Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1880-10-21
Our Southern Visitor.

ooAsIu1oiS Jun NOsohAhS "Ans A~ ces'' No'AN'e
his months stay in -Yankeedom. They have
reused specialiuterest through the peculiar skill
and fairness of the writer. He has that art OF
agood letter writer which seizes on characters
tic facts and reproduces them with vigor and
accuracy: while the spirit that animates hin
is evidently that of keen but friendly Interest
completely devoid of malice or uncharitable
ness What he means to do is to search on
the real New EnglaHder as he is found in the
rural townsville ''plain folk" to whom
Abraham Lincoln was wise enough to look al
the most important as well as the largest class
of American citizens.
The most novel of all "B's" experiences
seems to have been that of finding an intelli
gent moral, well-to-dO population who had
been brought up to regard labor as their desti.
ny, and who, frankly accepting that destiny,
have made the best of it. and have lived con.
tented, self-respecting lives of steady work,
without thought of the degradation which
in less favored countries, and sections of our
own country, attaches to labor. The specta.
Gle of women doing their own housework
without becoming drudges: is the greatest sur.
prise of all to the Virgiuian brought up under
the shade of the peculiar system" While
regretting the lack of social polish that is per.
haps incompatible with New England farm
life our visitor is too sharp sighted not to see.
and too candid not acknowledge, the solid
foundation it lays for society that comes as
near real democracy as human nature
seems capable of. He notes also the fact that
New England rural society is sensibly declin-
ing in power, from the drain of its ablest
young men to the city and to the West, and
wonders, not unreasonably, that some of these
young men do not turn their faces South.
We have no doubt that many of them will,
in due time, take that direction but, as the
gentleman to whom he asks that question re-
piled, there is an incompatibility of feeling
more social than political-which as yet deters
him. The Yankee, in fact. is very indie
pendent person. Going West, he 'grows up
with the country" the social equal of his fell
low settlers. Going to the city, he wins q
good position. or drops out of sight altogether.
Going South, he finds himself overshadowed
by an old arlstecracy which will never admit
him to social equality; yet whose social snpe-
riority he will not acknowledge. So long as
labor is degradation at the South; so long will
Whenever the social ban upon labor is re-
moved ; as. with the abolition of slavery, it
would seem likely in the end to be removed,
the Northerner will soon find his way South
We firmly believe that it is not political but
social differences that are responsible for the
OF the worst of the lncompatibilities
between Northener and Southerner.
'B" is evidently surprised, and we cannot
but feel little amused at his surprise, that he
has been treated kindly among US, though
known to be Southerner. In the first place
the Yankee makes little show of his likes or
dislikes, if he has them. Moreover we do
not believe the Yankee has much left of the
old war-bitterness against Southerners. 1t is
pretty generally felt among us, that it was
beyond human control which
made the war inevitable Under the Union
Slavery was doomed to eventual extinction.
That Shareholders should have fought to pre-
serve it, cannot justly be thought unnatural.
Not even the stoutest republican hates Charles
|, or Louis XVI, because he fought or con-
spired to retain the power he had inherited
from his ancestors. Allowance must be made
for human nature; and that allowance the
North is getting sufficiently cool to make.
While taking favorable impression of the
Yankee, and his mode of life, ''B' finds much
also to criticise. The wagon load of floral
demonstration he saw bringing up the rear of
Bridgeport funeral procession; the prevail
ance of memorial windows In Bridgeport
church the frequent neglect of grave-yards
and the carelessness, not to say boorishness
of manners, that occasionally come under
his observation, these and many other
short comings are noted. though always in a
candid spirit
Or point in his problem evidently arouses
special interest within him; and yet is no.
where positively announced. What is the real
feeling of the Yankee towards the negro !?
Does he admit him to full social equality?
He evidently doubts this, yet does not try to
define the true relation existing between the
Yankee and the colored brother at his own
door. He sees many evidences of social
equality, yet as many of social separation.
The truth is that this question, practical one
at the South, is only theoretical one at the
North. The sentiment of our people is no
doubt favorable to his fair social treatment and
his full political equality. Nevertheless. there
is probable much more personal prejudice
against the negro North than South. ."B" has
observed good deal of prejudice among US
against the Irish emigrant, though of our own
race, and much better educated, more moral
and more industrious than the negro. No
doubt If half our own population was black,
and asignorant, as immoral, as lazy, and as oan-
gerous politically as the South Carolina field
hand, the feeling of the Yankee towards that
race would be greatly changed. The Indian
OF the Plains, the Chinaman in San Francis
co, and the negro in Mississippi, are very diff
ferently viewed by their immediate white
neighbors from what they are in New Eng
land, where they are too few in number to
worry anyone with their moral or physical
peculiarities, whatever those may be. The
New Highlander is not hypocrite in this mat
ter. He has sentimental consideration for
the Indian whom bis Puritan ancestor treated
like wild cat. He has a similar feeling to-
wards the negro, because he believes that he
has been and continues to be grossly ill-treat.
ed. Still we have no idea that the Yankee
would any more admit the negro to full social
equality than does the Southener; for, as we
before remarked, with no political prejudice
against him, his personal prejudice is infinitely
greater.
We have taken the greater pleasure In re-