The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-09
GEN. GRANT AND THE NEW SOUTH.

GEN. GRANT AND THE NEW SOUTH.
General Grants farewell letter to his old
regiment, read at the reunion at Neoga, ILL.,,
was characteristic of the man. Naturally
patriotic and hopeful for the best, he was
quick to forgive and forget. He hammered
away as long as there was resistance but laid
all aggressiveness aside the moment foe fell
before him. He seemed to realize in antici-
patton even better things than those who
had opposed him felt that they could offer,
and he seldom was mistaken. Among hon
orable men his thoroughly honorable
conduct won the respect of all. His
generosity was unfeigned, and sprang from a
kindly spirit, imbued with a confidence in
men seldom found in characters occupying
the exalted and trying positions he did. This
feature Of his nature was marked in all his
actions-in the treatment of personal friends,
and of such as had been opposed to him in
war and in peace. It was natural for him to
place confidence in men who invited it, and to
encourage men to feel that he trusted them.
For tie South he never showed any feeling of
bitterness, and from the very hour the fight
was over at Appomattox he was done with
war, and did all he could to repair the dam
age inflicted, and to lift the PROSTATE South
out of the ashes of its ruins. Even when he
felt obliged to hold the riotous Southern ele-
ments in check, he did it unhesitatingl and
firmly, but gave every evidence of regret that
such measures were necessary. The kindly
sympathy that came to him during his illness
from so many prominent Southern men was
very grateful to him, and did much to COM
fort his declining days. Seeing the
sunny side of the Southern nature,
he warmed toward the South, and felt that
the day he had so longed for was about to
dawn.
And so it is, if the people North and South
but come to understand each other. General
Grant was a typical Northern man. Like
millions of his fellow-citizens, he hoped the
day would speedily come when the South
would understand that there was no sentiment
in the North but that the South might speed
lily become reconciled to the results of the
war, and to resume its old place in
the Union, with no feeling of section
alism, no thought but of being an
integral part of a common country. The
attempt to distort the Generals dying thoughts
into a.. Endorsement of Southern election
methods can deceive no intelligent man. He
had as profound contempt for violence, fraud
and oppression as any man. His thoughts
were turned to the new South that is so gal
lantly struggling up out of the difficulties that
environ it. The new South, born of better
things than slavery and unrequited labor, is
as different from the old as white is from
black. To this new South, founded on the
dignity of labor, and sturdily rebuilding the
shattered fortunes about it, his hopes and
thoughts were directed And it is to this
new South that the people must look for the
consummation of what General Grant, in pro-
phetic vision, seemed to see The needs of
North and South are one; their destiny must
be the same. May the day soon come when
all the South shall understand that the North
has nothing but good will for all that is good
in it, and when it will come to know that it is
the work Of mean men who make it an is.
sue to solidify it by fraud and violence
against any other portion of our common
Union. There is no issue between the North
and the new South any more than between the
East and West The only vestige of ante
bullum feeling is maintained by the compare
lively few implacables who are afraid to trust
Southern Republicans, aud are determined
to not let them enjoy unobstructed suffrage
These in time, will have to give way. The
logic of progress is against them, and it re-
mains only to keep hammering at them, as
Grant would have hammered at them, until
justice and liberty prevail.
z<z-z---x.
IHE late mugwump papers of New York,
which are indorsing Cleveland by supporting
Davenport, have maintained that the Presi