Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-06-14

IArunDAY svnNrNo. JUNE "a 1854.
8sntIment in 1881.


Mr.. Bayard, In 1861, was opposed to q
resort 10 war to coerce the Southern
states TO remain In the Union. He was
In entire accord with the prevailing senti.
ment ut the time In the Democratic party
and with that Of great many influential
members Of the Republican party, such
- Horace Greeley, Wendell Phillips and
General Scott. 1t Is probably true that
this judgment was q mistaken one and
that the war, which resulted In preserv-
ing the Union, has been worth to the
country what IL cost. IL is probably |
true that two confederacies would not
have existed, side by side, OF the same
people, with different interests and insti- |
tutions. and have been peaceful and
prosperous for any length Of time. But
this can only be matter Of opinion even
now, and It is possible that the future
may have that in its womb which will
cause this opinion to be changed, though
it now seems so clear that 1t was well
that the Union was preserved. Certainly
It cannot be questioned that the war has
been to the ultimate advantage of the
South. 1t removed its institution of
slavery, which has been proved by its
present and rapidly increasing strides in
material development to have been an
incubus upon 1t. IL either section is
deemed to have finally suffered by the
preservation Of the Union, it will not
be the South, but the North, whose looms
are idle, and fires dark because the ore
and the fiber that abound in the South
have come to be manufactured there,
and people and capital are flowing
therefor thither for its development.
The war for the Union cost the South the
lives of its people and their accumulated
savings but its people and capital are
greater to day than ever, and the loss its
people suffered is replaced by the gain
1t has made as a country. The war
cost the North money and men, and its
people great sorrows the compensation
for these is in the greatness Of the re
stored country aud it is ample.
In the days of 1861, when Mr. Bayard
spoke as young man and plead for
heart, and il his judgment failed, it was
because his heart was good; and he had
such company in his views that he has no
need now to apologize for their lack of
wisdom. 1t is said now that his then
utterances stand in his way as an
available presidential candidate and
this possibly may be, as there is no Ger
tain gauge of the unreasonableness of a
certain class of voters. Yet Mr.. Bayard
as man of peace in 1861, but loyal
citizen and representative of his people
always, will have an extraordinary
claim upon the votes of the
many people outside his own party,
who were men, too, Of peace ia 1861, as
we'll as of our Quaker friends who are
men of peace always. or who pre-
tend TO be, and who are Repub-
licans well nigh to man. They
can hardly fail to uphold Mr.. Bayard
for his words Of peace If they should he
held against him in the canvass in which
he should be candidate. And, besides,
these. our Yankee friends ought to have
soft side towards him for pro
posing to let the south go in
peace, since it has proved such a
material aiiliction to them that it was
kept on, to start the cotton looms that
have been 80 fatal to New England
mills. Altogether, perhaps if Bayard
should be our candidate, and his Dover
speech is hurled against him, it may
prove something of boomerang in its
effects.