The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1889-11-01
The South and the Amendments.

At the reunion OF the Army of the
Tennessee in Cincinnati General Sher-
man, among other things, said:
"We fought the hottest wal V erfought
on Gods earth. A larger amount of
result was accomplished from that wal
than from any Cnsarian or Napo!eonic
war. We made peace on a continent.
We raised the standard of our nation
ality a thousand-fold. We lost moth
ing but slavery. The people of the
South lost that. They bet on the
wrong card and lost. Now they are
betting on another card. They CON
scented to the amendment to the Con-
stitution as q point Of concession for
not being otherwise punished, and they
came back into the Union with q five
ffths vote for their representation in
Congress, instead of three-fiftlls. 1t
is not right; it is not honest: it is not
honorable; it is not such as a soldier
knight will do. Therefore those ne
grocs must have the rights which the
Constitution gives them or the States
must be deprived of that proportion of
their representation in Congress. That's
a Legitimate result Of the war;, honest
and honorable; and the war won't be
over until this is done. Don't I'M
buckle your waist-belts too much"
These u~tterances were not those of q
violent man or a malignant one. They
were the words of al old soldier who
has the affection of the men of the
Union armies and the respect of all the
people. They stated q point in con-
troversy with remarkable c~learness,
and because the Point was we'll made
the little speech seems to have aroused
the resentment and hatred of the Bour-
bons of the South. The New Orleans
States, extreme in it's Bourbonism, ex-
treme in it's English Policy of free
trade, copies the paragraph from Gen
eral Sherman's speech quoted Above,
and speaks of him as a vicious old do
tard," a "superannuated old hyena as
a man "howling like a Comanclle In
dian for the blood of the South"
This is the language of the rebels
Of 1864 and of the copperheads of
1865. But the point of the States az
ticle is not in the bowling idiocy of
its language, but is found in the fol-
lowing:
eff there is ono fact in the history of
reconstruction more clear and indis-
putable than any others, it is that the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments
were never ratified by the Southern
States, and that they We're pinned to
the Constitution by Federal b~ayonets:
they were indeed the legislation of
vengeance and remorseless hate, they
have borne their legitimate fruit, and
they will continue to bear such fruit to
the end. These amendments were the
work of the North exclusively; the
South submitted to them because she
could not help herself"
The difference between this state
ment and that made by General Shcr-
man is that it is asserted in one that
the South consented to the amend
ment rs q point of concession for not
being otherwise punished, and, in the
other, that the South submitted to the
amendment because she could not help
herself. General Sherman after all
does not seem to be SO far from the
truth of history as the States would
have us believe. General Sherman
intimated that the South was endeav-
oring to nullify the amendment. The
States, speaking for the Bourbons of
the South, admits it.-I1ater Ocean.