The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-03-15
CHI A RI ES TON.

CHARLE E STON.
FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH Is, 1867.
UNIVERSAL suFFRAGE-oUR DUTY.
sWo have said that our duty was neither easy nor
pleasant, but we will say now that never was duty
more clear and imperative. For more than two
centuries We the free white race have had control
and possession of this beautiful Southern land.
What we have made of it tho world has seen. Our
b;tterest enemy cannot write the history OF fhls |
republic without recording our contribution TO It's
fame and to its fortunes. We have added to the
wealth OF its agriculture and to the spread OF its
con,merco-upon tho sea and upon the land our
tercsts -,nd i'll every department. of the countrys
service Southern intellect and Southern patriot
ism have vindcated their full equality. How do
We believe that such combination, SO essential a
p,rt of Tho history and life Of this nation can be
annihilatcd by an act of unwise legislation? Do
we believe that tho enranchised freedmen can
take our place? Did our boasted superiority de-
pend only on the force by which maintainedit or
was it due to our intellect, our education, our
wealth, and to the supreme instinct OF our race
Because wo have been defeated in struggle
4C6SoASS3
ance unsurpassed, have we no future Are manly
submission and despair the same virtue So far
from it. it to that now if ever, is the test
and strain Of Southern Oh haracter;-now is the time
to prove that We have both the wisdom and the
resolution to control even such m issue fo-
good;-that we are indeed:an essential part and
parcel Of that Union from which We are forbidden
to separate, and that to will the country be finally
indebted for the safe solution OF this dangerous
problem. Let us reconect that the world, most
unjustly, but almost universally, believed that We
were the oppressors of the negro, and the whole
world was against us. Let the North make us not
the oppressor, but the rival of the negro and the
whole world viii be with us. More certainly Will
this be the case if we prove, as we can if We will,
that we are his friends, and that if under this new
dspensation he is to advance at all 1t viii only be
depending on our support. Let US look at our
condition dispassionately.
Six years ago we inaugurated revolution in
which we failed. We were met with strength
and resolution we did not anticipate. The
Union we attempted to destroy had a hold upon
the affections and interest Of the whole Northern
people which we had not measured, and, after
fighting as long we could, we surrendered. A
moro complete surrender history has not record
ed. Our conquerors did not appreciate either the
temper of our resistance the spirit Of our sur
render. They had gone through great peril and
they resolved to prevent, If possible, such risk
for the future. As the most efective means to
! thai end they, emancipated our slaves and gave
them the right Of suffrage. They believed thean-
tagonistic interest Of the two races and the auDe
rior number of the blacks would secure the poiti-
cal preponderance Of loyal sentiment in the fu-
turo political action Of the South, and, that safe
guard secured, they offer MS restoration to the
Union. We waive altogether any discussion Of
the constitutional character OF this course of poll
cys With their constitution We honestly confess
we do not see just now what We have to do They
claim to treat conquered territories and
against that claim we can, at this moment make
no practical argument. Restoration to the Union
is to us matter of vital Importance It relieves
us from military government; it secures us repre-
scntation; it offers capital; it renews our indus
try, and promises us relief from such condi-
ton of utter prostration as, perhaps, no people
were ever yet reduced to and lived. Is the condi-
ton Of uniy ersal suffrage which accompanies this
restoration worse in it's consequences than the
evils under which we now suffer- Under the
present condition Of things let ms see ---. ",
l. What is the interest Of the freedmen !? There
is not an intelligent freedman who does not know,
to-day, as well as the wisest Of white men that
the government Of this State cannot be put into
| that the laws which protect his person and pro-
perty could not be administered; that the trade
and agriculture which supply the profits Of his
business could not be continued; that the teacher
who teaches his children, the physician who heals
him in sickness, the clergyman who breaches to
him, would be forced to suspend their operations.
Ee knows, far better than his Zealous Northern
friends, that, giving him everything he could ask,
he must for years be dependent upon the white
man, or he must degenerate into barbarism. The
very feld-hand comprehends that white credit and
| cash must for some time yet supply his clothes,
his molasses, and his bacon. The freedman then
understands this that for the present he must
depend upon the white man either the South
ern man whom he knows, or the Northern man
whom he is yet to know. The freedman
possesses, also, very strong local attachment
he does not want to go'to Liberia he wants to
live and thrive in CarolinA, and he knows that the
| ruin Of the State is his ruin. He mowsHthat he
cannot is as afteoat ttfse
Northern men win take his place. He knows that
he has in these United States to; live with white
men az friends or as enemies and in this city the
colored laborer. the draymen and stevedores have
eoen enough before the war to know that, II they
force the immigration OF white laborers TO compete
with them, they must go to the wall They know; ;
that antagonism with the white race is not their
safety; so Ear they have manifested none; and it
would be most unreasonable in us to assume or to
compel it. OF course there viii be exceptions
there will be vain people: among the freedmen as
there are vain people among the whites, who fanry
they can do great many things until they try.
But the surest cure is to let them try. We Ger
tainly can afford them fair field of composition.
2. What is our interest 4, IN the place Of the
freedmen now made voters, We had an equal
white population and country in which they Could
live, the problem would not be so difficult But R|
these freedmen could suddenly be converted Into
white immigrants, ignorant Of our language, unac-
customcd to our modes Of labor, unable to i've
and work in our climate would we be much better
of In this population we. have people singu- |
larly docile and ofensivolaw abiding, not given
to riot Or violence, thoroughly trained in helabor
We ncid, and warmly attached to the sol We must
cultivate. The RELATE 1s existing between us md
them are old, kindly, and in some respects very |
strong. We have gone through Ave. years Of trial |
with with them sueh aa no laborine populstion were
eyer subjected TO- The influence We have With
them began with the cradle, and in this genera
hon wi viii end only with the grave Todaya thair
interests are Identical with ours, and SO n,anlv.
that however bad and selish men NAV trv b, a.,