The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-30

apathy evinoed by the whites in the previous |
elections left the negroes undisputed masters |
of the situation. Little bad blood was gene |
rated, simply because there was no struggle to
provoke it. Strict passive resistance neither
reused to anger the pride of the whites, nor
stimulated to intemperance and insult the
strength of the blacks. On the other hand,
the intensity and comparative closeness Of the
contest in Virginia brought out the passions
OF both parties, and converted the question of
Convention into question of supremacy. 1t
became less a question of reorganizing under
the law than of testing the respective degrees
Of power, and settling the political status OF
the races And since the upshot has been
inimical to the dominating desires of the
whites, and more than satisfactory in regard
to the pretensiOns of the blacks, we may
expect TO have Virginia and its fate made the
pTeteXt for exciting appeals and bitter denun-
citation, as against the Congressional plan of
reconstruction. The probability is that the
excitement and the bitterness will be based on
partial view of the facts.
The proper time for estimating the future of
the States after reconstruction will not come
until the Conventions shall have entered upon
their work. The spirit and purposes of the
negro element will best be judged when the
majority of delegates have shown their temper
and indicated the ideas on which local govern
ment is to be reorganized. 1t is idle to specu-
late much ON these subjects in advance. For
though it is reported that in Virginia, as well
as in Alabama and Louisiana, negroes have as
a rule elected radical delegates, it may not be
amiss to wait for evidence before assuming
that even negro radicalism means confsca-
ton, wholesale prescription, or anarchy in
any form.
That the blacks of Virginia have in this
election shown a lamentable alienation from
the whites and in many localities have dis
played disposition i'll calculated to inspire
hopes of harmony and peace, are circum-
stances which seem tolerably we'll established
Making allowance for partisan exaggeration
and the hate born of the slave system it is
| clear that incendiaries of the Hunnicutt stamp
| have been actively at work, and that large
amount of mischief has been effected through
| their agency. They have labored o promote
irritation, to excite jealousy and antagonism,
and to inculcate demands to which Senator
Wade, with all his 'jumps forward" " has not
attained. So far as these men have exerted
| influence it has been in a direction at variance
with the order and welfare Of society.
And yet even for this unhappy state of
| things, the Southern whites must be held to
some extent responsible. Their attitude has
too generally been the reverse of cOnoiliatory.
| AS a body they have never recognized the
privileges with which Congress has invested
| the freedmen, nor striven to promote the har-
| mODy they profess to desire. Civil equality
| they conceded reluctantly, and not seldom in
bad faith, and political equality they Obsti-
| nately deny. Resisting reconstruction because
| it cOnfers the suffrage upon negroes, they
| have themselves erected the barriers which
now block up the path of peace, and culti-
| vited the prejudices which threaten to culmi-
| nate in a conflict of races. They have done
| nothing to inspire confidence in their friend
liness-nothing to justify reliance upon their
| cooperation in the organization and conduct of
| government on q foundation of equality.
| Their bearing, in Virginia especially, has been
| that of a superior race, entitled by the grace
| of color to rule in the Republic; their tone and
| tactics those OF men intent upon employing
| the opportunities afforded by the law to defeat
one OF its most obvious ends.
Take the Virginia election as an illustration.
| The blacks voted one way, the whites another.
| Is that evidence that the blacks alone are pur-
suing a course which points to the antagonism
of races The great majority of whites voted
| primarily against a cOnventiOn-that is,
| against reconstruction based upon political
| equality; and secondly, in favor of candidates
| hostile to the newly acquired rights of the
negroes. Is it surprising that the latter voted
solidly against their own degradation and dis
franchisement, and in support of candidates
radically opposed to the old pro-slavery spirit
And is it fair, when deprecating the tenden-
ces of the time, to forget the unwise, illiberal,
and unjust proceedings of the whites, and to
remember only the folly and insolence of the
| blacks
The case is not improved by occurrences
that have transpired since the election. The
Virginia press, incensed at the result, counsel
the adoption of proscriptive measures by
white landowners and employers against
black laborers. system of coercion is re-
commended with ''the view of driving as many
blacks as possible out of the State, and of pun
ishing with starvation those that remain" II
is proposed that white labor be encouraged by
bounties to migrate to the State, with the
two-fold object of supplanting the blacks as
laborers, and of strengthening the voting
power of the whites up to the point OF supre-
macy. Dispatches have announced the inau
guration of this cruel and suicidal policy anc
our Richmond correspondence furnishes add
tional particulars on the subject. According
to present appearances, sort OF industria
war is to be waged against the blacks, because
they dared to exercise the franchise they pos
sess without reference to the will of their EN-
ployers. If this madness be persisted in, vii
it be difficult TO fix the relative responsibility
of white and black for the hostility that MAJ
exist between them?
The truth is that the Southern whites can
not too soon recognize the inevitable result
OF the order of things growing out of the he
bellion. They profess to acknowledge TN
freedom of the blacks as an irreversible fact
and they will struggle in vain to escape it
political consequences. We are not SURPRISED
at their aversion to the universal enfranehise
ment of millions who but yesterday wer
, slaves; but they will gain nothing by shutting
their eyes to its enactment or neglecting th
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