The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1880-12-14

q the people. They have Z natural ar
banity which forbids tho prolongation
Of struggle beyond the point Of use
fulness. If beaten they do not scold.
~They can afford defeat, but not i'll manners.
3 That there are distinctive good points
|" in the Southern character, ID felt by all
"who have had much intercourse with
"them. Their civilization may be said
"to be Of . lower type than ours. They
"have not the ideas Of equal rights,
" free speech, honorable labor and uni-
"versal intelligence, that characterixe the
"North. But it is our misfortune that
I'VE have lost as well as gained in our
"advance to these At the very least,
"there has been q temporary loss. The
exclusively commercial character Of our
"pursuits has infected us with selfish
"n ness, an eagerness, crudeness of man.
"ner. which are not seen to anything like
" the same degree in the South. If it
"were possible to lift the South into all
"that is best in Northern civilization,
"without their losing what they have of
"good in themselves, the result would be
cone of the finest syntheses in character.
Yet these are the people among whom,
according to the earlier dictuns Of the
american, fair elections edo not exist"
There is little to be said in comment, be-
yond the expression of an earnest hope
that our young american, as it grows in
years may grow not only in grace but in
knowledge, for there is woful need 30 far
as the South and her people are concerned,
and it is perhaps safe to infer that its in.
formation on other subjects is no more
sound or extended.
In still later issue, November 27),
the american felicitates itself upon "the
cordial response made to our suggestions
Gin regard to the future of the South"
by the Southern papers, but we have seen
and read many Southern papers since the
american was born without having OBJ
served single paragraph concerning it
of any sort, and we suspect the Southern
papers which have so cordially respond
ed " have not been very careful to study
the language and manner of their new
friend. What can any Democratic paper,
Northern or Southern, say to such lam
guage as this from the same number as
that quoted from above: owe cannot
"expect to see an end of the sectional
bitterness which continues to cxis, in
"some quarters, but is every whcrr on the
"dccrcase, until theewhIc people OF The
"South show that they mean to put
{" stop to the violence and fraud which
"havo diagraced Southern politics. Such
"a story as that Of the recent election In
" the 'Shoe-striDg District of Mississip-
"pi, makes the efforts of the shakers of
"the bloody shirt superfuous."
Considering that most of the evidence
and fraud which have disgraced Southern
elections" has been pcrpetrated by Re-
publican carpet-baggers and negroes upon
Democratic whites and blacks, and that
U. s. District Judge in Mississippi has of
his own motion discharged the parties
under arrest for the preparation of al
legged frauds, in the Shoe-string District
for want of evidence, it would seen that
the american is not old enough or wise
enough to have learned to draw it's in
formation from reliable sources, but con.
tents itself with retailing the ISLANDERS of
other partisan papers.
1t is such journals as the Mutton and
the american, (which, under the fair dis
guise of boasted impartiality, cloak an
apparently malignant hatred of the
South and the Southern people, and, while
protesting a heightened neutrality of
thought and speech well calculated to
disarm suspicion of partisanship and so
commend their utterances to large class
of thoughtful minds in the North, de-
scend from their high positions to retail
the abusive errors of the purely partisan
press,) that are doing the country, as well
as the South, more harm than all the low
billingsgate and open abuse of the bit,
terest and most un"easoning Of their
more honest, if less reputable, contem-
poraries.
If the editors of the Nation and the
american would come to the South and
see for themselves how baseless are the
charges they constantly reiterate upon
the hearsay evidence of the very papers
they affect to condemn for blind partisan
ship, they might put themselves in
position to do their country and their
age great and lasting good.
The Democrats are in measure democrat
tgo6 obi nf fa fpNru. AhS.E