The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1867-05-16
The Southern Millennium.

We remember that one of the ar
guments made against the Recon-
struction act was that it would breed
strife and ill-blood between the
whites and blacks in the southern
states. The prophets who pro-
phisied this have not had long to
wait to see their Vaccinations proved
false and absurd.
The truth is that the Congressional
Reconstruction act has done more to
reconcile differences, and to produce
good feeling in the southern states,
than anything either the President
or Congress, OF General Grant and
the armies, have done.
We read in our southern exchanges
accounts Of Union meetings, of Re
publican organizations OF free dis
cussion; of arguments with blacks,
and appeals to them from those who
very latelypromised to die or leave
the country before they would suf-
fer negroes to vote. In Charleston
eolored people ride in the ears, just
as in New York in Richmond they
hold political meetings; IN Peters
burg a ''mass meeting Of white and
colored citizens unanimously adop-
ted platform asserting the right of
blacks to education in the states
free schools, to the vote, and to
office, and the Richmond Whig de-
clares that sensible men will agree
to the resolutions; in Georgia the
Republican party declares as its
fundamental principle 'sequal rights
to all, without regard to COLOR ilt
Alabama reconstruction meetings
are held, attended by the best men
in the state; and in Tennessee the
Democrats have issued comica1
"Brownlow catechism," whose OBJ
ject is to persuade the colored peo-
pie that Brownlow, and not the Dem
ocratic party, is their great enemy
that they ought to vote the Demo
cratic ticket.
Now that the colored men are to
vote, they suddenly assume great
Importance to the white politicians
in the South. That is all right, and
as it should be. The Reconstruc-
ton act has worked wonders LII sub
DUNG hatred and establishing kind
ness, toleration and forbearance.-
Under it negroes, who were SIX
months ago to be forever excluded
from the polls, are, in almost every
southern state, taking part in the
political convention of both parties,
and addressing not only their own
people but the whites; and some OF
the Journals which but little while
ago prophesied war of races, now
relate with pleasure what well-con-
Quoted and useful citizens are the
blacks of the South.
We wish President Johnson, who
has sometimes twaddled about the
coming "war of races - would take
a lesson from the change of sentl-
ment and feeling in the southern
states, consequent upon the Con
gressional act comforting upon the
negroes the right to vote. 1t is al
ways time for public man to learn,
and Mr.. johnson may learn from
this that his fears were groundless
and if he thinks the matter out, he
must come to the conclusion that to
make suffrage general and equal was
the only way to avert war OF races,
and to establish at once peace, quiet,
and a general good understanding.
We recommend the same lesson
to some of the Republican politi-
clans, who have blamed the Evening
Post for demanding, in season and
out, universal suffrage. Ignorance
may be dangerous to the state or
the city, but the way to cure igno-
rance is not to make it helpless and
dependent upon the more fortunate,
but to give it responsibility and
power, which will train the ignorant
to thoughtful ways; and when the
ignorant vote it will be to'the inter
est of the educated to provide, IN
selfdefense, schools for all. In the
southern states already we hear of
state schools for the blacks-which
were never spoken OF with patience
until the blacks were made voters
Ne7r York EreninQ Post.