The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-01-06


timents which animate the writer of the
snbj0ined noble letter shall be the rule
OF private thought and the guido of pub
lie action, the days of bitterness and un.
rest will be numbered in the land:
80 ST. JAMES PLACE,
BROOKLYN, n. Y.
December G, 1880.
70 tie Editor Of the Netcs 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 abar-
don the Republican party whenever it
ceases, in his judgment. to represent the
interests of all the land.
am greatly impressed by the manly
and very sensible words with which your
journal aid many Others at the South
received the result of the election.
wish could tell you what an earnest re-
sponse they awakened in my own heart
and In thousands Of others at the North.
we reJolccd at the manly words Of the
SOuthern press accepting the situation.
Once more you seemed to say] we have
been bcaten--M s time without room for
question as 10 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 chance"
What real obstacle is now left between
us? Slavery, the root of all our aliena-
tons, is dead, never to revive. Different
parts of the country will doubtless con.
tlnue to differ for 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 grirv-
ances, real or fancied, so also bias the
other. We Republicans acknowledge
now the wrongs of the carpet-bag regime,
and if we realized them at the time, (dnd
1 assure you that the great body Of rs did
not we were blinded to them by the re-
ports of outrages Mt the South, which
seemed, by the virtual restoration az
slavery, to bc 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 we're
blinded aud made too careless MS to the
measures by which to right those wrongs.
Our belief in those outrages was as sin
cere ss The Souths present or recent be.
lief that the Republican party hates the
South. If the former was an error so
a!sc Is Tie iatteT.
This is the key to the whole trouble
Over aud over again the South repeats
the charge that the Republicans hate the
South, and again and again We deny it
and dsclam any such feeling. East and
West, wherever | have been, in New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois,
Wisconsin, have heard scarcely any but
the kindest expressions towards the South
-unless under some momentary excite
ment created by suc, reports rs I have
referred to. Again and again have
heard the earnest longing expressed that
the South would only do what was best
for its own intcrests-providc 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
ofrepudiation aud hold sacred the ballot
box! No doubt this, in some of its de-
tails, was asking good deal. and more
than we ct the North have yet achieved
in every community. 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
micii needs for its development, as soon
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 right
(within 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 cxasperating things out of the
grave Of the past; 1.-TWO or three words
and memories are even now on the tip of
my 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? Nc doubt there will be room
enough, fat the best, for forbearance on
both sides. end generoes allowance and
Interpretation. Old sores are not henled
IN day. New economic conditions are
not conformed to in 4 day. We of The
North must not be unreasonable. We
will look OIL with sympathetic eyes (if
you would rather do without our help)
while. you work out. slowly, rs il needs
must be, but doubt not successfully, ut
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 whit
JOY this gives us! Not selfish satisiac,
tion 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 for you
over the snddest 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 consOler after nll and
the great peacen,aker ~, enr genera
tion on either side, who felt the fever
heat ofthe war and of reconstruction,
can never, perhaps, entirely forget, how
ever sincerely We may have forgiven, the
past. II is for the ne,o generation, who
knew nothing, or next to nothing, OF the
past or its bitterness, and whose faces aro
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 noble effort for q New America. 1t
is little perhaps that are, older ones, can
do positively, save to discourage every
-.