The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-01-05
FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1866.
Delenda est Carthage The only Remedy
for Southern Tyranny


for Southern Tyranny.
TIE barbnrity and oppression which charac-
terized the conduct of the Southern planters
in their dealings with their late slaves imme-
.diately after the conclusion of the war, we're
attributed by many to that natural revulsion
of feeling Incident upon the total destruction
Of all their preconceived notions of propriety.
We agree vlth our ably edited contemporary,
The Press, len it says that "no one expected
that the gI,.t social and industrial change
involved In lancipation could be produced
without seri confusion; and as the South
was compc u to complete this tardy act of
justice at a u nent when she was reduced to
the utmost .ltution by the war, its inherent
difficulties :, ~ intensified by her impoverish
ment."
But at the ne time we cannot avoid the
thought thai South has certainly had time
to show son mptoms of willingness to con-
form to the regime. Nine months have
elapsed since nc power of rebellion ceased,
yet treason S.; continues to wander to and
fro, showinC 10 signs Of WEAKNESS. What
was at first lained by a natural indgna-
ton at the ia ) of their sch emes is rapidly
becoming CHI B; and unless some steps are
taken to re, y the evil, we will see it esta-
blished peIu emily in the cotton-growing
States. Tic . It that the day is far spent, and
yet no good omplished, is gradually dawn
ing upon q rules at the North. Even those
who have !, n most favorably inclined
towards the I>ent policy are growing restlve
under the ,ntinual postponement of any
sign Of It .ance, of any returning of
spirit of equity. The recent action Of the
ST nth Carolu 4 Legislature has had the effect
oi star ling roany from the fond belief that
tle Rebels w,re receiving the kindness ex-
ended them In good faith. Lest we be
bought to put a preiudicial construction on
le Palmetto" code recently adopted by the
legislature of that Commonwealth we will
cite the account as published in the New
ok Iimea-a paper exclusively directed by
pn. HENRY j. RAYMOND, the leader of the
=ervarVe Republican wing of the House.
-aly no one can accuse him of entertaining
predjudices against the Southern people,
IS paper testifes to their hardness Of
"5pud love OF tyranny. He says:-
.,. lde great blunder (Which politically is
IN crime) in insisting upon virtually
atng the freedmen in its law code and
IT'S, by drawing iudically marked line
i the two races. In amending the crimi-
.'. of the State, these astute representatives
ed IN framing what might not inappro-
be styled bloody code. In making the
OF a bale OF cotton or horse capital
g., without benefit Oi clergy, they have rem
conviction for such offense almost
lble. In prescribing long years of con-
gnt at hard labor for certain otfense' when
- is no penitentiary in the State, and many
4 districts have not even common JAIL
TIC, nave been guilty of palpable absurdItY.
Ln,, in adding to the list of penalties for
c. 'rne the odiOus feature Of the lash in the
c. OF freedmen, they clearly lose sight
that spirit which now rules Congress and
IL country and which watches with jealous
~ and remorseless determination every move.
ment made at the South. 1t wouli have been
better TO have dispensed with all this cumber-
some and odious legal and judicial machinery;
to nave drawn no such distinction on our statute,
bC OKs between the white man and the black;
but 10 have embraced and included all under
the common law of the land which, with some
slight notifications, would have answered every
purpose, been more acceptable to the people,
and less offensive TO our Republican friends who
sit III high places. AS 1t is there are many who
believe that this negro code will never receive
the sanction OF the National Government that
the District Courts will never be allowed to go
into operation; that Generals GRANT and HOWARD
viii be more fully than ever persuaded that the
time has not yet come when the military can be
removed from our midst, or the Provost Courts
cease their jurisdiction over the freedmen OF the
South"
While many OF the provisions OF this code,
in which DRACO would have luxuriated, are
rendered imperative by their over-severity,
yet still they show the spirit which actuates
the rulers of Southern opinion. 1t lays before
the North the fact that the love of power and
spirit of dominant prejudice still is in force.
At the very moment that the fact OF the
passage Of this black code is received, comes
the intelligence that Senator TRUMBULL
will move bill in the Senate, yne object OF
which is to enlarge the powers of the Freed
mems Bureau and the other to protect all
persons in the United States in their civil
rights, and furnish the means of their vindica-
tion. The first provides that in insurrec-
tionary districts where, by State law or Gus
tom, any of the civil rights belonging to white
persons are denied to negroes or mulattoes,
or where they are subjected to different pun
ishment than is prescribed for whites, the
officers and agents of the Freedmens Bureau
shall, so long as such discrimination con-
tinues, have jurisdiction of all cases affecting
such negroes or mulattoes. 1t also provides
for furnishing by fine and Imprisonment,
through the courts of the Freedmen's Bureau,
any person who shall subject negro or
mulatto, in consequence of his race or color,
to any other or different punishment than is
prescribed for white persons or shall deny
any civil rights which belong to the white
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