, 1865-07-25

III ARKANSAS dUu SOIllC OtI1EI 6GdlCS LI1C
free locOmotion of blacks is forbidden,
and in all political power is confined not
TO property, or education, or even ancient
birth: but to men whose skins are devoid
of a shade Of the detoSted colour. Many
of these rules are iii themselves, as tenn
porary rules, defensibIe, and probably all
deserve less opprobrium than treemen
will be disposed to believe. We are not
prepared to contend for a negro suffrage
except upon the simple ground Of ncces-
sily-though that ground IS uHasSallable
% TO condemn any community for pas
sing severe vagrant laws. The masters
in the Staffordshire iron trade tried the
other day to insist on a rate OF wages, and
the difficulty about the schools has shaken
Belgium and Ireland. Even as to the
law about evidence there is something to
be said in palliatioo. Apart altogether
from morals, all races are not truthful
alike, and only one can as yet report facts
without either wiIful distortion, or prelu-
dice, or an unconscious colour. An En-
gIish gentleman, or an English workman
of strong religious feelings, can when he
tries very hard report facts exactly as
they occurred, and he is, so far as we
know, the only human being who can.
Had the negro's evidence been admitted
only Quantum valcat, aud the white entl-
tied for twenty years to a majority OF the
Jury, Justice might not have suffered,
though equality would. But all these
laws, and general orders, and suggestions
for laws, and practices having the force
Of laws, are based on the same idea,
namely, priviIege-the right Of the white
man to a higher legal position than the
colourcd mau by reason OF his WhltenesS,
and if privilege is to exist Republican
society must cease. It does not matter
much whether the individual planter is
to control the individual negro, or the
aggregate planter community is to rule
the life of aggregate n%egrodom, the Erc-
suit in either case is an oil garchiCaI syS-
tenn, tolerable, itmay be, in itself, though
in our eyes detestable, but, tolerabIe or
intoIerable, inconsistent with society as
it intends, consciously intends, to exist
in North America.
1t is absolutely essential to construct Il
system under which two races differing
widely in civilization, in physical power,
Ill lllOSG lGIQcIClcS WHICH SpItbS VI ldCC5
and those desires which arise from Guilt
walton, shall live together, if not in ami
ty, at least in mutual respect. How is
the necessity to be met? Let the Co
vernment, says the American Radical,
and the English Liberal, and the Anglo
Indian, enforce for series of years equal
and somewhat stern justice, and the end
will be attained, as it is in Ireland be-
tween Catholics and Protestants, in
Russia between serfs and mobiles, in In
dia between natives and settlers. Men
however prejudiced, always submit at
last pretty pIacidIy to justice if backed
by force, and a white cannot hate a qua
droon harder than a Graham of the De-
bateable Land once hated an Eliot or a
Scot. But how if the Government will
not fulfil the condition, cannot be relied
on always to do justice, can never be
trusted to make its justice visible to the
weaker side2 Government in the United
States for all political purposes means
the individual State, and the individual
State is obviously not prepared to be just,
is rather prepared to be unjust as far as
it can and dare. The States left to
themselves will not make the two classes