CHAPTER VI. 



SECTIONALISM AND THE ALLIANCE. 



BY COLONEL L. L. POLK, PRESIDENT NATIONAL FARMERS' ALLIANCE AND INDUS- 

 TRIAL UNION, AND EDITOR Progressive Farmer, RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA. 



THE year 1865 witnessed the culmination of the mightiest contest of 

 modern times. The brave and heroic men of the two armies, worn and 

 wearied with war, returned to their homes, and beating " their spears 

 into pruning-hooks, and their swords into ploughshares," addressed 

 themselves, with a faith and a devotion that were sublime, to the solution 

 of problems which would have appalled the hearts of any but those 

 who had been educated in the terrible ordeal through which they had 

 passed. The happy greetings of welcome of the loved ones at the 

 threshold were more thrilling and inspiriting than were the wild shouts 

 of triumph in victorious battle. 



As a rule, the soldiers of the North and the South were willing and 

 anxious to accept and abide by the result, in good faith. They knew 

 they had fought like men, and they were willing to accept the result like 

 men. Slavery was gone, and all true patriots fondly hoped that the 

 prejudices, animosities, and divisions which were born of its existence 

 would go with it. 



But the selfish, sectional agitator again appeared upon the scene, and, 

 with unholy purpose, spared not even the sacred dust of the heroic 

 dead that he might inflame and keep alive the bitter recollections and 

 animosities of the past. Social and financial chaos was abroad in the 

 land, and he gloated in the opportunity thus afforded to prosecute his 

 wicked designs. Ordinarily he was the man, North and South, who 

 had failed to see, in four years of war, any opportunity to prove his 

 devotion to his section. Ordinarily he was the man, North and South, 

 who was " invisible in war, and had become invincible in peace." 



The liberation and enfranchisement of four millions of human beings, 

 the confusion incident to a long-protracted and terrible struggle, pre- 

 sented conditions peculiarly favorable to the propagation and perpet- 

 uation of sectionalism. Even our industrial development and expansion 

 evolved conditions which were made to contribute to this unnatural and 

 unfortunate estrangement between the sections. The rich, powerful, 



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