The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-28
SPIRIT OF TIE PRESS.
RDrroRrAL oPrN1ors OF THE LEADING JouREALs
UPoN CUBRKET ToPIcs-coNPIhED EVERY
Nv Oop rHR EVENING TELEGRAPH.


To- svita of the hostility of Mr.. Johnson and |
a. aoioro, warnings of the Perry school Of
politicians. the work of registration IN the
sontbern States is nearly completed, and un-
1oss revolution or a succession OF earth
,,,alkes or terrible pestilence should occur
,,;,,ir tho next two months, the election of
delegates to the Constitunonal conventions
will take place, and the Conventions will be
beld before the end of the year. If held, the
admission of the States to the Union before
Che close of the next session of Congress is
almost certain. In some districts, perhaps
two or three, the negro voters will be in a
majority. 1t is not improbable that several
NEGROES will sit in the conventions, and 1t is
not impossible that some may be sent to Con- |
oress under the new constitutions. Under the |
new constitutions the great majority of male
adults of all colors will vote at elections.
MANY whites will be excluded for participa-
ton in the Rebellion, but most of them have
sons who have reached manhood since the
Rebellion, and who cannot be disfranchised,
and who will certainly represent their fathers
sentiments at the polls. In other respects the
South will be very much such as the war left
it. or as Mr.. Johnson's policy" would have
made it. Acts of Congress cannot change the
nature of man or the face Of the country or
the climate. The forces by which human So
cloty is 06lQ LOB6JD6r anu lu1pelleu OA lO5
cOurse-the fear of God, the love of money,
love of home and of family and of country,
PRIDE ambition, and patriotism-will remain
lust as active as ever. The sun will shine and
the rain fall, and the rivers will flow and the
cotton and tobacco will grow, just as they did
before the war The negroes will continue to
hoe corn and pick cotton and groom horses
and cut wood after they get votes, for precisely
the same motives which drove them to these
acts before they got votes-the desire
of gain or fear of starvation, 1t was
feared before emancipation that If they we're
emancipated they would pass the entire
day lying ON their backs in the sun. That
this fear was groundess little reflection
would have shown, inasmuch as no provision
is made in this climate either by nature or
legislation for the support of persons passing
their time in that way, and the pangs of hun
ger are fully as uncomfortable for any length of
time by man in a recumbent posture as by a
man moving about on his feet. But il has now
been proved to be groundless by actual expert
ment just as the fear that vast crowds of
negroes would take up their abode in Wash
ington, regardless of the difficulty of support
ing themselves for the mere pleasure of voting
annually for the mayor, has been proved to be
groundless. The regro has not devoted him
self to lying on the ground. He works for his
livelihood on the same economical principles
as the members of the great Anglo-Saxon race
that is, he gives as little labor as possible
for the largest attainable amount of money,
and is found to be, as men go, faithful and in
dustrious. To be sure, he chooses his occu-
patton, and his women refuse to work out o.
doors whenever they can find the means of sup
port indoors; but these Inconvenience are in
separable from all free society. They are
found under every system of government, and
would be found under this Government even
If negroes never voted. So it would be silly
to complain of them; but nobody at the South,
if we are rightly informed, does complain OF
them.
If Southerners were in the habit of reason
ing much, the mistake they confess they have
made with regard to the probable use the
negro would make of his freedom would teach
them caution in drawing their conclusions as
to the use he will make of the ballot. a priori,
it is easy to show that he will abuse it; but a
priori, it was easy to show that he would
lie on his back in the sun sooner than
work. From the total breakdown of this
process with regard to his industrial energy,
is it not fair to infer that it is unsafe TO trust
it with regard to his political sagacity? We
will grant all that is said as to the mortiica-
tion it will be to many Southern gentlemen to
see negroes sharing in the government of the
State; 1t will be notifying no doubt, but then
they have enough good sense to acknowledge
that class can hardly expect its pride to be
shielded against all shock in great social and
political revolution; and the modification con-
ceded, what else is it that Southern conserva-
tives fear
They cannot fear amalgamation as a conse-
quepce of negro suffrage, for two reasons sup
piled by themselves, one of which we think
sufficient; but we observe that Democratic
politicians do not seem to rely on it alone.
The first is that God has forbidden the
mingling of the races; and the second is, that
any natural repugnance to intermarriage, ON
the part of the white race, which exists now,
Will not be removed by the negro's possession
'of the suffrage. When every man votes, q
vote does no more to render man attractive
from matrimonial point of view than his
wearing pair OF pantaloons 1t would be
contrary to all our experience of human nature
II the instincts which lead to marriage were
materially affected by the distribution OF
political power. negro emperor might prove
attractive to white woman of distinction, but
1t would be because he could offer her power.
"A colored man in possession of the two
mililonth part of the national sovereignty
Mu De Just as attractive as colored
MAJ man without any share in it t-n no more
alu Lo, NO less; Dr. Draper, in passage of more
.Sar.os usl a1 profundity in his last work, has
So :. 'nat I when the white and black races
a.tlS - 70 only the white race which is adul-
telS.eu, mnlch Is IKE saying that when whisky
anu "aSoi are mixed II is only the whisky that
~ cnanseu' put the fact is, the learned doc,
tor W sne contrary Notwithstanding, that when
ne IaOes nllhgle, one Is adulterated as much
as tIe osnet, anu according to all the Demo
cIauc PhysloiUglsIs we have had the opnortn
q nity OF consuming, the product of the adnI
. teration-sHat ~, ene mulattoes and other com