The Van Buren press., 1895-11-30
WITHOUT 4 PARALLEL.
Governor Altge!d's Glowing Tribute
TO the South.
! Correspondence of the Gazette.


! ATLANTA, Ga. Nov. 19, '95.
In connection with the notice of th.
New York Worlds misrepresentation
of Gov. Altgeld. it should have beer
mentioned that the manner and spirit il
which Illinois chief executive delivered
himself upon the subject of the South Ii
without parallel in the history of gov
ernments, and at the same time having
been delivered in a lofty view of thought
and the man full of the fire of the
patriot, the scene created by him is
without parallel unless it was Web
sters reply TO Hayne in the United
| States Senate.
The occasion was that of Illinois Day
when, as the executive, the building
erected by his state was rendered to the
exposition officers. In fact, imagine
the effect of such passages from his
greeting TO the South as follow in quo
tation, and every period of his great
address punetuated with tumultuous
cheers, which at the end lasted ovei
ten minutes. and the brave citizen O.
Illinois. true TO the justice of history
compelled TO rise again and again in &C
Acknowledgement of the great ovation
rendered him alike by Northern and
Southern people.
This magnificent exposition becomes
clothed with mighty importance wher
we consider that thirty years ago the
Southern States lay prostrate. They
war the world had ever seen-a wal
carried on within their borders. Tx
the west the great Father Of Waters
| flowed for hundreds of miles by field:
that lay waste and by villages whose
inhabitants were ruined; and toward
the east the morning. the noon and the
evening rays of the sun fell upon land
that was desolate. Fur four years the
passions had been unclaimed and the
waters of bitterness and hatred had
been lashed into fury. Industry was
dead and agriculture lay helpless.
Farmers were without stock, without
food, without money and without seed.
The institutions of society had been de
stroyed The only class which pos
sessed intelligence and which had once
ruled the land was dethroned as well as
impoverished.
more than this, nearly one third
of the population. that had existed in a
condition of slavery and of ignorance,
was at once freed from restraint and
clothed with all the powers of citizen :
ship. Some of these poor people thought
freedom meant not simply the possession
of liberty but the release from toll.
They had yet to learn the hard fact that
life is everywhere struggle. Formerly
| they had done the work of the South ;
under the new condition this could not
be expected of them. This was not all.
After great battle the vultures swoop
down upon the field and tear the flesh
off the bones of the prostrate-so, after
the close of the struggle there came to
the South from different parts of the
country many good men, indeed, bring
ing industry, character and capital with
them and bent upon an honorable
career; but there also came a cloud of
vultures swooping down upon the un
fortunate land, and, taking advantage
of the ignorance and the credulity of
some of the people, they proceeded still
| further to laeerate this great country.
They developed methods of plunder that
the ancients knew not of. The Cloths
and the vandals took what there was in
sight. Cromwell in Ireland took only
what his soldiers could carry, but these
men operated not only in that manner
| but, by the means of issuing bonds and
mortgaging the future, they projected
their Shiny fingers century ahead and
ate of the inheritance of coming gener
ations. They loaded the country with
a burden of taxation under which q
more prosperous people would have
groaned. This was the condition of the
South at the close of the war. Never
in the history Of government was sc
difficult problem as the re establish
ment of civil institutions in the Southern
stafaa -