The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-21
Canvassing the south.

The National Executive Committee of the
Republican party have resolved on making a
thorough canvass of the Southern States, and
to this end have appealed to the great mass of
their fellow Republicans for the needful
means. As the purpose is one that they see
no reasen to conceal, and as they will employ
no other than upright and honorable means,
they choose to be open and public in every
step they take in the prosecution of their
work.
There is complaint that professed Republi-
cans are speaking at the South whose har-
angues tend to imbue the blacks with hatred
OF the whites, to excite them with hopes that
they are soon to be provided with homes and
farms by the spoliation of their old masters,
and thus to render them idle, turbulent, and
riotous. We presume these charges are at
least exaggerations of the truth. Yet it is pal
pable that every Republican speaker in the
South will be jealously watched and listened
! to, and that he cannot utter an imprudent
remark, much less make an Incorporate
harangue, without seriously inuring the
cause which he means to commend.
Suppose, for example, the Mr.. J. X. Hay
! ward recently arrested by General Schofeld in
Richmond did exhort the blacks of that city to
keep quiet while Judge Underwood was hold
| ing court there but that, when he should
]
can doubt that said Hayward can be more use
full at some other business-that of helper to a
! blacksmith, for instance-than at speech
making We say nothing of his motives or
his meaning-we only insist that, if his ideas
are all right, he does not know how to find
the right words wherewith to express them.
! The Southern blacks are mainly ignorant
they have been reared under the domination
of the law of force--they have not been trained
to reverence the rights Of property-their ex-
perience does not accord with the truth that
the way to comfort and competence lies
through persistent daily industry and fru-
gality. To tell such men-strong only in
muscle and in numbers-that they have only
to wait till a Judge is out of the way, when
they may "hold high carnival, " and that the
property around them is rightfully theirs, and
will be made over to them after while-what
is this but to arrest productive labor and en-
throne general anarchy
Never before was there such urgent need of
wise, considerate, iudicious canvassers as there
is to-day in the South. They should be
thoughtful, loving, noble, generous men, who
know what to leave unsaid as well as what to
say-who will inculcate charity and kindness,
not wrath and vengeance. In short, we need
a hundred such men as Henry Wilson to
speak throughout the South for the next six
months.
We know it is asserted in hostile journals
that Judge Kelley made an incorporate speech
at Mobile, but we do not believe it. All that
is pretended is that he said he had the 18th
Infantry at his back, and, if that did not suffice,
he would have the whole army. But this, any
one can realize, did not provoke the riot, but
was provoked by it. He had no occasion to
say anything of the kind, and 1--WE are conf
dent) said nothing until after the rowdies had
commenced disturbance with intent to break
up the meeting. And, if a hundred able and
good men should thoroughly canvass the
South, there would be more real harmony and
good feeling between whites and blacks there
after than ever before.
One of the writers asserts that Mr.. Stevens
confscation speech has been widely circulated
at the South by the Republican National Com
mittee. 1t is a conclusive answer to this
charge that the Committee has, as yet, circu-
lated nothing, done nothing at all, having had
no means wherewith to do anything. 1t is
only now getting to work.
We trust all who think it desirable that
there should be Republican party in the
South, founded not on color, but on principle,
not on hate and wrath, but on liberty and
nationality, will help the National Committee
to the extent of their ability.