The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-28

whites, or, at least, no faster, while the whites
are incessantly recruited by immigration. 10
the blacks no reinforcements come from
without, so that If they even were a match
for the whites in the political art, they would
have in a very few years, TO succumb to mere
numbers All the whites have to do is to faci-
litate immigration from the North and from
Europe. Other things being equal, people
would far sooner settle in Virginia or North
Carolina than in Minnesota or Iowa. They
would be in more genial climate, nearer the
markets and the seaboard, and within easier
reach of the great centres of civilization.
Why, then, does not white immigration
flow into the South Why is there the least
danger that the negroes will be able to out
vote their white neghbors in any district for
more than single yearY If Southern men
would only answer this question candidly,
they would have solved the problem which at
this moment most troubles them. Strangers
do not want to settle in Virginia, not because
they are afraid of the blacks, for they avoided
it before anybody ever dreamed Of seeing
emancipation in our day. but because they are
afraid of the whites; because they fear they
could not get justice from white juries and
white judges; because they are afraid of mo-
lestation from their white neighbors; because
they do not like duelling and street fights; be-
cause they like to be able to take what publ
cations they please and live as they please.
Every now and then there reaches us from
the South a solemn protest that life and
property there are as secure as they
are anywhere, and that man has only to be
discreet in his conversation in public places to
enjoy as much peace as in Massachusetts,.
But here lies the kernel of the whole difficulty.
Men do not like to be discreet in their con-
versation in public places. The liberty of
being indiscreet is the charm of Northern
society. 1t forms one of the great attractions
of the Northern States to people from all parts
of the world. People crowd here from Ger
many and Ireland in immense numbers,
mainly, no doubt, in search of cheap land and
high wages and freedom from prescription,
but also in search of a place in which they
! can read and talk any nonsense they please;
in which they can say dreadful things, and
make "incendiary speeches, " revile dignities
and titles, preach dangerous doctrines" try
odious social experiments, without any man s
making them afraid 1t is a pity, no doubt,
that human nature should be animated by so
! insensate desire, that it should not love the
ancient ways and ancient codes; but we have
to deal with it as it is, and not as it ought to
be. Whenever the time comes in which a
man may maintain against all corners on a
Virginia crossroads the thesis that negro is
better than a white man, that the Rebellion
was set on foot by Antichrist, or that no ball
is complete unless half the guests are colored,
without exciting either horror or indignation
the bugbear of negro ascendancy will be for
ever gone, because the whites from all part
of the world will pour into the State.
Two-thirds, at least, OF the Southern
troubles just now are due to the peoples lacl
of humor If Governor Perry had ever S,
little of it he could not have written his recen
letters; and if the mass of the people had it
most of the peculiarities which render then
such disagreeable neighbors to stranger
settling amongst them would at once disappear
There is, for instance, horrible want of per
ception of the ridiculous revealed by the ode
spair" into which large numbers of yer
sensible Southeners now confess they hav
f fallen, inasmuch as it is tantamount to an az
: acknowledgement that they are sure to be beate
in the political arena by a race whose power
, they hold in utter contempt, and which the
far surpass in numbers-to whom they den
all capacity for organization or sustained effo
or power of calculation.