Treatment Of The South

It has long been appareut to every practical mind that the prospective policy pursuod toward the Southern States since the close of the war must necessarily result in vast injury to the material interests of the country at large. The property and resources of twelve millions of people, aecustomed to produce the staples most in demaud abroad, and which furnished the basis of a large part of the foreigu exchanges, could not be struck down without a very serious reactioa. The effects of that harsh policy have been feit throughout the crisis of the last twelve nionths, and may be aaid to have added greatly to its intensity. The Southern States have not only been crushed down by the weight of some two hundred millions of debt, created by carpot bag Govemments, from which there is no hope of relief except through repudiation, but they are kept impoverished by the sucoessors of these thieves, who appropriate to their own use all the reveuues derived from the extremest forms of ruinous taxation. Instead, therefore, of contributing a just proportion to the general burdens, and of adding to the national wealth, these rich states have become almost bankrupt, and are wholly unable to furnish the market they once did for Northern manufacturerers and Western producers. As a nece&sary consequence those interests have greatly suft'ered from thig cause and they in their turn have iuvolved others, thus heighteiiing greatly the present derangement of all business. It was in the power of the President and his Administration to have at once reconcüed the South to its true relations to the Union, and at least partially restored the foruier condition of prosperity, without compromising any of the grefit results which had been achieved through the stern arbitratnent of the sword. All they asked was to be let alone, to be allowed to repair the wastes of war, and to accom uiodate themselves to the changed condition of things brought about by the atnendmeuts of the Constitution. They had had enough of bloody strife, political contention, and íolly. ihis was the sentiment oí the niasses of the people, and it was natural aftei their bitter experience. Instead of conoiliation, a perverse ingenuity was exercised to make odious and oppressive laws, and to place their execution in the hands of adventurers, rogues, and robbers, who made them doubly offensive by outrage and opprussion. If the President had turned his face away from the carpet-baggers and their coiifederates, exaoted anything like justice, and required aocountability, the whole system would hare lallen into disgraoe and dissolution. It was maintained solely by the support received at Washington and by the confidence in an impunity for any and every crime. The plundered people appealed in vain for relief. They were answered with Federal bayonets, to sustain charges made by their oppressors. The party wanted Senators and Representatives to carry special legislation and to offset the opposition that might threaten its success, and these States were therefore converted into rotten boroughs for the Claytons, Spencers, Pattersons, Sawyers, Pools, Kelloggs, Caseys, and the like, who have been the white slaves of the President for the last five years and the pillars of the Eepublican faith. Like the Bourbons, the Administration and its supporters have forgotten none of their malignity, and learned notbing by this long and costly expeneuce. Look at the situation of Louisiana to-day, with all her natural wealth, and ability to be among the foremost of the Southern States. New Orleans, instead of being the mart of oommerce and the center of a vast trade that it was always until this blight feil upon it, lies prostrate under the heat of a vulgar usurper, with decay visible everywhere. Hardly a voice of remonstrance was raised during the session of sevenmonths against this infamous usurpation, which, without even the pretext of a doubtful vote to excuse it, is maintained by the counivance of the President and the patronage which he has corruptly dispensed. Louisiaua thus enslaved, depopulated, ] and ruined, the great West has be endeprived of one of its best customers. The people of South Carolina, driven to despair by anarohy, robbery and persecution, invoked Congress to investígate its eondition and to carry on the guarantee of the Constitution by giving to them a llepublican form of government, in place of the caricature and fraud which is now forced iipon them by Federal power. No heed was taken of that proper appeal, and Congress by its failure tacitly approved the enorinities of Mozes und his crew of outlaws who are now ravaging what may be left of that afflicted commuuity. But the vory men who coutemptuously spurned the petition of the intelligence virtue, public spirit, and worth of South Carolina, rushed forward under the lead of Mr. Poland to send a special coramittee to the House of Representativos to Arkansas at the demand of Clayton, JJorsey, aud the other oarpet-baggers who were recently defeated in &n iniquitous schema to issue more bonds and thus craru their pockets with more plunder. The time has at last come when these crimes must be atoned for. After nine years of so-called peaoe the country is in a worse situation, all tbiugs cousidered, than when the last gnn of the rebellion was fired. Iteckless partizanship, corruption in public Hfe, official dishonesty, and demoralization have brought it to the verge of' ruin. Unless there is a halt cried and a reform begun which shall sweep every Testige of Grantism from power, a terrible explosión is inevitable.