The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1879-11-22
THE SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY AND
NORTHERN BARBARISM.

From the Richmond Vd.) State.
We are all ro-worShipers. and only
differ in the choice of our gods; but we
like to pick out our own idols, and natu-
rally fix our hearts upon those of our
own section. That the people of the
North should bow down before General
Grant and elevate him as a god among
them is very natural. He is the emhodi-
ment of their rude and uncultured civil
cation. We must not expect people
just from the plow-handle and the work
bench, who have no traditional past, no
historical ancestry and found all their
claims to consideration on the filthy lucre
they have been fortunate enough ts make
by hook or crook, to have an very ele-
waited ideas or discriminating tastes i'll
selecting the object they are to fall down
and worship. a golden calf OF a brazen
monkey is all the same to them; and as
for heroes, why, they would just as soon
take him from the prize ring or out of a
walking contest as fresh from the field
OF Mars with his honors fresh upon him.
vulgar hero, raised by chance from the
vileSt Sums. serves their turn just as
well and, in fact, much better than if he
had the honorable quartcrings of a score
of generations of noble ancestors and in
personal attributes and reputation was
entirely above reproach. We find that
this low instinct is the ruling one at the
North. SO blunted is the general senti-
ment there to every thing enrolling. and
so unpopular is it for any one to trace
back a family history in the eyes of the
great mob. that even people who can lay
some claim to respectable connections
are compelled to disown it if they would
lind favor with the public or look for
ward to political or social preferment.
We have a case in point. There is Cen
eral Hancock, gentleman by birth and
breeding, and soldier second to none
who ever bore arms. There is no suspi-
cion of his loyalty and patriotism, and
nothing against him but his politics and
birth. These alone, no doubt, kept him
back in the late war and prevented his
promotion to command, while such men
as Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, the
mere "nobodies' of yesterday. were
dragged from the Sums and pushed for
ward, elevated from the very gutter, like
the cobbler Of Basdad, to high place
which fitted them as poorly as the new
garments in which they had been so sud
denly clothed. and in which they cut as
sorry figure as the drunken clown in
the royal robes of his master. Bnt.
though they could never tit the garments.
they very soon made the garments fit
them in every angle and crease, and these
ungainly figures, with bodies misshapen
as their minds were cruel and brutal,
have now become the idols of the people
whom they SO much resemble. 1t is the
old adage over again carried out to its
extreme Ultimate" Like master like
man. The one is the exact mental and
physical counterpart of the other, and
they are alike worthy of the mutual adj
miration they excite. From such peo-
pie, with such chosen masters and lead
ers, what hope is there for the respecta-
Bile minority, the majority of decencv,
which has its headquarters i'll the South
with larger portion Of it's adherents,
while only here and there foriorn hope
is scattered throughout the North? Very
little indeed. 1t it should select from
among this Northern fraction. gentle
man in whom it could put its faith, such.
for instance, as Mr. Buyard or General
Hancock, what would be the consequence!
The Radical party would simply put up
one of its vulgar pets, and the lower and
more degrading his origin the better; and
Shtcp Heie iii tllC CIl VI lHe
mob that could swell from the slums and
greet us at every point. 1t is useless,
therefore, to attempt to offset or upset
the craze of the North for their vulgar
military idol by offering them a better
and Drawer soldier, one worthier of their
admiration and support. They do not
want gentleman like General Hancock.
He is too far above them--beyond their
familiar reach; and beyond the reach,
too, of corrupting influences. Nor can
we expect them to take kindly to gentle
men like Bayard, for has he not been
styled the Chevalier?
After such genuine outburst of true
Southern feeling, and such a delicate
compliment to Mr.. Bayard, who can any
longer doubt that one good Solid South
erner is worth at least dozen Northern
ers, and score of Delaware Democratic
editors to boot. Eli? Hr. Every E'ycniag.