The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-12


 Historical society held in the Astor gal lery of the Waldorf in New York south ern history was the topic for discus sion and the negro question played an important part. Among the prominent speakers was Col. Robert Chisolm of Birmingham, whose subject was '"rhe Eff fects of Reconstruction in the Southern States" He said;
 This is rather big subject to be treataed in few minutes and I am afraid any attempt on my part to do so might reflect more credit on my power of condemnation than on the sub joct. With reasonably short intervals of time my whole life has been spent in that section but within the past 10 or ernmental business from Virginia to San Antonio, Tex. It is big country con- taining several millions of people and it would be presuming much in. me to undertake to speak for them all. The subject presentes three aspects: Q) How it affects the whites fin the south; @ how it affects the negro, and (3) how it
 
 south reconstruction has left band, bit- ter taste. It is or was, like some ter rible nightmare. better felt than de- scribed. For near ten years the thing hung over the south like a dark pail without single light spot There were numbers of people in the seceding states who were in 1861 bitterly opposed to se- cession, many of them with grandfath- CTS who had helped to create the union. and almost every one had an ancestor who took a hand in the revolution These people loved the union and took pride in it. Most of those who wanted to se- cede hoped that when our northern broth CTS saw how much the south was in earn est In protecting what they thought were our constitutional rights they would be able to come together and settle for all rel among the members of one big fam ily-they would quarrsl for while among themselves, but peace would come with a better understanding and there would be no bloodshed. or all the se- ceding states only about five or six cast majority vote in favor of secession; {; the rest were counted out.
 Had the southern states been allowed to depart in peace it would not have been ten years before they would have been begging for readmission The hot bloods might have had their way for while but wisdom would have prevailed in a short time. At first the war was to re- store the union. Slavery had nothing to do with it until Tagging xnergtes needed a new stimulus, but when abolition en- tered all the romance of war was e!in- mated and death struggle began. It was the handiwork of God but We didn't see it then. The end came, but as though tho south needed some greater punish ment. MT. Lincoln was assassinated. Then for near ten long years Satan took the saddle-that was reconstruction. The north then seemed determined to beat conviction into the south, using force to accomplish that end. Force has never yet convinced anyone and it never will Some may have forgotten the fact that if 1t was South Carolina that tried to break the union it was native South Carolinian, Andrew Jackson. who, when President, said he would fight to pre- serve it. However all that may be, we all know that once a great Iorce IS put in motion no mere proclamation can stem it, no surrender of armies dissipate it.. This was the condition of the southern states in April, 1865. This was their frame of mind when plague. greater than war, greater than all the plagues that infested Egypt swooped down upon the land. While broken in spirit, her glorious youth swept away by war. no homes, nothing to eat, no money, the thing came, thing without parents ana let us hope without posterity. It was the carpetbagger.
 The eagle that swoops down on f,is prey commands our respect. for he has cour- age and daring, but the vulture has only his appetite. The new pest looked around and saw in the ex-slave his tool With the aid of the negro he took possession of the treasuries of the states. There was TO dollar too small for his eyes, no man