The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-18
groupds on which the different prOphecIes were

Jefferson was an aDolltl0nlst. lie DeneVeu JnuJ
slavery was wrong. ana tnat God was Just. he
was b statesman, and he saw that the form OF
government that must in time prevail at the
South was opposed TO democratic tendencies,
and must give way before them, he was ,o,s Close
to the fact that the slave population would
eventually be an embarrassing and possibly an
unmanageable element in Southern communi-
ties. He foresaw the ultimate extinction, there
fore, of slavery, as a mistake, a nuisance. a
mischief q solecism, and sin. So sure as the
Almighty lived, it could not endure; he
trembled for his codntry while It did. Obser-
walton, reflection, conviction, faith, lent their
combined vision to pierce the future when it
should be no more. A moral vision thus keen
was not to be baflled; the great conclusion
came though under circumstances which no
merely mortal vision could have indicated.
And why did Jefferson, auguring thus hope
fully for the Degro's emancipation, augur thus
drearily for his emancipated destiny? Because
he was himself Virginian, with the ideas of q
French liberal, but with the habits of South
ern gentleman, used from boyhood to feel about
the blacks as the oest of Southern gentlemen
may, but as Southern gentlemen always will,
he said truly that habit and opinion drew an
indellble line between the whites and the
blacks. When he added Nature he meant
habit and opinion, which were nature to him,
no doubt, as they are to most of us. His limits
were the limits of destiny God proposed
nothing more than He could conceive possible.
He could not conceive it possible that whites
and blacks could live together in equal freedom
under the same government. An immense array
OF evidence, historical, moral, presumptive,
convinced Him that slavery must pass away.
Where was the evidence to persuade Him that
the races must be detached or fall into hopeless
strife? Not in history, not in philosophy, not
in conscience; it was simply lin his bones and
blood" The one prediction, therefore, might
be as inevitably foolish and false as the other
was wise and true. The verlhcation of the first
would, on general principles, suggest the futility
of the second.
But the second has already been justified by
the same history that justified the first Tri-
umphantly exClaims the predicator of Memphis;
DO you not know what transpired here in
Tennessee? Have you not heard OF the recent
occurrences in New Orleans? Are you blind TO
the signs of the times in the Carolinas, in
Georgia, Alabama, and Florida? Can you not
feel the pulse OF the chivalry beating with in
dignation at the disgrace that emancipation
puts upon them? Have you not caught the
whisper of their recorded VOW that the negroes
shall be either banished or eXterminated! oh
yes; but does this prove that a war of races
Is inevitable, that whites and blacks
cannot i've together, that an indelble line is
drawn by nature between them? 1t proves
that the Southern whites retain their ancient
prejudices of birth, ignorance, and habit: it
proves that they are gifted with a Beotian fat
ness of intellect as regards their own INTEREST," il
proves that their pride Is dearer to them
than their prosperity, that the indulgence of
their temper is sweeter than the fulness OF their
barns it proves that they hate the freedmen,
are jealous of their thrift, are malignant towards
their loyalty, are veXed over their aggrandize.
ment at their masters expense, are beside them
selves with rage at their own powerlesspess. 1t
proves that their nature in its grossest and least
human element, would gladly draw, and means
to draw, an indelible line between the two races.
But is their nature Gods nature? Is the barrier
they cement with blood made firm by Divine
decree? The war at present raging between the
whites and blacks is not war OF races, but a
war OF interests. Human passions, not Provi-
dental antagonisms, are at strife. We need not
call IN destiny to explain what deyiltry will
explain just as well, and better too.
That strife is impending between the whites
and the blacks in the late slave States is, we
apprehend, very evident. OF that struggle, the
blacks may be the occasion, but the whites are
the cause. Had emancipation been practically
more universal ana complete than it Is now, the
struggle might have been avoided, because then
the negroes would have been on a civil and
political equality with their former masters. and
could have put forth show of strength that
might have held their enemies in check, or even
eXtorted from them concessions of privilege. 1t
is the nolfulfllment TO its full extent of Jeifer
sons first prophecy that has brought the second
so near to a fulhlment. Had the freedmen,
again, shown themselves less industrious, sober,
thrifty, temperate, emulous the struggle might
have been avoided; for in that case the whites
would have had some pretext for standing, not
on their contempt. perhaps, but on their SILENT
arms-folded Indifference. AT present, jealousy
ministers to their rage. The negro proves him
self altogether too capable of self support TOO
ready for education, too eager for the influences
OF ClVlIlZed lie; ana MS former lOrQS nnQ tneul-
selves unable to live with him on equal terms
of labor and progress. When the blacks are
| equally free with the whites, we confidently pre-
| dict that the war OF races will become phrase
| instead of a fact, and q phrase ttly describing
| nothing but an exploded prejudice. War OF
races, torsOoth! Neither race Is in condition 20
| do justice to itself. The negroes are not, be-
| cause they are not vet emancipated from the
| bondage of habit and opinion, These habits
| and opinions may be incurable in the present
generation; they will disappear in the next
| They may stand out against bureaus and
bayonets; but they will yield TO manu-
| faCtures and trade. Born in time, they will
die in time. Born of the old world, they will
vanish in the new. As the old system passes
away, the old Adam will pass away. The races
live toeether comfortably and to mutual salts
faction when they live together on equal terms
as they do in some parts of the British Wes
Indies. 1t is inequality that begets war
Equally free, they will be equally cordial, pros
porous, and happy in the United States. Nei
ther the white man nor Ehe black man of 1872
was the same being that he isain 1866. CirCum
stances alter; and the prophet who feels hi
way along the line of circumstances will alway
be at fault, as Jefferson will prove to be yet il
his predictions that the races cannot in equa
freedom, live together. Principles never change
and the prophet who projects his vision alon
the track of principles will always be verified
as jefferson was in his prediction that tn
| slaves would be made free.
Napoleon. France. and Prussia.
From the Times.
80, Tss,ana