The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-08
sECTIONALIsM IN THE SOUTH.

sECTIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.
The Charleston News and Courier persists
in stupdly-we will not say purposely-fail
ing to understand the animus of the Indian
apolis Journal, and, as consequence is in
continuous fever of discomfort and i'll humor
Let it be understood plainly, and once for all
that the Journal cherishes no malice toward
the South or Southern men. Nor does it
nurse the prejudice and bitterness of the war;
believing that the sooner they are laid aside
the better for all concerned. The Journal has
no feeling against Charleston, which was
properly regarded as one of the hottest craters
of the volcano of secession. We would like to
see that city flourish and prosper, just as At
lanta, Chattanooga, Birmingham and other
Southern towns are prospecting, and over
which the Journal has repeatedly felicitated
the South. To us it is a source of satisfaction
that South Carolina should prosper the same
as Ohio, Georgia or Pennsylvania Being of
one country, and anxious with all patriots to
see that country grow in wealth and COM
munity of interests, the Journal re-
joices that the free South is more
prosperous than ever before. Let
the good work 60 on, and let
the cotton mills of Massachusetts, and Con-
necticut be rivaled by those Of Atlanta, the
iron mills Of the North by those of Alabama,
the corn and pork growers of the West find
competitors in Georgia. If this be a Nation
of one people, the progress of one portion will
be the advancement of all others. The battle
fields Of the war have been sown in crops and
harvests have been gathered from them for
years. Breast work and rife pit have nearly all
disappeared. The wounds of the war have for
the most part healed The blessings of a re-
| stored country are compensation for the awful
sacrifice made by those who believed in liberty
and union. The sentiment of revenge and
| retaliation is not known throughout the North,
and the gates of an undivided Union that were
braced open with bayonets during the war
have long swung outward toward the South
by the force Of patriotic hands of men who
want one country one people, one flag.
| The mistake made by the News and Courier,
and by the South in general has been that it
seemed to be sentiment there that the North
had no cause for soreness, that its feelings
could not be outraged, and that its fears could
not be aroused by even the most violent
expressions of contempt for the Union so
nearly destroyed. The North is not vindic-
tive nor revengeful. The anguish of giving
! up the beloved ones who died that The Nation
might live has long since been tempered by
the healing hand Of time. The bitterness in
separable from war; the resentment that every
! human heart feels toward those who harm
ones relatives and friends, the heart-ache and
| desolation that attended the days when loyal
lives were heaped on the country's blood
stained altar. these have all passed away, or
are recalled with a sad longing for "the touch
| Of vanished hand and the sound Of voice
| that is still" The Journal, in common with
| the loyal North, has no desire to taunt the
| South or to open afresh the wounds Of war.
| The Journal, in common with the North,
halls with satisfaction every evidence of
the South's approach toward unqualified
loyalty to the country, without regard
to the party in power, and the Journal will
rejoice when the South can be as enthusiastic
Americans under Republican administra-
ton as the Republican North is under Dem
ocratic. The journal finds fault with the
South only when it appears that party is put
above country or when the awful heresies
that precipitated war are repro;laimed, as they
have been from time to time, up to the pres
ent year. '"The SHOWS of twenty winters,
which have fallen upon the graves of the last
victims of the wrath of war; and which the
News and Courier thinks should mollfy the
North and lull it into forgetfalness of the
war and its horrors, should also, we think,
tend to make all the South forget its preju-
dices, and awaken TO the fact that rebellion
was, at least, gigantic error if not worse
The North, reaching across the graves of its