New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-12
TIE PRESIDENT md THE SOUTH

THE PRESIDENT And THE SOUTH.
President Hayes, report says, proposes to fol-
low ND his visit to New England by series
of brief tours this summer through the coun-
try, undoubtedly for the purpose of kindling a
friendlier feeling towards the Administration
and a hearter cooperation in its policy.
The movement is a novefone, but rational.
The President knows himself to be on trial by
both his friends and foes, and very properly
chooses to be better known by them His visit
to New England, though pleasant enough all
round. is not likely to produce any lasting ef-
feet. The New Highlander is polite but criti-
cal he likes to consider himself pure intel
lect; he is not going to accept a mans policy
on the basis of personal liking; dinners ana
speech-makng and Sunday school exhibitions,
however enthusiastic, will not alter his opinion
of measures nor even men. But there can be
no doubt that the tours which the President
projects into the South would be most health
full III their effect. He is plain, blunt man,
downright yet genial in manner and words, pre-
cisey the man to appeal to the honest Instincts
of the Southern people They are naturally
suspicious of any aggressive amount OF INTEL
lcct or shrewdness in a Northern man, but
they are quicker than we are, probably, to re-
cogniZe honesty of purpose In Individuals ana
certainly allow it to influence their convictions
much more The Southerner is, too, his best
self when be plays the host. a few weeks OF
cordial intercourse between the President and
the best men of the South would do more to
restore good feeling between the Government
and the aienated section than foiOs of argu-
ments.
.. 1. 10 nbapa
men are not the politicians who will crowd to
the Virginia Springs should Mr.. Hayes visit
them. The weighty, honorable Nirginians or
Carolinans, who were dragged out OF private
life into the war by WITHDRAWING party leaders.
are not likely to seek favor or even personal
contact with a Republican President. Nor will
he be brought into a position to influence the
mass of the Southern people by such a
visit. The average Southerner has no
money to spend at watering-places. He is
not, we should rccOllcct, the fiery, foolish dema-
gogue who misrepresents him in print or on
the rostrlm, nor yet the staggering drunk
en- ruffan who makes Ku-Kluxism or bull
doing possible. He is Il farmer, easy-going,
placable, managing his acres be they few or
many, with less energy and skill than his
neighbor of Pennsylvania or Ohio, but pretty
much the same make of man, on the whole,
barring Il narrower education and a certain
old fashioned reverence for women and the
clergy. There never was a man more abs0-
lutely without a country than he, just now.
Patriotism with him is a ranking bitterness
against both the Government and the men who
dragged him into struggle with it. He has
long ceased to argue upon the causes of the
struggle, if ever he understood them. What
he feels now is that he lost his negroes by it /;
n son. perhaps, or his own health or property.
"Davis should have ended it two years sooner.
" 1t was all n damnable mistake, if no worse.
"The carpet-baggers are like buzzards preyIng
" on the corpse of the South" So he grumbles,
year in and out, in his plantation or village
nobody argues with him, for his neghbors are
all of his way of thinking, and his only knowl-
edge of the outside world comes through the
country paper. Even the Fourth of July is
given over to the negroes there is no flag
which he calls his own the Government ut
Washington is as alien an affair to him as that
in London. The children of such man are
not likely to grow up into patriotic citizens.
If President Hayes would make even short
tour through the disaffected States with his
present purpose of energetic goodwill, he
would reach beyond the office seekers and per-
haps rouse in such men as we describe the
long forgotten feeling of loyalty. Such men
constitute the majority of the Southern people.
The experiment is at least worth trying.