The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-29

have been kept down to a slender margin. Of
the registered voters the excess of whites was
less than $4,000 We have only to suppose
half this number radicals, to neutralize the
conservative vote. The voting strength of the
radicals is doubtless much greater, so that. with
the consolidated negro vote, they would have
carried the Convention, however perfect might
have been the unity among the conservative
whites.
We think that the Richmond ENQUIRER which
stithy advised inaction, evinced more sagacty
than the Richmond Wing, which oounselled
all the registered whites to vote. There was
no possibility of beating the radicals if the
full negro vote was polled; and the most effec-
tive mode of opposition would have been total
abstention. The Convention cannot, in any
lust sense, be considered as deliberatiye
body. 1t must act under the coercive dictation
of Congress; and unless it wishes its work
rejected Ca case in which it would be idle for
it to assembly,, it must reach foregone con-
clusion. It's only choice will be as to the
phraseology in which it will couch the Con-
gressional requirement TO make the negro in
habitants of the State equal to the white. The
wording being of little consequence, and the
substance dictated beforehand, there was no
good reason why conservatives should vote,
unless in the hope of defeating the Convention.
1t would have been wiser to surrender the
whole business to the negro party, whose ex-
travagance, when acting without any check,
might lead them into blunders which would
recoil to their disadvantage.
But inaction stands upon reasons which will
not hold good when the work of the Conven-
tion comes to be submitted for ratification.
The registered conservatives of Virginia will
be inexcusable if they do not turn out in full
strength to vote down the new constitution.
Very likely they will not succeed; certainly
they will not unless the Convention falls into
blunders that disgust part of the white
radicals. Still it is important, in reference to
the public opinion of the North, that the ma
jority by which the new constitution is adopted
shall be pitifully small; and the Virginia con-
servatives can undoubtedly make il so. II
will then only be necessary to subtract the
total vote against the constitution from the
whole number of registered whites to find how
many whites favored ratification. oompari-
son of the white votes for with the white votes
against, will show how Overwhelmingly it
would have been repudiated if submitted only
to those fairly entitled to vote upon it. The
whites who stay away from the polls in so
important crisis as the ratification will be
considered as Indifferent, and the moral effect
of the vote will be impaired or lost the whites
who vote aye shall bear considerable pro-
portion to the whites who vote no.
The protest of Mr.. Gilmer against the va
ldity of the election i'll Richmond strikes us.
at this distance, as amounting to nothing be-
y
Gilmer's law points may be well taken, but
they will have no weight with the tribunal to
which he addresses them. General Schofeld
is accountable only to Congress-; and If he has
exceeded his authority by continuing the cleo
tion one day and part of night beyond the
time when by law it should have closed, Con-
gress will sanction the extension. The supple
mentary act passed at the extra session made
it the duty OF the district commanders 10 con-
strue the law "liberally," with view to fulfil
its objects, and everybody knows that its para
mount object was to secure Republican MAORI
ties in the Southern States.
The extension OF the time so as to get the
whole negro vote in, will never be regarded by
Congress as impairing the validity Of the cleo
tion. Mr.. Gilmer's protest will therefore
accomplish nothing beyond calling public
attention to the points he argues. We appre-
hend that nothing is to be gained by fighting
the reconstruction scheme on mere points of
detail. 1t is of very subordinate consequence
whether the polls at an election remain open
two days or three, or whether the thirty days
notice required to be given includes the whole
three Such points do not touch the sub
stance of the controversy. Unless universal
negro voting and partial white disfranohise-
ment can be successfully resisted, it signifies
little how the details of the elections are
managed.
This election in Virginia foreshadows the
future politics of the State and of the South
under radical ascendancy. The most potent
and influential man in Virginia politics at pre-
sent is the notorious Hunnicutt, a violent
demagogue of the Parson Brownlow pattern.
All the Southern States will be surrendered
into the hands of vulgar, rabid dictators of the
same stamp, if the negro experiment succeeds.
Hunnicutt is opposed to every liberal measure
of State policy, because such measures would
make inroads into the dominion of Ignorance
where alone men like him can thrive. He op-
poses white immigration into the State, be-
cause the addition of few thousand white
citizens would turn the scale against the
negroes and remand Hunncutt to insignif-
canoe and obscurity. The value of the negro
element in our politics may be estimated by
the kind of men the negroes honor with their
confidence. In proportion as voters are igno
rant and debased they will surrender them
selves passively to the guidance of leaders;
and the lowness of their level may be
measured by the vileness of the men they con-
sent to be led by. The moon-calt Caliban
offered TO worship the drunken Stephano as
god, and asked to lick his shoes Ana the
Virginia negroes, many Of whom forgot at the
polis the names by which they were regis
terered, regard Hunnicutt as their statesman.