The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-06-23
The Tribune's False Philosophy.


"We have confidence that this Republic is
strong enough to stand immovably and per-
petually on the basis of equal rights to ALL
says the Tribune, and it forthwith rushes into
picture of political millennium. Nothing
could be more absurd than this Government
is made by mutual surrender of the rights of
man in his natural state +; it is constructed on
the give-and-take principle; and is essen
TALLY artificial. To adopt the preposterous
notion Of equal rights to all, is to invest
strong -minded women with the elective fran
chise, to embrace the untamed savage of the
Western frontier, and to introduce positive
anarchy in the place of theoretical order
But, if the proposition be narrowed down
from its broad terms to its true meaning, to
wit: That the negro shall be enfranchised
the matter is not materially amended. TO be
''immovable and perpetual" Government
must combine repose with progress. The
objects, as set forth in the preamble to that
obsolete document the Constitution, must be
kept steadily in view. Among these, is the
public tranquility" Now, suppose the ne
gro population, who have not SO much natu-
raj right to vote as the strong-minded women
of the country, were invested with this privi-
lege tomorrow, how far would it 60 towards
promoting the interests of the country? IN
less the Radical party, which is damaging the
finances and the prosperity of the land, be
taken as the exponent of the true interests Of
the Republic thing not to be thought Of
the answer is perfectly plain, The enfran-
chisement of the negro, would have the direct
effect of keeping the South, as it were, in a gi-
gantic kettle of hot water Just as soon as
this was done, we should be inundated by a
great food of the most reckless adventures,
seeking to obtain place and power through
the agency of the blacks. We have already
seen the Freedmen's Bureau bring among us
a very dangerous class, who, under the pal
try pretext of beneftting't the negro, contrive
to fill their own pockets with the hard earned
money of their victims. The reports of Gene
rails STEEDMAN and FULLERTON show this
beyond dispute Add to this inducement
that of State and Federal officers, and we
should be in perpetual tumult; for these bad
and artful men would find it to heir pecu-
mary interests to originate aud foster discord
between the two classes of our population,
and, for their own aggrandizement, would
stop at nothing, which promised to recruit
their shattered fortunes.
We have seen wretched papers spring up
among us, which traded openly and without
reserve, on the paltry capital of irritation be-
tween former master and former slave We
have seen men of the Benevolent School or
ganize so called "Union" parties among us,
while they were inhabting the houses Of ou1
own people, telling their timber and tilline
their land Knowing all these facts, and re-
inforced in our opinion by the voice of the
coloreG people of Georgia, who have declared
in convention that they think their best
friends are their former masters, we say to
our philosophical friend HORACE, that if he
really desires the happiness of the Southern
blacks as he calls them, the best thing he
can do, is to let them alone If he wants
this Government to stand "immovable and
perpetual ths fewer disturbing elements in
troduced the better
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