The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1881-01-28
North and South.


IsM-AN ELOQUENT PLEA FOR REcoNCIL
IATION.
Surely the war-fGver has sufficiently
cooled and even the far greater irritation
| growing out of that saddest of plumbers,
reconstruction is sufficiently allayed to al
low wel-meanng people to discuss their
MISUNDERSTANDING aud differences in a
spirit of mutual kindness and respect 1t
cannot be left to the politicians. They as
a class hinder it, Sectional wranglng is
the stock-in-trade with many of them. De-
stroy it and their occupation would be
taken from them. OF the same race, pro-
Tossing common religion, and now with
no differences in our institutions, why
should the unhappy differences that have
so long destroyed the harmony-at times
the peace-of our country be continued
Simply in order that some selfish men
should secure office by keeping alive and
fomenting these differences that should be
buried out of sight. Need we refer to the
last national election What stream of
abuse was poured out on the South The
southern people were by many held up to
the scorn of the world as the very foes of
human nature In all this conduct, so dis
graceful to those who took part in it, the
most prominent of northern political preach
ers reached the climax OF vulgarity and
brutality by saying in political speech in
New York city: "The South should be
quarantined politically until the smell of
yellow fever and black vomit have left it. "
Are southern people to be greatly blamed if
they are indignant at such treatments At
a distance can they know that such sent-
ments are not approved of by the great
mass of good people at the North They
do great injustice to the northern people.
The time must inevitably come when we'll
meaning people North and South will bet
ter understand each other. 1t is no small
comfort to feel assured that much of the
wrong the South has suffered has resulted
from misinformed and misguided philan-
thropy for this fact gives assurance that
with fuller knowledge and correct informa-
ton these noble impulses will be first to
rectity any wrong.
In order to genuine reconciliation it is
needtul that the people of the North and
South should have better opinion of each
other. They must have more confidence
in and respect for each other | now de- !
sire the peace and harmony of the whole
country, not simply because being indis-
soubly bound together, concord is essential
and most of all needful to the South, but
because l love the whole country and sin
cerely desire its welfare | have no prin-
ciples to retract, no humble pie to eat, and
yet am now satisfied that it is best for
The future of the whole country that the
Union should have been preserved.
tnf, I |
people from the North in the
south has been the exception. But are
here not many excuses for the southern
people if they did not cordially welcome.
northern people just after the war! Con
'ider their circumstances. They were
with defeat sitting amid the ruins
of their fondest hopes, for which they had
oeriled everything, bereaved of loved ones
and overwhelmed with poverty. Worst of
Ill, when the war ended their bitterest tri-
ais but commenced Consider the charac-
er of many who fastened South and with
he passage OF the reconstruction measures
became conspicuous By that saddest of
plumbers, reconstruction, the whole fabric
'f society was inverted. In many States
civilization, so far as government was CON
'erned, was overthrown, and ignorance led
~ unprincipled adventures reveled in a
OF vice and crime. | am sure |
Use no figure of speech in saying | can con-
'elve OF no greater curse-neither famine,
lor pestilence, nothing with which God
Ifillcts SHINING and sinful people-more
ireadful than the governments of the re-
construction era in many southern States.
Scar in mind, too, that many of these gov
were upheld by United States
'ayonets long after they would have fallen
0 pieces of their own rottenness and corrup-
ION but for such support. The southern
eople felt all these horrors infinitely mere
han all the sutferings and losses of the war.
ome thought all this suffering uncalled
Or and the greatest folly. Many unfortu-
ately, though not unnaturaly, believed t
hey were deliberately intended as humi- /
f4on and punishment. 1t can easily be
Sveesby the speeches of many Republi- G
kls in Congress at the time these measures
ere under discu sion that it was so in
nded by some. 1t was mainly intended
} party measure, But how selfish and
'uel to thrust on the ignorant and inexpe-
enced power that they could not possibly
Sc wisely, and thus inevitably bring suf- {
What would he thought of
lrents who gave bowie knives and loaded
st0ls as playthings to their children2 1t
ould have been far better to have given,
the South in preference urged, military
1vernments instead. 1t would have been
r better to have tried the leaders, and if
und guilty hung and banished enough to I
I'VE allayed suspicion and apprehension, '
I'd given the remainder real citizenship,
ltrammeled by either mass of ignorant T
Id inexperienced suffragists or by contin- Y
ID abuse and distrust.
Now is it strange that under these cir
instances Of intense suffering southern u
ople did not meet northern people with
zen arms as rule That mistakes were G.
metimes made, and that whilst the land o
as afflicted with a swarm of political YAM u
res who were draining its life blood, I'M 81
ndness was sometimes shown to those a.
10 did not deserve such treatment is to be IL
pected. | am sure it was exceptional y
d not continued when the character of pl
e person became known. | think that
g irritations growing out of the results of IN
were the cause of the I'M b.
ldness referred to is proved by the treat C
INT of northern people in Virginia, where
so injurious. Gilbert C. Walker
rthern man and federal soldier, was elect =
governor. When his term expired he "
! for Congress and secured the nomina- I'll
n, getting ten to one for his competitor, ut
gentleman of the highest character and 1T
confederate officer, and at the
4 of his term was reelected mem. con- Il
n, w. f. Bartlett of Massachusetts, who CT
negro brigade at the ''crater' "
ly 80, 1864, settled in Richmond, Va, W
1872, and writing home shortly after tn
I'D said: Before we had been here a la
nth we found ourselves overwhelmed
III cordially, kindness and hospitality hs
the incest people here ii,
| in