Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-01-24
From the Albany journal.

THE SENTIMENT OF THE NORTH.
The people of the North are earnestly
DESTROYS of sincere and complete national
reconciliation. They have insisted upon
equal and exact justice, but not humilia-
tim. They have demanded adequate
and permanent security, but not degrade
ton. Their first great duty after the war
was to establish the foundations of the re-
stored Union upon sure and lasting ba-
sis and to guarantee full protection to the
wards of the nation. Every step they have
taken in dealing with the South has had
this object in view. All have aimed at Sc
curity-not single one at punishment
With this spirit republican Govern
ment and republican Congress have ar
raigned no man for treason. They have
pursued the greatest crime in the history
of free governments with no bloody retri-
buttons. They have treated no subjugated
territory as conquered province. They
have dealt with no rebel as an enemy. To
the great body of the Southern people,
they promptly restored full citizenship.
To every leader who asked for amnesty.
they freely gave it. When it came to the
stupendous problem of dealing with the
two classes Of slaves and masters, they
lifted the one up and did not drag the
other down. They opened the ballot box
and the very doors of the Capitol itself to
the men who had been in arms against
the Union. Through their magnanimity
more than eighty of the rebel leaders now
sit as lawmakers for the nation they at
tempted to destroy. All they sought was
security for the future, and having pro-
vided for that, SO far as law can provide
for it, they wanted to let the differences
of the war pass away and enter in good
faith upon new era of fraternity and har
mony.
But in this desire and readiness for rec
onciiatcn, they expected to be met at
least half way by the element to whom
they had shown such generosity. They
did not expect that the men who were in
debted TO the leniency of the nation for
the very seats they occupied would avail
themselves Of that clemency to glorify Sc
cession and to denounce the representa-
tives of the Union. They did not suppose
that their moderation wonld be followed
by such reassertion of the rebellion. The
people of the North are willing to let by
cones be by-gones. They would gladly
celebrate this centennial year with ma
tional outpouring of fraternity and fellow
ship. But they do not propose to falsify
history or let it be falsi6ed; they do not
mean to acknowledge that they were
wrong and the rebels right; they do not
feel disposed to remain silent while Jeffer-
son Davis is exalted on the floor of Con-
gress above Abraham Lincoln, and while
the conduct of the war on our side is pro-
nounced more atrocious than on the other:
In word, they do not accept reconcilia-
ton as sgnlying generosity on the one
part, and the declaration of the old spirit
on the other.
None will 60 farther than the men of
the North in clasping hands across the
bloody chasm. But forbearance and rec
onciliation must not be all on one side.
There must be an honest acceptance of
the situation. There must be II just rec
ognillon Of the authority OF the nation.
There must not be one tone for Northern
ears and another for Southern-not
pledge of devotion to the Union on the
floor Of Congress and threat of hostility
on the soil Of Georgia. When the North
gave its hand to the South under the
shadow of Bunker Hill, it was earnest and
honest. But if it Is to cherish that feeling,
it must understand that the hand it receives
is equally warm, and that back of it there
is not the spirit of Davis and Anderson
Vile.