Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-09-08
Conciliation Of the South.

COnclllat1On or the South.
The great problem which the Ameri-
can public, or at least the Northern
and major portion of it, has had to
wrestle with for the last ninety odd
years is how to conciliate the South.
The attitude of the States south of
Mason and Dixon's line has been ha-
bitually that of spoiled child. In
ordinately selfish, quick tempered and
petulant the unwise policy was early
adopted of giving way to them on
every occasion simply to preserve the
peace. They came to regard them
selves not merely as so many States
of the Federal Union, but as being of
themselves political entity called
''the South" whom they conceived as
the feminine gender. This querulous
female has always needed a good deal
of coaxing and fine words to keep her
in anything like good humor. Her
interests and her honor were so easily
affected that the North was kept in
chronic state of apology for offenses
which, with the best intentions, it was
always unwillingly giving. 1t was
impossible to please her, however.
Those of the North who resisted her
demands were regarded with deadly
hostility, while those who adopted
contrary course they nicknamed dough-
faces, and made little attempt at dis
guising the contempt in which they
held them.
The Constitution is q series of
compromises between the large States
and the small, and between the advo-
Gates of o strong government and those
who still clulg to the idea of mere
confederacy The South, however,
needed some special concession pecu-
liar to itself to secure its adherence to
the Union, and the North, even then
ready to yield everything to the threat
of disunion, allowed the slave States
alone of the thirteen to have represen-
tation in Congress based on property.
!, The removal of the National Capital
from the Keystone State, the natural
centre of the Union as it then existed,
to the banks of the Potomac was a
bonus to the South to secure it's &C
quiescence to Hamiton's financial
, policy and to put stop to its mutter-
ings of disunion The whole history of
the Federal Government, from it's for
nation until Fort Sumpter was fired
upon, is series of concessions to q
South always solid for its own ad.an-
tage. 1t was by this means that,
though a minority in population,
wealth and intelligence, it was able to
make its policy the,policy of the nation.
Using secessions as standing menace,
it's will and its rule in the United States
were paramount. To dispute them was
instantly to bring home to the offender
+ the charge of stirring up sectional
strife" while both sections We'd with
each other in covering him with OBJ
loquy.
Had the South designed to accept
the extravagant concessions which the
compromisers of 1861 were so ready
and anxious to make, she might have
continued to nominate, perhaps, to the
present day. The North was always
ready to yield everything for peace
+ and only accepted war when the
proffered olive branch was rejected
with scorn and the national flag greet
ed with shot and shell. The spoiled
child had, however, in this instance
gone too far, and was astonished at re-
ceiving one of the most terrible drub-
bings on record. To reconcile her to
her defeat, to make her rather glad OF
it, in fact, by reviving the old plan of
unlimited concession has been the pol
icy steadily adhered to by Northern
Democracy. To this end they have
aided and abetted the South in it's prac-
ticle notification of the Constitutional
amendments adopted since the war.
They have enabled it to again control
both houses of Congress. and now
furnish Presidential candidate whose
election will place the South as COM
pletely in control of the National Gov
ernment as it was in the days of Pierce
and Buchanan
Will the process Of conciliation be
then complete and sectionalism at last
at an end? With the Executive, Leg
islative andy the process of adding
twelve new Judges to the Supreme
Court-thc Judiciary Departments un--
der the control of the South, will the
.tbloody chasm" be closed and paci6-
cation concluded !? 1t is, we think,
probable that the South will then ask
no more favors, as its will would be
law. The language of request would
be heard no more, but instead of it the
words of command. When the South
ern Brigaders gained the ascendency
in the National Capitol the Union sol
diers who were employees about the
building were at once discharged and
Confederate soldiers put in their place.
When these same Brigadiers have
complete control of the purse-strings of
the Nation, is it reasonable to suppose
that they will consent to vote pen
sions to the Union soldiers while the
wearers of the gray go unrewarded
When the principle for which Lee and
Jackson fought shall have triumphed
will their followers be forgotten
There is nothing in the record of the
men who now dominate in Democratic
counsels to warrant such conclusion.
The proposed scheme of conciliation
and overthrow of scctionalism would
not only be humiliating to the North,
but, without doubt, extremely expen-
sive. Pensions for the rebel soldiery
and payment for all the Southern prop
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