The Portland daily press., 1863-10-08
The Bugbear of Negro Equality.

Inc dlSlOyal press OF the North is constant
ly asserting that the design of the Union par
ty is to abolish slavery and to establish negro
quality in the land; that is, to raise the negro
to an equality with the white race Without
stopping to notice the spirit in which this OBJ
lection is urged, or TO define what are or what
are not the purposes of the Union party OF
the country, we wish simply to expose the
base deception attempted under the name OF
his bugbear of negro equality. An attempt
IS made to beget in the minds of ignorant
people the idea, that Uuion men would SUBJ
,ert all our established institutions and Gus
soms, and supplant them by state of things
alike shocking to good taste and degrading to
humanity.
Negro equality! What is it? No equality
IF the negro with the white can be effected by
a,c except political equality. Moral equality
IS not the result of legal enactments, nor does
depend upon popular opinion. Social equal
ty is the result Of conventional customs and
lsages, and has no direct or necessary con-
lection with legal statutes. Legal or political
equality only can be either established or con-
trolled by law, and it is this kind of equality
20 which disloyal politicians take exceptions
when they indulge in filings about negro equal
ity, and charge the Union party with favoring
such equality.
And now what idea does the reader form of
the political equality of the negro with the
white man? What fundamental changes of
law does he suppose necessary in order TO es-
tablish such equality in New England? Is he
aware that now, at the present time, in this
State as well as in the rest of the New Eng
land States, and many other States of the I'm
ion, the negro is the political equal of the
white, in all respects Such is the fact. In
this State-which is not alone in this regard
the negro has the same legal rights as the
most exalted white man. He is subject to
precisely the same laws, is taxed the same, has
equal right to hold property, his children
have equal rights in our schools, he finds ev-
cry avocation and profession legally open to
hin, he votes the same as the white citizen,
md what is more, there is no office in the gift
Of the State from which the negro is legally
barred. Give him the requisite number of
votes and he has the same right to seat in
the House or Senate, or to the Executive
Chair, as any other man. And this is negro
equality, the whole of it; alreadyexisting in
this State. The Constitution places no mark
upon the colored man that excludes him from
reaching the highest point attainabe by the
white man. If he fails to reach the same ell
ovation it is not the ldp that holds him back.
Social customs may impede his progress, as
they do, alas, how cruelty! too many of the
worlds poor but honest white men; but this
is not the fault of the law.
In view of the facts here stated we ask the
reader to remember, that when Copperheads
indulge in base filings and taunts about negro
equality, they are finging at the existing in
situations of our own State; they are virtually
denouncing the time-honored statutes and free
institutions of New England, and betray a
spirit that would wrest from the colored citi-
zen of Maine the rights he already has, and
reduce him to the condition Of an alien or q
serf. These are the men who boast of their
democracy, and yet would disfranchse the
poor, and model the institutions of Maine af-
ter those of South Corolina.