The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-01-29
GRANT AND THE SOUTH.
from John Russell Young's Around the World
with Grant.n1

4
| from John Russell Young,s Around the World
| with Grant.'I
| Frequently our conversation would
turn to home affairs and politics. On
these questions the General always
speaks without reserve. Il have never"
he said, Shared the resentment felt by
so many Republicans toward Mr.. Hayes
on the ground Of his policy of concilia-
ton. At the same time I never thought
it would last, because it was all one
side. There was nothing more natural
than that President new to his
Office should enter upon policy of
Cancellation. He wants to make every
body friendly, to have the world happy,
to be the central figure of contented
and prosperous commonwealth. That
is what occurs to every President; it is
an emotion natural to the Office. I can
understand why kindly, patriotic man
like Hayes would be charmed by the
prospect. I was as anxious for such
policy as Mr.. Hayes. There has never
been moment since Lee surrendered
that would not have gone more than
half way to meet the Southern people
in spirit of Cancellation. But they
have never responded to it. They have
not forgotten the war. A few shrewd
leaders like Mr.. Lamar and others have
talked cancellation, but any one who
knows Mr.. Lamar knows that he meant
this for effect, and that at least he was
as much in favor of the old regime as
Jefferson Davis. The pacifcation of
the South rests entirely with the South.
| do not see what the North can do
that has not been done, unless we sur
render the results of the war. am afraid
there is large party in the North who
would do that now. I have feared even
that our soldiers would begin to apollo
gize for their part in the war. On that
point what grand speech Gen. Sher-
men made in New York on recent
Decoration day. felt proud of Sher-
man for that speech. It was what
soldier and the General of an army
should say. The radical trouble with
the Southern leaders is, that instead of
frankly acting with the Republicans in
the North, they have held together,
hoping by an alliance with the Demo
Gratis to control the Government. I
think Republicans should go as far as
possible in Cancellation, but not far
enough to lose self-respect. Nor can
any one who values the freedom of
suffrage be satisfied with election re-
suits like those in the last canvass for
the Presidency. I have no doubt, for
instance, that Mr.. Hayes carried North
Carolina, and that it was taken from
him. No one old enough to read and
write can doubt that the Republican
party with anything like fair vote
would have carried, and, perhaps, did
carry, Arkansas, Alabama and Missis-
sippl. I never doubted that they
carried Louisiana, South Carolina and
Florida. Whether it was wise or un-
wise to have given the negro suffrage,
we have done SO, and no one can look
on satisfied and see it taken from him.
The root of the whole difference lies
in that.
"The South" continued the General,
"has been in many ways a disappoint-
ment to me. 1 hoped great deal FROM
the South, but these hopes have been
wrecked. I hoped that Northern capt.
tai would pour into the South; that
Northern influence and Northern ener-
gy would soon rep2ir all that war had
wasted. But that never came. North
ern capitalists saw that they could not
go South without leaving self-respect
at home, and they remained at home.
The very terms of the il vitations you
see in all the Southern papers show
that. The editors say they are glad to
have the Northern men come, provided
they do not take part in politics. Why
shouldn't they take part in politics?
They are made citizens for that. So
long as this spirit prevails there will
be no general emigration of Northern
men to the South. I was disappointed
very much SO. It would have been a
great thing for the South if some of the
streams Of emigration from New En-
gland and the Middle States toward
Iowa and Kansas had been diverted in
to the South. 1 hoped much from the
poor white class. The war, I thought,
would free them from bondage in
some respects even lower than slavery;
it would revive their ambition; they
would learn what we in the North know
SO well-that labor is dignity, not
degradation, and assert themselves and
become an active Union element. But
they have been as much under the
thumb of the Shareholder as before the
war. Andrew Johnson, one OF the
ablest of the poor white class, tried to
assert some independence; but as soon
as the shareholders put their thumb
upon him, even in tho Presidency, he
became their slave. To is very curious
and very strange. hoped for different
results, and did all I could to bring
them around, but it could not be done.
Looking back" said the General,
"over the whole policy of reconstruct
ton, it seems to me that the wisest