The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-06

From 1e Tribune
Dreadful as we're the riots at New Orleans,
there is a dread which they suggest far greater.
Those scenes OF blood and death have a more
terrible significance when we reflect that they
were not exceptional, that they too faithfully
express the sprlt OF a strong class at the South
and its Northern friends, and that they are the
result of a national policy. We should attach
little Importance to Il single outbreak, If there
was reason TO believe 1t was due To local causes
but the conviction IS forced upon us that New
Orleans means the whole South as Presiden-
TALLY reconstructed, and we shudder to think of
the future.
When the war ended and the South, PROSTATE
on the 0attle-ne,d, lifted up It's hands and i'm
plored mercy OF its cgnquerors, we, too, pleaded
in its behalf. That 1oT Iour years 1t had fought
against the Union with a teIoCIty which aliens
might have been ashamed OF; that it had I'M
posed upon the country a vast debt which gene.
rations unborn would be heavily taxed to pay;
that 1t had forfeited every right it formerly pos
seesed-all tbs we remembered, but we did not
forget that on our part we had fought and con-
quered lbPse enemies 10 keep them forever our
country men. To retain the Southern States IN
the Union the war had been waged and won,
and, not alarmed by the fable OF the man
who warmed the viper IN his bosom, we de-
sired the Government to win the South to the
Union by magnanlmOus pardon rather than
to bind IL by chains OF rear. Ihen we urged
universal amnesty, and with 1t, with equal ler-
raised the enemies OF the UulOn to their ancient
power; it has given back the who into their
hands, and already in New Orleans they have
grasped the sword. But what has 1t done tor
the friends Of the Union in the South? The
white men are In a poweress minority, and tle
loyal blacks, although nominally free, are naked
and deenseless, without q voice in the Govern
ment, abandoned to the very men who began
the war to maintain and extend the slave sys-
TEN. This may be called mercy, but it is
cruelty. 1t Is punishment TO the loyal; it is
reward to the traitors. The seed lhds sown has
sprung up in poison flowers over all the South,
and ripPned In the riots OF New Orleans.
Universal suffrage would have destroyed the
cause OF all quarrels. When the war ended,
the South eXpec ed impartial suffrage to be
required, and would have GLADLY agreed to it.
Too gladly would nine-tenths of the leading
Rebels have purchased amnesty by this sim Jle
concession, ior who could have thought that in
common justice the Government would have
given less reward to It's true and consistent
friends; would have required less Tor its own
honor and the interests of humanity. When 1t
culpably tailed to insist that the right OF fran
chse to all loyal men should be the precedent
OF forgiveness to traitors, it surrendered all the
moral and nearly all the legal powers it pos
sessed over the Rebel States. 1t abandoned
every position OF strength till to-day 1t stands
as the apologist Tor Rebellion and the defender
of Rebels. But it has not discouraged the friends
OF impartial suffrage, nor caused them to aban-
don their work. IL never will; we are resolved
to have it, and the New Orleans massacres are
the strongest proof that it is the only hope TOR
the restoration OF the South and the peace of
the Union.
The Louisiana Convention had broken no
law, or it they had they we're willing to have
the case adudged in the courts. But the mere
suspicion OF an effort to obtain the franchise tor
the blacks, peaceful IS it was aroused the worst
passions OF slavery, and, assured that the Gov
ernment would not interfere, the mob resolved
to make bloody example OF the retormerS. and
teach them that such a Convention could never
be held in any Southern State. This is the
result of paruonlng traitors without enfran-
Chislng Union men. Had the freedmen been
given the right to vote, its exercise might have
led t. disturbances at the polls. similar to the
partisan fights which have always occurred; but
this general conspiracy to establish a reign
of terror throughout the South could never
have been organized. Now, there are but two
courses, either we must forever submit to see
the Rebel po yer dominant and the loyal blacks
reduced to the condIon OF serfs, or we must
continue to demand their rights. To the dis
grace we can never yield; never never was the
duty OF working for universal rights more sacred.
We have tried policy which has disnonored
the nation; il has made Sheridan the mere lieu
tenant OF a Rebel officer; it has murdered the
Union men OF Louisiana; it has proved to be
the parent of revolution and dea.h. Let us
adopt the true policy. Let us combine the two
principles OF universal amnesty and impartial
suffrage, and we establish peace. Continue 70
divide them, and though we may still escape a
war, we are certain Of continued trouble.