The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-09-25
THE RECONS rRUC.
TON PERIOD.
Was Much Worse Than War
Carpet Bagg rs From Southern
Point OF View.

" Ihe september numDCr OF III At.
lantlc Monthly shares with that of cX.
Governor Chamberlain, of South Caro-.
Ina, the dlstiction OF being the most
notable of the Atlantics fine series on
The Reconstruction Period"
Chamberlain was himself one &c the
Reconstruction Governors Of South
Carolina, and was in Office when Gen.
wade Hampton made the mastery
campaign which restored the State to
the control OF It's real people Cover
nor Chamberlain Ca New Englandor,
VINO had moved to South C.ruliua
after the war, and who has since moved
back TO his old homc) was quite a
partisan in those days. lie fought
hard on the wrong side. In his article
IN the Atlantic he made a clean lreast
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 carpet -baggers was
as great an injury to the South as the
war itself had been.
Mr.. Page approaches the subject
from the pojnt of view OF the native
Southcrner. He writes in a temperate
vein; indeed, his reference to the car
pet-bagSers, while unmlstakablc in It's
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 lazy fellow |
who cared for nothing but his pleas
ufes, 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 peu-
pie was demonstrated more strikinolv
in the wretChed days after the 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 q blanket, or Il 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
withstood to the final grasp the vast
forces thrown against her-enduring
all things, hoping all things, until she
was not only ovcrthrown, but aC tually
destroyed. When Sherman marched
across the South to the sea he found it
TO be an empty shell. AT that same
time the campaign from the Rapidan
to AppomattoX cost Graut Ia 900 men
about two men for every man that
Lee had in his army.
"But as notable as were the intrc.
pidity of her soldiory in the field 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 a fight of
disciplined armies, with an open sky
and fair field, the endurance OF
people animated by hope; the other
was long and desperate struggle,
with shackled 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 sarped its life blood"
The distinguished writer Is sure that
If Mr.. Lincoln had lived the country
would have escaped most of the blum
ders and follies,and crmes..of the Recon
struction. Whatever may be said of
Lincoln, he had common sense and ap-
piled it to the business of government.
His death let loose upon the Southern ;
States horde of fanatics and unprin-
cipled schemers, against whom the
forces OF conservatism, deprived of t.,
their leader, were unable to make any
headway. Returning to the impressive
language of Mr.. Page:
"The white race we're DISTINGUISHED
and were not allowed the franchise
again until they had assentcd to giving
the black race absolute equality i'll all
matters Of civil right. This the leaders
of the other side vainly imagined
would perpetuate their power and for
a time 1T almost promised to 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 in
vestigated il for themselves. The States
were given over to piilage at the hands
of former slaves, led largely by adven-
turers whose only aim was to crafty
their vengeance or their cupidity. The
measure of their pecuation and dam
age, as gauged by figures alone, stag
gers belief. Unhappily, the credulity
and ignorance OF the negroes threw
them into The hands of the worst ele-
ment among the adyenturers who were
vieing to become their leaders. The
man who was bold enough to bid the
highest outstripped the others. Under
the teaching and with the aid of these
leaders the negroes showed signs of
rendering considerable parts of the
Southern States uninhabitable by the
whites. Had the latter given the
slightest sign of being cowed or of
yielding they probably would have
been lost forever; but, fortunately for
the South, they never yielded"
All of Mr.. Pages article should be
read by those who wish to get clear,
accurate and good.tempered descrip.
tiCn of the sufferings of the South dur
ing tLe I.econstruction. Not with bit
st