The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-11-09

Such, to-day, may be practically the condition oi
ten States of the American Union. But are we pre-
pared to endorse these proceedings and engraft 30
monstrous proposition into our governme ntal
policy? That is the question that The people ol
the North, as well as the South, are called upon
to consider. The great object OF laws, OF consti-
tutons, and OF government, is to protect the weak
against the strong to shield ninorities against
the encroachments OF majorities. 1t is political
aphorism that majority con protect itself. Ac-
ting by the sheer exercise of arbitrary power, q
majority may, for q time, set at naught all laws
within these States-it may enforce obedience to
military DEGREES, from which there is no appeal
it may administer a purely military government
according to its own will, and as such it must be
obeyed. But when we are called upon to sanction
such government as being in accordance with the
constitution and the laws, we have right to test
the question according to the rule proposed and TO
withhold our assent. We admit the fact that mar
tial law exists in South Carolina, but do not ad
NIT the principle that martial law has the right to
impose civil government upon us without our
consent. Far be it from us to raise facuous op-
position to the Reconstruct ion Acts of Congress.
We believe that those acts and the measures they
propose are destructive, not only to our consltu-
tional rights but to our social peace. With us ii
is not question OF party, nor OF political power
We care nothing for these things. We are quite
willing that others should enjoy all the hon
ors; all the emoluments of office. all the
pomp and circumstance of place. What we
desire Is peace-not the semblance of peace,
but the substance of peace-peacc at our
own hre-sides and throughout all our borders We
desire peace to enable us to build up our waste
places, our temples OF worship, our sacked and
ruined cities now lying in ashes, our dismantled
dwellings, and our PROSTATE credit. We desire
peace for its own sake; for its holy Christian in
fuence, and for the civilization and refinement
which spring up in its path. Do the reconstruc-
ton acts of Congress propose to give us this
peace No, they give us war and anarchy, rather.
They s.w the seeds of discord in our midst, and
place the best interests Of society into the hands
of an ignorant mob. They disfrancblse the white
citizen and enfranchise the newly emancipated
slave. The slave of yesterday, who knew no law,
but the will Of the MASTER is to-day about to be in
vested with the control Of the government. In all
popular governments, the two great sources OF
ballot. I'd. To the franchise of the jury box. In
vest any people with these two great powers. and
they have at once the government OF the country
in their hands, BY the reconstruction acts of Con-
gress, these powers are conferred upon the negro
he can make and unmake the Constitution and the
laws which he will administer according to the
dictates of others, or his own caprice.
We are not uniriendly to the negro; on the con-
trary We know that we are his best friends. While
he occupied the position OF slave, he was pro-
tected by the laws according to his condition in
life. And now that he has been made free we are
not only willing to confer upon him every civil
right, but TO protect HIM in the full and free en-
joyment of those rights. In his property, in his
black man and the white man shall stand together
upon tho same PLATFORM and be shielded by the
SAME equal laws. We vesture the opinion that
the people Of South Carolina are prepared to
adopt as their own the Constitution of any New
England or other Northern State, wherein it is
supposed that the civil rights of the negro are
most fully and amply secured. But upon ques-
tion involving such grave and monentous issues,
we should be untrue to ourselves and ulfair to
our opponents, were we to withhold the frank and
full expression OF our opinions. we, therefore,
feeling the responsibility of the subject and the
occasion, enter our most solemn protest against
the policy of investing the negro with political
rights. The olack man is what God and nature
and circumstances have made him. That he ls
not fit to be invested with these important rights
all that the negro is utterly untitled to exercise
the highest functions Of the citizen. The govern
ment of the country should not be permitted to
pass from the hands OF the white man into the
hands of the negro. The enforcement OF the Re-
construction Acts by military power, under the
guise of negro voters and negro conventions, can
not lawfully reestablish civil government in South
Carolina. It may for time hold us in subjectlon
to Q asi civil government, backed by military
torce but il can do no more. AS citizens OF the
United States, we should not consent to 1--we under
negro supremacy, nor should We acquiesce IN ne
gro equality. Not for ourselves only, but on be-
half OF the Anglo-Saxon race and blood in this
country, do we protest against this subverslon OF
Of the great social law, whereby an ignorant and
depraved race is placed in power and influence
above the yirtuous, the educated and the refined.
By these Acts of Congress, intelligence and virtue
are put under foot, while ignorance and wee arc
lifted into power.
In South Carolina, the negro majority, under
the Reconstruction Acts, is much more than two
TO one. In most Of tho other Southern States,
the negro majorites if not so great are almost as
decided. Iu those States where the white vote is
il. the ascendant, the election districts have been
so arranged as to take the political power from
the white vote and cast it in favor of the negro
vote. What, then is the inevitable result? 1t in
vests the negro with absolute political power in
each of the ten Southern States, and at the same
time invests him with the balance OF power IN the
United States. Nor is this all-the reconstruc-
ton scheme closes the ballot box against the best
informed and educated classes in the community,
and opens it to the negro. OF whom not more than
one IN hundred can read word, and not more
than one in five hundred can write his name and
multitudes OF whom are SO profoundly ignorant, as
to be unable to remember the names by which
they have been registered. Verify. this seems to
be converting popular Government, OF which we
have been so justly proud, into popular farce
and we would be content so to consider It, II 1t did
not involve the issue of life and death to the form
of Government established by our fathers for the
benefit OF themselves and their posterity. II the
object of the framcrs of the Reconstruction Acts
was to degrade the southern people, it is time for
them to consider whether the degradation may
not be brought TO their own doors-whether
the poisoned cup may not be returned TO
do not the Southern people accept the situa-
ton and control the negro element? This
question is much more easily asked than an
swered. In The first place, it may be said that the
influence Of the corrupt and intriguing demagogue,
who will appeal to passion and prejudice. has
the excited and ignorant mob, than the wisest
counsels OF the best f1ierds. Besides the fOun-
dation stone upon which Republican Govern
ment rests is, that the elect We franchise is to be
exercised by Free intelligent and unbiased
Judgment and whenever it Is admitted that this
franchise Is to be controlled, or, in other words,
to be made the subject OF undue influence and OF
bribes then, too, it must be admitted that Repub-
lican Government is at an end and must, sooner OF
later give way to such other Government as may
be forced upon q depraved and already corrupted
people. But if it is proposed in advance to place
the enfranchised negro under control, why confer
the franchise at all Surely, the part OF wise gov
ernment is to prevent the evil, and not open the
door tc the mischief which othors are admonlshed
they must be prepared, by trick or management
to avert. But why press the subject further? II
is enough for us to know that this wild and reck
less experiment comes home to the hearth-stOne
Of every citizen, and involves family ana property
society," liberty, and oven life itself. Nor is this all
The courts of Justice dragged into the mire from
their high position; our most intelligent white cit
zens are excluded from the jury while the Ignorant
negro is elevated to that responsible position; the
Jury lists are made up from the lists OF registered
voters, which, as We have said, are more than two
to one in favor of the negro. Not only, be it re-
membsred, is the negro admitted to the inry-hoy
but the white man is excluded thcrefrom. Think
you that whes the great masters Of the common
law OF England pronounced their enoonlium upon
the trial by jury, that they contemplated for mo-
ment such an instrument as an ignorant negro
panel Think you that when the trainers OF the
| Constitution OF the United States incorporated
into that instrument the provision that the tria
by jury should always be held inyolate, that they
| intended 10 engraft upon II such all enormity as
negro jury1nen, fresh from the cotton and rice
| fields Of the South? Think you that when John
Rutledge and his illustrious compeers signed that
instrument on the part Of South Carolina, that
they intended to forge chain which, in period
no longer than an ordinary lifetime, would drag
their grandchildren (who wero then playing
around their knees, and some Of whom arc now
ving), for trial before ry OF their own slaves
! Talk OF additional Illumination, talk of oontsca
ton, complain OF clemency to rebels, after thus
| God forbid! The Government of tho United
States has enforced against the Southern
| Ia If aoDbcnatinr