Franklin Repository

Before the war the Southern people were notoriously arrogant, exacting and aggressive. Continually exercising absolute power over a large class of their fellow beings, they fell into the belief that they were a superior race and as such entitled not only to the unrequited labor of their bondmen, but to an indefinite amount of respectful consideration, and even respectable servility oftentimes, from those with whom they condescended to hold political, commercial or social intercourse. It cannot be denied that the North failed to meet this unreasonable assumption in the proper spirit. Had it done so, it would have been spared much humiliation and ridicule, while the intercourse between the two sections would have been of a more frank and agreeable character. There were those who in order that thrift might follow, crooked the pregnant hinges of the knee over and over again, and belittled their manhood in the operation. These have had their reward. By far the larger portion of our people however, regarded the claim of the South as a harmless infatuation, and rather than disturb the serene complacency its indulgence seemed to confer upon their noble friends, were disposed to submit to whatever inconvenience its exercise might impose on them. This was exceedingly accommodating, but proved to be harassingly inconvenient, for it was accepted not as a simple indulgence on our part, but as an actual concession that their claim was well founded; and they acted accordingly. They claimed the full benefit of their superiority and regarded any restiveness on our part as insubordination. We had helped them on to considerable importance and they had it in their power to work incalculable mischief, so that all they had to do to repress any resistance of ours was to threaten something diabolical, and taking counsel not from our manhood, but our fears, we would immediately subside. They claimed the right to monopolize the government with its offices and privileges, to silence the pulpit and the pres, or control their utterances, and by way of convincing us that their demands were reasonable and moderate, they would occasionally fracture the skull of an eminent Senator, or give us an exhibition of their terrible swagger and bluster and vain glory. If the war had been postponed a few years longer, and the patience and forbearance of the North had continued, they might have established their claim, but the clash of arms resounding through the land awakened the North to its true majesty. The manhood of both sections was submitted to the terrible ordeal of battle, and the world accepts the result as conclusive evidence that their claim was a fiction. We suspect that even they were undeceived.

A new order of things has been established. Henceforth we of the North are to be untrammelled. We are to enjoy an independent press, a fearless pulpit and an unquestioned right to agitate to our heart's content. Genafflection is to be counted a deformity and not a graceful accomplishment. Officious interference is to be rebuked and unmanly servility to be despised.

But there are some venerable institutions in the land that have so long been used to rendering an excess of tribute to our exacting Caesar that they now experience great difficulty in accommodating themselves to the new order of things. They have so long been deprived of certain privileges, that now when they are conceded to be theirs they find it impossible to exercise them. For instance, the Episcopal Church, distinguished above all others for its patience in subjection, cannot now exercise even so much independence as to thank God for the greatest blessing he has vouchsafed to this generation. Before the war we would not have expected from her any utterance that would have indicated hostility to human slavery, for we knew what restraints were upon her then, but we confess to considerable disappointment in the obsequiousness manifested by her convention, lately held in Philadelphia, in rejecting a resolution expressing thankfulness for the overthrow of the giant evil. In doing so that convention rendered all its tribute unto Caesar, and repudiated a solemn obligation it was under to Him whom it professes to serve. We call it obsequiousness, but it was worse, it was a servility that was mean and a disregard of duty that was wicked. If the church does not wish to share in the shame, she must repudiate the action of her representatives.

The extinction of human slavery within the limits of the United States was unquestionably one of the most beneficent results of our civil war. Of itself it would make the period of the struggle illustrious, for there are few events in the history of our race likely to exercise a more potential influence in shaping and controlling the destinies of men. It is a great mistake to weigh its importance and beneficence by its results as they have already manifested themselves, stupendous as they certainly are, for human vision cannot detect the boundaries of its influence. Future generations will witness it in the construction and government of society centuries after the present. Viewed in whatever aspect, whether as a moral, political or social reform, it is grandly prominent in the world's history. Man can claim little or no credit for its accomplishment. It was the work of a Higher Power and was intended as the great end in our recent trials. Yet in all this the Episcopal Convention professed to see nothing for which a Christian people should be thankful, least of all thankful to the great Author.

We like to give every one credit for honesty and sincerity as long as it's possible to resist a different conclusion; but to concede it to this convention would argue a stupidity in one or the other, which neither would like to acknowledge. Who in this broad land, with a conscience, enlightened above heathenism, can fail to see the blessing in the extinction of slavery? The truth is, this convention saw it, but lacked the moral courage to confess it. It quailed in the presence of a dead lion and a disgraceful fear chocked its utterance. Instead of stripping the monster of all its disguises, and holding it up in all its naked deformity, as it should have done, it attempted to plate it with gold and set it up for reverence. The enlightened conscience of the North cries out against such conduct. The new order of things upon which we have entered requires manly and independent action by all. Servility and obsequiousness will no longer pass unrebuked, but will be resented as an insult to our civilization. Let the Episcopal Church learn from an indignant people.

But a few weeks ago the administration and the country were drifting strongly toward the admission of the States lately in rebellion into full fellowship and power as sovereign States of the Union. President Johnson had devised a policy looking to the restoration of the rebel States, which, regarding them as under military rule, was fully warranted by the powers conferred upon the Executive. It was but a preliminary action, in which he gave form and color of regularity by his official aid, to enable them to prove their sincerity in accepting the results of the war, and thus establish their claim to re-admission into their old relations in the Union. That the President was and is sincere in seeking to effect the speedy re-union of all the States there can be no question; but two classes of men have evidently widely missed their mark in presuming upon the position of the President. The time-serving sycophants of the North, who demanded boundless vengeance when the President declared that "treason is the highest crime and must be punished," in their indecent haste to stultify themselves rushed to defend the cause of traitors and demand their admission into Congress, because they believed such to be the policy of the President; and encouraged by the magnanimity of the Executive, traitors themselves became insolent and defiant, and from being supplicants for the generosity of the administration they assumed to define their own terms for recognizing the supremacy of the government. The action of these two classes at last aroused the loyal North and the elections of the great central States proclaimed in thunder tones that there must be no compromise with treason--no halfway submission to the national authority and the results of the war.

The South has grievously abused the generosity of the President. He has shown them only kindness, and has exhausted himself to facilitate their return to government and civil law; but every step he has taken to smooth their pathway has but encouraged them to fall back still more boldly upon their rebel prejudices and purposes. Mississippi defeated the Union candidate for Governor by an overwhelming vote to place an avowed rebel in the Gubernatorial chair, and although the legislature has been in session some two months, they have never even considered the proposed amendment of the constitution abolishing slavery. South Carolina refused to declare the ordinance of secession null and void; has made no provision for conferring even the poorest civil rights upon freedmen, and has elected Senators and Congressmen who are disqualified by the law of Congress, and elected Worth Governor over Holden, Union, solely because he is in favor of paying the rebel debt and opposed to extending the rights of negroes in any degree. The same condition of affairs exists in Florida and Georgia, and the result is that the President, admonished by the loyal men of the North and by the treachery of the people of the South, has officially declared his disapprobation of the work of re-construction by directing the provisional Governors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi to retain their positions, notwithstanding the election of Governors by the people until those States place themselves in a position acceptable to Congress.

Thus stands the unfinished work of reconstruction now, and its immediate practical results are accepted by the President and by the country as unsatisfactory. We do not mean by this that the policy of the President is a total failure; but it is clear that his generosity has not been appreciated, and that he is so disappointed in the supposed fidelity of Southern people, that he does not himself recognize the State governments he has aided to create, and of course will not ask Congress to recognize them by the admission of their members. Thus has treason again overreached itself, and paralyzed its friends in the North just when they were prepared to make a desperate struggle in its support; and when the President declares his want of faith in the new State organizations as he has already done by his acts, there will be a howl of denunciation from the place-hunters and vampyres of the Union party in the North, equaled in intensity only by the fervor with which they defended traitors but a day before.

We notice on all sides within a week past the unmistakable signs of positive, powerful re-action as to the position of the revolted States. The Union press of the State now, with one voice--excepting perhaps a stray mendicant here and there that has not yet realized the progress of events--demands that Congress shall not admit the members from the rebel States until all issues arising from war are satisfactorily and irrevocably adjusted, and we believe now that in this decision President Johnson will cordially concur earnestly as he has desired a different result. He has labored to make the South true to the government--has spared no generosity to lead them to fidelity and success; but they have rewarded his kindness by treachery, and the consequences must be upon their own heads. The Tennessee members may be admitted soon after the organization of Congress, but there the work of re-construction will stop until the South makes a record entirely un-exceptional, and in this we now hope that there may be entire concord and unity of action between Congress and the President--Thanks to treason for its early manifestation of its purpose--it has done well for the Republic!

The loyal press of the country is again agitating the necessity of trying Jefferson Davis, with an earnestness that cannot fail to be felt at Washington. We do not doubt that had the rebel States given evidence of their sincerity in professing submission to the government and the results of the war, the President meant to demand no more atonement for the causeless strife into which treason plunged the Nation, but the startling events of the last few weeks; the sullenness with which the rebels submit to the national authority, and their manifest unwillingness to call faithful men to official positions, have aroused the loyal people of the North, and they demand in unmistakable tones, through their press and their true representatives, that the magnanimity of the government shall not be thus treated with contempt.

We have ever insisted that Mr. Davis should be tried by a competent tribunal, regardless of the condition of affairs in the South. He has been officially charged by the President with conspiring to assassinate the Chief Magistrate of the Nation. As yet that charge stands before the world. It certainly was not made without some reason to believe it could be sustained; and if so, he should be tried as were his co-conspirators and if guilty, share their fate. But there is still another charge no less grave in its character, which is preferred against Mr. Davis by the Nation. It is mournfully uttered in our ears from thousands of bereaved homes whose loved ones were doomed to the most barbarous cruelties and lingering deaths at Andersonville, by direction of the rebel authorities. Mr. Davis was the chief of the rebel usurpation. He had but to command and he was obeyed. Werz was a pliant creature, and his atrocities had been condemned by the civilized world long before the rebellion failed. Mr. Davis either did or did not direct the shocking atrocities of Andersonville. He certainly knew of them, and either did or did not exercise his supreme power to arrest them. If guilty of either charge, he is a monster of inhumanity and should die as the foe of mankind.

For this palpable infraction of the accepted laws of war, or for conspiring to assassinate President Lincoln, he can be tried in but one way--by military commission. A commission of the best men the service can furnish--such as Grant, Meade, Sherman, Thomas, Hancock, &c.--should be selected, and Mr. Davis should be patiently and fairly heard. The civilized world would accept the verdict of such a court as true to justice and to law, and if he should be thus condemned to death, he would die unhonored and unsung. Justice to Mr. Davis and justice to our heroic martyrs in rebel prisons demand such a trial, and we hope that it may yet be ordered and accomplished. It must not be entirely forgotten that "mercy to traitors is cruelty to the country."

We think that the time as come when the facilities for travel to and from Chambersburg should be extended. It now requires a full day to reach Chambersburg from Philadelphia or Baltimore, and to get through from New York or Washington requires a very early start and constant travel by slow trains to make the trip in one day. We get the Washington mail through in one day, but it requires thirty-six hours to get a paper or letter through from New York. In this we have been retrograding instead of advancing, as we did formerly have through mails from New York in one day; but now we have extended it a day and a half. The great through lines from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York have all concentrated their travel now at Harrisburg at 4pm, just in time to spend a night in Harrisburg if the passenger wants to pass through the Cumberland Valley beyond Carlisle, and we are glad to learn that the direction our railroad is now considering the propriety of progressing with the progress of the lines connecting with it. Long since an additional train was put on the road from Carlisle to Harrisburg and return--starting early in the morning so as to connect with the early trains to all the leading cities, and leaving Harrisburg on return after the arrival of the last lines from Philadelphia and New York, thus giving to Carlisle what Chambersburg should have and needs much more than Carlisle. An extension of the extra train to Chambersburg would be of incalculable advantage to our business men now. Recently a fast through line has been put on the Northern Central, which lands passengers in Harrisburg at 4 pm, leaving Washington at about [illeg] and Baltimore at noon; and the through line leaving Philadelphia at about 12, and the through line leaving New York at about 9, all arrive at Harrisburg about the same time--all in season for the extra train to Carlisle, but too late for Chambersburg passengers. If this extra train was extended to this point our people could leave Baltimore or Philadelphia at noon and reach home by 7 in the evening; they could leave Washington at 8 1/2 and be home the same day; or they could leave New York in the morning and reach Chambersburg the same day either by Easton and Reading or by Philadelphia. They could also leave home at five or thereabouts in the morning, and be in Baltimore or Philadelphia at noon, or New York and Washington by the middle of the afternoon, whereas it now requires a full day of tedious travel to reach any of these points from Chambersburg, and part of the night to reach New York or Washington. The great evil is that with the present connections of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, its passengers can make no fast trains, and in returning they must take slow trains also or lose time waiting at Harrisburg. We submit to the direction of the company that these things should be corrected when it can be done by the simple process of extending to Chambersburg a train already given to Carlisle.

We understand well that while it is the duty of Railroad companies to accommodate the public in the best way possible, they must not be expected to do it at their own expense. The Cumberland Valley Company will not, and should not, run any trains which will not pay them, but we take it for granted that the Carlisle train pays or it would long since have been abandoned; and if so, with the recent concentration of all the great lines at Harrisburg, leaving eastward at about 8am and arriving westward about 4pm, the additional train would pay well if extended to Chambersburg. At least the experiment should be made to relieve our people of the network of slow lines on which they are thrown in every direction.