Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-12-23
JAY EVENING. DECEMBER %. 1867.


advice-lheir arguments sustaining their
theories-th'ir glowing pictures Of the
condition Of the country and their still
more glowing promises for the future,
and scatter them lavish y throughout the
empire. The coarser instruments Of
pressure are not neglected. The mill
tsry "regulata the elections and pre-
serve order. The civil officials represent,
perhaps somewhat urgently, the expec-
tations and wishes Of the Government
their own hopes of preferment depending
largely on their success. And so It hap
pens that universal suffrage in France,
being simply tool in The hands of the
central power--insiead Of an indepehd-
ent expression Of the intelligent popular
will-has founded and sustains one Of
the most arbitrary and despotic govern
ments in Europe,
The negro vote in the Southern States
is exactly adapted to the same kind Of
management At the very lowest esti-
mate it constitutes one-third of the pop
ular vote of the Southern States, and is
thus, in skillful hands, weapon of suf-
6cient power to control them. The me-
groes now admitted TO tho suffrage are,
as body, utterly ignorant-unable to
read the ballots they are empowered to
cast-wholy inexperienced in public
affairs-i7napeble Of foreign and provi-
dent y -pafs.. - ( zen for their own fu-
ture, aud far more incapable of any re-
gard whatever for the future Of the State
or the nation--accustomed to obey orders
they receive from others, and taught, by
precept and experience, to regard with
dstrust and anmosty the community in
which they live. Naturally and almost
inevitably they look to some outside
source for their instructions; and Of
course they do not look in vain.
An executive committee of the Radical
party in Congress has taken charge Of
this matter, and has virtually taken
charge of the negro vote of the Southern
States. 1t does precisely for that vote
what the agents OF the French Emperor
do for the peasantry vote throug hout
France, and by very much the same
appliances. 1t prints documents and
scatters them throughout the South. 1t
employs agents, lecturers and mission
aries of its own views among the negro
voters. And through its al lance with
the dominant authority in the Govern
ment, it has quite as complete command
of the military authority, which is now
supreme in the Southern States, and OF
the agents and subordinates Of the
Freedmen's Bureau, as the French
Emperor has of the Projects and other
officials of the empire.
We find in the Rochester Express a
somewhat detailed statement of the cpe-
rations of this committee, which we copy
in another column OF the Times as mat
ter of general interest. 1t seems that
during the eight months from April to
December of the present year, this com
mittee has collected from members and
employees of Congress and from other
sources the m of $42 673, and has dis
bursed $39, l53-the most of which has
been devoted to The employment Of ofagents
to organize, discipline and instruct the
negroes of the Southern States in voting.
They have employed directly in this work
one hundred and seventy persons,
besides aiding through local committees
as many more. But the most effective
agency in the prosecution Of the work
they have undertaken is that of the secret
Loyal Leagues, which, under the direc-
ton of the central authority, have ex-
tended their organiz zed and secret op ra-
tions into every section of the South, and
have contributed more than anything
else to the consolidation of the negro
vote. This effort has already been
attended with very great degree of sue
cess. The committee count upon that
vote as sufficient to secure, first, the
nomination, and next the election, of a
Radical Republican President.
In summing up the work of the cam
pagn and in estimating its future results,
il will be noted that the writer in ques-
ton arrays the whites and blacks against
each other in all the South, and assumes
that the political contests of the South
ern States are to be hereafter mainly
conflict of races Wherever the blacks
preponderate, he takes for granted an
easy and signal victory for the Repub-
lican party. Wherever the whites are in
a msjoritv, as in Virginia, he thinks The
Dork ciH be difficult" The Republican
party of the nation is thus to be identi-
fed With the colored vote of the Southern
States. This is the direct and inevitable
tendency of the labors and efforts of the
Congressional Com mittee. When il shall
have been tho oughly accomplished, if
any indications Of popular sentiment can
be drawn from the tate elections, it seems
probable that the Republican party toi
lose every considerable Northern State. |
The Commi tee is doing its work well, |
1t evinces great energy, sagacity, and |
devotion in the prosecution of the spe-
cihc object for which it has been called
INTO existence. By its superior vigor,
resolution, and activity, it has completely
,uperHeded and reduced to insigni6canp,, /
he Matt nal Union and Republican
Committee appointed by the Baltimore
in 1864, i seems also to |
rave entirely oversli liadowed that Com !
nittee in detD',Ig the scope and aims of |
party ac''.on. Whether it has fixed those
NM and objects more wisely than the |
Baltimore Convention did-whether it is
up and strengthening the Union
party as a national organization by |
Identifying its fortunes with the colored /
rote, remains for the future to disclose.
-Ne0 York Rep } Times.