The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-19
Total ........2,lSs, 1853 l,29s,94I


would be as follows:-In Alabama, 26, 27S; |
Arkansas, 37519; Florida, 1888; Georgia, |
32,599; Louisiana, "a, 686; North Carolina,
1886; Texas, At, 900; Virginia, 80, $40. The /
black majorites would be-in Mississippi 237O; |
South Carolina, 6499.
The only question that remains is as to the
number of persons DISTINGUISHED by the Re-
construction acts of Congress. This is very
small in proportion to the whole number of
voters-probably not more than from three to
five per cent. The disfranchisement does not
reach 10 the masses of the people at all. 1t
only applies to those who in some official capa-
city had taken the oath of allegiance to the
Government and afterwards went into the Re-
beliOn. How small proportion this class Of
persons must bear to the whole community in
any Southern State is apparent at glance.
But to throw the State into the hands of the
negroes, it would take, in Alabama, disfran-
ohisement of nearly thirty~per cent. of the
white voters; in Arkansas, almost seventy-fve
per cent; in Florida, thirty-three and half
per cent; in Georgia, thirty-fve per cent; in
Louisiana, fifty per cent; in Virginia, thirty
seven per cent, and so on.
If the negroes obtain power, therefore, in
the late Rebel States, excepting South Caro-
lima and Mississippi, it will not be because
the whites are disfranchised. It will be be-
cause they are obstinate, and wilful, and de-
termined to defy the Government in its work
of reconstruction. It will be because they
supinely sit down and refuse to help them
selves. But in such a case they will neither
deserve sympathy nor obtain it.
1t is not negro dominancy, but Republican
,dOminanoy, that these conservatives fear. 1t
is the prospective loss of political pO'Oer that
alarms them. They behold the old Southern
unity, brought about by class rule, broken
up. They see the Republican party being
thoroughly organized in every Southern State,
and attracting to its ranks the people, both
white and black. They witness the growth
of power destined to completely revolu-
tiOnize the old parties, the old habits, the old
customs, and the old modes of thinking in
the South 1t is this rising, growing, triumph
ing Republican party in the South which our
conservatives fear; and they had to-day rather
that the late Rebel States should remain out
of the Union indefinitely, and subject to mill
tary power, than that they should be restored
upon basis Of equality before the law for all
men,
The Republican party knows nothing of
races or oolors. 1t recognizes simply the peo.
pEe. 1t seeks only the dOminancy of the pso-
pie, the rightful sOvereigns in every State
This is true demooracy-nOne Of your shan
stuff dressed up in the cast-Off rags of aris
tocracy, but real, genuine demOcracy-powe
with the people. We know the doctrine 4
distasteful to our conservatives, who believe il
GLASS rule, and who both hate and fear tn
people, but it is the grand doctrine of the age
and is marching forward from victory to vic
tory all over the world. II has just achieves
a great triumph in England, and doubled tn
number of her voters. Conservatives there
as here, gnash their teeth and PrognOsticat
all sorts of evil, but the movement goe
steadily and irresistibly onward. 1t is "mani
fest destiny" Humanity is bound to try tn
democratic experiment, and conservatism mus
pet out of the way, or it will be run over AM
trampled under foot.