Year: 1866

tiOnS existing in the Nortn respecting
the South, we know Of none more prov
alcnt and pcrnicious than the one so
industriously circulated by Radical
agents as to the personal dangers which
Northern men of Union sentiments have
to encounter in the South. Scarcely q
day passes but some paragraph to this
effect goes the round of the Radical
press and neither the countcr.state-
ments ofNorthern men who have duridg
the past year been peacefully residing
in the South, nor of the thousands who
are constantly travelling there and re
turning, not only in safety, but impress
ed with the kindly treatment they re
ceivc, seem able to counterfeit this
deeply rooted and ridiculous prejudice.


The latest thing Of the kind we have
noticed is in the Nation, in which some
body writing from the South-we know
not which point is particularly alluded
to-says: "No Northern man who
has not lived here can possibly conceive
at what peril a man utters q Union sen
timent" Now, whatever amount of
truth there may have been in such a
statement Immediately prior to the
breaking out Of the war, when every
one was preparing for q deadly strug
Gle in which friends had to be known
from enemies, we are persuaded that,
taking the whole Southern States in
the aggregate as they exist to day, a
grosscr and more indiscriminatc libel
was never pcnncd against any people.


1t is entirely opposed to the testimony
not only of all our own correspondents,
travelling or residing in various. parts
Of the South, but also Of those Of the
New York Times and other Republican
journals, who have undertaken to give
fair and impartial view Of Southern
society, and whose means Of knowing
the people there should be at least
equal to those Of the writer in the Ma


ton. This writer stultiIies himself,
If the so called "Union" men Of the
South are in such large numbers as the
Radicals are 50 fond Of asserting { when


ever they have anything to gain by that
line Of argumcnt), J, what mean spirited
set they must be to refrain from freely
speaking their opinions in the face Of
a minority. But some Of them do speak
their mind in the South, and pretty
! plainly, too, we imagine. Take Nir-
ginia, for instance, which may be fair


ly singled out as being the very heart
Of the late confcdcracy, Does not
Bolts write and talk plainly enough
there what he thinks and feels? Does
he not 90 far enough even to publicly
dcnounce as traitors worthy ofthc gal
lows every one in his State who sided
with her in the late war? Who does
any harm, or wishes to do any harm, to
Bolts, beyond no ing that he will kill
and bury himselfby continuing to write
and speak as he does? Then, again,
there are no less boisterous, but more


insignificant spoutcrs and dcfamcrs
like Wardwcll, Hundicutt, and Others
Of that stamp-namcless creatures that
somehow iloatcd to the surface, like
scum, from the scethin caudron Of our
late commotion. Who has ever done
any harm to them? These men, hated
as they are for taking an active part in
every Radical attempt TO outrage and
vilify the people among whom they
live, 90 on proc'a'ming from the house
tops negro stllrne ard tie social
equality of the negro with the white
man, with an carncstncss that even
Wendell Phillips himself could not sur
pass; and yet who molcsts them ?
Wardwell's negro speech in Richmond,
on the 4th of July last, was something
so disgusting to the whole white pop
ulation Of the South that it may very
fairly he doubted if any Southern man
could have stood up in Fancuil Hall
and as freely given his opinion about
New England tanaticism without being
mobbcd. Every one who has resilcd
in the South since the close Of the war
knows that everywhere, and constantly,
the most earnest discussions are to be
heard between men Of Northern and
Southern sympathics, without any
hindrance on either side to the fullest
and frccst expression of opinion.


If the writer in the Nation simply
meant to say that brawling. rantng,
aggressive fanatics, going South forthe
mere purpose Of insulting everybody
and abusing everything they meet, may
get into personal trouble, we can easily
understand and believe him. We pre-


sumo that any one determined to get
his scull cracked, by his own wilfu and
unwarrantablc treatment of other, may
succeed in getting the operation per
formed for him in the South as well rs
anywhere else but no decent men of
ordinarily cOnsiderate behavior. be
their politics of the most Radical
stamp, run the risk fany incivility.-
Men who in mere civility "do unto
others as they would they should unto
them," find themselves no more molest-
ell in the South than in any portion OF
the North. Where individual exceptions
occur, they may be safely set down as
the result Of drunken brawls. which are
liable to occur in one place as well as
another, or may be traced to some Rad
ical fanatic who denied the term "Union-
list" to everybody but himself, and
whose insolent bigotry and impudcnt
intolerance first paved the way to II
misunderstanding. Enmity toward
Northern men, and especially toward
the Union, is not the leading spirit OF
the South, we care not what few fire
brands among them may say or do to
create contrary opinion. They are
simply like everybody else: they like
their friends and hate their enemies. i
their friendship is slow, distrustiul, and
calculated, at first. toward all Northern
ers, it is but natural that it should b'
sn-Ours would he toward them, say.