The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-02-20

Ifl-Sb anu WSbts bkS UeeD WFencucQ If0ll
its ante btllgm status, and has grown into
new shape aud proportion-in many re-
| spects disproportion. These things bo.
ing visible and paipable engross our at-
tention. We feel and see and know and
regret them.
The moral evils, greater than all
Others, are not seen so readily nor nc
knowledgcd so willingly. What we see
of this world is but an infnitesimal part
Of the whole. What we see of the resulta
OF tho war are small matters compared
with that which we do not sec on the
surface. What you can see of the world
as yon stand on some high hill may be
subtracted from the whole without appre-
ciabie loss. And what you see on the
uphcsyal, you may substract from the
It is absolutely impossible for all the
molal evils Of a great civil war to be az
gregated. The war left none of uB as 1t
found us. Not a man, woman or child
who was not moro or less injured. Even
the children born since the bloody con-
fict, have been brought up on both sides
by those WHO, either in feeling or in fact,
or both, engaged in it, and the sectional
prejudice and hates of parents have been
instilled into their children, and the
dreadful enmity aud strife Of 1880-lS66
is the In aeritance Of the children. This
is not all, ] go further. Children of war
are morally unequal to children of peaca,
We beget sons and daughters in our
OWE image, and transmit to them the
miseries and sins and peculiar environ
ments of ourselves. ] leave this for you
to reflect upon.
What have been the results of the war
upon indivinual character7 At the be-
ginning of the coonhict our circulating
medium was at par, j. e., q paper dollar
would buy gold dollar. During The
war, gold ran UP to 285, and greenbacks
down to S5. Now, if the moral and re-
ligious status Of tho individual was pGr
at the beginning Of the war, then have
not most Of us fallen lower than 357 and
have not ante 6eilIna morals and religion
been higher than 1857 This moral de-
precintion is not confined to any psrticu-
lar section Of the United Statea. In the
South the war resulted in poverty and
misrule and prejudice and "Ku Klux" So
cieties. In the North men we're fnan-
cially enriched, but misrule and demoral-
ization were perhaps iust as great. We
have not forgotten "niack Friday" when
the "Bulls aud Bears" on Wall street, with
Jay Gould, Fisk and Speyer, caused q
fearful eruption in financial circles. We
have not forgotten Credit Mobiiier,''
Tweed Rings" and other gigantic reve-
nue. frauds, which were indexes on the
moral dial.plate. But recently Grail
road Strike" threatened to make the great
arteries Of commerce useless, when Uni
ted States troops were called out to put
down armed resistance, and many States
were in danger Of civil war. refer to
the ''sIrlke" on the Baltimore apu Ohio
Railroad and Connecting lines. The fre.
quent robbing of express cars. the "Cnal
Strikes," "Oil Strikes" "Molly Ma
guires" and other war-like combinations,
all go to show the low state of morality
in our land. How often have we seen
paragraphs in our newspapers headed
"Conscience Money" in which was re-
corded the fact that some one who had
been glutting himself Mt the public treas
ury had disgorged. Red hot iron applied
to the cuticIe destroys it; iron picked up
cold and frozen does the same thing.
1t is likely that the conquered States
are better off to-day than those who
waged the yer for the preservation of the
Union. With all their wealth and power
at the North, there are greater dangers
menacing the social and political fabric
than are found among US. While guant
poverty and petty theft disturb the South,
our Northern brethren are besieged by
armies of "tramps" and "Corlraunistic
Leagues" and it is gravely charged that
while the friends Of the present Chief
Magistrate ,toie the Presidency for him,
his opponent and his Democratic friends
| tried to steal it for themselves. 7 do not
| sny these things ate 80, the fact that the
public gaEettes make the charges are sig-
| nifcant.
Nor ia this moral deterioration pe-
/ culiaF to our late war. 1t is the con-
sequence following all wars. France
and Prussia were lately arrayed against
each other on the ensanguined field, and
both the victor and the vanquished are
now reaping the. fearful results of the
! suspension of moral law. War is abnor-
NAL, spnsmolic, unnatural, and it always
leaves it blighting effects on the people
engaged. lneed not say that as regards
these European powers, Prussia is to-day
France. Socialism" has assumed such
and the Keiser, and the rSole ruling
power, are aeriously alarmed, lest q gen.
e:ssl uprising and revolution shall occur
at any time. All wars, from that OF
words and blows among children, to those
that shake the continents, leave their
deleterious effects ON those engaged
| The earliest war Of which we have any
| account occurred between Gain and Abel
and the victor Tas worsted. The re-
boud injured his moral nature and left
III n, n =, i'm ni,rar n, n than he xyas ha f1r.