The Portland daily press., 1885-08-22
The Temper of the south.

IL. ID. Warner in Harper's Monthly for Septenl-
ber.1
One of the strongest impressions made up
on a Northerner who visits the extreme
South now, having been familiar with it only
by report, is the extent to which it suffered
in the war. Of course there was extraya-
gance and there were impending bankrupt
cies before 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 practi-
cally wiped out personal property and the
means OF livelihood. The completeness of
this loss and disaster never came home to me
before. In some cases the picture oflthe ante
oeaum CIVILIZATION is more roseate in the
minds of those who lost everything than cool
observation of it would justify But conced
ing this, the actual disaster needs no embel-
hshment OF the imagination. 1t seems to me.
IN the reverse, that the Southern people do
not appreciate the sacrifices the North made
Tor the Union. They do not, think, real
lze the fact that the North put into the war
its best blood, that every battle brought
mourning into households, and filled our
churches day by day and year by year with
the black garments OF bereavement; nor did
they ever understand the fearful enthusiasm
for the Union and the flag, and the unselfish
devotion that underlay all the self sacrifice.
Some time the Southern people will know
that it was love for the Union and not ha
tired of the South, that made heroes of the
men and angels of remuneration of the
women.
Yes. say our Southern friends, we can be-
lleye that you lost dear ones and. were in
mournlng but, after all, the North was
prosperous; you grew rich; and when the
war ended, life went On in the fullness of
prosperity. We lost not only our friends and
relatives, 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 prlVation and hardship. were fugi-
tlyes and wanderers, and endured THE bitter
ness OF defeat at the end but our property
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
helghten 1t, but it must be borne in mind
when we observe the temper of the South.
and especially when we are looking for re-
naming 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 | believe
there is not in history any parallel to it.
Every American must take pride in the fact
that Americans have so risen superior to cir
cumstances, and come out of trials Nat thor
0ughly Winn0wed soul and body in temper
stuff that can endure test of this kind.
A lady, whose family sustained all the |
losses that were possible in the war, said to |
me3and she said only what several others |
SAD IN substance: I'VE are going to get more |
out OF this war than you at the North. be- |
cause. we suffered more. We were drawn |
out OF ourselves in sacrifices, and were drawn |
together in tenderer feeling of humanity; |
do believe we were chastened into higher |
and purer spirit"
Let me not be misunderstood The naonle |
who thus recognize the moral training of |
adversely and its effects upon character. and |
who are glad that slavery is gone, and be- |
llleye, 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 denuncia- |
t1on OF the leaders thay followed to their sor- |
row They simply put the past behind them, |
so far as the conduct of the present life is |
concerned. They do not propose to stamp |
upon memories that are tender and sacred |
and they cherish certain sentiments which |
are to them loyalty to their past and the
great passionate experiences of their lives |
Wh 4eae women women who enlisted by the, consent
OF jeff Davis, whose name appeared for four
years upon the rolls, and who endured all |
the perlls and hardships of the conflict as a
field nurse, speaks of President Davis. |
what does it mean? 1t is only a sentiment.
This heroine of the war on the wrong side
had in the Exposition tent, where the vet
Grams of the Confederacy recorded their |
names On one side, at the beck of the tent,
was table piled with touching relics of the
war; and above it portrait OF Robert E.
Lee, Wreathed in lmm0rtelleS 1t was surely |
a harmless shrine. On the other side was al
SO a table piled with fruits and cereals-not
rellcS, put signs OF prosperity and peace-and |
above 1t portrait of Ulysses S. Grant. Here
was the sentiment, cherished with an aching |
nIeart, maybe, and here was the fact of the |
Union and the fut1lrp |