The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-13
-AnthropophagI,
Whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders.
The South as a Field for Missionary
Labor.


From the Times
The [proselytizng process is not to be con-
fined to legislation. The Reconstruction law
provides for the governmental reorganization
of the Southern States according to method
which is deemed essential to the future safety
of the Union. Who shall vote and who shall
not-who shall be eligible to Office and who
excluded from it-are points for which Con-
grcss has adequately provided. How the
voters shall exercise their privilege-for whom
they shall vote and with what party they shall
affiliate-are matters not so readily reached
by law. The means by which opinion may be
moulded and managed, therefore, require con-
sideration, and Congress has not overlooked
them. Besides availing itself of the wide
range of Office and emolument as a motive
power, it has created machinery for the
special purpose of manufacturing public
opinion. 1t has devised a new method of
instruction-an altogether novel plan Of diff
fusing radical ideas, for the advantage of the
radical party, without troubling the radical
pocket. 1t has called into existence class of
newspapers having no commercial basis, and
no legitimate expectation of success, but which
are 10 De SQDSlulZed 10 lue paying pOfuI lIOul
sources designated by Congress.
Successive Administrations have had success
sive organs at the Federal capital-journals
which have faithfully, and often proftably,
served the Executive of the day. and have
quietly dropped into the grave on the retire
ment of their patron to private life. The exact
value of organs - we have never been able
to comprehend. In this country, however,
they seem to be considered sort OF neces-
sary appendage to high Office, just as in Eng
land the test of gentility is the running OF
gig So, in its turn, Congress having decided
to indulge in the luxury OF organs at the
South. has provided munifcent largess for
the support of newspapers which the people
among whom they are printed Wll not re-
spect, will not even read, but Whlch VIII earn
their money by a persistent promulgation
of the extreme radical doctrine. These news
naners in fact, are a part of the radical
Scheme of missionary effort at the South, with
tbis pleasant proviso-that their conductors
shall run none of the risks of person or purse
which usually mark the missionary career and
make it honorable.
Still there is anxiety about the freedmen's
vote. The law may fail to squeeze things into
the proper shape and though Congress may
easily furnish newspapers, neither by resolu-
tion nor enactment can it compel the people
to read or believe them. Something more is
requisite; something that shall without fail
secure the freedmen at the polls to tour
party.p More missionaries are to be called
into requisition. Oral instruction is to be
provided for that large crowd who cannot read
oral appeals are to be employed to reach the
growing multitude who have no faith in
'orggnsg' Senator Wilson is to lead the way
and others are to follow. We had hoped that
Mr.. Wilson'S comparative moderation would
opento him wide field of usefulness in the
South, but his experimental beginning in Vir-
ginia dissipates the expectation. 1t is plain,
Judging of him by his reported addresses, that
he goes to do the extreme radical work. He
starts in no catlf0lic or national spirit, but
simply as a partisan; and as he is, 50 will be
his brethren in the work. .a.
Now missionary scheme in the interest
of the whole Union might be servoeable in