New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-21
THE REAL SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH.

Mr.. JAY has clinched the nail. There is no
room for dispute any longer rs to what " ade
Hampton meant, IN bis speech at St.Iunton' ana
what he said has already been established by
con petent and honorable Democrats who were
on the platform when his speech WAS del' cred.
Doubtless there have been many Northern men
who felt that, although General Hampton might
have uttered the words reported, he could not
fairly be held responsible for therfull meaning
At any rate, some have felt, evidence is want
ing that in this utteran G he expressed the SEN
timeDts of Southern Democrats. Bat the pro-
ceedings of the Southern Historical Society,
and the speech OF Hampton before that body
seven years ago, cast new light upon the
matter.
Let us pause for a moment to consider what
is the real point in dispute The North wants
to know in what spirit and with what purposes
the South is seeking through the Democratic
party TO obtain control of the Government. IT
the North discovers that the spirit of the South
is essentially that of the rebellion, there is no
doubt of the result. Consequently, when
Wade Hampton incautiously said that the cause
for which Democrats were contending was the
same cause for which Lee and Jackson fought
fer four years, Democratic politicians rushed
forward III CONSERVATION to suppress the un-
pleasantly candid statement. But the question
is whether it was true statements whether the
spirit and purpose of the Southern Democrats
are actually TO carry forward and vindicae tie
conceptions of government for which Lee and
Jackson fought
Seven years ago, addressing the Southern
Historical Society," in the Senate Chamber at
Richmond, Mr.. Hampton spoke of the South as
"prostrate in the dust, weeping for her dead
"who died in vain to save her liberties" and in
sisted that every patriotic impulse should
"uree her surviving children to vindicate the
great principles for which she fou ghr." 1t is
not an important IN liter that this is precisely
the teaching of the disputed StauntOn speech.
The important fact is that this was then and is
now the spirit of the Democratic South. And
Mr. Hampton declared ii was the chief peril
"of the times" that Southern men would forget
their obligations to the eternal principles for
(which we fought, and to their children, who
"shOuld be taught to cling to them with Jun
"swerving fidelity" He urges at length that
the very children of the South should be in
structed in the origin progress, and culmina-
" ton of that great controversy between the
antagonistic sections of the continent which
"began in the Convention Of 1887, and ended
Z" for the time being at Appomattox in 1863"
He demands, moreover that Southern maids,
mothers and wives should "tcach our chill
"dren that their fathers were neither traitors
amor rebels" and pointed the moral by refer
ring to the vengeance of Germany f0r its de-
feat at Jena by France.
Thele is but one Interpretation possible for
this language. 1t means exactly what the
speech at Stanton meant, before HamptOns
INSCRIPTIONS partislnship tried to revise it for
Northern and loyal ears. 1t means that the
South ought to be and will be solid to -vindi-
cate the rightfulness of ITS rebellion, and to
punish those who wrongfully crushed that re-
bellion. And the South is solid for that put
pose. The children of the South have been in
structed to that end. The only question that
remains is whether the loyal and victorious
North has come at last to the same opinion
with the disloyal and beaten South-that the
men who rebelled "were neither traitors nor
"rebels." Is a good memory exclusively a
Southern virtue?