The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-13

well; but he has doue 30 with such conditions
and under such threats that these people have
become alarmed. Submitting everywhere,
with but few individual exceptions, TO the will
and laws. of Congress, with determination to
carry out fully the Reconstruction acts, and
with an earnest desire TO be good and peace
able citizens they begin TO fear that their fate is
uncertain i'm the hands Of a party that seeks
only to perpetuate its power at any cost.
Mr. Wilson has told them that conhscauon
and continued exclusion from political privi-
leges and restoration would follow any hard
ships to the negroes those tender pets of the
radicals Now the Southern whites know
very well that if it should suit the purpose of
the radical party to keep them excluded and
TO coniscate their lands, it would be easy
enough to trump up cases of hardship
or TO seize upon few cases that may arise
and that are incidental in every community.
There are cases of hardship and cruelty in New
York, in Boston, and everywhere, as there
may be in the South, in spite of the general
good feeling and good disposition of the mass
of the people The Southerners, knowing,
then, how easy it is TO seize upon and use
such cases for political purposes naturally
feel alarmed and insecure under the threats
held over them.
But the evil does not rest here for the ne
groes ignorant as they are, know what confs-
cation means. They expect the lands will be
given to them, according to theradical agrarian
programme of Wendell Phillips. They see
they are the favored race, and that the whites
are treated harshly and with distrust. They
begin to think they have right to the lands
of the South, and that their Northern radical
friends will give the lands to them. The fear
full consequence of all this must be that one
race will be arrayed against the other; the
farmers and planters will be discouraged to
cultivate or improve their property; the ne
groes will not work for their employers, and a
magnificent. and productive country will be-
come, like San Domingo and Jamaica, un-
cultivated and desolate. We shall lose the
valuable productions of the South our bur
dens will be greatly increased by the
prolonged political and social disorganization
of the South and through its inability to bear
its portion of taxation. The Southerners will
be unable to pay their debts to the North, no
one will invest money in that section, COM
merce will decline and bankruptcy follow.
In fact we might expect to see inaugurated
the horrors of civil war-of a war of races
like that which occurred in st. Domingo
The threatened riot in Richmond on Thursday
last Is but premonitory symptom of what
may take place, and ought to be an inn
pressive warning. When the materials for
general cOntlagration are prepared, little
spark will set all in blaze. This is not
an overdrawn picture, fearful as it is, as every
thoughtful, unbiased person must acknow-
ledge. Such are the results to which the dis
organizing and destructive harangues of Will
son, Kelley, and other radicals now in the
South are leading us.
Another disturbing element in the South is
seen and felt in the conduct of some of the
military commanders. These gentlemen seem
to have misunderstood the nature of their
duties. They act as if the country was still
in state of war and the South under martial
law They do not understand that they are
placed in command simply as a police power,
to preserve order and to see that the Recon-
struction acts be not obstructed in execution
and for no other purpose. The acts of Con-
gress have nothing in them to warrant arbi-
trary doings. Besides, the war being ended
and the South not being under martial law,
the people have the constitutional right of
free press and freedom of speech and action
so long as they do not break the peace. The
South was not placed, and ought not to be
placed, under the government of despotic
military satraps. All these things are wrong,
dangerous, and destructive to the principles
of our Government. They create despair in
the Southern mind, and paralyze all the good
efforts and energies of the people. If the mill
tary commanders do not understand their
duties better, General Grant or the War De-
partment should instruct them.
We do not believe the people of the North
wish to be vindctive or to Oppress the South
erners. We believe they only want security
for the future and the early restoration of the
South. The Constitutional amendment and
the Reconstruction acts of Congress will bring
that. They have no sympathy with disor-
ganizers and agtators, though these be Sena-
tors, members of Congress, or military COM
manders. At least, whatever may be the
feeling towards the Southerners, our own well
fare, our commercial interests, the peace and
unity of the country, the preservation of the
principles of the Government, and relief from
the heavy burdens of taxation, all demand
that the South should work out its early
restoration as prescribed by Congress, uninter.
rupted by Northern agitators or military