Year: 1872

stored Unions


For some years before the war Of the rebel
lion, when Northern politicians were endeavor-
ing to consolidate into one great political
organization all the elements opposed to the
Southern States of the Union either in interest
or sentiment, persistent and systematic effort
was made to create prejudice against the white
citizens of the South. Apart from the crusade
against the institution Of slavery as an offence
against the divine laws and moral and social
evil, the slaveowners were denounced as a
class and were held up to reproach as un-
American, insolent overbearing and tyran-
nical. The Southern people had themselves
to thank for the success of this unpatriotic
attempt to excite sectional animosity and strife
for political purposes. Their peculiar position
had rendered them jealous, suspicious and
arrogant They had been accustomed to brow
beat Northern men in Congress and had con-
ceived an unfavorable opinion of Northern
courage. The sense of the insecurity of their
slave property kept alive in their breasts o
constant feeling of hostility towards the free
States, and the tone of their press and
public speakers was offensive and CALLING to
the people of the North. Eventually the
efforts of the politicians and the indiscretion
Of the chivalry brought about secession and
civil war. A bitter and costly experience
taught the Southern men how erroneously they
had judged of the spirit of their Northern
fellow citizens, while the sufferings and the
bravery of the South won the sympathy and
respect of the North, and were accepted as an
atonment for past follies and offences. When
the last gun Of the war had been fred, and the
great rebellion lay crushed and dead at the
feet of Grants victorious army, there was not
i. citizen Of the loyal States, outside hand
full of scheming politicians, who did not
earnestly desire to see the South relieved as
speedily as possible from the inevitable penal
ties of her madness and restored to all her
constitutional rights under the reconstructed
Union. The Northern people required assur
ance that the late Confederates would consent
to accept in good faith the decision
reached by the tribunal of arms, and
were willing, as soon as this was
received, to bury their anger and their sorrow
in common grave. Foremost among those
who thus patriotically sought to restore the
Union in the hearts of the people was the
soldier who had rescued it from actual de-
struction. Towards the close Of the year 1866
General Grant made an inspection of the
rebellious States for the purpose of learning
by personal observation the sentiment of their
leading citizens, and of ascertaining what
amount of military force would be required for
the preservation Of order and the enforcement
of the laws. In his report to President John
son the Lieutenant General expressed his con-
viction that the South had not only accepted
the decision of battle as final, but had
become convinced by reflection that this
decision had been fortunate one for
both sections of the Union. s'My observa-
tions," wrote General Grant, ''lead me to the
conclusion that the citizens of the Southern
States are anxious to return to elf-government
within the Union as soon as possible; that
while reconstructing they want and require
protection from the government that, they
think, is required, and is not humiliating to
them as citizens, and that if such course
were pointed out they would pursue it in good
faith. 1t is to be regretted" he adds, "that
there cannot be greater commingling at this
time between the citizens Of the two sections,
and particularly Of those entrusted with
the law-making power" The trouble
of the recently liberated negroes was
not overlooked by the victorious General. He
found them to be inclined to idleness and
imbued with the idea that freedom from bond
age meant freedom from labor. But he
trusted to time and the management of the
State governments to render the freedmen
willing to work and to remove by slow degrees
the evil of ignorance, the legacy Of their
former condition.


Nearly eight years have passed since the
war closed and the General is now the Presi-
dent. The politicians, who have unfortu-
nately surrounded and controlled his admins
tration, have continued during the last three
years and half the same course towards the
South adopted by them as soon as the rebel
lion was over, when they were contending with
President johnson for the political control
of that section Of the country. The
efforts Of these men have been to
secure political power in the Southern
States by colonizing the South with
carpet-bag politicians, and holding with them
the solid negro vote. The process was simple
and easy. In ten Of the ex-rebel States-Ala-
bama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and the two Caro-
linas-under the census of 1870 there were
four million six hundred and twenty-four
thousand white inhabitants to three million
six hundred and thirty-four thousand negroes,
or less than one million more white than
black inhabitants. Taking the proportion Of
one in five for voters, the white electors may
be calculated at two hundred thousand more
than the black In Sonth Carolina Louisiana