Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-07-18
Unfinished Retributions.

The energies of those who direct
the sentiments and control the pur-
poses of the Southern section of this
country are resolutely bent upon an eff
fort to escape from the retribution in
CURED through a long period of shame
less wrong-doing. But the events Of
history are linked together by an inexo-
rable logic which never permits the
deeds of one generation to escape their
just penalty, however long deferred.
The sins of the fathers are visited upon
the children to the third and fourth
generation, simply because they beget
consequences from which there is no
way of escape. The South pleads pov-
erty rs justification of refusal to
pay its own just debts. 1t uses the
plea to extort from the North the
means to reDulld lJs broken fortunes.
One purpose it has, in its determina-
tion to control the National Govern
tire country, which must come chiefly
from Northern and Western States, for
its own benefit, to open railways. I'M
prove rivers and harbors, develop COM
mercial facilities, and set its feet on
the path to prosperity once more. 1t
would draw capital through loans to
the Government, whose proceeds
should be distributed at its own dicta-
ton, and mainly repaid by the same
section that furnishes them. Should the
sentiment prevail and grow in power
which has put the Southern States and
cities in the abject position of repudia-
tors of righteous obligations, there is
little assurance that they would ever
be repaid Mt all.
The South is indeed poor. 1t needs
the capital of the North and OF foreign
countries to develop its rich possibili-
ties. But it also needs the enterprise
and public spirit, the regard for law
and order, and the consideration for the
rights of man which could alone make
that capital effective in its work. But
why do not capital and energy and in
dustry go of their own accord to field
that might afford them rich returns
fhe South is blessed with broad do
main, as yet but sparsely settled. 1t
has a genial climate, rich soil capable
of wide range of products, vast stores
of untouched mineral wealth. All this
is frequently set forth to attract capital
and labor, and yet immigrants with
money and immigrants with muscle
spread in an unceasing flood over the
Western prairies, penetrate the Rocky
Mountain wildernesses, and overflow
the Pacific coast from both directions,
while the South languishes for the fer
tilizing forces of industry and enter
prise. Even its indigenous labor is
fleeing from it.
All this is because the men of the
South want the benefits of the capital
and labor of others without welcoming
their possessors, and treating them as
their equals in rights and privileges,
and furnishing that security which they
can find elsewhere. They want to rule
as Il superior class, to give up none of
the insolent prerogatives Of the chivalry
of slavery days. Slapped of industrial
energy by the system of servile labor,
devoid of public spirit and enterprise,
and incapable of comprehending the
material advantages of freedom and
political and civil justice, they expect
others to furnish them with the means
of building prosperity out of the wreck
and ruin which they have made of their
advantages. Men with capital to in
vest or with muscle to use are not will
ing to submit TO the chances of social
Ostracism, the uncertainty of protec-
tion for life and property, the certainty
of interference by force or fraud with
their political privileges. They do not
wish to share in the disgrace of COM
munities that repudiate their debts and
destroy the credit of their people
They have no desire to dwell in cities
subject TO the scourge of pestilence be-
cause there is no energy and public
spirit to make. them safely habitable
throughout the year.
Having virtually driven from her
borders the forces that can work only
in an atmosphere of freedom, the South
proposes to employ the Government as
vast engine for pumping the resources
of the North into her exhausted reser-
voirs. But the South is not so large a
part of the country as it once was, and
It's purposes need only to become fully
recognized to be defeated. Its own
conduct in the near and the remote
past has dwarfed and crippled it, while
the rest of the country has been eX-
panding and growing in life and energy,
The Nation has learned something, too,
from the fiery experiences OF the last
twenty years. Never again for any eX-
tended period of time will it permit IT,
self to be ruled by the narrower sec
ton, and made subservient to its uses.
The old insolence Of demand is there,