The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-07-22

Correspondence Of the PhhadeiphiA Press.
|. MoBnE, ALA, june 81, 1886.
/ have come down to this ps ef tE6esun.
~ with 4 The inssn.ja 81 -! 3 les Nth a
yen line to tell Of ~ impsspsione3f the
pspple. | have BEEN, tbr So vet!s, ip
daily contao nth Soeflfn - q II pos
Eliacal shades, and, slthoa 4 ana poor alker,
l am good listens ~ DIT q very bad hand
hearing. 4 came to the Gulf States full Of
very fine theories about the necessity Of edu-
eating th1eegrp bef1D ne could extend to
him the privilege q isdftAge. he was igno-
rant; he was bieute0s he w1spFeju0icedy he
could not be trusted with the privileges Of q
voter until he had attained certain standard
of education. Well, sir, was never farther
AWAY from The truth in my life. have list
ened by the hour to the familiar, social, nm
restrained talk of Southern people; and /
have been sorry to conclude, from all that l
have heard, that the damnable heresy Of the
States,right doctrine, upon, which, with I'M.
agined evils threatened to the institution OF
slavery, they based their acts of secession
and rebellion, Is as deeply rooted IN their con-
victions as 1t ever was. They have failed to
establish the success of their principles at the
bayonet's point and the cannon's mouth, but
the great mass as ever, and true loyalty To the
Government, as constituting principle with
the mass Of the people at the North, is en-
tirely foreign to the breasts o the masses in
the South. The same hostility that was openly
displayed in arms. exists secretly in the
breasts of the Southern people, and is ready
at any time to exert itself, no longer in overt
acts, bnt in every possible pacific way to thwart
the unity and the progress Of the Republic.
On the other hand, the negro has but one
principle and d1A affection. His principle
is devotion to the Union; his affection heart
whole for the cause that has restored him "a
| manhood. No doubts of the justice of the
| cause cross his mind. No clouds Of casnists'
raising to obscure his vinon. His instincts
alone point out to him the path he is to tread
| as a free man, and point it out uneringly.
| Who SO safe to trust with the ballot of freed
man as he? Can deniagogues lead him astray
with arts and sophistries? / trow not he
may not know SO mneh Of book-learning a
| his paler- skinned brother, but heis less likely
| to be deceived in what pertains to the ad
vancement Of all members of the human fam.
| lily, himself included. And if YOU could see
As have seen, the colored people of these
Southern cities, sitting at their doorsteps, IL
the moonlight, on hot evenings, teaching each
other to spell and to count, regardless of the
comments of those who passed by, you would
/ not be slow in coming to the belief that even
I the supposed amount of education necessary
to enable them to vote intelligently will no
be long wanting. !, for one, contrary to al
my previous expectations, am fully convinced
that the only safety for the South is in the ex
tension of free suffrage to the people of al
colors, and mean to throw myself into The
advocacy of this cause with all my energy
For better is the instinct that teaches loyalty
to the Union, than the false education tina
makes States-rights traitors. Shall we trns
the future of our country to the instinct tina
inevitably leads to the right, or to the educa
ted sophistry that inculcates what is false ant
| ruinous?
We are by no means ready for a reconstruc
| ton under the domination of defeated but un
convinced traitors. We have had terrible
war, let us not cast away its fruits. Let u,
have military government in the Southern
| States until the sentiment OF true loyalty be-
gins to be felt; or, if we must have civil gov
ernments reconstructed, let those who have
every cause to love the Union not be put aside,
while its interests are confided to the handl
of those who have been its open enemies.