Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-09-22
THE soUfH AND TIE PRESIDENTS
DEATH.

| people OF the Southern otates ID o-e VI LUG
most significant phenomena Of the time.
1t has been made apparent that the death |
Of President Garfield is regarded IS
national calamity and loss. It is impossi.
BE to perceive any difference between tie
regrets which come from the two sides of |
Mason and Dixon's line. There is no
longer South and q North as regards this
sad event, but the whole American people |
are united in mourning over their dead
ruler. 1t may be that this remarkable |
disappearance of sectional feeling, this |
spontaneous demonstration of closer kin.
ship on the part OF the Southern people, is
merely spasmodic and ephemeral move
ment. But that is very improbable.
| There is no reason TO believe that the
Southern people are hypocrites. Certainly
in the past they have never hesitated to
express their real feelings, even when they
knew that they were giving great offenae
to their neighbors. When President
Lincoln was killed there was very little
grief at the South. The idea of sympathy
with assassination was repudiated, but it
was not pretended that the Southerners
were very sorry for the death of man
whom they had learned to detest as the
embodiment of the Northern spirit. But
in the present case it is clear that there are
no mental reservations. The South feels
that in the death of Garfield it has sus-
tanned heavy loss. 1t feels that it has
the same reason for mourning as the rest
of the country, and it shares with the
North in genuine and unaffected regrets.
There is no affectation about this, and it
cannot, as we think, indicate sudden
change of view. Rather we should inter
pret it as the first general and emphatic
proof of the abandonment of the old hos.
tile feeling which survived the rebellion so
long. To those who have been engaged in
politics it has been apparent for several
years that the conventional theory about
the temper and purposes of the South was
becoming less and less a reflection of actu-
alities. The exigencies of partisan politics
have in fact compelled the substitution of
scareorows for the real Southern rebels,
who had ceased to exist. No doubt the
survival in several of the Southern States
of barbarous social systems, and the fre-
quent resort to violent methods which un-
fortunately has not yet been outgrown, has
given good deal of support to the " stall
wart hypothesis of Southern tendencies
But in spite of these helps it has been plain
TO the dispassionate observer that cireum-
stances were rapidly altering Southern
habits Of thought and action, and that not
withstanding the exaggerated representa-
tions of designing politicians, the time was
approaching for the actual merging of this
section in the national programme again.
The truth is that the South has learned
the folly of trying to keep alive the war
issaes. The obsoleteness of all those prop
ositions has been borne in upon the intelli-
gent men of the South everywhere. The
need of industrial activity has also COM
PEELED them to become people of business,
and as they have slowly opened the way
to a greater prosperity they have ceased to
care for the questions which were burning
ones twenty years ago. These changes
have not been much noticed at the North,
and indeed, as we have shown, there has
been constant effort to deny the fact of
their occurrence. But though whenever
campaign is about to open we lcok for the
customary Southern outrages," and
though at such times the % stalwart press
prepares to lament over the sorrows of the
oppressed and down. trodden negroes, it is
very certain, first, that these old cries no
longer carry conviction to the public mind,
and second, that they no longer represent
important truths. OF course there are oc-
casional outrages in the South, as there are
everywhere. 1t cannot be doubted that
in two or three Southern States there has
been until quite recently systematic sup
preston of the negro vote. But it is evi-
dent that the Influences which are acquir-
ing dominance throughout that region
must put stop to all that kind of lawless-
ness, and that the color line will cease to
vex any one when the various factions
split up as they already have in Virginia.
The South has for some time been get
ting rid of its old harpering doctrines and
ideas, and has been assimilating itself with
the rest of the country. And this is what
the present remarkable harmony of ex-
preston over the death of President Gar
field really means. It means that the
country is once more united that hence
forth there need be no other differences be-
tween North and South than such as
divide neighbors on non essential points.
President Garfield was the first President
of the whole country we have had for
twenty years, and this truth is just begin
ming to be understood and appreciated
And if the result of his death is to bring
North and South together; to disclose to
both the absence of any ground OF further
contention between them to show to both
that each is interested in the same objects,
gratifed by the same pleasures, depressed
by the same Affections; surely it may Re
said that the great sacrifice viii not have
been made in vain, and that the tradi-
tional fruitfulness has not been withheld
from the blood of our latest martyr. Over
this grave North and South may join
hands at least without hypocrisy or melo-
dramatic purpose, for already each has
shown the other how fanciful and intangi.
BE are the enmities which held them
apart, and how unfailingly the ties of
common country bring them together in
time Of mourning.
BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER.