The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-28
The Bid for the CoIored Vote.

from Lle ITLOUne.
The Reconstruction law is revolutionizing
the South. In creating million of black
voters, it has made the colored men respected
by the whites. They hold the balance Of
power, and the. keen Southern politician,
never mistaken except when policy is opposed
to principle, already bids for the colored vote.
The negroes are organizing a Union Republi-
can party; the Wade Hamptons want negro
Southern party; and as the tendency of the
negro is to vote with the party to which he
owes freedom, citizenship, and the ballot,
their old masters must work hard to counter
act this natural gravitation. They are going
to work hard; they have not yet recovered
from the suddenness of the blow, and bid for
the colOTed vote with fair words only; to get it
they must make offers more substa 4tial.
"Will you place in Office the strangers who
have tlocked here to plunder what little is left
to usW asked General Hampton; cor will
you trust the men among whom you have
lived ~ He added and wisely, Il do not tell
you to trust professions OF friendship alone,
whether they come from the Southern man or
the Northern. But what | ask is, that, as we
profess to be your friends you will give US
the opportunity of showing by our actions
whether we are sincere or not.',
Yet in the changed tone of the Southern
press there is much encouragement for the
colored race. They are no longer people
created by the Almighty expressly to be
slaves they are men and women, and not so
far below white men and women either.
Bear with their harmless prejudices," says
the Charlottesville (Va) Chronicle; "have
not Ue ten thousand foibles and vanities?
Does not the same poor human heart beat
under the most snowy and the most jet black
bosom !' 1t is rejoiced at the moderation the
freedmen have displayed; "under the same
circumstances the white people would not
have behaved so well by twenty per cent"
And it adds, with an astonishing burst OF
humility, "We just say this-that if we had
been a born niger, reared out in mud cabin,
with no knowledge of God, no knowledge of
anything, surrounded by public sentiment
that tolerated dirt swearing, Sabbath breaking,
stealing, lying-we should have been hung
ong ago."
Then comes the point of this praise, in
advice and warning to the "Remem-
Der that, although you will vote, you are still
/ he laJoring class of the country. Do not abuse
the freedom which God has given you by for
getting your position in society. Do not un-
dertake to be like gentlemen. Do not put on
airs. Attend to your business, do your daily
work, do it well, deal honestly and uprightly,
and you will command respect. Live peacea-
bly, with the whites. Make them your friends
They can do you infinite harm if you make
]
death in thousand ways which no laws can
reach" We may not like these gentle
threats, but we know what they mean-yOtes.
This policy has had some success already.
/ General Hampton at Columbia advised the
freedmen to give their friends at the South n
fair trial, and if they were found wanting, it
would then be time enough to go abroad for
sympathy. In answer to this we find a cOlored
clergyman foolish enough to oppose universal
suffrage. But, though the freedmen are ignO-
rant there are few of them so stupid as not
to know that they owe to the ballot all their
influence 1t is for them weapon more
powerful than the pen or the sword.
Thus seem to end the prophecies of the
Southern papers that to give the negroes the
right to vote would be to create a war of races.
Instead of accepting the Reconstruction law
as a call to arms, the Southern leaders are
| ready to use it as a means of obtaining power.
''The weapon with which our mortal and
eternal (Sic) enemies seek to destroy us, says
the Richmond ETamiHa, twill be Welded Tor
our sure Defense"
But it is not certain that the negro vote can
be made unanimously Southern, in the usual
sense of the term The colored citizens oi
Charleston and Savannah lately held meetings
for the purpose of organizing Union hepup'
lican party Resolutions were adopted giving
cordial and entire sanction to the principles o.
Congress; opposing repudiation of the national
debt; demanding of the Legislatures common
schools, open to all without regard to color
and revision of the laws; and pledging the
colored men to vote for no candidate who viii
not openly advocate these measures and prin
, ciples. In effect, they declaredsthat they re-
duired from the Southern leaders better Sc
! curities than promises; they demanded the re
peal of all laws under which they have beer
a held in subjection and nothing less than the
q full legal acknowledgment of their politica
. and civil equality. They are organizing a Re
5 publican party and intend to vote for Repub
y iioan candidates Mr.. f. l.. Cardozo, at tn,
recent meeting in Charleston, said:--"We ar