The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-20
The Vote of the Southern Blacks.

From The World
Since the decree of an omnipotent and in
fallible Congress had invested the black race
with the inestimable privilege of the right of
suffrage which seems, both in the Old and in
the New World, to be considered panacea for
earthly ills, it was well that those most closely
touched by this great change in the political
fabric should endeavor to turn the new
element to useful purposes; that they should
strive to eliminate its evils, and to extract
whatever of good it may contain. The South
is, of course, vitality interested in the matter.
Both her social and her political future are
involved in the working of the gigantic expert
ment. The promptitude and the energy with
which her leading minds have adapted them
selves to the new order of things, and grappled
with the difficulties and dangers so suddenly
thrust upon them, show that they appreciate
the gravity of the crisis, and give hopeful
earnest of the future. They indicate an
elasticity of mind and irmness of courage
which, rising superior to the pressure of hostile
legislation and of financial and industrial pros
tration, are alike admirable in themselves and
proof of the existence of those civic virtues
which lie at the basis of all real self-govern-
ment.
Yet, though most deeply and Immediately,
the South is not exclusively, concerned in the
operation of black suffrage. The influx of so
powerful a disturbing force cannet fail to be
felt in the political dynamics of the whole
country.
For the common welfare of all the members
of the Union 1t is, then, essential that the
important functions cast upon the blacks
should be used in the mode least detrimental
to the purity.of our institutions. All CON
siderations of party gain or loss sink into in
significance compared with the existence of
! fundamental principles. The temporary
ascendancy of one set of political dOgmas will
probably, in the changes of a comparatively
brief period, be followed by the triumph of
their opposites, and the mischievous results
of one system of policy be corrected by the
! adoption of the remedies prescribed by the
contrary school of political doctors. A per-
! manent debasement of political functions, or
! social war between races, would admit no
! such cure, and strike to the very heart of our
republican system.
Utterly regardless however, of all nobler
| considerations, and anxious only to perpetu-
ate their power, the radicals have effected
the most sweeping change ever introduced
into political organization. To govern the
whites OF the South by means of the blacks,
to array the two races in enduring hostility to
each other, and to vest the control of intel
hgence, education, and property in the
hands OF Ignorant freedmen, manipulated by
cunning demagogues, was the evident aim Of
the radical legislation, is the aim of the Re-
pubieani Committee in its address 'to the
Republicans OF the Union, - and the scarcely
concealed purpose of the brawlers like Kelley
whom they are sending through the South
ern States. Some, perhaps, were and are
not conscious of such motives; but iden.
tifyiDg, as they do, loyalty patriotism, and
'every virtue under Heaven, " with fidelity
to their party, they naturally looked with
complacency ON any measures intended 10 pro-
long its rule
There was great plausibility in the theory