Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1876-04-15
To the EDITOR Of the chicago Tribune.

that total dissimilarity of opinions,
| ideas and feelings exist between the
Southern and Northern people. Senator
Edmunds pointed out the fact, and
showed cause for its continuance, and
when he said 'sIhe contest must 90 on,
and should 90 on so far as his voice could
aid, until the right prevailed. and peace
should exist everywhere i'm the South"
He announced what must be the course
of Northern men if they expect to meet
the men of the South on equal terms.
for to be always on the defensive,tO simply
parry the blows of an active aggressor. is
to fail i'm the end. 1t is useless for us to
attempt to hide the skeleton-it is there,
and will come out on occasions, however
much we may try to conceal it; the ire
pressible conflict still exists, and will
continue to. There is a reason for it. too:
it would be contrary to the lessons of
history if it were not so; no instance is
known of two peoples or divided people.
battling to the end for what each side
believed to be the right, to Immediately
fraternize and assimilate upon the over
throw of one OF them. Time and good
government will gradually produce har-
mOny of feeling. but an immediate rev-
OlutiOn of prejudice and opinion is i'm
possible. Centuries have not recOnciled
the conflict i'm some cases-take for in
stance, Ireland and England-and two
generations of Americans did not forgive
England for the causes of the RevOlu-
tiOnary War. T
Let us look at the relative teaching of
children in the two sections of the cOun-
try from 1860 to 1865; let us think of
what the mothers of these children were
daily and hourly saying to them during
all that time. and we will not wonder
that an antagonistic feeling exists. I'm the
reb- llious states every mother that pray
ed appealed to the Almighty to destroy
the wicked AbolitiOnist from the face of
the earth. and every mother that cursed,
heaDed curses upon the hated Yankee.
In the Northern States the one opposite
sentiment was not so universal. but still
there was much teaching of hatred of the
rebel. and. though this was lessened i'm
its effect by The modifying influence of
opposition from some of the friends and
relatives of that day, whose hearts were
not i'm the war, it impressed itself to some
extent with portion of the Northern
youth. In the Southern States there was
Nd opposition to the effect of the instruc-
ton received, the children heard but
one side. their fathers and elder brothers
were all i'm the war, and they saw and
felt the suffering caused by the acts of
the hated NOrtherner.
OF the boys of the South from to Is
years of age, during the years from 1860
to 1865, very few received much educa-
ton, and they have grown up i'm compar-
alive ignorance they are all men now.
carrying i'm their hearts that hatred of
the Northern people instilled into them
by their mothers, the more bitter be-
cause of the failure of their fathers to es-
tablish independence. The success of
the North. the pleasure of winning in
the struggle. the joy of possession. has
tempered the feeling there, and with but
Il few Northern young men does the ag
gressive hatred exist that prevails so uni
versally in the South.
Those war children of the South now
control the politics of the Southern
States; the stream cannot rise above its
source; no government Will be better
than the people who make it. A distin-
guished writer goes so far as to say that
governments will be as bad rs the gov
erned will permit. The former at least
is true. We cannot expect our represent
tatives to be better than we are, and we
cannot expect the representatives of the
Southern States to exhibit different sen
timents from those who place them in
power, however much they may have
different sentiments. Our public men do
not lead, they follow, as was shown so
plainly in 1860. As soon as it was evil
dent then that the people were deter
mined to overthrow the slave power that
had ruled the nation so long. how quick
ly the so-ealled leaders sided with the
growing popular party; they threw them
selves into the current ut its flood, and
trimmed their sails to suit the wind.
Those boys of the South, Of from five
to fifteen during the war, are now men
from twenty to thirty: they have been
taught to hate the NOrthener, to despise
the "nigger," and that labor is dishOnOr-
able for white man; they have never
known the horrors of warfare. did not
experience its privations and disapDOint-
mcnts, are lawlesS and dissipated, fond Of
adventure and excitement, ready for a
fight of any kind, brave unto death.
know no law but force. and believe it
was, and still is, possible to found the
Southern COnfederacy. or to rule the ma
ton. The middle-aged and old men of
the South, the men who were active in
life both in and ont of the army during
the war, differ in nearly all respects from
these young men. but they are not so
positive i'm their feelings, not so aggres-
sivc, and are gradually passing away. II
it were left to these men alone there
would very soon be no Southern question
to vex the nation, but they are in the mi
nority, at least in influence. The men
who represent the South represent the
the young men; while most of them hold
totally adverse opinions, they Yield to
the sentiments of their constituents, and
dare not rise above them-if they did so
they would have to yield their places to
others. Who is more conservative, who
so often takes occasion in the Senate tC
express his devotion to the Union, as
Senator Gordon? But how differently
he talks when with his constituents Hi:
speech mt Atlanta was filled with abuse
of the Northern people; his real senti
ments are no doubt spoken i'm the Senate
but he cannot afford to ventilate them il
Georgia. Mr.. Hill was sent to Congress
by an accident. against the influence o
the ruling class, by cOlored votes, but hi
hopes for advancement, and out HerOd
Herod in the House for effect in Georgia
and thus becomes q popular candidate TO
the Senate. Look at the vote in tn
House of Representative the other Ola.
: on Mr.. Bakers resolution that we are
Nation. The Northern Democrats re
fused to vote for it for party reasons, bu
, they did not vote against 'it-they wer
safe enough with their constituents b.
keeping quiet; but the Southern Demo
Gratis to man recorded themselves in ia
vOr of the right of secession. 1t is no
to be supposed that all of them voted a
5 they thought, for some of them wer
e original union men, and opposed seces
sion as long as they could with safety t
their persons, and all, by taking the pre-
scribed oath afterwards, absolved all fol
q mer unbellef. They. no doubt. lnnre