The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-06-26
ENEMIES OR FRIENDsG

The Springfield Mass } Republican had
the happy thought of proposing to invite
a representative southern man Lamar,
Hampton, Hill, or JEFF Davis even,-to
he the orator at the celebration OF the
Fourth of July at Springfield. This sug
Qestion has elected a good deal OF dis
cussion, which on the whole is profitable.
Some journals run off into the usual talk
of impenitent and persistentTebels, and
of course scout at the idea of reunion.
They don't want to be friends, socially,
politically, evange.ically or any other
way with the southerners. Other jour
nails. however, entertain the belief OF
the Republican, that these ideas are
spectres, copjured up by unscrupuIous
politicians. As the Republican expresses
it, "They are scare-Crows with just a
little substance; garments that once had
living men in them, but whose vocation
now is to preserve the fat corn field OF
the national Offices from one flock of pol
lticians for the benefit of another flock"
The Republican of Thursday printed an
interesting review Of the conflicting opin-
ions which its admirable suggestion has
brought forth, and reaches the conclusion
that It is high time for the North to face
the fact that the act of fgLting on the
side of the South, as private, or general
or even as commander In chief, gives no
proof of any personal aOiCkedneSa After
fourteen years." says the Republican, I'VE
ought to be cool enough to $50 that o,OOO
600 of Southern whites did not unite In
any conscious act Of gigantic villainy."
At the outset Of the war, at least, neither
the North nor the SVujh, as a body,
recognized slavery as the issue at stake.
The question simply was: is the Union
or is the state paramount President
Lincoln admirably set forth the issue in
his famous letter, in which he declared
that if hy preserving slavery he could
preserve the Union, be would preserve
It,; if by abolishiDg slavery he could save
the Uuion, he would do that, but in any
event and by every possible means be
would preserve the U zion. That was
really the great question at issue, andt the
Southerners answered it according to
their political education and habits, and
Northern men according to theirs. We
have no more right to accuse the South
ern people of the personal guilt oil
treason and rebellion than they have
the right to impute to US the personal
guilt of tyranny and wanton invasion.
On the question of personal motive and
character, it is mere PnarisaismtO puton
airs of superiority and to prate about re
pentsIce on the part OF Southern people.
After exposing the hollOwness Of the as
sertfons that the question of the rebel
lion is not settled, that the South per
sists in reviving it, and that the whites
are opposing the blacks, the Republican
says:
The worst thing in this new scare
about the South is that while it is quite
honest and sincere in the minds Of those
good citizens whose way of thought got
its lifelong bias from the tremendous
experience of the civil war, yet the panic
was set on foot and il still assiduousIy
fed by men who perfectly understand its
baselessness, and deliberately advance
their personal and political fortunes by
the revival of batreds that emhitter and
iniure the whole country. When our
national history is written it will put in
perpetual pillory, not the Northern
people, not the Southern people, but
those men North and South who have at
any time deliberately sought for their
personal agsrandizsment TO divide either
the territory or the hearts of the Amer
lean PittSbtIrg Post.