, 1865-07-25
(FrOm tie Spectator, July ~
PRIVILEGE IN AMERICA.

ropean monarchy except the BRUSH, and
has overcome a rebellion before which
even Great Britain might possibly have
succumbed. 1t has secured by four years
Of desperate effort, during which it has
had to discover the men who can orga-
nize force as we'll as to develope The
force itself, the control Of a continent and
the emancipation OF a race, and now it
has to accomplish a feat greater even
than these. Our American friends will
listen with annoyed incrcduIity when we
describe the task yet remaining to be
performed, but it is none the less one
which will test their trusted system far
more than the struggle which they have
won. That was a question OF force, and
even Tories like Sir Archibald Alison
have long since conceded that a demoCra-
CIV when it possesses force at all, possess
es it in a nearly irresistible degree. Moth
ing can withstand millions Of free-men,
when all are willing TO sacrifice all rather
than the Republic should suffer a decline.
But democracy has now to develope a
quality indefinitely higher than force, a
quality which democracies are apt to des-
pise, which the American democracy
avowedIy does despise-the delicate and
subtle craftsmanship which carry through
o social revolution without destroying
the bonds by which society exists. The
Federal Government, victorious IN war
and not successful in di diplomacy, able to
place a million of men In the field and TO
keep six hundred armed vessels engaged
in a blockade-that, the strangest fact
of the war, has almost escaped attention.
has now, when resistance has apparently
ceased, to change eleven olIgarchical
States into eleven democratic and free
republics, and every mail which arrives
DISPLAYS more clearly the difficulty of the
task. In eleven States, all faithful or
submissive to the Union, Virginia, Ken
lucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, there is
a silent struggle going on, nomlnally as
TO the position of the negro, really as to
the question, old as civilization, whether
the basis Of society is to be equality or
privilege. Equality oflegal rights is the
strength of the North, yet it is unwilling
to establish it in the South by force
privilege is the passion of the South, and
though defeated in the great struggle for
lLS ULldl IGCO%uIGlOu do IN Az 0NOAS "
society, it cannot bear to surrender the
long-enjoyed possession. Privilege there
fore in some shape the "South"-by
which we in this instance mean all re-
Gently slaveholdlng States-is determined
to retain. In Virginia the masters, with
the fine instinct of capital for its immedi-
ate interests, have combined to fix the
rate of wages for coIoured men at five
dollars a month, just one-third the hiring
price of slaves, and about one-fourth the
rate which the coloured men, if free to
work or be idle, would be willing to &C
cept. In Tennessee, which has regained
its restricted independence, the Legisla-
ture has deprived the blacks of the spe-
cial right of freemen, that of bearing wit
ness, and has imposed a special penalty
on rape if committed by the inferior CO.
lour. In Louisiana the white is privi-
legged to do nothing, while the black, even
if he prefers to %starve, must work under
somebody's orders in North aCarolina