The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-03-08

| plot. they maliciously set to uyor}
excite the poor and u~neducated agaioD.
those who had education, Dronarfw
position. They rouse every nra u'
dice Of class and appealed to evcr,.
passion Of discomfort. From the nonlf
degraded walks Of life they snlantat
the accompliceS of their cheras ~
public wrong and exalted them ia bi71,
and respectable offices and Ma.
Aided by the United States Army ana
constantly supported and encoura 81
by Congressional legislation, they mn.
ed with Southern men, some Of who,
were corrupt and others misguided
and obtained official power. patronaga
and place all over h Southern States
Military rule, commonly the terror q,
a civilized people, proved III this Tina
a mercy and a protection to Vireini.
She was spared the spoliation and hp-
initiation that .befell her once proud
sisters. No sooner We're they Secrreh,
ixed in power than that unparalleled
carnival Of v%enality, peculation. waste
and spoil began that has shocked The
moral sense of the civilized world and
brought reproacn upon the age in
which we live and the country where
it t~rarspired.
Consider the condition Of the South
ern States Immediately after the war
and what a spectacle do we behold,
L HtIt Ntfc (NclNe oldttS embracing
an area OF over eight hundred thou
sand square miles, larger than Great
Britain, France, Germany, Spain,
Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and
Holland combined, with q population
Of twelve millions, two-thirds Of which
were whites and n third recent
slaves. The peace in 1865 succeeded
a frightful civil war of -four Years
duration in which over a million and
a half of men were engaged in armed
conflict and all the terrible passions Of
sectional strife were excited. The war
ended with an upheaval and trans
formation unprecedented in AL time.
Systems as old as the settlement OF
the country and deeply rooted in the
very foundations of the structure OF
the South were suddenly subverted
and abolished; government, society,
established order of b and
capital, the organic laws of States,
their relations to the General Govern
ment, and the whole framework OF
material. moral, social. and political
proportion were overturned II de-
II recall in all history no example
Of UGH complicated wreck and con
fusion. Fou millions OF slaves, one
half the population, totally untitled
for setf-goverpment. We're suddenly SCI
at liberty and invested with all poll
~ - = $3.50 iH'" 49,
solved. and its soldiers, accustomed
TO the camp for years, returned to
their homes to find them in ashes and
their country without fixed laws. And
for years. either from adverse sea-
sons or mistaken h~usbandry or capri
cious labor. or all combined, the very
earth refused her beneticent increase
TO our stricken people.
Unfenced d~esolation
left US as naked as the, vulgar air.
l Will not lift the Veil from the pic
Of our social suffering. There
was not q board in all our land that
had not tasted; there was not a fire
side IN all the South from which some
loved face was not missing; there was
not q heart in all the South that had
Died. Senators, may you and you
prosperous people never learn by your
own experience the extremity OF eur
l have thought how to de
scribe 1t; | am powcrless to do it jus
ice with speech.
Il speak the simple truth when I de-
clare that had 1 seer at the concIu-
SION OF the war the sea Of dark and
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