The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1901-09-26
THE RECONS rRUC-
TION PERIOD.
Was Much Worse Than War
Carpet Bagg"rs From Southern
Point of View.


Governor Chamberlain, Of South Caro-
lima, the distiction of being the mos
notable of the Atlantic's fine series OF
The Reconstruction PERIOD"
Chamberlain was himself one Of tho
Reconstruction Governors of South
Carolina, and was in Office when Gen
Wade Hampton made the mastery
campaign which restored the State tC
the control of its real people. Cover
nor Chamberlain Ga New Englander
who had moved to South Carolina
after the war, and who has since moved
back TO his old homc) was quite q
partisan in those days. He fought
hard on the wrong side. In his article
in the Atlantic he made clean breast
of the whole thing, admitting that he
had been wrong, that the treatment of
the South during the Reconstruction
period was shameful, and that the adj
mlnistration Of the carpct-bagycrs was
as great an injury to the South as the
war itself had been.
Mr.. Page approaches the subject
from the point of view Of the native
Southerner. He writes in temperate
vein; indeed, his reference to the car
pet-baggers, while unmlstakablc in its
import, is no more scathing than was
Governor Chambcrlain's. After re-
marking that the people outside Of the
South before the war had an utterly
mistaken conception Of the character
of the Southern planter and slave
owner, imagining him a lazy fellow
who cared for nothing but his pleas
ures, MIR. Page observes that the war
had not been in progress many days
before the North and the rest of the
world was entirely relieved of this
wrong Impression. But, as Mr.. Page
says, the strength of the Southern pco-
pie was demonstrated more strkingly
in the wretChcd days after lhc war
than during the war itself. We quote:
What the South really was she
gave no small proof Of during the war;
she gave even stronger proof after the
war. Without ships; without money;
without machinery that could produce
knife blanket, or a tin cup; without
an ally; without even the sympathy OF
single nation; without knowledge OF
the outside world, or indeed Of her
able and determined opponent, she
forces thrown against her-cnduriny
all things, hoping all things, until she
was not only ovcrlhrown, but actually
Riostroyed. When Sherman marched
across the South to the sea he found i,
to be an empty shell. At that same
time the campaign from the Rapidan
to AppOmattoX cost Grant l24 900 men
about two men for every man that
Lee had in his army.
But as notable as were the intre-
pidity of her soldiery in the fled and
the endurance of her people at home,
they were not equal to the resolution
and courage that her people displayed
in the great and unrecorded struggle
afterwards. The one was fight of
disciplined armies, with an open sky
and fair field, the endurance OF a
people animated by hope; the olllct
was long and desperate struggle,
with shacklcd hands, against a foe that
in the darkness, unknown to the rest
Of the world, or with sort of blind
approval on its part, fastened on its
vitals and slowly sapped its life blood"
The distinguished wrtor is sure that
If Mr.. Lincoln had lived the country
would have escaped most Of the blun-
dcrs and follics. and crimes.of tn, Recon
struction. Whatever may be said of
Lincoln, he had common sense aud ap-
piled it to the business Of government.
His death let loose upon the Southern
States horde of fanatics and unprin-
ciplcd schcmers, against whom the
forces OF conservatism, deprived OF
their leader, were unable to make any
Roadway. Returning to the impressive
language of Mr.. Page:
"The white race were DISTINGUISHED
and were not allowed the franchise
again until they had asscnlcd TO giving
the black race absolute equality in all
matters Of civil right. This the leaders
of the other side vainly imagined
would perpctuate their power and for
time it almost promised tc do so.
The result of the new regime thus
established in The South was such a
riot of rapine and rascality as had
never been known in the history of
this country and hardly ever in the his.
tory of the world. 1t would seem in
credible to any but those who have H.
vcstigated il for themselves. The States
were given over to piiage at the hands
of former slaves, led largely by advcn.
turers whose only aim was to crafty
their vengeance or their cupitity. The
measure of their pcculation and dam.
age, as gaugcd by figures alone, $ ag,
gers belief. Unhappily, the crcdulitY
and ignorance of the negroes threw
them into the hands of the worst Gle
ment among the adventurers who wcrC
Vieine to become their leaders. Tho
man who was bold enough to bid the
highest outstripped the others. Undc,
the teaching and with the aid of these
leaders the negroes showed signs o
rendering considerable parts of ,h,
Southern States uninhabitablc by tn,
whites. Had the latter given tn,
slightest sign OF being coWed or 6
yi,fllng they probably would hav
been lost forever; but, fortunately fo
the South, they never yielded."
AN of Mr.. Pagc's article should b
read by those who wish to get clean
accurate and goodtempored descri}