Morris tribune., 1885-10-21
THE TEMPER oFTUEsOUTH.

One of the strongest impressions
made upon Northerner who visits the
extreme South now, having been famil-
lar with it only by report, is the extent
to which it suffered during the war. OF
course there was extravaganza and
there were impending bankruptcies be-
fore the war, debt, and methods of
business inherently vicious, and no
doubt the war is charged with many
losses which would have come without
it, just as in every crisis half the failures
wrongfully accuse the crisis. Yet,
with all allowance for these things, the
fact remains that the war practically
wiped out personal property and the
means of livelihood. The complete
ness of this loss and Disaster never came
home to me before. In some cases the
picture of the ante 6ettum civilization
is more roseate in the minds of those
who lost everything than cool observa-
ton of it would justify. But conced-
ing this, the actual disaster needs no
establishment of the imagination. 1t
seems to me, in the reverse, that the
Southern people do not appreciate the
sacrifices the North made for the I'm
ion. They do not, think, realize the
fact that the North put into the war its
best blood, that every battle brought
mourning into our households, and fill
ed our churches day by day and year
by year with the black garments of be-
reavement; nor did they ever under
stand the fearful enthusiasm for the
Union and the flag, and the unseltish
devotion that underlay all the self-sac-
rifce. Some time the Southern people
will know that it was love for the I'm
ion, and not hatred of the South, that
made heroes of the men and angels OF
remuneration of the women.
Yes, say our Southern friends, we
can believe that you lost dear ones and
We're in mourning; but, after all, the
North was prosperous; you grew rich;
and when the war ended, life went on
in the fullness of material prosperity.
We lost not only our friends and rela-
tives, fathers, sons, brothers, till there
was scarcely household that was not
broken up, we lost not only the cause
on which we had set our hearts, and
for which we had suffered privation and
hardship, We're fugitivcs and wanderers,
and endured the bitterness of defeat at
the end, but our property was gone, we
were stripped, with scarcely home,
and the whole of life had to be begun
over again, under all the disadvantage
of a sudden social revolution.
1t is not necessary to dwell upon this
or to heighten it, but it must be borne
in mind when we observe the temper of
the South, and especially when we are
looking for remaining bitterness, and
the wonder to me is that after so short
space of time there is remaining so
little of resentment or of bitter feeling
over loss and discontinue. L believe
there is not in history any parallel to it.
Every American must take pride in the
fact that Americans have so risen SUI
perior to circumstances, and come out
of trials that thoroughly threshed and
winnowed soul and body in temper so
gentle and a spirit so noble. 1t Is good
stuff that can enduse Il test of this kind.
A lady, whose family sustained all
the losses that were possible in the war,
said to me-and she said only what
several others said in substances: eve
are going to get more out of this war
than you at the North, because we suf-
fered more. We were drawn out of
ourselves in sacrifices, and were drawn
together in q tenderer feeling of hu-
mainly; l do believe we were chastened
into higher and purer spirit"
Let me not be misunderstood. The
people who thus recognize the moral
of adversely and its effects
upon character, and who are glad that
slavery is gone, and believe that new
and better era for the South is at hand,
would not for moment put themselves
in an attitude of apology for the part
they took in the war, nor confess that
they were wrong, nor join in any de-
nunciation of the leaders they followed |
to their sorrow. They simply put the
past behind them, so far rs the conduct
Of the present life is concerned. They |
do not propose to stamp upon memoir
les that are tender and sacred, and they
cherish certain sentiments which are to
them loyalty to their past and to the
great passionate experiences of their |
lives. When woman, who enlisted |
by the consent of jeff Davis, whose
name appeared for four years upon the
rolls, and who endured all the perils |
and hardships of the conflict as field |
nurse, speaks of president" Davis, |
what does it mean? 1t is only senti-
ment. This heroine of the war on the
wrong side had in the Exposition a
tent, where the veterans of the Confed-
eracy recorded their names. On one
side, at the back of the tent, was a ia
Bile piled with touching relics of the
war, and above it Il portrait of Robert
3. Lee, wreathed in immortelles. 1t
vas surely harmless si:rine. On the
other side was also table. piled with
ruit and cereals-not relics, but signs
If prosperity and peace-and above it
l portrait of Ulysses S. Grant. Here
vas the sentiment, cherished with an
aching heart, maybe, and here was the
act of the Union and the future
Charles Dudley Warner in Harper's
Magazine for September.