Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1867-11-14

in life. And now, that he has been made free, we
are not only willing to confer upon HIM every civil
right, but to protect him IN the tul and free en-
joyment of those nights In bus property, IN his
black man and the white man shall stand together
upon the same platform, and be shielded by the
same equal laws. We venture the opinion, that
the people of South Carolina are prepared to adopt
as their own, the Constitution Of any New England
or other Northern State, wherein it is supposed
that the civil rights Of the negro are most fully
and amply secured But upon question invol,
wing such grave and momentous issues, we should
nents, were we to withhold the frank and full ex-
preston of our opinions. We, therefore, feeling
the responsibility of the subject and the occasion,
enter our most solemn protest against the policy OF
investing the negro with political rights. The
black man is what God and nature and crcumstan-
ces have made him. That he is not fit to be In
vested with these important rights may be no fault
of his But the fact is patent to all, that the ne
gro is utterly untitled to exercise the highest func
try should not be permitted to pass from the hands
of the white man into the hands Of the negro: The
enforcement of the Reconstruction Acts by military
power, under the guise of negro voters and negro
conventions, cannot lawfully re-establish govern.
ment in South Carolina. 1t may for time hold
us in subjection to quasi civil government, Dack
ed by military force, but it can do no more. AS
citizens of the United States, we should not con-
sent to live under negro supremacy, nor should we
acouiesce in negro equality. Not for ourselves
only, but on behalf of the Anglo Saxon race and
blood in this country, do we protest against tins
subversion of the great social law whereby an lg,
norant and deprayed race is placed IN power and
influence above the virtuous, the educated ana tne
refined. By these Acts of Congress, intelligence
and virtue are put under foot while ignorance and
vice are lifted into power. #a., .m. 81 q
In South Carolina, the negro majority under
the Reconstruction Acts is much more than two
to one. In most of the Southern States, the ne
gro maiori6es if not so great, are almost as deci-
ded. In those States where the white vote Is IN
the ascendant the election districts have been so
ARRANGED. as to take the political power from the
white vote and cast it in favor Of the vote.
What, then, is the inevitable result? 1t invests
the negro with absolute political power IN each OF
the ten Southern States, and at the same time, IN,
vests him with the balance Of power In the United
States, Nor is this al-the reconstruction scheme
closes the baot-box against the best informed and
educated classes in the community, and opens 1t to
the negro, of whom not more than one In hun
dred can read word, and not more than one In
five hundred can write his name; and ns'tstat,i1es
ofuKoms are 80 profoundly ignorant, as.1 De tnla-
Jle to remember The name By solich they hare been
registered Verify, this seems 70 9e oehsersing s.
" proud, into a popular farce; and we would be
content so to consider it. if it did not involve the
issue of life and death to the form OF Government
estabIshedby our fathers for the benefit Of them
selves and their posterity. IF the object OF the
trainers of the Reconstruction Acts was to degrade
the Southern people, it is time tor them to consld-
er whether the degradation may not be brought to
their own doors-whether the poisoned cup may
not he returned to their own lips. But it may be
asked. why do not the Southern people accept the
situation and control the negro element? This
Question is much more easily asked than answered.
In the first place, it may be said that the influence
of the corrupt and intriguing demagogue, who will
appeal to passion and prejudice, has always been
found to be more powerful with excited and lgno-
rant mobs than the wisest tcounsels OF the pest
friends. Besides, the foundatlon-stone upon winch
Republican Government rests Is, that the elective
franchise is to be exercised by free, intelligent
and unbiased Judgment; and whenever it Is ad-
nitted that this franchise is to be controlled, Or In
other words, to be made the subject Of undue IN
fuences and of brbes, then, too, it must be admit
ted that Republican Government is at an end, and
must, sooner or LATER give way to such other GoV,
ernment as may be forced upon depraved and
already corrupted people. But it Is proposed IN
advance to place the entranchlsed negro neg under
control, why confer the franchise at oil? Surely,
the part of wise government is to prevent the evil
and not opan the door to the mischief which 9th
ers are admonished they must be prepared, by
trick or management, to avert. But why press
the subject further? It is enough for US to know
that this wild and reckless experiment comes home
to the hearth-stone of every citizen, and involves
family and property, society, liberty and even lite
itself Nor is this ALL The courts of justice are
dragged into the mire from their high position !;
our most intelligent white citizens are excluded
from the Jury, while the ignorant negro is elevated
to that responsible position the jury lists are made
up from the lists of registered voters, which, as
we have said are more than two to one in favor OF
the negro. Not only, be it remembered, IS the
negro admitted to the jury-bo1, but the white man
is excluded therefrom. Think you that when the
great masters Of the common law OF England pro-
nounced their encomium upon the trial by jury,
that they contemplated for moment such an IN
strument as an ignorant negro pannel? Think
YOU. that when the trainers of the Constitution OF
the United States incorporated into that instrument
the provision that the trial by jury should always
be held inviolate, that they intended to engratt
upon it such an enormity as negro )urymen, fresh
from the COTTON ana rice uelQs 81 tuc OOutl
Think you, that when John Rutledge and his
illustrious compeer signed that instrument on
the part of South Carolina, that they intended
to forge chain which, in period no longer than
an ordinary lifetime, would drag their grand
children, (who were then playing around their
knees, and some of whom are now living, for
trial before jury of their own slaves? Talk Of
additional humiliation, talk of confscation, com;
plain of clemency to rebels, after this j! God
forbid! The Government of the United States has
enforced against the Southern people the most stu
pendous act of confscation that has ever been en-
forced in the history of nations their property in
slaves has been confscated to the amount Of three
thousand millions of dollars other personal prop
erty in the shape of cotton, provisions stock, plate
and money, has been captured or destroyed, to the
value of one thousand millions of dollars; and
from these causes their land has deteriorated to
the extent of one thousand millions Of dollars
making in the aggregate the enormous sum of five
thousand millions Of dollars. Those overwhelm-
ing pecuniary losses fall exclusively upon the
/, Southern people. The political evils complained
of will, of course, fall chiefly upon the people Of
the South, but not exclusively upon them. Fasten
negro supremacy upon the South, and it must be