Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-08-03
NEGR0 E0TALITY.

Wishout the stereotyped charge against the
Republicans Of being in favor of Negro
EQUALITY, what would become of Copperhead
loaicians. orators, and editors? For the last
six years ii has been utterly impossible to
converse with any Of them on the status of
POLITICAL parties, for any length Of time, with
o,.t being defsHtly told that tbs Republican
marty was irrftsor Of Negro Equality. Nor
could Won take Gp one of their numerous
Journals and look II Over witlfout having your
sensitigeuess shocked by the uhfairness with
WHICH your views were tortured, TO prove
your party were the ardent supporters of this
Negro bug-bear. 1t il just as impossible to
get anything but Negro Equality out of their
ordinary stump orators, as 1t is TO get com
moa sense out of a maniac. Why, you viii
ask. is The constant and labored effort made
to prove that the Republicans are in favor of
Negro Equality? If they are, il ought not
to exhaust all the logic and third rate brains
ia the land to establish the fact. If they are
not. then all the argument in the world viii
not make them be. Bat that is not the secret
of tbe matter they know as well as we do,
that Social Equality is one thing, and Politi-
cal EQUALITY quite another. That the former
i matter of taste, while the latter is the
mandate Of the law. The former is the indi-
vianal estimation, the latter the judgment of
civilization. The one is discretionary, the
other il ghe mandate of Justice. The true
point is ihis: Slavery prosti:uted every taste
and interest te lis aggrandizement It pre-
Iudiced the masses Of the ignorant world
against the poor enslavedi it fed the NOR
BID sensibiliiF Of superiority which pervades
tbe grest majority of mazkind and II created
an antagonism between the two' great systems
Of labor. The engenderings OF these great
/ evils are supposed to be still lingering in the
1 breasts of the loyal masses, and az this last
dreg Of slavery those who have been welded
/ to the institution are constantly stirring
I. This IS Why the Copperheads are so incessant-
/ II believing Negro Equality in every SEN
| tence they utter. and in every line they write.
/ There was time when this cry might have
been very effective, but it has lost its force.
il never gave Us any concern, in fact it has
rather pleased us that the charge has been
constantly reiterated. We have always be-
Eeved that 1t would produce the very result
that these demogogues appear most to fear
fhe eEeUafioH ofthe Negro race from the posi-
tion ~ bosaeEzaen 10 that Of enlightened, reli-
gious and Industrious fFeeDleH. There is
nothing IN this world like agitation; what
may appear obnoxious and unpopular to day,
~ e0nstznt agitation, year IN and year out
whether il be Affirmative or negative, II THI
cArsE BE EIGET, viii educate the people NJ
10 "a, - sure as to-morrow's sun vii
rise The ardent anti-slavery men, wht
depend sclely rpon the agitation Of this ques
, iion, IN the shape which our Copperhead co
ss.-lss-.-sss pa it, asv asd54 toa t1uos~n'
obligations 10 them for accomplishing tn
very end which they could in no other wa,
accomplish. This is no sophistry. As tn,
violent waves dash age after age upon tn
rock causing detrition, SC the violent storm
Of fsnatieism directed year after year to tn
prejudice against the poor Negro, win wea
away, and the long prayed for era of Civ
and Political Liberty will be, in the end, ac
corded without mur1nur. to all mankind
Then Jet our Copperhead friends continu
: the good work, and they may rest assure
: fh41 they have the best thanks Of every love
r Of Political and Civil Liberty in the land.
e i not only educating our people up TO tn
: progressive standard ofthe age, but they ar
G accomplishing what anti-slavery men coul
: nos accomplish i'm any other way, unless the
2 were placed under the same circumstances
= Republicans have nothing 10 fear from thi
7. CIV Of NEGRO Eouality.