The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-03-27
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the South.

.To.day." SAYS WENDELL PHILLIPS, 1--WE
are passing through some OF the most crill-
90, moments Of great national epoch, ana
At least one third, perhaps one half, OF the
men whose votes are 10 determine the policy
OF that epoch are profoundly ignorant OF
the great facts which enable one to under
stand it." Never was a truer remark maze
and never was true remark more apei!
illustrated than is this one in the ignorance
of thesouthcrn people which is the iounoa-
ton Of 20 large part OF Mr.. fhl'Lfss
platform cloauencc. On the third ami
yersarv OF the death Of CHARLES SUMNER
be died in March, 1870 Mr.. PHILLIPS ae-
fiycred an Grafton in Boston, OF winch ''e
following is an extract:
colonel in the regular army eoutn
Carolina born, said: 81 lived opposite MI
SUMNER for five wears. Ny window CON-
NODDED his doorway. have seen MN go
ont OF that door hundreds OF times AZ IL
o'clock TO 90 up to the Senate, ana us saw
him shut it in lS55-'7-'S, said 10 mSseh,
VIII that man ever enter that doorway
agn;ny. For I knew, southerner rs was,
thai II a fanatic or drunkard had taken his
life as ne passed to the Senate or returned
he would have been sheltered by ten states
snd irmortalized as n hero; and kne"
there were nine chances out OF ten tt'at l,
might happen any hour The coiorea
coachmen avoided HIM, so rs not 10 run the
risk cf having him killed in their carriage.
Think OF sword hanging over man
head for ten years!
This atrocious, lncXcusab!e SANDER OF the
southern people came from the lips Oh tue
orator who PIRATES about "the ignorance Oh
the men whose votes are to determine Tue
Motley Of the epoch" Either he himself Is
amongst the most ignorant Of men, or else
he is an unprinciplcd slanderer. In's
SANDER appears in the Boston Advertiser rs
libel. but not word says that journal ID
extenuation OF its conduct in publishing
sucb base fulsehood, nor Of Mr.. fHlL-
L1ps.s in FIST speaking it. We Know
tina, journal to be incapable OF viii
fully lihclling anybody. and so we are
forced 10 conclude that its editor honestly
believes that Mr.. SUMNER had "a SWORD
hanging over his head for ten years or,
to express tie meaning OF this phrase in un-
ambiguous terms, that the southern people
residing in and visiting Washington during
these ten years were barbarian>. How can
a country be at peace when one half OF It's
inhabitants thus make their own Ignorance
an excuse Tor utteriug the vilc>t OF SANDERS
concerning the other bali: What possible
plea can the advertiser or Mr. PHILLIPS
urge as Al excuse for thus wcAedly hold
ing up their own brethren as aSsasslns!
There can be no valid plea. 1t is the re-
suit OF a miserable parrowness OF MIND
that inheres in the people OF New Eng
land. They have wronged the south
ern people-deprived them Of their liber-
ties and OF their property, and destroyed
the Government established by our fathers
aud so they are forced to trump up apollo
gies for their own sins. They seem to have
something like conscienceS left; and so they
deceive themselves into the belief that they
were verify doing Gods service when they
committed all those wrongs upon lis. How
any man can compare the condition Of this
country before the war with its condition
now, and still hold that the northern peo-
pie did right in taking up arms to prevent
principles laid down in the Constitution, is
more than we can understand. Secession
would have come to an untimely end iii less
than twelve months if it had been left alone,
and the utter destruction Of the secession
party need not have cost one life. 1t was
the war that made secession possible in Viz
ginia and most OF the other southern States.
The principles OF free government would
have yindicated themselves If they had been
allowed to do so. But in 1861, as cow, the
preiudices OF the northern people were so
deep and thick that they were ready to be-
lieve the southern people to be barbarians
who were ready at any time to assassinate
Massachusetts statesmen. [Statesmen:-
SUMNER and PHILLIPs.l
No array Of facts can ut once diSsipate
the cloud OF ignorance that hangs over the
northern mind. Mr.. HAYES is encompassed
by this cloud. He insinuates against Us, all
that PHILLIPS charges, when he sends down
to the South commissioners empowered to
ascertain whether he can safely leave the
southern States to be governed by their
own people. lie assumes that be has the
right to govern every State in the Union
that ne Is a grand constable charged with
the duty Of keeping the peace everywhere,
and that we are unciyilized and incapable
OF governing our own States. We are to
be ruled % extra. We are unfit to be our
own masters. Ohio and Massachusetts, are
SO much superior to South Carolina and
Louisiana that the former must govern not
only themselves but the latter States. The
war ended twelve years ago, and yet the
South stands to-day the wronged and pitia-
bic victim OF the profound ignorance" OF
the northern people.
Time, however, must do its destined
work. The South will in the end not only
be disenthrallel but vindicated.
SECTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS The Valley, ant