Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-03-20
I.s aevo,es particular attention. H

By the census OF 1860, itappears that South |
Carolina had but 29l, 300 white inhabitants, |
and 4l2, 408 colored. Among the former we |
have NO reason to know or believe that, since |
the death of Pettigrew, there is single loyal |
man; while the latter, we have no reason to |
doubt are all as loyal as Robert Small, the !
patriot pilot Of Charleston harbur. Are we
to declare that one white citizen OF South
Carolina is entitled to more weight in the
councils of the nation than two citizens OF II
northern State; and are the Z9l,3OO to be
vested with the absolute government OF 7OS,-
7OS? Is the entire loyalty Of that State to
be confided to the tender mercies OF the cha
prined and Inundated, but unconVerted and
deyilish traitors of the State that engendered
and inaugurated this bloody rebellion? And
shall they who have fought for our flag, shell
tered our soldiers when flying from loath-
some prisons, guided them through hidden
paths by night, saving them from starvation
by sharing with them their poor and scanty
food, and whose unceasing prayer to God has
been for our triumph, be handed over to the
lash, the iron collar, and the teeth OF the
bloodhound, to crafty our pride of race and
propitiate our malignant foes?
Arguing upon the necessity of such
protection as negro suffrage would ensure
to the loyal men of the South, he says:
But We owe provision Of this kind to an.
other class of citizens than that of which
have been speaking. There are other loyal
men than these in the South. Andrew john
son, Horace Maynard, William II. Wisener,
ST., John w. Bowen, w. G. Brownlow,
though not alone in their loyalty, represent
out minority of the white people Of Ten
nessee; and Thomas ]. Durant, and Benja-
min F. Flanders, and Rufus NAPLES, and
Alfred JerviS have had thousands of adhe-
rents and coworkers among the whites OF
Louisiana; but they, too, are but minority
of the white people Of that State. And as
our armies 60 on conquering, we may learn
that even on some hillside in South Carolina
there have been men whose loyalty to the
Union has never yielded. How shall these
protect themselves in the reconstructed State:
What mil!ennial influence will induce the
envenomed spirit OF the majority of the peo-
pie BY whom they will be surrounded to treat
them with loving kindness or human justice:
Who will go with them TO the polls IN their
respective districts? Where will they lind an
unprejudiced judge and an impartial jury to
vindicate their innocence when falsely ac-
cused or maintain their right to character
and property? We must remember that it
is the power and not the spirit OF the rebel,
| lion we are conquering. Time alone shall
conquer this. The grave, long years hence,
! will close over those who to the last day OF
| their life would, were it in their power, over
throw the Government or revenge their sup
posed wrongs upon those who aided IN suS-
tanning it. The truly loyal white men OF the
| insurrectionary districts need the sympathy
and political support OF all the loyal people
among whom they dwell, and unless we give
| =. - tbop, ,ya rlana them ahlactlV Mt the
| feet of those who are now in arms against us
as we do the negro whom their oppreSsors so
! despise. cannot conceive how the Ameri-
can Congress could write page of history
| that would so disgrace it in the eyes OF all
posterity as by consenting to close this war
| BY surrendering to the unbridled lust and
power of the conquered traitors of the South,
those who, through blood, terror, and an
guish, have been our friends, true to our
| principles and our welfare. To purchase
peace by such heartless meanness and so 81
gantic a barter OF principle would be unpar-
alteled in baseness in the history Of mankind.
He fortifies his position by the follow
ing extracts from the writings of Thomas
jefferson, whom modern Democrats de-
light to quote as "the Father of Democ-
racy:"
| "The true foundation of republican gov
eminent isthe equal right of every citizen
in his person and property, and in their man
| agement. Try by this as tally every pro-
| vision Of our constitution, aud she If it hangs
directly on the will of the people. Reduce
! your Legislature to convenient number for
| full but orderly discussion. Let every man
who fights or pays exercise his justand equal
rights in their electiOn.-JefersOn's Works,
col I, page IL.
And again, in letter written April 10,
! 1924, he said:
However nature may, by mental or physi-
cal disqualifcations, have marked infants
and the weaker sex for the protection rather
| than the direction of government, yet among
men who either pay or fight for their coun-
try, no line of right can be drawn.-IForks,
col. I, p. 345.
And again. as if to show how well con-
sidered his opinion was, in the Notes on
Virginia, speaking of the then eonstitu-
tiun of that State, he said:
This constitution was formed when we were
new and inexperienced i'll the science Of gov
eminent. 1t was the first, too, that was
formed in the whole United States No won
|
very capital defects in it,
/. The majority of the men in the State
who pay and fight for its support, are unrep
resented in the Legislature, the roll of free
holders entitled to vote, not including gem
orally, the half of the militia or of the tax
gatherers. -IVorks, uoL. s, p. 359.
As to the Fitness of the negro for
citizenship, Judge Kelley says:
Still comes the question, are these more
than two-fifths Of the people of the insurrec-
tionary district fit for citizenship? Let me
| reply by question or two. Is the question
| of fitness put to the foreigner by the judge
who administers the oath, the taking OF which
| invests him with all the power OF native
born citizen, and all its promises save one,
that of the Presidency Is the white native
Of our soil who, at the close Of reckless
youth, the victim, perhaps, Of early poverty
and the degradation of parents, is unable TO
read his native tongue, when first he comes
to the polls to deposit his ballot, Intercepted
| as TO his fitness Is it only to the wise, the
learned, the powerful, that we accord the
right of suffrages Are there not within the
knowledge of each one of US scores of the
children Of this prescribed race, who, in the
conduct of their daily affairs, in the acquisi-
ton of property, in the tenderness and good
| Judgment with which they rear their families,
in the generosity with which they contribute
to their church, and the fidelity with which
they obey her high behesrs, prove themselves
infinitely better fitted for citizenship than the
derizens of the swamp, Mackerelville, aud
other such reeking localities, who swelled the
majority in the city of New York, at the last
| election to thirty-seven thousand: And
shall no culture, no patriotism, no wisdom,
no tax-paying power, secure to the native
born American that which at the end of five
years we, with so much advantage to our
country, fling as a boon to every foreigner
who may escape from the poverty aud oP,,
preston and wrong of the Old Worl id, to find
a happier home and more promising future
| in this ? The question is not whether each
ran is fitted for the most judicious perform
ance of the functions of citizenship, but