The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-08-18


is to meet in August, composed of men who
fought four years to break up the Union, re-
mains to be seen. If the newspapers which
are regarded as organs" can be relied upon
as authority, he is sternly opposed to the adj
mission of any man into the August Conven-
ton who cannot take the test-oath. An en-
phatic declaration against the admission OF
'.rebels" has been made through the New
York Times and the National Republican OF
this city, while similar intimation has APP
peared recently in the Intelligencer. But this
test-oath is not the only unpalatahle food
which the new friends of the President will
have to swallow We are assured by the Ma
tional Republican that the President is still
the friend of negro suffrage as be was when
he sent the telegram to Governor Sharkey,
and when he put his name TO the reported
conversation with Maj. Stearns of Boston,
The Republican of the gath ultimo, arraigned
Congress before the country for failing to
grant negro suffrage in the District Of Col
umbia to all who can read and write, to all
who own property. and to all who have borne
arms in the service of the United States,
against the rebellion. 1t charged thatit was
the object of Congress by this omission, to
place the President in false position before
the country-his anxious desire being to give
suffrage to the colored race, which the naughty
Congress would not permit. leave you and
your readers to say whether the delegates to
the August Convention will acquiesce in this
policy of the President as cordially as do.
1 know not what policy may be laid down
by the Philadelphia September Convention.
1 signed the call for it from conviction that
the loyal men of the South are entitled to be
heard, and that they cannot be heard in the
August Convention. if the representatives of
the lately rebellious population are to be adj
mitted. This is an undecided question:
The authorities differ The Republican adj
herents of the Presidents policy, as have
stated, say the Confederates" shall not be
admitted. But this class of republicans is
small and feeble in number and influence in
the Northern States; while the great Cop
perhead" party insists that the Southern rep
resentatives shall be admitted, without regard
to tests of loyalty. | have made up nv
mind that political association with North
ern " Copperheads" and Southern . Confed-
crates" will not be congenial to my tastes :;
1 should be q fish out of water; and l. there
fore, choose to be represented in the Septem-
Der Convention, by those who never ceased
to love the Union. You will indulge ME in
this preference am sure.
There will doubtless be men in the Sep
TENDER Convention, whose passions have been
dashed into fury by the prosecutions to which
they were subjected during the civil war;
! They may call upon the government to pun
ish with confiscation and death the leading
and prominent men of the South, who were
engaged in the rebellion. Others will insist
upon excluding from political franchises and
privileges all, who actively and voluntarily
participated in the design to destroy the
| Union. But tor myself 1 have no such san
culinary and harsh measures to propose. 1
| disapproved them when they we're more in
vogue than they are now, and when they
were favored by some of those who are now
clamorous for the immediate and uncondi-
tional admission of the Southern representa-
tives. l shall insist, on the contrary, upon
the adoption of the constitutional amend
ment, and upon the wisdom and duty of uni
versal acknowledgements, through State &C
ton, rs the true solution of the problem of
restoration. In my view, the permanent eX-
clusion of the great body of the white PEG
pie of the South from the right to vote and
hold office, if practicable at all, could only
be secured by the presence of large stand
ing army; while the effect would he to per-
petuate the passions and hatreds of the
hour, for generations. l hold also. that to
exclude the liberated negroes from all the
rights of selfgovernment will be to make
them aliens and enemies, and to doom them
to fate like that of the Jews in the Middle
Ages, or the Pariahs of India. This no hu-
man power has right to do. A system so
incompatible with our free institutions, and
with the spirit and tendency of the age can
four millions of men. 1t would partake of
the injustice of slavery itself, and would, at
no distant day. be attended by consequences
it may be, as direful
have never yet heard reason why ne
groes should BE excluded from the right of
suffrage, which is not equally applicable to
white men. I have heard passionate denun-
citation, and angry oaths, but not one reason.
The same is true in regard to negro testimo-
he font llS of
the good people of North Carolina believed
or thought they believed, that the admission
of negroes to the right of testifying against
white men would be the beginning of the
end of all order and stability in the govern
ment The pillars of State were to tumble
down, and the most exalted virtue to be
put on a level with the lowest type of vice
and ignorance. Such was the feeling
brief year ago: and behold how soon the I'M
founded prejudices Of generations will pass
away, when their groundlessness is shown in
the light of reason and experience. No in
telligent man-at least, no lawyer now thinks
of disputing the propriety of allowing ne
gro testimony. The principle is almost uni
versally admitted to be just; and while it is
felt to be an essential protection to the negro
against oppression, it is at the same time
found to be in no wise detrimental to white
men, On the contrary it is another security
thrown around their rights. Communities
need to be Argus-eyed. They should see all
around them, that there may be no hiding
place for crime. What then must be thought
of the wisdom of States which blindfold
half their population to the misdoings of the
other half2
know nothing in all history comparable
with the suddenness of this collapse of time
honored prejudice. The people of the South
should learn from it to distrust the grounds
of that twin relic of slavery, their aversion
to negro suffrage. 1 confess 1 would be glad
to see one candid, dispassionate argument
designed to show the evils that must attend
the extension of the franchise to that class
1t cannot be that they are illiterate, because
the same argument is good against at least
twenty thousand white voters in the State;
and if ignorance is considered an insupera-
Die objection, it is not applicable to all ne
groes and is less applicable to some of that
class than to many whites. But the very ig-
norance and inferiority of the negroes fur
nish reason, why we should not be afraid
of their influence. The white people have
the education, the wealth, the high spirit
Of IL