Northern civilization.
The New York
Herald contains a letter from one of its numerous correspondents in
McClellan's army, in which we are informed that it is the opinion of his officers that the
South requires to be civilized, and they think that Northern colonization in the
South would be an admirable process for effecting that end.
We think it likely that the
Herald's correspondent tells the truth about this matter, as there seems to be no motive for a lie, and, indeed, that such is the general sentiment of the
Northern people.
There are different opinions, however, about that thing called civilization.
John Mitchell, in his address, some years ago, to the
Literary Societies of the
University, expressed his especial disgust with the word ‘"Civilization,"’ which, he said, was a word ‘"vague in meaning, barbarous in form, a hybrid word, a word with a Latin head and a Greek tail, and like hundreds of other new fangled words, on that principle, dubious and confused in its acceptation.
If you ask the first ten men you meet in a railroad car what is civilization, nine will tell you that it is steam, electricity, a
printing press, perhaps the tenth that it is commerce, whereas it is simple justice."’
The Northern idea of civilization is essentially that described by
Mr. Mitchell.
It is machinery, and has no reference whatever to humanity.
It is manufactures, commerce, and materialism in every shape and form.
It does not mean the development of those social virtues which enable society adequately to discharge its main functions, of preventing wrong-doing and ensuring justice, first between man and man, and then between nation and nation.
If
Mr. Mitchell has come anywhere near the mark in declaring that civilization means justice — justice between man and man, and nation and nation — what a fine set of fellows these Yankees are to be holding themselves up as models of civilization, and looking down upon the Southron as barbarians!
But, then, on the other hand, if civilization consists in gas, electricity, steam, and commerce, no one can deny that they are the most civilized of American people.
If we look abroad upon the face of the
Yankee country, what do we see?
A widespread territory, in which the cultivation of the soil and rural avocations are held in little respect, and city life is the great attraction of the people.
The cities are the great hives of all the energy, skill, talent, and rascality of the country.
Commerce and manufactures are the only employments by which they desire to live.
The rural districts, stripped of every element of strength and influence, look to the cities for instruction in everything, and are humble copyists of their fashions and their vices.
These last are more easily transplanted, and have taken root widely.
The records of crime in the country portions of the
North show that they are not much behind the cities in every species of iniquity.
If being civilized means reading, writing, somewhat indifferent spelling, and a knowledge of the first four rules of arithmetic, then the majority of the
Northern rural population deserve to be so considered, though the manner in which they talk through their noses and murder the
King's English, do not establish any very strong claims to precedence on that score.
If being civilized, means to be ‘"cute,"’ ‘"smart,"’ and to cheat your neighbor in a trade, they were undoubtedly the most civilized people on the face of the earth.
If being civilized means that all the houses must be painted white and all the shutters green, with a cake of gingerbread and two apples in the front window, and a couple of codfish hanging on the clothes line, then no one can deny the claims of the
Yankee rural districts to civilization, such as it is. Nor is the life of the cities any better entitled to that ‘"vague and meaningless"’ appellation.
Thomas Jefferson was right when he pronounced great cities sores upon the body politic.
New York, the
Empire City, may be taken as a mir specimen of them all. There is in that city a vast amount of gas, electricity, steam,
printing presses, and commerce; but there are, also, a hundred thousand paupers, who are supported by public charity, eighty thousand prostitutes, and a hundred thousand criminals, who are certainly engaged in making war upon life and property.
Nearly one-third of the whole population of this boasted centre of Northern civilization is confessedly gangrened and rotten!
The civilization of such a city cannot be found outside its
gas fixtures and steam boilers.
Nothing can be more civilized than its machinery; nothing more barbarous than its humanity.
Looking at its outside, one is dazzled by its whiteness; but within there is the smell and corruption of the charnel house.
It has splendid houses, whose proprietors never dine at home, but leave their wives and children to make their dinner off a cup of tea and a cold round.
It is full of gorgeous churches, where the minister has a grand levee on the first day of the week, in which he endeavors to entertain his visitors to the best of his ability, whilst the sexton is so particular as to the appearance of the guests who are admitted that, if
St. Paul and
St. Peter were to make their appearance at the door in the same apparel in which they evangelized the world, he would take them out by the coat collar and hand them over for safe-keeping to the nearest policeman.
They have
Beechers and Tyngs, who surpass all other preachers in their pretensions to superior zeal and godliness, and urge robbers and murderers to overrun and desolate the
South, holding out to them the pardon of their sins and the hope of Heaven as the reward of their crimes.
They have Christian Associations, made up of very nice people — i. e., according to
Dean Swift, ‘"people of very nasty ideas"’--young men who, up to the period of the present war, were so handsomely dressed that they looked the very pinks of ‘"civilization,"’ and smiled so meekly that they might have passed for pocket editions of the
Apostle St. John.
They looked, these fine fellows, as if butter would scarcely melt in their mouths, and that nothing would give them greater pleasure than to be eaten up by lions or martyred into steaks for the good of manking.
They were so particular in their morals that they considered it a sin to laugh audibly, and so compassionate to human suffering that they regarded the capital punishment of a criminal as little better than the crime for which he suffered.
They had immense union prayer- meetings, not two years ago, at which they gave the most astounding evidences not only of civilization, but of such supernatural religious graces, as made a good many people believe that the millenium was at hand.
And now, what has become of all this?
Why, these very associations and prayer-meetings, which might have made us believe that New York was far ahead of the
Celestial City itself in godliness and purity, became, with the first blast of
Lincoln's war trumpet, transformed into ravenous wolves, not a vestige of the sheep or lamb left; not one evangelical fleece, not a single pious bleat; but the whole pack howling together in a furious concert for Southern blood.
When the
Yankee officers call all this civilization, and propose to spread it among us outside barbarians by the process of colonization, they must not be surprised if we resist them to the death.
We may not have much gas, electricity, steam, commerce, but neither have we armies of paupers, strumpets, robbers, and murderers.
Our churches may be plain and simple, but the pure doctrines of Christianity are preached therein.
Our
Christian Associa- tions may not wear as solemn and sanctimonious an aspect as their own, but they are made up of gentlemen and Christians, who are incapable of putting off their religious profession with as much facility as if it were an old coat.
We may not have costly houses, but we have kind and hospitable people in them, enough to cut and drink, and the staples from which the whole wealth of the
North has been drawn.
We may be poor, but we hold in high esteem those virtues of truth, honor, chastity, and honesty, which have something to do with genuine civilization.
If the
Yankees value their peculiar civilization, let them keep it to themselves.
We do not need it, do not want it, and will have none of it.
