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

EaSt ana w est, DaS Ueeu WISuCAco iioh
its ante 6ellim status, and has grown int
new shape and proportion-in many re
spects disproportion. These things be
ing visible and palpable engross our at
tention. We feel and see and know ant
regret them.
The moral evils, greater than al
Others, are not seen 80 readily nor &C
knowledged so willingly. What we se'
of this world is but an infnitesimal par
of the whole. What we see Of the result
of the war are small matters compared
with that which We do not see on th.t
surface. What you can see of the worl1
as you stand on some high hill may b'
subtracted from the whole without appre
cable loss. And what you see on th'
surface as the evils of great nationa
upheaval, you may substract from tht
sum-total of evils without being missed
1t is absolutely impossible for all the
mo1al evils of a great civil war TO be ag
gregated. The war left none of us as i
found MS. Not man, woman or child
who was not more or less injured. Even
the children born since the bloody con;
fiict, 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 and strife Of 1S60-lS6s
is the inheritance Of the children. This
is not all, I go further. Children OF wal
are morally unequal to children OF peace,
We beget sons and daughters in oul
own image, and transmit to them the
miseries and sins and peculiar environ
ments of ourselves. I leave this for you
to reflect upon.
What have been the results of the war
upon indivinual character. At the be-
ginning Of the coonaict, our circulating
medium was atSpar, i. e., paper dollar
would buy gold dollar. During the
war, gold ran up to 2S5, and greenbacks
down to S5. 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 352 and
have not ante bellum morals and religion
been higher than 1857 This moral de-
probation is NOT confined to any particu-
lar section OF the United States. In the
South the war resulted in poverty and
misrule and prejudice and "Ku Nux" So
cieties. In the North men were fnan-
cially enriched, but misrule and demoral-
ization were perhaps just as great. We
have not forgotten 'Black Friday" when
the aBulls and Bears" on Wall street, with
Jay Gould, Fisk and Speyer, caused q
fearful eruption in financial circles. We
have not forgotten "Credit Mobilier," "
"Tweed Rings and other gigantic reye-
,nue frauds, which were indexes on the
moral diai-plate. But 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, and many States
were in danger of civil war. / refer to
the "strike" on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad and Connecting lines. The fra.
ouent robbing Of express cars, the "Coal
Strikes" "Oil Strikes" Molly Ma
guire." 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 at the public treas.
ury had disgorged. Red hot iron spilled
to the cuticle destroys it; iron picked up
cold and frozen does the same thing.
Itis 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 guani
poverty and petty theft disturb the South,
cur Northern brethren are besieged by
armies of "tramps" and "Communistic
Leagues" and it is gravely charged that
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. I do not
say these things are so, the fact that the
public gaEettes make the charges are sig
niicant.
Nor is this moral deterioration pc
culiar 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, spasmodic, unnatural, and it always
leaves it blighting effects on the people
engaged. need not say that as regards
these European powers, Prussia is to-day
in a worse condition morally thar
France. Socialism" has assumed such
proportions in Germany that Bismarck
and the Keiser, and the whole ruling
power, are seriously alarmed, lest gen
eral uprising and revolution shall occur
at any time. All wars, from that oi
words and blows among children, to those
that shake the continents, leave theil
deleterious effects on those engaged
The earliest war of which We have any
account occurred between Cain and Abel
and the victor was worsted. The 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 eacn party III
worse than the assaults of the other
From ls6O-ls65 the North and South
imagined they were destroying each
other. The truth IS each party acas de-
ssroying itself. / am told that this pic
ture is oyerdrawn. Not at all. 1t il
impossible to draw it as dark and forbid
ding as it ought to be, for no painter car
mix all the evils and miseries and tran
gressions in his preparation of colors.
am asked why this decline is not OBJ
served by every one7 answer, none
but the older part of our population ca'
see the change, and among them many
do not stop to think. They are inten
on business or pleasure; the chain O
daily duties drag them on and they d.
not consider. N is amazing ho1 ,feu
people do any thinking at all. Other'
among our older people do perceive thu
sad changes in morals, but are not will
ing to say anything about it, and do no
admit it. Among the young men ane
women this deterioration is not known
because they were born and bred in it