New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-12-25
LrSTLCE IND NOT HATE.

"Peace on earth; good will to men," Yes,
TO men. not of either party, either creed,
either color, either nativity. To all, peace ana
rood will. When we "gather at the river"
norties and creeds, colors and nationalites, are
forgotten; we gather before the altar to-day,
and all are equal Infinite mercy shadows the
sins and the shortcomings of all. Before the
great white throne, none can stand by night
hut none need fail who love. Then, if equal
in love. we are equal indeed. But for him
whose religion is hate, there is no heaven ana
no hope.
There is not a separate heaven for our Ameri-
can Cavalier ard Roundhead. Two centuries OF
contact have taught us that each was right In
its love, aud wrong in Its hate. The North
| has loved Justice and Humanity, and was
right It has hated the men to whom, by
education and CUSTOM humanity was bounded
by color, and equality of rights was profanity
and treason, and therein it was wrong. They
need pity and help. Class distinctions, class
| sympathies class pride, belonged to the south
! before the Republic was, and will linger With
| the prople of that section as long as South
| ern climate warns Southern blood. We cannot
wholly change their nature, as we cannot
wholly change our own. No device OF govern
meDt. no stringency of law, will ever make a
Southern race equally ready with Northern
race to submit to law, to uphold civil
order, to repress and punish appeals to
force, or to recognize the equality OF
all men before the law. We have differed, ever
since the settlements at jamestown and at Ply
mouth, in blood, inhereditary tendencies, IN pre-
yailing ideas. All these differences climate and
| lao, naI
flames of civil war have indeed consumed out
ward expressions of theory, but not the subtle
distinctions OF character. Side by side we are
living, on a territory which nature has forbid
den us to separate, under the same govern
ment partners lii the same grand history ana
the same bright hopes. But again an almost
solid South cOnfrOnts an almost solid North
and again there are threats Of strife, and mis-
cbief-makers 20 about to inflamc the natural
antagonism of people diverse in character.
Both have been in fault. We shall reach no
inst settlement unless we start with the
acknowledgment that the North has erred III
unfolding corrupt and knavish governments,
while the South has erred ID resort to vio-
lence. Moreover, we shall reach no just ana
enduring settlement unless seeing the wrongs
that have been done, We set ourselves to repair
them.
Peace on earth can be preserved only by the
snpremacy of law. Therein the South has
been much in fault; all that it has gained by
apDeals to the Justice, the kindly feeling and
the conscience of the North, 1t has lost by
.toleraesng the bloody deeds of violent men.
Even now, while the noble conservatism OF
many Southern leaders commands admiration
and wins sympathy, there are thousands whose
brutal threats or bloody acts make Northern
Justice shudder and rccoil. Now the North
cannot be bullied. 1t means to settle all
differences peacefully, lawfully, and justly, and
every threat, every violent act, tends to con-
vince the North that there were not fair and
peaceful elections in Southern States, and
} that claims backed by brUte force have
no Justice in them. And yet we
ought to remember that the best men at the
South are not wholly in fault; they cannot
control the turbulent men about them, and
though they do their best, they cannot wholly
eradicate the Southern tendency to passion and
force. They could not in the election; they
cannot wholly now. Men like Lamar deserve
real sympathy; if they Try to do good for theil
peOplc they are constantly restrained lest they
lose the power to do anything. No man Ought
to refuse his sincere pity to the better men OF
the South but even while we give them sym
patty we must also insist on justice.
Good will to men does not mean good vii
to Democrats only, or white men only This
nation is bound to remember that there art
four millions of people to whom its sacred
pledge has been given. They, the colored
men of the South, are also our brothers
ignorant, but not wholly from their own fault
fanatical in their devotion to party and t.
the men, good or bad, who represent ii, bu
scarcely more fanatical than many white mel
about them on the other side; unable as yet
to protect themselves or to plead their owl
cause, but for that very reason the more
entitled to justice at the hands OF the
nation. They have no powerful Journals
to represent them, concentration OF
wealth to sway commercial bodies the
press, the bar, or the pulpit. We hear but Lit.
tie of their side in this great controversy, and
vet we have no right to forget their rights OF