The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-12-18
DROPPING OLD ISSUES.

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DROPPING OLD ISSUES.
After all we of the South have said and
done to convince the other sections of the
country that we we're as good citizens as any
in the government, and truly desired peace
and material development and to be let
alone, more than all else, and the burial
once forever of the sectional war issues, we
are now just beginning to see Eight ahead"
The more respectable Northern men and
moulders Of public opinion are beginning
to appreciate the fact that New South has
indeed arisen upon the ruins of the old. In
a recent editorial illustrative of this fact the
New York Herald says: "Mr. Raum,
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
says a very great change has come
over the South in the matter of the enforce
ment of the internal revenue laws. The or
ganized opposition which seemed to exist at
one time on the part of the officers of the
several States to thwart in every way pos
sible the efforts of the Federal official has
ceased and they now give cordial support
to the general government. Respectable
citizens, he says who in times past sympa-
thized with and shielded the law breakers
are now among the foremost in exposing
their illegal acts and bringing them to pun
ishment. The angry, sullen spirit which
existed at the close of the war and
during the bitter period of recon-
structiUn found expression in active or
passive opposition Of this character Its
disappearance means that genuine, last
| ing peace has come at length, and that so
far as public sentiment is concerned the ma.
t'onal laws are as much respected in the
South as in the East or West. President
Arthur was wise when he dropped the
Southern business from the Annual Mes
sage. The Southern question has become
one of the memories and traditions of our
politics" We deny that there was ever
any organized opposition by officials or
respectable citizens to any proper en-
forcemcnt of the laws, but the above admis
sions and views are so unexpected we can
overlook slight inaccuracies. There
have been, it is true, and to be
regretted, many unhappy scenes en-
acted in the Southern States since
the late war, but it is unjust to charge that
for any of them the officials" or respect
able citizens were in the least responsible.
Outlaws and criminals and carpet-bagging
scalawags from both the North and other
Southern States have existed in great num-
bers here and elsewhere south of Mason and
DiXon's line and many conflicts have en-
sued between them and tho United States
Marshals and others, officials often
as disreputable as the men they
were seeking to arrest or capture,
but no history of the world is
so replcte with rapid and patriotic accom-
mediation by a conquered people to the new
order of things, and with such patient
tolerance fheavy iur'cns and grievous
evils as is the history of the South since the
war They have waited long for the COM
ing of anew era of determination that thew
might with appreciation take the stand
financially and politically in the union
again to which they are entitled and it is
truly gratifying to see the South left
out of the Presidential message for the
first time in twenty years, and
so influential journal as the
New York Herald admitting that "the
Southern question. has become one of the
memories and traditions of our politics. {"
We who live within her sunny borders
know that the New South is rapidly becom-
ing the richest and most promising section
OF the whole Union and that she claims rs
progressive, orderly, intelligent and
patriotic citizens as st. Paul, Cleveland
or Boston can boast. 1t is fortunate for
Mr. Raum and others of his class
and politics and section that they were per.
mittcd to visit Atlanta lately and learn
something calculated to ensure on their
part in the future, greater breadth of view
and better and more conscientious dis.
charge OF their dficial duties. If the GOV.
ernment could move South for while, il
would be but a short time until the North
and East would be regarded as the most
refractory and dangerous members of the
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