The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-12-07

recourse to punishment so cruel and I'm
Just would meet with the condemnation OF
all unprejudced and right minded men. -
The punitive justice of this age, and especial
ly of this country, does no. consist in strip
ping whole States of their liberties, and re-
ducng all their people. without distinction,
to the condition of slavery. 1t deals sepa-
rately with each individual, confines itself
to the forms of law, and vindicates its own
purity by an impartial examination of every
case before a competent judicial tribunal
If this does not satisfy all our desires with
regard to Southern rebels, let us console
ourselves by rejecting that free Constitu-
ton, triumphant in war and unbroken in
peace, is worth far more to us and our chill
tlren than the qualification of any present
feeling.
1 am aware it is assumed that this system
of government for the Southern States is
not to be perpetual. 1t is true this military
government is to he only provisional, but it
is through this temporary evil that u great
evil is to be made perpetual. If the guar
antees of the Constitution can be broken
Professionally to serve temporary purpose,
and in u part only of the country, we can
destroy them everywhere and for all time
Arbitrary measures often change, but they
generally change for the worse. 1t is the
curse of despotism that it has no hating
place The intermitted exercise of its pow
er brings no sense of security to its subjects
for they can never know what more they
will be called to endure when Its red right
hand is armed to plague them again. Nor
is ii possible to conjecture how or where
power, unrestrained by law, may seek its
next victims. The States that are still free
may be enslavcd at any moment; for il the
Constitution does not protect all, it protects
none
1t is manifestly and avowedly the object
of these laws to confer upon negroes the
privilege of voting, and to disfranchisc such
IL number of white citizens as will give the
former a clear majority at alle.lections in the
Southern States. This, to the minds of
some persons, is so important, that viola
! ton OF the Constitution is justified as IL
means of bringing it about. The morality
is always false which excuses wrong be-
cause it proposes to accomplish desirable
end. We are not permitted to do evil that
good may come. But in this case the end
itself is evil, rs well as the means The sub
jugation of the States to negro domination
would be worse than the military dcspotism
under which they are now suffering. 1t
was believed beforehand that the people
would endure any amount of military OPP
preston, for any length of time, rather than
|
gro race. Therefore they have been left
without a choice. Negro suffrage was
tablished by act of Congress, and the mill
| tary officers were commanded to superin-
tend the process of clothing the negro race
with the political privileges torn from white
men.
The blacks in the South are entitled to be
well and humanely governed, and to have
the protection of just laws for all their rights
Of person and property. If it were practical
bic at this time to give them government
exclusively their own, under which they might
manage their own affairs in their own way
it would become grave question whether
we ought to do so, or whether common hui
manity would not require lis to save them
from themselves But, under the circum-
stances, this is only a speculative point. 1t
Is not proposed merely that they shall gov
ern themselves, but that they shall rule the
white race, make and administer State laws,
elect Presidents and members of Congress,
and shape to greater or less extent the flu
ture destiny OF the whole country. Would
such a trust and power be safe in such
hands
The peculiar qualities which should char
acteriZe any people who are fit to decide
upon the management of public affairs for
great State have seldom been combined. 1t
had these qualities in sufficient measure to
build upon this continent great political
fabric, and to preserve its stability for more
than ninety years, while in every other part
of the world all similar experiments have
failed. But II anything can be proved by
known facts if all reasoning upon evidence
is not abandoned, it must be acknowledged
that in the progress of nations negroes have
shown less capacity for government than any
other race of people. No independent gov
eminent of any form has ever been success
tul in their hands. On the contrary, where
ever they have been left to their own de-
vices, they have shown a constant tendency
to relapse into barbarism. In the Southern
States, however, Congress has undertaken
to confer upon them the privilege of the
ballot. Just released from slavery it may
be doubted whether as a class. they know
more than their ancestors how to organize
and regulate civil society. Indeed, it is adj
United that the blacks of the South are not
only regardless OF the rights of property, but
so utterly ignorant of public affairs that
their voting can consist in nothing more
than carrying ballot to the place where
they are directed to deposit it. l need not
remind you that the exercise of the elective
franchise is the highest attribute of an Amer
lean citizen, and that, when guided by vir-
appreciation of our free institutions, it con-
stitutes the true basis of u Democratic form of
government, in which the sovereign power
is lodged in the body OF the people. A
trust artiticially created, not for its own
sake, but sNlely as a means of promoting the
general welfare, its influence for good must
necessarily depend upon the elevated char
acter and true allegiance Of the eleetor. 1t
ought therefore to be reposed in none ex-
cept those who are fitted morally and men
tally to administer it well; for ii conferred
upon persons who do not justly estimate its
value and who are Indifferent as to its re-
suits, it will only serve as Il means of placing
power in the hands of the unprincipled and
and must eventuate in the COM
plete destruction Of that liberty of which it
should be the most powerful conservator 1
have therefore heretofore urged upon your
attention the great danger to be appre-
hended from an untinaely extension of the
elective franchise to any new class in our
especially when the large majority
Of that class, in welding the power thus
in ha,,Ja oonnnt ba aynactaH