The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-12

parts u bAo ea1no hyst9m, each being as
essential 20 the main design as are both
blades Of pair Of shears 70 enable either 70
do its werk. IL is dlagraceful that party aims
should govern the policy Of aConofess ON 40
momentous subject; but the end being once
decided upon, there is no inconsistency In the
double means.
General sickIes makes another objection to
the system of Acknowledgement, which is, in
every view, perfectly well taken and solid.
The DISTINGUISHING clauses will place the Gov
ernments OF the Southern States in hands
totally incompetent to administer them. He
gives as a reason why he has displaced none
OF the State. officers in his district, that the
restriction placed by Congress upon filling
places from the disfranohised classes leaves
him no materials for selection capable Of dis
charging the duties. This statement coming
from source which Republicans have no rea-
son to impeach, ought to arrest their attention.
How are the State Governments to be adminis-
tered after the reorganization, with the dis
franchised classes exoludedi The present
State officers will then be superseded and go
out, as a matter of course. But If General
Sickles cannot find men among those not
disfranchised fit to fill occasional vacancies,
how is whole State Government, with its in
Vulnerable local Offices, to be manned and
equipped by popular eleotiOnY A general in
command feels responsible for the success of
his appointees, and hesitates to fill public posi-
tiOns with men incapable of performing their
duties. But a mass of ignorant negroes,
tickled with the novelty of voting, will feel no
such responsibility or hesitation. Any dema-
gogue bold and pushing enough to get
caucus nomination is sure to command their
votes. Nor can they be blamed for making
bad choice, when the declared ineligibility of
competent men takes away all possibility of
making good one. They may as well vote
for negroes as for whites, when they are for
hidden to vote for any white men whose quail
fcations command their respect The conse-
quence will be, that at the most important
crisis in public affairs the most ignorant and
incapable men in the community will be
charged with their management.
That the State offices will be mostly filled
by negroes is necessary consequence of the
policy of Congress. A premium is put on in
capacity by rendering it alone eligible to Office.
The respect which the negroes should natu-
rally feel for superior abilities being thus de-
stroyed by degrading all men of ability and
experience into political Outcasts, the contests
for offices will be mere sordid scrambles of in
competent men; and where all respect for
abilities is thus abolished by law, the negroes
will scout the idea that their modesty should
restrain them from seeking public positions
for themselves. Forming an overwhelming
majority of the party with which they act,
they will possess the power and claim the
right to elect men of their color to every
Office. Besides the strong attractions which
such places have for white men, they will be
doubly priced by the negroes, first as removing
the badge of inferiority stamped upon them by
their color, and secondly because the emolu-
ments of Office will be tempting advances upon
the wages they can earn in any private en-
ployment.
The necessary result of the negro regime in
the South to which the policy of Congress in
evitably tends is official insolence and white
characterization, leading through countless
broils to universal anarchy. If Congress per-
sists in its absurd reconstruction policy, it can
never safely withdraw its armies. Bad as
military government is, it would be an elysium
in comparison with the intolerable insOlence
of negro rule over the subject whites. The
white population, exasperated to madness by
such degradation, would rise against the
negro Governments and demolish them the
moment external military pressure was with
drawn. They outnumber the negroes almost
everywhere, and although disfranchisement
may reduce them to minority at the ballot
box, it leaves them a majority tor a fight.
The reconstructed Governments, with their
negro officers, will not stand month without
military support. Congressional reconstruo-
tion, instead of ending our troubles, will intro
duce the final act of a terrible tragedy, with
the determination of one race or the other for
its catastrophe.