Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-07-15
THE REBELS AND THE NEGRO.

1t is evident that the Government must
keep the s~trictest watch over the actions
of the defeated rebels of the South, and
wisely proceed in its every important
movement. The'feeling of the ~disappoint-
ed rebels, it cannot be denied, is against
the Government. They feel chafed and
sore over the defeat of their plans to over
throw it and establish u slave oligarchy,
under which they could revel in lust and
tyranny. 1t is natural to expect, there
fore, that they will place every obstacle in
the way Of the just workings of the United
States laws. The feeling existing against
the liberated slaves seems equally as
strong as that against the government
which liberated them. They cannot
brook the thought that their former bond
men should have accorded to them liberty
Of speech, or action, or any of the privll-
eyes Of u freeman. They, therefore, Will
make no scruple in adopting any and every
means to secure the political power which
will enable them to trample the negro's
claims to the rights of a freeman beneath
their feet. The eastern news received this
morning says of the municipal election of
the city of Norfolk, Virginia, on the It'll
of last month, that a large number of re-
turned soldiers from the rebel army took
every oath required of them to entitle
them to the elective franchise. This is
the way it has been all through the South
nee the surrender of Lee. The ballot
box must be more strictly guarded than
to allow rebels fresh from the field of bat
tie, their hands still red with the blood Of
Union men, to cast the ballot which is to
elect officers to direct the political move
ments of the South. By such means the
old political demagogues of the South will
crawl back into their old places Of power ;
and the "poor whites" the genuine Union
men, and loyal negroes, will be snubbed
and spit upon as CONTEMPORARY as when
under Confederate rule. To those three
classes the Government must, for its own
preservation, secure the full protection
and free exercise of their rights. Our mil
itary commanders, wherever they have
power, should be instructed to see that no
loyal men are made subjects of oppres-
sion. and especially should there never be
grounds for such charges as come from
the Tri6,me's Richmond correspondent,
under date Of the 10th of June, that
"The military authorities under command
of Generals Halleck, Patrick and Ord, in
connection with the rebel Mayor, Mayo,
inaugurated a system of oppression and
outrage upon colored people in Richmond
which created intense excitement" The
free colored people of the South may be
an eye-sore to the rebels, but they are not,
at this stage of the game, fit subjects for
oppression. The Albany Journal says of
the negro, and says truly, that: "Just
now, the chief business of the Government
is to put him on his feet and learn him to
walk alone; and while it is doing this it
must protect him /: protect him against his
own misconceptions of the import of free
dom-against the insolence Of his old
master-against the brutal rage Of the
poor whites who hate him because he
is their competitor in the arena of labor
against the mistaken zeal of those who
would lift him out Of his proper sphere,
feed him on transcendentalism and make
q politician Of him." To provide for and
protect him, as well as to protect itself,
the Government must keep the ballot from
the hands of the rebels, who hate it be-
cause it made the slave free, and who re-
gard almost with satanic hatred the slave
because he is loyal and free. Otherwise
there will be a reign of terror in the South,
and the rebels, instead of being the observ-
ers of the law, will be the perverters of it;
and the negro, instead of being free, will
be in q worse condition than when q slave.