The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-05-06

II
make. prompt remistanees.- A great many OF
these accounts have been standing for a year
and more, and 1t is absolutely necessary noW
that they should be paid, ,.,...- 80
r.. -. SENATOR WILSON. -.
Senator; WILSON has come, and Senator
WILSON has. gone ..4.!With the blessing Of God'
and the Rev. Mr.. FRENCH he has carriet out
the resolution which he says he made many
years ago to spsaf iiIilssthess States" where the
right, of free speeohvass sso.long denisd4o him
and men of his creed, He spoke; Enthusiastically,
we hope, to HIMSELF There are some topics
less agreeable than others. it requires rare
TACT as well as real generosity to rejoice over
great victory without undue exnltatioh over
the conquered. and perhaps Mr.. WILSON might
have spared sermons which he found
in the ruins with which he he vas susrounded.
But when.sHs think Of the past---wher we
recall thsi animosity (which pre-
ceded the war, and Of which we in this State
haveg always regarded Nj. W1!sor as pre-
eminent repregsntatsiveA7when we reflect on
the many themes Of Irritation and yindlictiye'
lrtRuhbtph' aapoaikhA at:bsd nsassstaodhah
man might on suoh an. occasion, have, e1patiaa-
ted, Ne must do Mr.: WILSON the justice to say
that OF: the whole his speech was temperate,
|iand, from hispomt of view. not unfair; /.
That South Carolina has been; the leader,
,SYhA ~a,-,, a hlo 1oodar of
public opinion at the south1-;that. Mr.. CALHOUN
was the great thinker who gave shape to the
theory of State rights (which Ras put in issue
in the late civil contest, is true. And when
Mr.. WILSON feels .and says "the men of tile
South exhausted her resources, sent their
young;men to battle-felds, and made sacrifices:
that cannot bat vim the respect of the world,
the Southern soldiers fought with heroic
xssl6t On morsstIian six hundred fields" we can
fpsfdol,i although we regret that he 'feh,'it ne
Sssssary to Sdd athat slavery sank into; a
traitors grave and left . traitors name in the
history of the Republic" Mr.. WILSON must
take another step forward m the path Of just
appreciation Of those With whom he has fought
We believe that he and those wi.h whom he
acts will. take it. He must learn to believe,
that, these sacrifices and that valor which be
recognizes have not cast delusive spleldor
around ;treas9n;;'' but that they were the out
ward expression Of an inward. conviction Of p
duty as sacred as that which sustained him and:
his colleagues in their devotion to the ,Union.
fHs must Believe that the South fought well be-
cause the: South thought she was fighting 'for
the right, And when he: reaches that point he
viii find it easy to understand, not only how
we maintained what we believed to be the
arpthl through all that dark nha; doubtful q
i;tt is;ttruiSgle, il but how we have honestly and man
fully met the consequences of failure, and how
espirit of theiwAole people, which, in, 1860,
you'd not compromise with danger, will not
| in 1867, attempt to compromise with defeat
t5Weam4randeredas we fought, and whenever
,ehe teaders Of the Republican party will trust
tus,. they can safely trust the future Of that
&United America. which is the, profsssed
object of their loye..y: 'f....s..;i :, '.i...-
.:hon, those PORTIONS Of his speech which were
| specially addressed to the freedmen we win
| not now comment But we will say this. Nartht
arm. statesmenmnst not complain of hedistinc-
| ton between black citizens and white citizens
when they themselves are continually. appeal
ing;to itTwhen nc: Northern orator, no, North
ern ,press eyer refers to the colored vote except
as something distinct from and antagonfstic to
the white vote. Mr:. WILSON may say that he
had a right to call upon $4,000 voters to make
tha platform. upon which DO, 0eomay join them.
But: he knows better: He knows that the
wealth, The interest, the character Of the ooun-
| try belong to that minority Of 10000, and that
it must govern in Massachusetts or in South
Carolina-that the hopes, the prosperity OF the
10000 depend, because the laws Of society
make them depend upon the 10000, and not
even the. .e1igences Of party campaign can
justify q man of Mr.: WILSON'S position in
obscdring thistr truth. When the laws have pro-
vided that no man shall be oppressed in person
or property, that every man shall have the
right to- speak and vote as he pleases, then the
laws have done all they can do, and to attempt
the union and control Of 6O,0OO black votes
because they are black is as unjust and, idle as
to combine O,O00 white votes because they are
white. -
We would not, however, have thought it ne
cesssry to express any very strong difference
of opinion with Mr.. WILSON for anything said
IN his speech upon the Citadel Green. We
would have preferred that certain phrases
should have been omitted. and certain PROPOSE
tions limited in their somewhat dangerous gen.
erality. But M. WILSON was not speaking to
us nor specially in our interest, and we should
have let his speech pass as one Of the notice
able signs ofthe times, and hoped that he pass
ed through the country his views would have
become wider and that he would have returned
home with better and kinder opinions of that
Southern people among whom he had come for
the first time.
But Mr.. WILSON made another speech
speech at the Hibernian Hall to mass meet
ing OF. negroes, and, if correctly reported, he
said on that occasion some things which we
cannot pass over without protest. Without
giving the precise language, we refer to the
declaration of the orator that he had heard
that it was the intention of the planters to dis
charge from their employment such freedmen
as either registered themselves or exercised
their privilege of suffrage-that if this was
so, he pledged himself to obtain the passage of
an act which should punish any such attempt
by confscation of the lands of such en-
ployers, and their distribution among the |
freedmen so discharged. Language like this |
is unworthy of any man holding 80 response |