The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-06-16
THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH.
Three Notable Uuerances on the South
eTn People and Their Problem.
Just and Generous Sentiments Ex-
pressed Toward the South by Haru-
Hton w. Mabie. President Eliot of
Harvard and Ernest Hamlin Albeit.
typical Of What the New North.
Stands For.
CThe Church Standard. June 1ol

fThe Church Standard, June lOl
To the loyal-hearted American who
loves bis country more than party.
nothing can be more cheering than the
evidences which appear from day to
DAY OF a disposition on the part of good
nsen in all sections OF the country IN
consider, and, if necessary, to recon-
sider, all causes of sectional alienation.
past and present, with Il view TO re-
move misapprehensions and misunder-
standings, and so to inaugurate a new
era OF national unity of sentiment
which shall know no South and M
North, no East and no West. unless If
DC when any part Of the country
shall have special need of the suonort
ana sympathy of all the rest. Again
and again this journal has expressed
It's deep regret that forty years after
the close of the war between the
states there should still be A Solid
oouth' stahdlnS, SO to speak, in an at
tltude OF self-defence, while. from time
10 Time, the foolish threat of Force
Bills and other similar demonstrations
PioNNSoOo HUH pOlll1cdI DdftlSaIS
ID other parts of the country. The
time has come when men of light and
leading at the North are aiming at a
fue reconstruction of national feeling
which we trust is destined to put an
END to these things and the cause of
them. To further this good work. we
snail here give extracts from three re-
cent utterances representing conyic
| fl0nS of fh0t,ohtf,t ,oo, e
schools in the North and West. which
are bound as we believe, to dominate
our national politics in years to come.
When the South shall be assured of
that fact, we are convinced that lines
OF sectional division will disappear
from the politics of the United States.
The Southern people have imagined
that the race problem exists only
among themselves; they have dreaded
u resented everything which has
seemed to threaten race integrity, and
they have stood ready at all points to
defend their section against a confu-
sion which could bring nothing but So
cha degradation and political disaster.
They have believed that in the North
there has been no proper appreciation
OF the difficulties of their situation:
and, looking back to what is strangely
called the Reconstruction Period, they
have supposed that, in the North, there
still exists a disposition, which might
easily become a purpose, to interfere
in their local government. In short,
the people Of the South have felt that,
at the North, the Southern States are
still regarded as something less than
the free and equal states of which this
union is supposed to consist. More
over, there has prevailed among them
a sentiment more powerful than any
consideration Of political or material
interest, that, unless the Southern peO-
pie are prepared to admit their fathers
Of the Confederacy to have been trail
tors in purpose as well as rebels in fact
they cannot expect to be regarded Or
treated as loyal citizens of the union.
There was a time when these appre-
tensions were not without foundations;
but that time is past, and the three re-
cent utterances which we shall here
submit will illustrate the just and gen.
erous sentiments with which thinking
men at the North now regard, not only
the Southern people, not only the
the Southern problem as it stands to-
day, but the whole controversy be-
tween the sections, and its final settle
ment by the arbitrament of war.
Most notable of the three is a paper
| by Mr.. Hamilton w. Mabie, which ap-
! peared in the South Atlantic Quarterly
for April last. Mr.. Mabie represents
the class of men who were too young
to have any personal part in the civil
| war or in the so-called reconstruction
of the union; and it must be remem-
hered that the great mass of the people
of the Northern States today belong to
that class. 1t may therefore be fairly
concluded that the views expressed by
Mr.. Mabie represent the general trend
of thought among men of conscience,
! and education, in the section to which
he belongs. Here, then is Mr.. Mabie's
statement of what the New North"
OF which he is a representative, stands
for. He says it stands:
"First-For a complete, honest and
sincere recognition that the Old South
was as high-minded, disinterested, and
conscientious as the Old North.
"Second.-That on the great ques-
| ton of the relative powers of the ma
ton and of the state the Old South was
technically right, though historically
| wrong; that Calhoun's argument, on
| strictly technical grounds, was unan-
swerable.
.'Third.-That the initial repsonsi-
hility for slavery was shared by the
| North and South alike, and that in the
| earlier stages of colonial development
slavery disappeared from the North
ond Stron orfhopa6 ifc hold in tho South
as the result of circumstances rather
| than of moral repugnance.
"Fourth.-That the policy of recon-
| struction which subverted the order of
| society in the South and placed the
duties of citizenship on the negro with
out educating him to bear them was a
blunder of tragic magnitude and a
| gross Injustice to black and white
TLA Na- Na.4l-AAaS