The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-19

a distinct perception of the possible results, is
the act of man; and until the main body of the
negroes are able TO do this the ballot will only
be very imperfect protection against such
oppression as Congress can do nothing to pre-
vent. Take, for instance, the recent act of
the Georgia Legislature obigiDg all parties to
use voting tickets of uniform size and color.
The negroes who cannot read or read only
imperfectly, have hitherto been guided in
their voting by tickets of a peculiar color, or
bearing some easily understood device. The
object of this enactment, therefore, clearly is
to confuse them and facilitate frauds upon
them, and that it will facilitate frauds upon
them there is not particle of doubt. But 1t
is not unconstitutional; 1t applies alike to all.
There is no remedy for it except education,
which is slow one, or the defeat at the polls
OF such candidates or parties as show them
selves ready to Join in schemes of this sort for
the oppression, direct or indirect of one class
of the population. This last is the only
punishment known here for legislative sins;
and there will soon be none other possible at
the South.
1t must be remembered, too, that in this
game of chicane the whites will long, if not
always, have the upper hand, even if the
number of the two races were more nearly
equal. The negroes must not forget that in
spite of the intelligence which large numbers
OF them are showing, and which we hope the
great body of them will show before long, aud
in spite OF the progress they are making in
education, they are matched, in any strife
they may carry on with their white neighbors,
against the shrewdest, wariest, most energetic
race on earth, that which has carried the poll
tical art to the highest perfection, and which
is most skilful in its use, whether for Of5nse
or defense.
Now, the negroes are certainly in every State
but three in minority, and for all practical
political purposes in a small minority. 1t is
Gafa n q " fhnp oar 10 min ryia
tory at the polls in any Southern State, after
the next year or two by the negro vote alone.
Not only are they in minority too, but they
are a minority composed of a detested and
despis ed race; and they are poor, uninAuen-
tial, and without political experience. With
the whole body OF the whites, or even large
proportion of the whites, arrayed against
them, their position is probably more unfor-
tunate than that of any class of persons in
any civilized State in the world-a great deal
more unfortunate, we have no hesitation in
saying, than that of the Turkish rayahs,
over whose condition all Europe is
constantly lamening. We know very
clans, of which Wendell Phillips might with
some modification be taken as the type, which
believes that by some tremendous crushing
! process all this white hate and prejudice
against the blacks could be ground out; but
these gentlemen are reader with vituperation
than with plans, and they have never yet given
to the world their scheme in detail. Suffice it
to say, that to make the negro safe and COM
Portable by force alone wonld require an army
of 10000 men, the complete suspension of his
political education, and the substitution of
military for civil government over one-h half the
continent for an indefinite period. The expe-
diency or possibility of this we shall not dis
opss, although we would have heartily well
coined such proloDgation of the existing mill
tary rule as would have helped to break u p
the Southern habits of violence and the habit
OF looking on the negro as wild animal.
1t is plain, therefore, that for the negro to
make the ballot of much use to him, to make
| it instrumental in protecting himself against
legislative ohicane and maladministration
directed against his race, he must in some
way divide the whites 80 as to throw the
balance into his hands, and make it an object
of some considerable body of the whites to
court the negro vote. We do not pretend, in
saying this, to be propouudipg any grand
original discovery. The danger to the blacks
other words, of color division of political
parties at the South, has long been apparent.
The blacks have been frequently warned
against it by Northern Democrats and con-
servative Republicans; but these warnings
have produced no effect, because they were
uttered in depreciation Of resistance to intole-
rable oppression. There are limits to the
price which the negroes can afford
to pay even for a division in the ranks
of their oppressors. Much as one may value
mans cooperation or sympathy there are
few of us who wOuld su bmit to be kicked
down stairs or garroted in order to secure it.
The negroes have had to stand and show fight,
stand as a raee-that is, as negroes against
whites-until they got the ballot, because the
sole political question at the South during the
period of reconstruction was whether the
negroes should be allowed anything but the
right to follow the lowest and most laborious
callings; and on this question there was for a
black man no room for compromise. He could
compromise about claim to property or
to political privileges; but about white mau s
claim to murder him or burn the house over
his head with impunity, unless another white
man saw and was willing to testify against the
criminal, or about a negro's right TO choose his
own calling and follow it, there was NJ room
for compromise. There are certain things
about which men ought to be willing to kill or
be killed instead of talking, and the civil
rights which the Southern legislators denied
the freedmen after the war were among the
number.
But that period has now passed away. The
black man has the ballot, but finds himself in
used for his oppression, and must win over to
his side, if not through sympathy or hui
manity, then through interest, enough of the
whites to give him, at great crises at least,
the opportunity of influencing the Govern
ment. The way to do this is to refrain as fai
as possible from stimulating white prejudice'
and arousng white passions, to avoid every
step or measure that is likely to Hnite the
whites as ,Ohites against the blacks. This may
be done without sacrificing anything OF rea
value, without diminishing by one iota th'