon the
body polite misgOverned State like Mississippi
may be- That is because we are living III to-day,
and always forget that there is tomorrow.
There are those, doubtless to whom it would
be vain to appeal, since they have no sense of
the value Of a fragrant memory, and no care
EXCEPT for immediate aggrandzement. To be
elected to Office and to multiply its emolu-
ments is their only care. To threaten them
with historical ignOminy would be waste
alike of speech and of indignation. But surely to
every man to whom the word patriotism has
the least significance, whose love of country
is superior to all sef-intercst and to all parti-
san affiliations, the good name and fame of
the Republic are not wholly insignificant May
not peace have her victories, and the ordinary
duties of citizenship a charm to the mind of the
obscurcst citizen If we care to have his
tory. shall il rot be good one