Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-04-22
SOUTHERN IDEAS, METHODS AND
POLICY.

specify hospitality, a liberal spirit,
personal courage and the utmost
frankness. They scorn to conceal a
purpose or to wear the smile of friend
ship when enmity is in their hearts.
The world ought to know this by this
time. When the idea of war dawned
upon the people for the first time in
lS6O-6l, they made up their minds
quickly that they would separate from
the Northern States and establish a
Southern Confederacy. In doing so
they proclaimed their purposes and
appealed to the sword as the
last resort The struggle they
made was one of the most per-
sistent and gallant recorded in his
tory. All the fame of Union armies
and generals rests upon the admitted
fact that they contended with the
most chivalric and devoted people on
earth. Had we been conquered in
ninety days, or even in year, the war
would have been a tame affair-a
mere exercise Of police power by the
general government to quell disturb
ances in few States and the valor
and military prowess of the American
people would have remained undeyel-
oped. Year after year the Union
armies, increased in numbers recruited
at home and from all the seaports of
the world, were perfected by disei-
pline and furnished with the most ap-
proved appliances of modern warfare
and steadily advanced toward the
South. Meanwhile the Confeder-
ates, who were never a man
ulacturing people, were cut. off
from all communication with the
outer world, their resources exhausted,
tier lines contracted, and the soldiers
in the field often reduced to the point
of starvation. Marion and his men
in the swamps of South Carolina, or
Washington and his decimated, bare
footed army at Valley Forge, never
suffered greater privations than the
men, women and children of the South
ern Confederacy for four long, dreary,
bloody years. Such an exhibition OF
endurance and determination has
rarely been seen in the world. The
people felt that they were fighting for
their property, hresides and heir
looms. They would have been degen-
crate Americans if they had displayed
less valor or more compromising dis
position. That the war was a mistake.
or that it might have been ayerted if
slavery had never existed, or if such
and such things had been done at
particular periods in our history, it
was useless to argue in time Of war.
In the unequal struggle the South
was overpowered, the armies were sur
rendered and paroled, favorable terms
were given in pursuance of the policy
always announced by Lincoln and the
leaders in the Federal government,
the soldiers came home and resumed
the peaceful pursuits of life, and, as a
class, have been the most law-abidinq
citizenSeyer since. For time there
was feeling Of disappointment and
bitterness as well as gloom among the
people, but this never took the shape
of a desire to fight the war over or to
reverse any of its DEGREES. Having
appealed to the arbitrament of arms
the Southern people, with theil
usual honesty and sincerity, have
accepted and been governed by
the result in good faith. The con,
stitutional amendments were adopted
in time, the wounds of war began tC
heal and flowers to bloom amid scene.
Of desolation and carnage. The lead
ing men of the South, as rule, having
gone into the war, those who survived
necessarily became leaders afterwards
For this we are persistently traduceC
and misrepresented at the North
With cold-blooded, relentless inge
nuity it has been charged for fourteen
years that we are enemies of thu
government and only awaiting al
opportunity to destroy it. This i
preposterOus, both by reason of Ou
weakness and interest, to say nothing
of any higher motive, yet it seems tina
nothing is too absurd to be charged il
congress and in newspapers, ant
to be believed by some classe
of our Northern brethren. A South
ern man, unless a Republican, is still
stigmatized as a rebel in the sense o
being a public enemy, and this part o
the country is described as being read!
to tear down the old flag and max,
open war against the Union. Nor,
recently such charges have been modi
fed so as to read that the Confederat,
brigadiers now propose to accomplish
in congress what they failed to do il
the war, which of course means t,
break up the government. The peo
pie of the North ought to know b.
this time that we mean what we sa,