The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-04-12
Negro Equality.

Negro Equality.
We make the following extracts
from an eloquent speech delivered by
Hon. John L. Dawson, Of Pennsyl-
vania:
We have to remember that negro
equality does not exist in nature.
The African is without history.
He has never shown himself capable
of self-government by the creation of
q single Independent State possessing
the attributes which challenge the
respect of others. The past is silent
OF any negro people who possessed
military and civil organization, who
cultivated the arts at home, or con-
Quoted regular commerce with their
neighbors. No African general has
marched South of the desert, from
the waters Of the Nile to the Niger
and Senegal, to unite by conquest
the scattered territories of barbarous
tribes into one great and homogene-
Gus kingdom. No Moses, Solon.
Lycurgus Or Alfred, has left them a
code of wise and salutary laws.
They have had no builder Of cities:
they have no representatives in the
arts, IN science, or in literature; they
have been without even monument.
an alphabet, or hieroglyphic.
A strict regard for justice, abate-
ment OF extreme pretensions; stea-
dy effort to show the South that the
war was not waged out of hatred to
her people, but only for the pre-
servatlon of the national territory
unfractured; a careful regard for her
interests in common with those of the
other States; these, I believe, are the
only means which will ever succeed
IN obliterating the silent but cor
rod1ng memories of errors, wrongs
and sufferings; of effacing the deep
scars of civil hloodshed, and warming
the estranged hearts of our country
men towards common Government
once more. 1t is plain violation to
force upon the South any modifica-
ton of her social condition, any DO
lltlcal status not sanctioned by her
people through their law-makine as
sembles.
The people of the South, when
they have once given in their adhe-
sion to the Government, are as much
freemen, as much entitled to protec-
ton in the rights of self-government.
as any portion of the North.
The Democracy stand by the Pre-
sldent in his effort to complete the
work of restoration" and coneratu-
late the country that there is a firm.
strong hand upon the helm, and a
clear eye which looks out upon the
darkness, and which no order of any
caucus can turn from the polar star
that guides his course.
ln restoring to order the scattered
parts of Il Government and people
returning to peace after q terrible
civil war, the principles of Justice must
be preserved With just sense of
right, and with comprehensive view.
we must not only forget the past, but
we must, by an equal distribution of
the benefits as well as the burdens of
Government, make it the interest of
all sections to uphold and defend it.
Such interest is the great regulating
principle, the true bond of Union,
the cohesive power that holds Go
vernments together, and makes O
nation truly great and prosperous.
For time the Southern States NAV
be denied the privileges of are-union
and OF representation ON this floor;
the writ of Aabeas corpus may be sus-
pended; arbitrary arrests may be re-
newed; military commissions con-
tlnued; and the cry of an unbridled
fanaticism heard over the voice of
struggling justice; but so certainly
as the waters find their level, or the
magnet points to the pole, will that
spirit of liberty and independence
which the Almighty blew into our
nost~'ls with the breath of life, con-
du, our principles to final triumph.