Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-11-13

and Circumstance of place. What we desire
is peace-not The sembance of peace, but
the substance of peace-peace at our own
Gre sid IS and throughout all our borders. We
desire peace 10 enable US to build up our
waste places, our temples OF worship, our
sacked and ruined cities now lying IN ashes,
our dismantled dwellings and our prostrate
credit. We desire peace for its own sake
for it's holy Christian influence, and Ior the
civilization aud refinement which spring up
in its path. Do the Reconstruction Acts OF
Congress propose to give US this peace? No,
they give us war and anarchy, rather. They
SOW the seeds of disccrd in our midst and
place ;he best interests of society into the
hands Of an ignorant mob. They disfran-
chise the white citizen and cnfranchise the
newly em.ncipated slave. The slave of yes
terdny, who knew no law, but the will OF the
master, is to-day about to be invested with
the control of the Government. In I'll popu.
lar Governments, the two great sources OF
power may be traced: lst. 70 the exercise
of tie ballot. 3D. Tn the franchise of the
iary b.x Invest any people with these two
great powers, and they have at once the gov
crnment Of the country in their hands. by
the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, these
powers are conferred upon The negro-hc can
make and unmakc the Constitution and the
laws, which he will administer according to
The dictates Of others, Or hi. own caprice.
We arc not unfriendly to The negro on the
contrary, We know that we arc his best friends.
While he occupied the position of slave,
he was protected BIZ the laws, according to
his condition in life. And nov, that he has
been made free, We are not only willing TO
confer upon him every civil right, but 10 pro-
.cct him in the full and free enjoyment Of
,ho5e rights. Iu his property. in his life, and
in his person, we are willing that the black
mau and the white man, shall stand together
upon the same platform, and be shielded By
tic same equal laws. We venture the opin-
ion. that the people orSoath C.ro!iaa are pre-
pared.to adopt as their own, the Constitution Of
any New England, or other Northern State,
wherein it is supposed that the civil rights OF
tie negro are most fully and amply secured.
But upon q question involving sach grave
ard momcHtous issues, We should be untrue
to ourselves, and unfair to our opponents,
we're VIC to withhold the frank and full ex-
pression Of our opirions. We, therefore,
feeling the responsibility of the subject and
the occasion, enter our most solemn protest
against the policy OF investing the negro with
voiitical rights. The black man is what God
ard nature and circumstances have made
him. That he is not fit to be invested with
these important rights, may be no fault of
his. But the .fact is patent to all, that the
negro Is utterly untitled to exercise the high.
est functions Of the citizen. The government
of the country should not be permitted to
pass from the hands of the white man into
the hands OF the negro. The enforcement of
the Reconstruction Acts by military power.
under the guise OF negro voters and negro
conventions, cannot lawfully re-establish civil
government in South Carolina. 1t may for o
t; ne hold US in suljection 10 q quasi civil
government, backed by military force, but it
cln do no more. As citizens Of the United
States, we should not consent to live under
negro supremacy, nor should we acquiesce in
negro equality. Not for ourselves only, but
on behalf of the Anglo Saxon race and blood
in this country, do we protest against this
subversion Of the great social law, whereby
an ignorant and dcpraved race is placed in
power and influence above the yirtuous, the
educated and the refined. By these Acts Of
Congress, intelligence and virtue arc put un-
der foot, while ignorance and vice are lifted
into power.
In South Carolina, the negro majority, un-
der the Reconstruction Acts, is much more
than two TO one. In most of the other South
ern States, the negro majoritics, if not so
great, are almost as decided. In those Stat
where the white vote is in the ascendant, the
election districts have been so arranged, as
eqbt q tkf kzd es EAST nstifa & ii a1S4 eo tie vote
What, then, is the inevitable result? 1t in
vests the negro with absolute political power
in each of the ten Southern States, and at
the same time, invests him with the balance
of power in the United States. Nor is this
all-the reconstruction scheme closes the
balot-box against the best informed and edu-
Gated classes in the community, and opens it..
to the negro, OF whom not more than one in
hundred can read word, and not more
than oac in FIVE hundred can write his name
and multitudes Of avhom are so profoundly
ignorant, as TO he anable to remember the
names By achich they hare been registered.
Verify, this seems to be converting popular
Government, of which We have been so just.
y proud, into popular farce; and we would
be content so to consider it, if it did not in.
volye the issue OF life and death to the form
of Government established by our fathers for
the benefit OF themselves and their posterity.
If the objec. Of the trainers Of the Recon-
struction Acts was 10 degrade the Southern
people, 1t is time for them 10 consider whether
the degradation may not be brought to their
own doors-whether the poisoned cup may
not be returned to their own lips. But it
may be asked, why do not the Southern peo
pie accept the situation and control the negro
element2 This question is much more easily
asked than answered. In the first place, it
may be said that the influence Of the corrupt
and intriguing demagogue, who will appeal
to passion and prejudice, has always been
found TO be more powerful with the excited
anu ignorant mob, than the viseSt pounsels
of the best friends Besides, the foundations
stone upon which Republican Government
rests is, that the election franchise is to be
exercised by free, intelligent and unbiased
Judgment: and whenever it is admitted that
this franchise is to be controlled, or, in other
words, to be made the subject of undue in
tlaence and of brides, then. too, it must be
admitted that Republican Government is at
an end, and must, sooner or later, give way
to such other Government as may be forced
upon depraved and already corrupted people.
But if it is proposed in advance to place the
cnfranchsed negro under control, why con-
fer the franchise at all2 Surely, the part Of
wise government is to prevent the evil, and
not open the door to the mischief which
others are admonishcd theJ must be prepared,
by trick or management to avert. But why
press the subject further2 1t is enough for
us to know that this wild and reckless expert
ment comes home to the hearth-stone Of every
citizen, and involves family and property,
society, liberty, ard even life itselc. Nor is
this all. The courts of justice are dragged
into the mire from their nigh position; our