New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-10-23

written. Courtesy or manner uots "''
suffice to hide or redeem It's exceeding
malevolence of tone. That he hates the North
ern people. their ideas and ways, their honor
able convictions and their splendid industriai
successes. quite as heartily as he thinks the
Northern people hate the South, Is apparent
in almost every sentence of this strangely Id
advised epistle. He resembles the lntoxicated
orator. who saw heads and bodies and benches
waving and staggering about when he rose
and said =" Mr.. Chairman, pears to me ths
audiences drunk Because MIR. Hill hates
savagely, he fancles that the Northern people
hate.
There are passages of his letter which are
beneath notice. When he says that there
never was "a generation at the North who so
little understood the Constitution" he merely
makes his own false notions conspicuous and
contemplate. He, at least, has never earned
the right 10 set M his Interpretation of the
Constitution against that of iurists like MIR.
Evarts There is childish pcttifogging, too,
in his pretence that State elections have no
Just or necessary influence upon National
politics, which can be thought sincere aud
honest only on the supp0sltion that Senator
Hill is Il much thinner, weaker and less
practical man than he has been supposed to be.
We have heard great many excuses or
defences OF the chronic Southern proximity
10 repudiate debts, and TO rob Northern
| creditors But surely there has never been
weaker or more silly defence than the one
which Senator Hill offers. Think, he says, of
! the enormous profits which the North Las
made IN buying from and selling TO the
SOUTH twill New-YoIk agree to pool the
losses and the proiits'f In other words
viii the merchants OF this city, because they
| have gained some money in nest trade with
southern custOmcrs--a tItoe wmch was adj
yautaroous a well to the Southern customer
| IS to the Northern merchant. OF II would not
! have cOntinued-cOnsent to reimburse Northern
lenders for all that they have been robbed OF
| bv dishonest Southern borrowers A delight
| ful proposition. truly. for a man Of protessed
integrity and responsibility to make 1t
comes TO this; LET the South swindle
Northern creditors as much rs II can. Tor 1t
cannot steal as much MS Northern men have
gained by honest industry and enterprise"
| senator Hill will be particularly ashamed OF
chat suggestion hereafter, and viii wish that
he had sad nothing at all, since he could say
nothing better, in excuse for Southern re-
pudiation OF debts public and private.
"Tho South says Mr.. Hill, " has not made
one dollar. either b. slavery or slave labor,
hut has lost untold millions" 10y them. So
| thc Northern people always claimed. But Nh
| Hin insists that 1.-THE North has made and
pockcted every dollar OF profit there was in
slavery Really, there was not dollar of
proft in slavery to anybody. but II Mr. Hill
i, not egregously mistaken, lis argument Is
,his: that the South, against its own interests,
chung to "A barbarous, cruel and infamous syS-
an. from sheer love of it, while the North,
gaiust its own interest, opposed and de-
,froved that system for the sake of Justice,
civilization. and common honesty. That alsu-
nent can stand without Northern criticism.
III Mr.. I'LL sees fit to break his own head IN
hurting boomerangs. we must be resigned.
senator Hill fatty declares that it is as I'M
manly as it Is untruthful" 10 treat the re-
be.lion "as a traitorous rebellion against The
Government Yet it was nothing else. The
simplest and the most scientific understanding
nj the term traitorous alike apply 10 the
conduct of those who waged war against The
| United States Government and no other term
fits the case ut all. But, says Mr.. Hill, " this
much do know : come what may. the South
ern people will never confess themselves
TRAITORS. Their children will never confess
4 III.
| means that the Southern people still believe,
and will ever believe. that it was not q crime
| to take up arms against the Government
| Right here, all the dstrust which exists at
| the North, with respect to Southern feeling
ana conduct. is fully justified by the words
of leading Southern Senator. We of the
| North believe that it is treason to resist bv
rms the authority OF the United States; the
| southern people do not believe that il is any
CRIME at all and Mr.. Hill says they never will.
! indeed he gives this as sufficient reason for
| treating every Southern Republican with all
Dossibe bitterness, scorn and hatred for he
| avs: "NO Southern man can alhliatf'WltlI the
Republican party without cOnicssing him
'self a traitor. BY such confession he would
show himself unfit to be trusted by any
| party In this way, and no other, according
| to Mr.. Hill, " the Republican party comDels the
" South to hate the North" thus uncOnsciousiy
| admitting that the hatred Is on the part of
rebels who will not admit that they were i'll
the wrong, and not Oh the part of loyal men
who have made justice forget itself in mercy.
| After these declarations Mr.. Hill initiates
! Boss Tweed, and asks, "What are you in
"tel!igent men at the North going to do
about itrf Maine answers. California
| answers. Ohio answers. New-York will
answer, so that Mr.. Hill himself will hear
and understand. The intelligent men of
the North are going TO vote down the
unforgetting and lmpenitent rebel element,
TN. year and every year, as long it con-
tiDues to insult the loyalty of the Nation with
| it, impudent assertion that rebellion is not
crime. They are going to take care that no