The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-03-26
TIE OLD AND NEV SOUTH.

In that most excellent periodical, the
International ReCie,C, for March April,
1876, is an article by writer John G.
Reed, of Georgia, under the above caption,
written in excellent tone and dispassion-
ately to an extent that is unusual by South
ern men who had embraced the Union side
in the late upheaval. The writer in the
international finds the dividing line be.
tween the Old and the New South to be,
with the giving of freedom to the negroes
an event, which he thinks, will proven the
future more beneficial to master than to
slave. The sudden iuposerishunent Of the
Southern people and the unlocked for
change in their ways OF living and think
ing had they occurred in the most peaceful
times and been followed with the best OF
Governments, would have produced q
profound shock and long paralysis. Bat
the bitterness Of sabjugation, and the
mistake of neediessiy offensive and goad-
ing Government, with harsh recoust
i've measures have prolonged the lethargy.
And yet the ten years since the emau
cipatiou are Instructive. Slowly has the
New South been disentsngling herself from
the debris of the Old, and che has emerged
far enough for us to perceive that better
era has commenced. Much has been lost,
but more has been saved. All the germs of
true wealth and power, and the solid we'll
being of community have survived and
though the only solace we have for the
past is derived from the consciousness of
right and our effort to maintain 1t, yet, we
| have the earnest of great future. We
NAV we'll ask in what will consist our
| future proRressf Says the writer: The
South retains her genial climate, her kindly
| soil, aud many natural resources. If the
peace of the American Union is assured, as
| everything, in the opinion of the writer,
benignly promises, the National advantages
| will in q few generations far more than
compensate for all her losses, and ulti-
hn~ in fhaU nf
gress. The best Inheritance of the New
| from the Old South is the Southern people,
| replete with progressive energy, intellect
nal strength and moral worth. They need
not fear q comparison in these respects with
the most enlightened communities Great
men like Washington, Jefferteu, Calhoun,
Jackson and Lee, political and military
heroes, judges, lawyers and orators, such
as the South has given birth to in unbrok-
| on succession, are the unmistakRble stgps
of a great people. The rank and file OF the
Confederate armies have given proof that
the men of the South must be c1assed in
! all the elements Of complete character with
the best the world has ever seen. Crime
| fUds so infre0uent that a single morning o.
the term of a rural court, before the tcdr,
nearly Gl@ayS Su1iced to dispose Of eUory IN
dictment; there tCGs little Wdntor pduper1sm )
virtue was everywhere the rule in private
life, and there was seldom ever the suspic
ion of corruption in government or the
administration of justice.
The history of the Southern peyple since
the war shows that they are possessed oi
the best, of what is termed Anglo Saxon
mettle Wherever they have been per
miteed, to govern themselves, they are
slowly beginning to thrive in spite of the
complete ipdustIial revolution, the loss Of
the vast amount of slave and other proper
ty, and change of occupation. And il
many places where reconstr9ctlOn haL
mil
| prevails, the Southern whites have devel
oped an unlocked for self-maintaininG
capacity, and have demonstrated thai
there must be, even in these localities, the
eventual predominence of intelligence and
virtue, should ''naturai selection" alone
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