The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-15
THE TEMPER OF THE SOUTH.
How the People Feel Towards the North-An
Absence of Bitterness.


Charles Dudley Warner, in September Harper.
One of the strongest impressions made upon
Northerner who visits the extreme South now,
hhving been familiar with it only by report is
the extent to which it suffered in the war. Of
course there WAS extravaganza, and there were
impending bankruptcies 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 wron gully 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 completeness of this loss and
disaster never came home to me before.
Ia some cases the picture of the ante bellum
civilization IS more rOseate in the minds
OF those who lost everything than cool observa-
ton OF 1T would justify. But conceding 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 Union. 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
filled our churches day by day and year bv wear
with the black garments of bereavement; Tor did
they ever understand the fearful enthusiasm for
the Union and the flag and the unselish 6evo-
ton that underlay all the self sacrifice. Some
time the Southern people will know that it was
love for the Union, and not hatred of the South,
that made heroes OF the men and angels of re-
Yes, say our Southern friends, we can believe
that you lost dear ones and were in mourning;
but, after all, the North was prosperous you
grew rich; and when the ended. life went
on IN the fuilness of material prosperity We lost
not only our friends and relatives fathers, sons,
brothers, until there was scarcely household
that was not broken up. we lost not only the
cause which we had set our hearts and for
which we had suffered privation and hardship,
We're fugitives and wanderers and endured the
hltfppnpSS 6pfaaf a q and h1fn
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 espe-
cially when we are looking for remaining bitter
ness, and the wonder to me is that after short
space of time there is remaining SO little of
resentment or of bitter feeling over loss and dis
comfiture l believe there is not in history any
parallel to it. Every American must take pride
in the fact that Americans have risen supe-
rlor to circumstances, and come out of trials
that thoroughly threshed and winnowed soul
and body In temper so gentle and spirit so
noble. 1t is good stuff that can endure a test Of
this kind.
A lady, whose family sustained all the losses
that we're possible in the war. said to me-and
she said only what several others said in sub
stance: I'VE are going to get more out of this
war than you at the North, because we suffered
more we were drawn out OF ourselves In sac
rifices, and were drawn together in tenderer
feeling of humanity; l do believe we were
chestened into higher and purer spirit
Let me not be misunderstood, The people
who thus recognize the moral training of adver-
sity 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 denunciation of the leaders they
followed to their sorrow. 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 arc to them loyal 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 per-
field nurse speaks of PRESIDENT Davis.
This heroine of the the wrong side had
in the exposition tent where the veterans of
the Confederacy recorded their names. On
side, at the back of the tent, was a table piled
with touching relics of the war, and above it q
portrait Of Robert E. Lee, wreathed with i'm
mortelles. 1t surely harmless shrine.
On the other side was also a table, piled with
fruit and cereals-not relics but signs of pros
perity and peace-and above it a portrait of
Ulysses S. Grant. Here was the sentiment,
cherished with an aching heart, maybe. and
here was the fact of the Union and the future