PEOGKESS AT THE SOUTH. 41 



unwise and inexpedient. They hold that they should have made 

 their late struggle in the Union, not against it — under the flag of 

 our fathers, not that of the Stars and Bars- — in ostensible defense of 

 the Federal Constitution, not in resistance to its avithority. They 

 purpose to renew the fight, but not with gun and saber. They 

 expect to regain as Democrats through elections the power they lost 

 as Rebels through war. They herein evince that wisdom which 

 profits by the lessons of experience. Hei'e and there a hot-head 

 may talk of renewing, at some more auspicious season, the struggle 

 for an independent Confederacy ; but the great majority have had 

 euoxigh of war. I conclude tkat another Southern Secession is all 

 but impossible. 



And, while a bitter spirit is cherished by many, I feel sure that 

 the number who acquiesce, if they do not absolutely rejoice, in the 

 restoration of the Union, is daily increasing. Thovisands hate tlie 

 " carpet-baggers," with their alleged corruptions and spoliations, 

 who protest that they do not hate the Union. They persist in a 

 clamor against what they call " nigger equality " (but which means 

 Negro Enfranchisement, Negro Education), which precludes their 

 swaying the Negi'o Vote as they otherwise might and would ; but 

 they will seek to coerce enough of it into voting the Democratic 

 ticket to give them a majority of the Southern Electoral Votes for 

 next President. But the Blacks grow year by year more inde- 

 pendent in fact as well as feeling ; and it will neither be easy nor 

 safe to repeat tlie terrorism whereby Georgia and Louisiana were 

 made to vote for Seymour in 1868. Should the South show an 

 anti-Republican majority in -1872, it will be a conseqiience of inju- 

 dicious appointments and removals, of actual or reputed prodigality 

 in legislation or in ofiice, or of terrorism and constraint exercised 

 over the voters, and not a decision of the people on the questions 

 which vitally difference the two parties. 



That the Soxith is steadily recovering from the calamities and 

 losses consequent on our late Civil War, is very obvious. The 

 process might be more rapid, but could hardly be more substantial. 

 The cattle and swine which were eaten up during the Civil War 

 are being steadily replaced, and are already twice or thrice as 

 numerous as they were six years ago ; lands are going back into 

 cultivation which have long lain waste and idle ; farm buildings 

 are undergoing renovation ; cities and villages, are extending their 

 borders ; factories and furnaces are widely projected, and some are 



