The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-11-27

Federal Courts, then the most common and IA
milar officers Of justice must be transferred to-
the few points in the State where these courts
are held, and to judges and other officers, de-
irving AID holding their commissions, not from
the authority and people of the State as here
tofore, but from the President and Senate of
the United States. The States, as by SO much
are to cease to be self-goyeraipg communities
as heretofore, aud trespasses against the person,
assaults and batteries, false imprsonments and
the like, where only Cur own citizens are par
ties, must be regulated by the Congress of the
Nation and adjudged only in its courts. l can
not believe that the deliberate judgment Of the
people of any State or any section will approve
such an innovation, for although its annoyances
may be ours to day, they must expect them to
be theirs tomorrow. The people of this State,
with singular approach to unanimity, are SIN
cerely DESTROYS of a restoration Of iher constitu
tional relations with the American Union. In
the face of circumstances, rendering it nearly
impossible, they have paid its government the
taxes of former years, laid when another de
Eucto government whose powers they could not
have resisted if they would, was making levies
in money and kind almost greater than they
could bear; they acquiesced in the extinction of
slavery, which annihiated more than half their
wealth; they have borne with patience the ex
clusioD of their Senators and Representatives
from the halls of Congress, where they have
had no one to contradict or explain the most
exae gerated misrepresentation, even to make
known their grievances. How long this urnat-
ural condition of our relations is TO continue, 1t
seems, we shall be allowed to have no share in
determining. No time has been set, and no
conditions proposed, on which it may be termin
ated. In the meantime, l trust, we shall meet
| events as they arise with a reasonable and manly
foritude, ready at all times to fulfill our duties
as patriotic citizens, but under no circumstances
| willing to sacrifice the honor and rights of the
State, as a member Of the Union; not 10 the
sense of the advocates of secession, but as taught
by Iredell and Marshall and Story and Kent
and Webster, and in which moderate men every.
where, North end South, before the war, were
supposed to concur. Anxious as [ was to avert
the late war, and have at all times been to COM
pose our troubles on the basis of the Union
our fathers framed it, [ can perceive in this
proposed amendment nothing calculated to per-
petuate the Union; but its tendency seems to
me better suited to perpetuate sectional aliera-
tion and arrangement, and | have, therefore,
no hesitation in recommending that it be not
| ratified.
The african Race-Most of the African race
among US were lately slaves. Tlreir masters cared
for their subsistence. Their habits lily fit them
to provide for their indispensable daily wants.
Nothing can be more absurd than the supposition
that the great body ofthem can now participate
in Governmental affairs with any discretion. A
very few of them are discreet and vrtuous, and
have considerable intelligence; and when the
State shall be left free to manage her internal
affairs without ex!raneous interference, | do not
doubt that the question to what share ought
to be granted them, in the elective franchise will
be candidly considered. To grant universal suf-
frage to them now is manifesly absurd
What ought to be done in reference to this race,
if its consideration coul6 be approached apart
from passion and party politics, would embarrass
the wisest statesman and phanthropist I'm
| happily, our present condition does not allow
such calm consideration. At present it blends
itself with national affairs. From the earliest
period of our history under the National Union,
it has been the cause, the pretext, for sectional
strife. Disunonists, North and South, have con-
stany used it to ALLEVIATE one section Of our coun
try from the other. When these strifes at last
eliminated in war, and slavery was suddenly
abolished and the South thereby grievousIy i'm
poverished and constrained to accommodate itself
| to a violent change. more suddenly introduced
than the teachings of experience would seem to
warrant, all patriotic men looked for national re-
| pose, set-off The one great theory Of our
government, which was supposed to he settled,
was that each State should manage its own in.e--
nal affairs; but so far from the abolition of slave
ry having composed our sectional differences, it
has only intensified them the negro being still
! the subject of ST. fe. The North claimed that
humanity required its interpositon to protect the
! recently emancipated slaves from aggression on
! the part of the white people of the South, and
new and strange tribunals were instituted among
lis to manage this race, claiming and exercising
! long after hostties had ceased, exclusive iuris-
diction civil and criminal, over whites and blacks
as to all matters to which freedman was party,
and resting their decisions and modes of proceed
ing on no known rules. 1t tchooves every pa
triotic mind to solve the problem, what is best to
be done to avoid this sectional strife in relation to
with the we'll being of the African race, to avoid
this enduring source of luminosity between the
sections? 1t seems to me that the course to be
pursuedis obvious if the parties to the controver-
sy sincerely desire reconciliation. The cause of
the trouble is the unequal distribution Of the race
between the sections. The plain and practical
remedy is their more equal diffusion. Existing
circumstances invite such diffusion. The people
of the South whether from prejudice or not is
ipmaterial to the view take)do not regard the
negro as their equal--Heis not allowed the right
of suffrage. The North insists that this preju-
dice of the South does cruel wrong to the African.
Among us they are very poor and few of them
have acquired local attachments by ownership of
land. The results ofe,nancipaton and war have
made the whites poor also and the uncertain con-
dition of our federal relations prevents the influx
of capital or population. Enterprise is paraIyzel.
Few are able to employ laborers and pay them