The daily gazette., 1876-02-02
Il NEW "IRKEPREoSIBLE
CONFLICT"
From the louisville Courier-Journal.

=
The current number of Harper's
Weekley contains an editorial article
entitled "The North and South"
which affects statesmanlike, not to
say philosophic, touc, and undertakes
to dispose of the questions at issue be-
tween the two sections ION principle"
as Mr. Nasby would say. Stripped of
a certain melllfuous elaboration, which
marks the more ambitious performance
of Mr., George William Curtis, of
whose authorship it bears internal evi-
dence, this whole duty of man in one
easy lesson may be summed up as fol-
lows" "rhe South is a semi barbarous
country. The North is civilized and pa
triotic. Slavery is responsible for the
difference. The Democratic party is the
organ of the south. The Republican
party representsN orthern enlightment
and culture. .TheSouth fought for separ-
ate existence, was defeated, and de-
mands control of the Government that
vanquished it as the price of recon-
ciliation. Il 4
If the assumptions of Mr.. Curtis be
true, the North should elect Mr.. Nor
ton President; it should back him
with Congress pledged to carry out
u new scheme of reconstruction ade-
quate in all its details; the South
should be converted into series of
military departments, participation in
| the Governmt MT should be denied the
| native population; there should be set
over the people an administration po-
tent in every part; a code of laws SO
specified as not to be misunderstood,
and a system of domestic ethics, to be
| enforced under penalties and at the
point of the bayonet, should be estab-
lished, in short and in fine, the super
ior enlightment which tells us that we
are race OF hostile barbarians not fit
| to be trusted, should take us in hand
firmly, should tell us precisely what
we are to expect, should fix its limitl-
tions clearly upon our existence, civil,
social, political and individual, should
teach us those lessons of beauty, ,chari-
| ty, culture, and peace which have
made it what 1t is, and should, by the
berign agencies of the bayonet and
the Bible, bring us from darkness into
l light, from hatred unto love. Any
thing less than this were cruel in the
| last degree. We have seen what half
measures are. The story of imperfect
reconstruction is told in the ruin of
ten or dozen States. The domina-
tion of the thief and the savage, acting
| under orders from Washington, has
! failed to make go9d Radicals out of
those classes in the South that yet re-
! tain a little of that which makes men
responsible. In spite of the abuec
which the Republican press and the
Republican politicians have heaped
upon the Southern people for ten
years, in spite of the misrepresenta-
lions to which they have been subjec.
ted and the distractions thrown across
their way by the Republican party,
| they persist in their preference of the
Democratic party. Thus the Centen-
nial year finds the sections farther
apart than ever. What must be done? ?
| Obviously, if Mr.. Curtis view means
anything, the North must seek for
wisdom in its passions, it must retrace
its steps and take up the wondrous
us Stevens left off; and, to be sure of
its game next time, it must crush out
of the South every vestige of its for
mer character and life, must reduce it
| to pulp and fashion it over again, and
it must do this by agencies, supple
mentcd by forces, sufficient to COM
plete the job. Nothing must be al
lowed to stand in the way; no relenting
spirit of good will; no question of ma
tional or sectional expediency; no cx-
ceptional circumstances, local or tra-
ditional. New England must rise, a
Destroying Angel of the New Day land
descend upon the barbarous h0rdes,
exterminating them and blighting
their land unto righteousness
The earth belongs to the saints,
! And we alone are saints.
Do we misconceive; do we misre-
port this regenerator OF his kind, who,
| life long enemy of the South that he
| is, affects judicial air, and, with two
or three ilourishes of his pen, consigns
one half his countrymcn to the cate
CORY of the damned! Here is a man
who never since he was born has mov-
ed outside rnt of his own prejudices
and fancics, who has no more know
ledge of the people he hates so heartily
than we have of the Grand Lama, who
shows most unconscious incapacity
| to discriminate as to causes, conditions
or circumstances, yet who, protesting
libcrality and good will, proposes to
perpetuate the passions that brought
about existing discontents by organ
izing Radical policy even more pro-
scriptive than that which he and his
political associates are responsible for.
If this be not so, his words are mere
idle chatf, meant only to arouse a
party to current activity. If it be so,
then he should give us the details of
his plan for making silk purse out
of sow's ear. The South being a
land of barbarians who naturally de-
test the North, how is it to be subdued
into civilization and lovee