The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-05-31
The Double Dealing Of the Radicals.

l oTk UOTtnJ mas dtciuei 10 uIcdh tiS laith
pledged to the South by the passage of the
Reconstruction act That act, ike the Con-
s,itutional Amendment Of the preceding
.cssion, was passed in the confident expecta-
ton that the South would refuse CON-
pliance. The primary and paramount de-
sign was to exclude the South from the
Presidential election, and, at the same time,
10 throw the onus and odium Of the ex-
clusiop on the contuuacy Of the Southern
people. When the Reconstruction Com
mittee had satisfied themselves, last year,
by wcarisome investigation, that such an
amendment as they proposed would be
promptly rejected, they presented 1t as the
condition of restoration. This man9uvre
answered it's design. Itenabled the Repub-
can party to carry last years elections, on
the ore tence that, if the restoration of the
Union was postponed, it would be owing to
Southern obstnacy This purpose having
been served, Congress, at its next session,
undertook to devise another scheme which
would be equally effectual as measure Of
procrastinaton, and equally plausible as
means of throwing the blame upon the
South. The result was the Reconstruction
bill. But in planning this second scheme
they miscalculated When the Southern
States had with such promptness and uaani-
nifty rejected the Constitutional Amend
nent, the Republicans reasoned that they
would, O fort:ori, resolutely refuse to re-
organize under a proposal so much more
sweeping and oppressive. The unexpected
signs Of acquiescence have Disconnected
their plans aud COMPOUNDED their calcula-
tons. The prospect has been, for the last
month or two, that the South would re-
organize under the new law that it would
court, and to some extent control, the negro
vote; that it would participate, as Of old,
in the Presidential election; that every
State would choose Conservative electors;
and that the supremacy of the Republican
party was in danger of being shaken and
destroyed.
To meet this unexpected emergency and
head off this danger, consultation has
been had BY the Republican National Com
mittee, and plan has been hit upon for
frustrating the Reconstruction act by means
which will throw the responsibility upon
the South. Liberal contributions are sol
icited from all the States to establish a
fund for paying a great army of stump ora
tors and wire workers to operate In the
Sout'., to infame the blacks against their
form n masters, and consolidate them into
a single party. Nothing could be better
calculated for arresting the Southern Tend
encies toward reconstruction. 1t is well
known that there was great repugnance to
action under the Reconstruction law. and
that it was only by manly effort of reason
and self command that they were gradually
coming into the experiment. One Of the
main arguments presented to the reluctant
has been the probability of controlling a
large part of the negro vote by tie South
ern whites. IF things were left to their
natural course without outside interference,
there is no doubt that the negro vote
would be divided the majority Of the freed
men On the plantations voting with their
employers. But the Republicans have got
frightened and mighty effort is to be
made to counteract this tendency. The ne
gro mind is to be piled with all the arts of
demagogism and political management. 1t
is to be stirred up to hostility to the whites,
fed with false expectations, nursed and
stimulated into a clannish intolerance Of
white blood, and welded as compact Or
ganzed mass by the Radical leaders,
Where the population is too sparse to be
reached by stump orators, colporteus are to
be sent with supply Of infammatory
tracts TO be read to or read by, the negroes
On the plantations, ia the hope of bringing
them into sympathy with the heated and
acrimonious spirit of the negroes in the
cities. These apostles Of insolence and IN
suboriination will probably have no diff
Guilty in operating on minds so ignorant
Relying on the protection Of the army,
and appealing to the facts of emancipation
and enfranchisemcnt as proofs of their
friendship for The negro race, they will Sc
cure a ready and credulous hearing, and
with the natural repugnancc and jealousy
Ct race to play upon, they may do Infinite
mischief. They are thus attempting to ar
rest the progress Of reconstruction at a mo-
ment when it bids fair to be successful. and
to breed bitter hostility between the two
races which will lead either to the extermi-
nation Of the negroes or the perpetual bur
den of vast armies in the South to keep
the peace.
The main design of the Republicans in
organizing this incendiary crusade is to
prevent the success Of their own Reconstruc-
ton law, I'D keep the Union dissolved un-
til after the Presidential election. This
may perhaps be done by consolidating the
negroes into one political party, which will
necessarily consolidate the Southern whites
into another. By the terms Of the Recon-