The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-18
RanubIicnn Work.

mount 1ntiuenCe WnlC0 tnB Q6leBdJlO0S from
those States will exercise in the Convention.
Republican Work.
From mo N. y. Tribune.
The great work yet to be accomplished to
complete our national renovation is the con
vincing of the masses that State cannot af-
ford o degrade or oppress even the humblest
and most despised of its people. Until this
end is achieved our triumph over the Rebel
lion will be imperfect, and its fruits liable to
turn to ashes on our lips. So long as the laws
of even one State impose disabilities on citi-
zen because of the race whence he sprang, the
color God has chosen to give him, the victories
Of the Union arms will be incomplete, and the
foundations Of the republic unsightly and in
secure.
No proposition is logically more demonstra-
ble than that wrong to any is injury and peril
to all; but when an important truth comes in
conflict with a rooted prejudice, patient, per-
sistent, seltsacrihciDg effort is Indispensable
The Republican party owes its late reverses in
some degree to the corruptiOns of those it has
trusted with power; in part to popular impa-
tience with the slow progress of reconstruc-
tion; in part TO Johnson's treachery; in part
to local feuds and dscontents; but, more than
to any and all of these, TO popular prejudice
them impartially protected and regarded as
citizens by the laws Of the land. We think
this prejudice has cost us more votes than
anything else-perhaps more than all other
adverse influences whatever.
We meet the issue frankly. There are
| wounds whereof the true soldier is proud
| while he suffers-scars which he does not seek
to conceal. There are Americans who were
| quite willing that the negro should march and
| camp and fight for our common country, while
| they stayed at home in comfort and ease, who,
now that the peril is past, would like to deny
| to that negro the common rights of a citizen.
| They would gladly whistle him down the wind
until the time shall come, if it ever does come,
when they shall need his body to stop bullets
that otherwise might disconcert them; then
| they will be ready to give him another chance
| to be killed in their stead. We propose to
| fight this treachery now and ever-to expose
| it, and hold it up to the light, till even base
ness itself shall be ashamed of it. A Copper
head or Rebel, who hates the war for the
| Union, and deplores its results, may still fight
on for "white mans government" as he
| fought or prayed in the war, but a Republican
| or War Democrat who would put the blacks
| under the feet of those whom they helped us
to overcome, is inexpressibly mean, and as
| short sighted and foolish as he is mean.
There are those who indolently say, ooh, let
| the blacks have all cUH rights-these should
satisfy them" Why, you idiot they never
will nor can have civil rights unless they have
| political rights to back them. Take our city,
for illustration: here few of the thriftier ne
| groes are allowed to vote; yet even these are,
| because Of their race, deprived of precious
| civil rights. A colored native of this city, who
| owns his own house, earns an honest iveli-
| hood, and is a respected member of Chris
| tian church. is not allowed to drive his own
| horse and cart and do Herewith the carting of
| such merchants as may choose to employ him.
| We should like to employ colored man to
| take us to and from railroad station or
steamboat landing occasionally; but the ordi-
nances of this Democratic city forbid it. A
| black man who should try to earn living by
driving his own coach and carrying passengers
in it would be first beaten to jelly for his i'm
pudence, and then hauled before magistrate
| for violating the ordinance aforesaid.
No; there is and can be no civil rights Sc
| curely enjoyed by blacks until all the rights
| of manhood are won for and conceded to them.
And we would much rather be beaten trying
| to secure them full justice than to succeed by
abandoning them to their hateful Oppressors.
But we can 1Oin by systematically enlight-
ening and educating the peoples and one such
| victory is worth twenty gained by playing
upon their weaknesses, their Ignorance, and
their passions. There have never yet been
| two votes taken in a State on the question OF
| conceding the right of suffrage to blacks
| wherein the second vote in the affirmative was
not larger than the former. Aud so it will be
| if proper appeals are made to the reason and
conscience of the voters in every State, till the
| battle shall be won.
| We urge, then, the establishment, in every
township ward, and village, of a Republican
Club, whose sole object shall be the diffusion
of light and truth bearing upon the great
issue of Equality before the Law. While
every non-slaveholding country but ours
treats men of all colOrs alike, let us never
doubt that the disgraceful anomaly here pre-
sented can and will be fully overcome.
Friends in every State unite in forming
clubs whose avowed and controlling object
shall be the securing OF equal rights to every
American citiZenl We can easily prove that
there is no man, but especially no laboring
man, whose personal good will not be promoted
by such a cOnsummation; all we need is to in
duce the masses to read and think. Two-thirls
of all who habitually read and reflect are now
right on this point; we are beaten by the votes
of men who never heard our side of the ques
ton, and never will hear it unless we make
special effort to enlighten them. There are one
million voters in the Union who might be woI
over to the side of justice and humanity by
the systematic presentation of facts to thei
minds. victory gained by appeals to thei
better nature will be substantial and enduring
and every voter won over from vice to virtue
from intemperance to sObriety, is thereby
rendered more accessible to our arguments
and likely to promote and swell our triumph
Now is the time to prepare the public mind TO
the next Presidential election-to SOW the see'
which shall yield therein noble harvest. Ia
us organize and go to work.