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

East and West, has been wrenched from
its ante belium status, and has grown into
new shape aud proportion-in many re-
spects disproportion. These things be-
ing visible and palpable engross our at
tention. We feel and see and know and
regret them.
The moral evils, greater than ell
others, are not seen so readily nor ac-
knowledged so willingly. What we see
of this world is but an infinitesimal part
of the whole. What We see OF the results
of the war are small matters compared
with that which we do not see on the
surface. What you can see of the world
Ga you stand on some high hill may be
subtracted from the whole without appre-
ciable loss. And what you see on the
surface as the evils Of great national
upheaval, sou may substract from the
sum-total of evils without being missed.
1t is absolutely impossible for all the
moIal evils Of great civil war to be ag-
gregated. The war left mono Of us as it
found Us. Not q man, woman or child
who was not moro or less injured. Even
the children born since the bloody con-
,..ct, 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 enmit, aud strife Of 1860 1860
is the inheritance Of the children. This
is not all, go further. Children Of war
are morally unequal to children Of peace,
We beget SONS and daughters in our
own 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 characteri At the be-
ginning Of the coonhict our circulating
medium .vas at par, j. e., paper dollar
would 1ry gold dollar. During the
mar, gold ran up to 285, and greenbacks
down to 35. Now, if the moral and re-
ligious status Of the individual was par
at the beginning of the war, then have
not most of us fallen lower than 357 and
have not ante 6elium morals and religion
been higher than 1857 This moral de-
probation is not confined to any particu-
lar section Of the United States. In tho
South the war resulted in poverty and
misrule and prejudice and "Ku Klux" So
cieties. / the North men we're finan-
cially onr cl.ed, but misrule and demoral-
ization re perhaps just as great. We
have not olgotten "Black Friday" when
the "Bulls md Bears" OH Wall street, with
Jay Gould, Fisk and Speyer, caused
fearful eruption in financial circles. We
have not forgotten "Credit Mobilier,"
Tweed Rings aud other gigantic revc-
nue. frauds, which were indexes on the
::crai dial plate. Bit recently = Rail
road Strike" threatened to make the great
arteries Of commerce useless, when Uni
ted States troops were called out to put
down armed resistance, aud many States
were in danger of civil war. l refer to
the "strike" on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad and Connecting lines. The fre-
quent robbing of express cars, the Goal
Strikes," coil Strikes" "Molly Ma
guires" and other war-like combinations,
all so to show the low state Of morality
in our land. How often have we seen
paragraphs i'll our newspapers headed
Conscience Money" in which was re-
corded the fact that some one who had
been glutting himself at the public treas
ury had disgorged. Red hot iron applied
to the cuticle 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 war 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 "Communistic
Leagues" and it is gravely charged ihat
while the friends Of the present Chief
Magistrate stole the Presidency for him,
his opponent and his Democratic friends
tried to steal it for themselves. do not
say these things are 30, the fact that the
public gaEettes make the charges are sig
nifcant.
Nor is this moral deterioration Pc
culiar to our late war. 1t is the con-
sequence following all wars. France
each other on the easanguined field, and
both the victor and the vanquished are
nov reaping the fearful results of the
suspension Of moral law. War is abnor-
NAL, spasmodic, unnatural, and it always
leaves it blighting effects on the people
engaged. l need not say that as regards
these European powers, Prussia is Today
in q worse condition morally than
France. Socialism" has assumed such
proportions i'll Germany that Bismarck
and the Keiser, and the whole ruling
power, are seriously alarmed, lest gem
eral uprising and revolution shall occur
ut 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 Cain and Abel,
and the victor was worsted. Tho re-
boud injured his moral nature and left
him an inquirer man than he was before.
The reflex influences of war on each
party engaged Injuries each party far
worse than the assaults of the other
From 1S60-1865 the North and South
imagined they were destroying each
other. The truth is each party acas de-
sfroyin9 itself. l am told that this pic
ture is oyerdrawn. Not at all. 1t is
impossible to draw 1t ss dark and forbid
ding as it ought to be, for no painter can
mix all the evils and miser:e ~ and tram
gressions in his preparation of colors.
am asked why this decline is not OBJ
served by every one? / answer, none
but the older part of our population can
see the change, and among them many
90 not stop 10 thini. they aTe intent
on business or pleasure; the chain of
dsily duties drag them on and they do
| not consider. R 10 amazing ho,p fen
people do any thinking at all. Others
| among our Older people do perceive the
sad changes in morals, bat arc not will
| ing to say anything about it, and do not
admit it. Among the young men and
women this deterioration is not known,
because they were born and bred in it,
and know Of no other state Of morals.
YOunr Daople under thirty yaerz nf aga