True, but the
enmity of this class, wherever it exists, is that of the most sordid,
unprincipled self-interest. Gold is their god, and all things else are
sacrificed to the unhallowed lust. But this enmity is oftentimes assumed
from motives of self-preservation. Objects of suspicion to the
Simon-Pure Southerner from the very fact of their nativity, and visited
with the most horrible retribution wherever they have shown a leaning
toward the land of their birth, they find it necessary to out-herod
Herod in order to preserve their social status and the possessions which
are their earthly all. Hence, to disarm suspicion, often those have been
made to take the more prominent positions in this tragic drama who, did
circumstances permit the expression of their true sentiments, would be
found to be at heart the most truly loyal citizens of the South. Another
class--and this includes more particularly the descendants of Northern
emigrants--born and bred among the moral influences of Southern society,
imbibing all the ideas and prejudices of their surroundings, lose their
identity as effectually as the raindrop is lost in the surging billows
of the ocean. Drinking in with their years the prevailing hatred of the
very stock from which their own descent is derived, they become part and
parcel of the people among whom their lot is cast, and ordinarily run to
the farthest extreme of the new nationality.
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