Year: 1869

From the Brooklyn Cathonc


IMPRESSIONS OF Tfts. SOUTH.


BY FATHER MCNAMARA.


At moment like the present, when the
minds Of the people North and South are
racked by conflicting ideas concerning the
past, the present, and the future Of oul
country, it is not easy to utter opinions
without running the obvious risk OF rub
bing harsIly against the feelings OF many
whom we sincerely and reverently respect.
The difficulty is augmented when the char
acter of the speaker or writer places him
in position that imposes the obligation OF
treating all parties with the tenderness
and with the impartiality Of parent. A
priest-the minister Of God---is, above all
others, obliged by the eternal laws Of re-
ligion to respect the feelings of those whom
he addresses, and to utter no word that
could argue II want Of Christian and pa
rental interest towards all men. Not only
do Justice and charity admonish him, as
others, that truth and love must guide his
utteranceS he is moreover bound thereto
by those imperative precepts that draw
their reason and their authority from the
very priesthood wherewith he is invested.


Business has called me back for some
days to this city-a city with which / shall
ever feel identified, both on account, of
the work here inaugurated. and the hun
dreds OF its citizens whom l reckon as my
familiar and cherished friends. Many OF
these friends have requested me to COM
10 unicate to the public my impressions OF
things as seen and studied during my late
missionary tour through the conquered
region of the South. In accediDg to their
wishes, will say, at the outset, that am
no politician [ do not und 1rstand politics
sufficiently to justify NE in speaking from
any party platform ; nor do deem 1t con-
sistent with the priestiy character that |
should in the present crisis declare myself
the exponent of any political views.-
Through tho fierce and lamentable strug-
giles OF the country, sensible men called it
the glory of our intelligent and patriotic
clergy that they never tarnished the Holy
place by turning the pulpit into political
rostrum. We love our common country
and it is precisely because we love it that
we abstain from demonstrations which
North or South could construe into want
of interest in whatsoever constitutes the
real good Of the people.


Having passed my early years IN the very
heart of New England, flatter myself that
i
was not ignorant of the habits or the SEN
timents OF the Northern population ; and
this experience is essential to any one
that would form just conceptions of the
present feelings and condition of the
South.


On visiting the Southern States, the first
thing to be noted is the widespread ruin
that stares you on every side. Valley,
plain, and hill-top-all parts of that vast
and varied country are made mourntul
with the wrecks Of homesteads and with
the cherries spectacle Of demolished fences
and uncultivated fields. Where before
the people lived in the abundance OF
worldly comforts, to-day are to be seen
but spectral chimneys OF piles of brick and
mortar to mark the site OF sumptuous hab-
itations.


War has left its horrid print on every
thing Not only the lands over which you
travel are desolated by the tread of the
war r-horse, but the very cOuntenances OF
the people bear evidences of the prolonged
and stubborn conflict from which they
have of late retired. The white popuia-
Iion is thrown by the event into the neces-
sity Of settling down to pursuits which be-
fore were the occupations Of the negro
and the colored race, unprepared for the
condition, are flung into circumstances
which they do not rs yet understand, and
for which they must feel themselves as yet
untitled. The white Southerners are jostled
into a sort of bondage hitherto untried IN
the world yet is it d thraldom as unmls.
taxable as ever imperial Rome wound
about the liberties of the vanqulshed. The
colored citizens, though, as class, devoid
of education and unskilled in legislation,
are lifted into Legislative halls and pushed
into municipal Offices, OF whose constltu-
tions--nay, OF whose uses eyen-they must
as body be utterly ignorant.


Then there is another element among
the population which is uncOngenlal In the
most lamentable degree, and which seems
SO essentially unsympathizing as to be re-
garded antagonistic to the feelings and In
tereSts of the masses. This Is hated
class. So evident are the repugnances ii
breeds, that its members know and &C
knowledge themselves to be obnoxious to
those around them. These are adventures
who rush in upon the people, and who
seize the sources Of emolument, ca!olIEe
the colored citizens into belief that they
alone are their friends that they have
come into the South as the protectors OF
the freedmen and that the safety Of the
colored population depends on electlng
them to rosts Of profit in the gift OF the
newly enfEanchised voters. The people
have imposed on these the name of ''car'
pet-baggers" "a word which carries with
it in the South the expression of all the
Odium that can attach to set of men. In
the sense of the South, to say ''carpet
Dagger" is to say that man has no inter
est in common with the people-that he
is inimical to his neighbors-that he makes
his bread by practising on the credulity Of
the negro, by exciting the colored people te
hate the whites around them, and bJ
spreading Through the North the basest