Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-12-02
LETTER.
A southern Editor and n Nasal
Accentunted VermOnter.

Special Correspondents San Antonio Expross.l
WASHINGTON, D. c., November II.
was introduced yesterday to a
ruddy-faced New Highlander. He is
patentee of a successful steel-rimmed
car wheel. He asked me, in earnest
tones, DO you live in the south y |
answered Yes"
How long has it been your homer
"All my life"
Have you been in Vicksburg p
Often"
you don't know my brother
there 2"
81 do not"
wall, l kinder want to go aud see
him | AN growing old and | would
get him to leave that country and
come back to the old home in VAR
mount. OF course, |, being a northern
man and a union man, an afraid to go
down there and l would have him
and his children to leave that country
and come north where they can be
safe and comfortable. | have no
children and no family left"
The good Vermonter wa indeed
earnest. His honest face was more
eloquent and expressive than his
tongue. He absolutely believed that
he could not safely visit Vieksburg.
When l stated that | had spent sever
al years in Texas, and ttatl was never
a secessionist, and nobody questioned
ones right to think and say what
pleased them, he would not give ere
dence; he quoted Conkling, and asked
me: DO party leaders lie. outright?
| answered that | edited a whig and
union newspaper in 1860 81, and that
| voted in August, 1861, for William
II. Polk, the union candidate for the
governors Office, in Tennessee, and
against the secession candidate, aud
that | was never mobbed or insulted
or threatened with violence. Once
only was | taken before a vigilance
committee after fighting was begun, and
mildly warned" not to say again that
secession and abolitionism, in their
last analysis, were Identical" and
that for the life of me l couldn't I'm
derstand how the two fierce bodies Of
exponents of the two grand ideas
could fight one another. They al,
ways cooperate TO produce one
and the same result, and both should
have been hanged. Nothing would
have pleased me more, in 1861, than a
gallows adorned by you and JEFF Da
Wis, and yet | have always lived down
south, and expect to spend my days
and die there peacefully enough.
| said further hal | would publish
an account of our interview. If !
spoke falsely a southern newspaper
would not print this dialogue, and
would not place myself in an offensive
attitude before my own people. will
show by publishing what | say and
think that Nh. COnkling speaks ujust
ly of us. lift would harm me or en-
danger my peace or security, | would
not thus assert my unionism now, or
hostility to secessionists in 1860 or
1861.
THE COTTON QUESTION.
"But, said the Vermonter, "Mr.
COnkling's account of your laziness
and general w%orthlessness excites
even greater anxiety to induce my
brother to return to his old home.
You have no schools or churches.
you produce only six or seven pei
cent of the annually accumulating
wealth Of the country and pay only
six or seven per cent Of the federal
revenues"
l answered: "You see that | am
not very old. My hair only begins to
grow gray, and yet | remember When
| the Greek Indians burnt the homes
of my neighbors in Alabama and
killed eight passengers on a stage
coach, near the present capital Of Ala
bama. | saw the flames of the burn
ing houses. | remember when old
Peter Pitehelyn and Nashua Tubby,
Choctaw chiefs, were owners Of broad
acres and of many negro slaves in east.
ern Mississippi, Reflect, therefore,
that your Vermont civilization is two
hundred years older than ours, and
yet we have as perfect system of free
schools in districts of country o.
which | speak as those of which you
boast al Burlington; and Texas, the
newest ofsG4thern states, spends rel
atiYcly as much money annually on
Yankee school masters and marms as
Massachusetts, aud Connecticut. TIL
State University fund of Texas, con.
sisting OF land and bonds, is greater in
value than the endowments Of both
Harvard and Yale. Unhappily, from
the gulfcoast north along the Ric
Grande there Is a little district 100
miles wide and 81 long SON --hiaoted
to the sway Of Mexieans. Indians. ad
venturers and felons from ali N.
states. But only forty-four wear,
have elapsed since Texas emerged
from Mexican and Indian "bar
barism,' and yet, in proportion to
wealth and density Of population
Texas boasts of more schools and
churches than Indiana or Illinois.
\ \ X
OTHER ABsURDITIEs.
"But you are dishonest" said the
FermOnter, "and don't pay your debts.
public or private. | know that is true
Not only does Conkling tell US. but the
New York Tribune has care~fullygatb-
cred the facts"
THE ANSWER.
And what were the facts 2" I
At the close Of the war southern
owed less than ninety millions.
Carpetbagism seized these local COY.
ernments, using the innocent. helpless
as an agency for the maintenance
Of authority. Rates Of state taxation
were increased from an average of ten
cents to eighty cents and $3.50 on the
800, and in addition to this the
knaves, within five years, augmented
debts of the south four-fold.
Meanwhile let me suggest another
fact. Conkling has wept that
the north did not levy a special war