The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-05-20
THE coLORED VOTE.

why these BneerS 4uu oAPioooAoiA' VI $500 "
wards the Radicals, the enlightened OF SAID
"platform3"
These discrepancies on your part, and the un-
disguised bitterness Of the Mercury, Ell hoe genus
oe, are forcing us into the arms, Tor nets, rath-
er) OF doubtful characters from the North, who
now infest the South and seek to swallow up
everything, white or black in their insatiate
maws-they sit upon tho fence, and having no
priuciple, save that of making money, are ready
to lump to one side or the other, according to the
prospects OF spoil. II you are really in earnest, II
YOU can only convince us land we are very suspi-
cious) that you accept the Petersburg Platform in
good faith, we will gladly join our efforts with
YOURS to enforce it on the North, (some will bit
terly say commend the poisoned chalice to
their own lips )" but we will say, sauce, good for
the Southern goose, must be equally good
for the Northern gander), and to procure
Southern office TOR Southern men, the only prae-
tieaI issues for OF all horrors and denominations,
the most horrible and abominabe to us, is that un-
natural reptile the Northern copperhead.
Let me not te misunderstood, speak OF local
Offices only; for the present
GEORGE CURTIS,
President Ethiopian Union Republican
Association, Hilton Head, and
Chairman Provisional Committee.
Our first suggestion to our correspondent
would be to change the name of the assecia-
ton over which he presides. "The Ethiopian
Union Republican Association" is entirely too
suggestive of ethiopian Serenaders," who, we
all know, are white men with blackened faces,
whose trade it is for money to initiate negro
customs and exaggerate negro peculiarities.
Several bands of such performers have recent
ly made their appearance on the political
stage, beating the Radical banjo, and singing
What can read, write and cipher"
It is high time, we think, for the colored
voters of this State TO begin to think for them
selves, and to repudiate the sympathy which is
as dirty and slippery as the lamp-black and oil
with which the performers Radicalize and
Africanize themselves.
It is, therefore, because the certificate which
accompanies this letter justifes usin believing
that the writer really represents himself and
his people that we proceed to answer the
questions he puts us.
We must say, however, by way of preface,
that the writer is mistaken in supposing that
the stMercury st hoe omne genus" manifest any
s.undisguised bitterness as to the new privi-
leges of the freedmen. The. Mercury, and the
very large and respectable body of citizens
whom it Represents, think universal suffrage
q very dangerous experiment, and do not re-
cognize the constitutionality Of the law by
which it was enacted. But the Mercury, and
every other representative press in this State,
have recognized the fact that universal suffrage
is now established, and that it is the part OF
Justice and wisdom to adapt ourselves to this
new condition, and to work together with the
colored voters for the good Of the whole State
And when all this merely political agitation
begins 10 subside and the Radical party having
used the oolored vote for its own purpose,
leaves the negro to the labor of his daily life,
the President of the Ethiopian Union Associa-
ton will find that his education and intelli-
gence will separate him much further from the
mass of ignorant and unintelligent negroes
than it does from his white fellow-citizens.
The principle of the editorial to which he
refers and upon which he processes his readi-
ness ssto strike hands" is simply this: That
to all citizens, the honors, the privileges, the
duties of citizenship, are alike common and
that the question whether man shall dis
charge duty, enjoy privilege, or wear an
honor, is not whether he is black or white, but
whether he is citizen and fit for the position.
Upon that principle we are willing to stand,
but if citizen cannot be excluded from his
privilege because he is black, he cannot claim
an office because he is black, and the man who
appeals to the citizens of this State to vote for
q man because he is black is violating this prin-
ciple just as much as one who calls upon his
fellow-citizens to vote against a man because
he is black. In other words, hereafter in
all political questions the element of race and
color is to be entirely disregarded.
While we hold this in common with every
thinking man in the South, sin good faith and
from conviction" we protest against the course
of the Radical party because they are acting
in direct contradiction to it. They are not ap-
pealing to the voters of the South as citizens,
they are appealing to them as blacks. They
are deliberately exciting prejudices which, if
excited, must and will develope into angry and
bitter passion. They call upon the black vote
of the State to join them against the white
vote, and that upon the ground of their former
slavery. Let us take an illustration from the
section of country in which the writer of this
letter himself lives.
In St. Helena Parish before the war we will
suppose there were five thousand slaves to two
hundred owners For the establishment of
this slavery the owners were in no wise respon-
sible, and their energies and capital were ex-
pended to develop by this labor the lands which
they owned In doing this, we think all intel
lirent colored men will admit that, as general
rule, their conduct was humane and that the
condition of their laborers as laborers was su-
perior to any other population in the world doing
the same work. Now, the ownership In these
slaves has been abolished, the exclusive political
power belonging to the former owners has been
abrogated. The FIVE thousand slaves are to-day
as free as their former masters They are en-
titled to vote on all questions and for all Offices
and to hold these latter if elected thereto. No
body disputes this right, whatever may be
thought of the wisdom of granting it. No OBJ
stacle is put in the way of its exercise. Now,
If these voters urc left fairly to themselves; if
they are free to Judge whether their labor is