The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-01-06
BROOKLYN, N. T.,
tse - n n 1OCn


80 ST. JAMES PLACE,
BROOKLYN N. Y.
December 6, 1880.
10 the Editor Of tie Ne,os and Courier ::
Will You kindly receive friendly word
from Northerner and Republican, but
one who loves the whole country better
than any part of it, and who will aban..
don the. Republican party whenever 1t
ceases, in his judgment. TO represent the
interests of all the land. :,
I am greatly impressed by the manly
andve sensible words with which your
journal and many others at the South
received the result of the election. l
wish Icould tell you what an earnest re-
sponse they awakened in. my own heart
and in thousands of others ar the North.
We rejoiccd at the manly words of the
Southern press accepting the situation.
: "Once more you seemed to say we have
been beaten-M time without room for
question as to the fact. We confess our
disappointment; we believe the North
has made mistake, and that the era OF
peace and thorough reunion would have
come sooner under Hancock. But We
accept the result, and, with whatever
misgiyings, will honorably give the new
man a chance"
What real obstacle is now left between
us? Slavery, the root of all our aliena-
tious, is dead, never to revive. Different
parts of the country will doubtless con-
tinue to differ for q time at least on
economic questions; but why should
these give rise to bad blood between Sec
tions any more than between individ-
uals? If the one side has had griev-
ances,; real or fancied, so also has the
other. We Republicans acknowledge
now the wrongs of the carpet-bag regime,
and if we realized them at the time, land
I assure you that the great body Of us did
not we were blinded to them by the re-
ports of ontrages at the South, which
seemed, by the virtual restoration of
slavery, to be taking from US the only
result of the war, we had been so reluct-
antly drawn into, which could in any
degree compensate US for it. We were
S blinded aud made too careless IS to the
measures by which to right those wrongs.
Our ibeliefin those outrages was as sin
cere as the Sonth's present or recent be-
liefthatthe Republican party hates the
South. II the former was an error so
also is the latter.
This IS the key to the whole trouble.
Over and over again the South repeats
the charge that.the Republicans hate the
South, and again and again we deny it
and disclaim any such feeling. East and
West, wherever have been, In New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New York. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois,
Wisconsin, i have heard scarcely any but
the kindest expressions towards the South
unless under some momentary excite
ment created by such reports rs have
referred to. Again and again have /
heard the earnest longing expressed that
the South would only do what was best
for its own interests-provide for the
education of all its people, put all its
people Of whatever race or color on an
equal footing before the law, accept all
the amendments, crush every suggestion
oflrepudiation and hold sacred the ballot.
box No doubt this, in some of its de-
tails, was asking good deal, and more
) than we at the North have yet achieved
in every community. l mention it only
to. show that our attitude was one of
kindly and not bitter feeling. The great
body of the Republican party to-day
stands ready to pour in capital, abiding
immigrants, everything the South so
as. it is convinced that these will be
acceptable, and especially that those who
thus change their latitude will not be
leaving behind them some of their most
dearly priced possessions-the right
twithin decent limits) of free speech on
all subjects and of pure ballot box.
What real difference or obstacle is
there now between us? No doubt it
would be easy enough on both sides to
call up exasperating things out OF the
grave of the past; two or three words
and memories are even now on the tip OF
nv pen J but why do it? Why not set
our faces bravely and manfully toward
the future and let the dead past bury its
dead? No doubt there will be room
enough, Eat the best, for forbearance on
both sides. end generous allowance and
Interpretation. Old sores are not healed
in a day. New economic conditions are
not conformed to in day. We of the
North must not be unreasonable. We
will look on with sympathetic eyes (if
YOU would rather do without our help)
while you work out, slowly, as it needs
must be, but doubt not successfully, at
last, the trying problem slavery left you.
We hear with astoaishment Of the
material progress you have already made
since the war, and especially of the ma.
terial and other Improvements of the
blacks. If you could only believe what
ioy this gives us! Not selfish satistac.
ton merely, though the Suuth's pros
perity must, of course, benefit us; we
rejoice for your joy. We long to give
YOU brothers hand and say: As We
could feel sympathetic sorrow 70. you
over the saddest desolation of the war
not The material ones, since we hardly
knew, by comparison, what these were:
but the blood, and the tears, and the
broken household-so to-day you cannot
see the tokens Of returning prosperity
and happiness, but the news of it shall.
fill our hearts, too, with gladness.
Time is the great consoIer after all and
the great peacemaker. We, our genera
ton on either side, who felt the fever
heat of the war and of reconstruction,
can never, perhaps, entirely forget, how
ever sincerely We may have forgiven, the
past. 1t is for the ne,o generation, who
knew nothing, or next to nothing, OF the
past or its bitterness, aud whose faces are
turned with glad light toward the new
and better day-it is for these fresh
hands to clasp from either side and these
young hearts to thrcb in happy unison,
in a noble effort for New America. 1t
is little perhaps that aee, older ones, can
do positively, save to discourage every
unkind word or act. We must "learn to
labor and to watt" I'VE cannot hope to
sec things in the same way, the war or
anv of it's fruits, but we will not for that
reason ouarrei any more nor cease the