Old Times in Dixie Land
d with the perplexities of existence now precipitated upon us. The Confederacy's 175,000 surrendered soldiers-and these included the last fifteen-year-old boy-were scattered through the South,
of the freedmen and the oppressions of the military arm. Large sums were paid by citizens to recover property held by the enemy; and, for a time, the p
rooms in the home of its possessor. No man knew how to invest money that had escaped the absorption of war, and when he did inve
e this seems to have been a mistake. If the best men of the country had gone into the people's service-as did General Longstreet with most patriotic but futile purpose-they might have arrested incessant lootings of the people's hard-wrested tax-money and the nefarious legislation that enriched the
fashion. Major A. L. Brewer, Mr. Merrick's uncle, who had belonged
as always my favorite nephew. Since the war is over I trust that he will now take the oath of allegiance, and should he need any aid
ave endured it for you if I could have saved my dear boy Charlie, who fell in b
he authors of the rebellion have paid dearly for their folly and wickedness. When I reflect upon the misery brought about by a few arch villains, I find it hard to control my feelings;-I
. The torch was applied to everything. Sometimes the women would save a few things, but in most cases they went forth bareheaded to make the ground their bed and the sky their roof. The next day when the hungry children came
thing practically of housekeeping. Quite erroneous is it not? I have been for some time in Boston and find the girls here prettier as a class, than those of any other city I have visited, not excepting Baltimore. They are so sensible and self-assisting. You see that army people
y are not punished for their evil deeds, rather than be so blatant of their own shame. I am sorry to find you in favor of Mr. Seymour. He is from my own State, but he is a blot upon it; personally he is a gentleman,-as far as a dough-face and a copper-head can be one. A few Northern politicians may, for self-interest, humble themsel
ome convinced that plantation negroes will make good legislators. I have not been in favor of negro suffrage, but now it seems the only expedient left us for the recons
al clearness that beyond my immediate circle of friends I shall scarcely be missed. How humbling to a conce
nd an aristocratic form of society. The North had fought, not in a crusade for equality and against aristocracy, but for money-after the first flush of enthusiasm caused by 'firing on the flag' had subsided. The Federal Government was victorious simply because it had the most men and the most money. The Confederate cause failed simply be
0 men against the 1,000,000 men of the North mustered out of service after the surrender. But it
r story a
-but ev
pen, could
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ell the s
se and of
o her aged relative: "Why, mon
f it-the comfort of money. It has learned also through the aggressions of trusts and monopolies how comfortable and dangerous a thing
itutional rights and the integrity of a true republic. Its simpler social structure has enabled it to keep a clearer vision of the purposes of our forefathers in government than the North, with its tremendous infiltration of foreigners ingrained with monarch
e love of one God and a common country "has
table in Massachusetts. The South found them renumerative and kept them. This branch of the subject may be dismissed with the reflection that it is a disposition common to humanity to use any sort of sophistry to excuse or pal
themselves the special pets of Providence." Seven years ago when cotton was selling for four cents a pound and starvation was staring in the face alike the planter and the negro tenant, the owner of a large plantation said to one of her old slaves: "Oh, these are dreadful times, Maria! How are we to live through them! I'm distressed for the people on the
y the shock, the other too delirious with success to be able to grasp the portent of such an event in the national life. The North approached it with abolition, fanaticism, and expected the liberated slave to be an ally of freedom of
for an equal time because the political value of the colored brother to the Republican party has seemed to overshadow every other phase of his development. But schooling and training can remodel e
outnumbers the white population can understand his char
he ballot because of sex to one half of its American born citizens who, by education and patriotism, are qualified for the highest citizenship. Our government will never become truly democratic until it lives up to its own principles, "No taxation without representation, no government without the consent of the governed." Suffrage should be the privilege of those only who have acquired a right to it by e
ing to realize that he must make the people with whom he lives his best friends; that the conditions which are for the good of the whites of his community are good for
responds freely to his careless cultivation. In the trades no distinctions are made between the white and the colored mechanic as to wages or opportunity. There is no economic prejudice against him; he is freely employed by the whites even as a contractor. But the Southern white will "ride alone"-even in a hearse-rather than ride with the negro socially outside the electric cars. Otherwise his old master is the negro's best friend. A study
es above their fellows. Their religion is emotional, often without moral standards. Some of them are indolent, improvident and shiftless to a degree that largely
y Co
of their real bondage. Only by making themselves worthy will they be able to exist on kindly terms with the white race. The same slow process of the ages whic