The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-10


ground that the meetings at which they were
chosen were not regularly called, the thing be-
comes doubly absurd. If the convention was
literal mass meeting, any one had rlgnt 10
come in. If 1t was not, then the hlonulonu
mob should have been kept out. It's OBVIOUS
that the managers of such schemes are aosu-
ated more by thirst for once than Dy SIN
cere desire for the public good.
The evil that may result from such
narrow minded policy is almost inoaloulable.
1t is of the utmost Importance that large
portion of the white electors should cooperate
with the colored people in support of the Re-
publican party. There is scarcely O State
except South Carolina, which can be controlled
by the colored vote alone for more than two or
three years. Certainly Virginia is not one of
that class. The white voters will constitute a
majority whenever they choose to act together.
and they will probably increase far more
rapidly than the others. immigration will
soon flow in that direction; and this, of course,
will be exclusively white and in great part
unfriendly to the colored people. To reject
the profered alliance of large class of respect
able white residents, and to deny them their
fair share of influence and position, is an act
of short-sighted folly that will react severely
upon the freedmen, if they are ever persuaded
to commit it. They ought not to be SubServient
to their white neighbors, nor to submit to
their dictation in political matters; but when
cooperation of both races upon fair and equal
terms, it is the duty and the interest of the
colored people to accept it, and those are not
their sincere friends who throw obstacles in
the way.
The South Carolina Republican Convention
adopted (among other things a aresolution favor
ing the greater subdivision of landed property,
which has excited some unfavorable comment,
on the ground that it was intended to open the
way for confscation. Our views upon that point
need no repetition; but in order to compre-
hend the motives for resolution of this kind
it is necessary to know something of the way
in which land is held in the South. I'm
mense tracts, including nearly all that is
really available for cultivation, are held by
men who were, before the war, rich in land
and slaves. All their wealth apart from the
bare soil is swept away, and large proper
tion of them have neither the means nor the
energy to cultivate their waste land.
They hate Yankees and negroes too
bitterly to tolerate the idea of leasing
farms to either of these classes, who
alone have ability to make a profitable
use of it. They are too proud of their terrific
rial possessions to sell any part of them. In
short, they are like the dog in the manger-
they can make no use of the land themselves,
and will not suffer any one else to do so.
Eminent political economists have asserted the
right of the State to interfere in such cases;
and the colored people, without being able to
reason out the matter as fully as Mr.. Mill has
done, have instinctively reached the same con-
clusion;' and most Northern men who have set
tied in the South sympathize with their dis
satisfaction at such wholesale waste.
Confscation is not needed to cure this evil,
nor do we believe that the Southern Republi-
cans will ask for any such remedy. But they
will be very likely to pass such general laws
as will make the possession of large waste
| tracts SO burdensome that the owner will be
very glad to sell them. If in doing this they
act under good advice and pass just and equal
laws for the purpose, they will relieve the
South from great incubus on its prosperity.
If they resort to oppressive and unfair legisla-
ton, they will injure themselves by driving
| away caDital