The News And Herald

The recent comments of the Northern press upon the probable future of the South are indeed gratifying, when we remember that the same journals now loudest in her praise, once united in heaping slander and calumny upon a conquered and unfortunate people. But we shall forget the past, burdened as it is with libellous hate engendered by a bloody war, and revel in the sunshine of a bright and ever brightening future. We have fought and hated long enough, the country, North and South, realizes it, and thank God the fires of prejudice in the hearts of both are fast dying out, and nothing is left save a few smouldering embers, from which flashes an occasional spark to remind us of a terrible and tragic past. Living for the present and preparing for the future involves no treason to the past. By it we have everything to gain and nothing to lose—by it our wasted fields will be cultivated, our towns and cities rebuilt, our coffers replenished and our children educated. It will swell the sails of a destroyed commerce, and the busy song of the spindle will be heard upon the laughing streams that flow onward to the sea.

But idle talk and vain boastings cannot work out the problem of the future. The grand expectation of the new South can only be achieved by the young, active men of the present generation, they are the men to whom must be entrusted the guardianship of the present as well as of the future. We say the 'young men' because they have grown up under new conditions, and consequently have become imbued with new ideas, new aspirations and new impulses. It is their characteristic energy and progressive views that the South to-day stands in need of. Talk about conservatism, but for our part we believe we are cursed with too much conservatism. Tenacious adherence to old ideas merely because our fathers before us entertained them, is unfriendly to the progressive spirit of the age.

We cannot more forcibly illustrate this truth than by relating a conversation alleged to have been had not many years ago. In the course of an evening's walk, one exclaimed with all the ardor of his soul: 'Oh! what a beautiful moonlight night!' 'Yes,' responded his companion. 'it is right pretty; but, my friend, you ought to have seen how that moon did shine 'before the war.'' Men who loiter in the graveyards of the past are not the proper ones to grapple with the questions of the day. Girding on the loins aright, and blessed as we are with a climate unsurpassed in any portion of the globe, a soil at once fruitful and mild, water-power in rivers unequalled and unsurpassed, there seems to be no limit to the horizon of our possibilities.

The editorial correspondent of the New York Independent says: 'The future of the Southern States is no longer an unsolved problem. New life is swelling her veins, old customs and prejudices are dying, and very strong influences are at work, which at no distant day will bring her to the front ranks of the producing and manufacturing States of the Union * * * The stranger who now visits the borders and interior localities of the South can scarcely realize that the change that has taken place during the last few years—a change not only socially but politically. * * The people are awakening and the old South with its hatred of the North is giving place to the new. Let the doubter see for himself and heed not the vain mouthings of politicians. Give the people of the South a fair chance and treat them like brothers. and they are ready to meet you half way.'

We entertain a hope that the candid statements of the correspondent from which we have quoted, will have the intended effect upon the large mass of intelligent readers at the North. If so it may contribute in a large measure towards correcting the erroneous views entertained of the South and her people.