Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1866-03-10
COT PICKENs G. H. s. G., SATURDAY, MARcH ~ lSoo


which they have Just passed proved that their
manhood and courage are the same. Brave
and honorable men, who have fought each
otflr like men, are ever ready to be rcconcled
on fair and honorable terms. They who kept
out Of the war on both sides arc the hardest
to be rcconcled.
There is no feeling of unkndncss in South
Carolina towards the freedmen, but, on the
contrary, one of deep sympathy and protection
on the part of their former owners. In the
upper and middle portions of the State the
negroes have all made contracts, and gone to
work and are doing well. 1t is only in the
lower country and on the sea islands, where
they have been intcrfercd with by mistaken
philanthropy, that there is any disturbance
If tho Northern people we're more familiar
with the negro, and understood better his
character and disposition they would give
themselves less trouble about him and his po
ltical,rights. The negro does not desire, and
is incapable of exercising, with prudence and
discretion, the right of suffrage in his present
degraded and ignorant condition. 10 give
him this right in South Carolina would be to
establish au odious and dangerous political
aristocrcy. a man with large landed cs
tate, having it cultivated by freedmen, would
always be able to control their votes in every
election Instead of having one vote, rs his
poor neighbor has, he would have fifty or
hundred, proportion to his colorcd hirclings.
The negro wants bread and meat for himself,
his wife and children to eat, and clothes to
wear, but he neither wants votes nor is he ca
pablejsf voting on political questions. 1t is
said ieacred Scripture. that the leopard can
not change his spots, nor the Ethiopian his
skin, nor canyou, by any system of legislation,
elevate the African to an equality with the
white man. Tor over 1000 years he has re-
maned, in his native country, the same igno-
rant savage and barbarian, without the slight
est advancement in civilization, whilst all the
Caucasian nations of the earth have been going
forward with wonderful improvements in all
the arts and sciences Of life.
There is something in every ones heart
which tells them that human slavery is wrong
in the abstract, and ought not to be. And
yet no fnir- minded man, who compares the
condition of the negro in Africa with that Of
the recent slave in the Southern States, but
must admit that he has been greatly improved
by slavery. In few years, it is apprehended
that it will be equally manifest that the freed
man has not improved by the abolition OF
slavery Instead of increasing and multiply
ing, rs he did in slavery, his race will dwindle
away as the Indian has done, in iuxtaposition
with the white man. Whilst slave, ne was
fed, cl'thcd. attended in sickness, taken care
of in his old age, and his children provided
for. This is about as much as any aboring
class can realize for their labor in any country.
But l would not restore slavery if could. and
this is The general feeling and sentiment in
South Carolina. The young negroes and the
old ones will not be taken care Of and provi.
ded for as they were in slavery, and they will
die whilst the planter will make more out OF
those who are grown and able to work.
But if the Northern people really feel so
much interested in tho negro race as they
would have us believe, why do they not hold
out inducements for the freedmen to immi-
CRATE North, and live there with their friends
and patrons, who are able to take care of them!
Nothing Of ths kind has been offered or at
tempted On the contrary. many OF the for.
mer non.savcholdng States have prohibited
their entrance under severe penalties. They
have likewise been denied the right of suffrage
in all Of those States, except six The South
ern States are very willing for the freedmen
to 90 North, and have there conferred on them
the right Of suffrage But is it just md right,
on the parEof Connecticut and other States
where the Negro .has been free for century,
to be denN the right Of voting, and for those
States to Insist TINT he shall be allowed to vote
in South Carolina, where he has Just been
cmoncinatcd We do not complain of the