The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-09
A Virginia View.

From ne World
The press of the South is decided in opinion
respecting the course most proper to be pur-
sued in this grave conjuncture. The follow
ing article from the Charlottesville Chronicle
presents view that will more and more pre-
vail, because 1t is founded on a correct e8ti-
mate of the situatiOn:--
There ere three courses for the Legislature to
takC:-1Ie first is to fight. The second is 10
foid arms and DO nothing, The third Is to call
Stale convention.
az the frat il we had any power to make a de-
cent resistance.
Tie question is between the second and third
The thlrd leads TO an acceptance of the cruel
and neIcIless terms imposed upon u.s. The
second leads to the same thing-and to much
The question now is. Who shall get the con-
troll of the state under the new dispensation Of
universal sutfrage-the whites or the blacks?
The provisional government with universal
black and qualified white suffrage, is already
upon us, The court house bells In all the coun-
ties will soon summon white and black alike to
the polls. In addition to this, while the provi-
law in Nirginia-the liberty of every man in the
hands of Federal officers.
1t has been said that we had better have mill
tary law than submit to such degradation as is
implied in the acceptance OF the terms. This
is true ten times over.
But military law is not the alternative. 1t is
military law and negro suffrage and the pros
cription Of our leading men. These three things
come upon us without our lifting finger.
This is not all; there Will be II Convention to
ratify the terms proposed II we stand of,
where is Bolts an d Hunnicutt and Underwood,
and five hundred thousand negroes? They will
have a Convention, and they viii put the State
back in the Union, and they will give us State
constitution. That constitution Will be like
the constitution OF Tennessee; it will perpetuate
the power in their own hands.
There are 10000 whites in Virginia. We can
control the State; we can guide, If cannot
arrest, the storm. And the more rapid our
movements the more complete will be our
mastership Of the situation! Wait-aud walt
and walt, and the radicals viii organize the
negroes against us,
A State Constitution can be framed in literal
compliance with the act OF Congress, which will
take all minor elections from the people
leaving only the Governor, the members of the
General Assembly, and members OF Congress TO
be elected by the popular vote And II may be
that a property ana educational qualification
can be secured as a condition or holding Office
We are, therefore, for a convention-at once.
1t is not worth while TO resist the deluge; the
man who trusts In God VIII build an ark that
| shall float upon the tempestuOus waters.
II is only the weak that are stupehed by the
| blows OF fate. Christians and Anglo -SaXons,
| we must conquer civil order once more. Sui
| eide in a sea of troubles may have been a
Roman, but IL is not "A Christian or an English
| virtue. To do nothing now.is soclalisulclde-lt
| Is despair. - =,
| prospect is, The immediate aim OF our state
| should beto get back into the Union as quickly
| as possible. There we shall be, measuraply, aI
| least, shielded from the radical storm. II we
| stay out much longer, we shall have connsca-
tion added to negro suffrage. There we nave
at least reached resting place; there we can car
get control of our State affairs: there we can
make anotheer state Constitution,
If standing still would keep matters IN
their present posture, the true policy would
be to stand still. But, as the charlottesville
paper torcibly shows, politics will not stand
still IN the State, even if the conservative part
OF the people do. Those who, in the South
and elsewhere, advocate the do-nothing policy,
reason precisely as they would do if the suf-
frage had not, by the new law, been conferred
upon the negroes. Whether there shall be
political action no longer depends upon the
majority of the old voters; that question is
taken out OF their hands by the infamous
enactment oil Congress There is now power
of political movement quite independent of the
white majority. The only choice left them is
whether they will be horse or rider.
If the white majority merely act the part o
, indignant spectators, the States will be reor