New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-07-13
pFBFLS And CARPETBAGGERS.


in taxes, while they are authorized to lay upon
the people of South Carolina over S2OOo'Ooo;
that of the 800 so paid about $500 are paYaoie
by a single Conservative member, ana that il
this state of things be continued every Wnlte
man will leave the State.
The last prediction smacks strongly OF the
"die-in the -last-dtch" policy which our hre-
eating lords of the lash made so IA
miliar to us by lOng-cOntiued threats,
and ridiculous by protracted nOn-performance
The considerations which will determine South
Carolinians to bid adieu to the halls of their
ancestors, are very much like those which IN
duce the cause of emigration everywhere, from
the descent of the GOths upon Rome, down 10
the latest importation of emigrants from Hol-
land. or from the stampedes of wild buifaloes
to the flight of waterfowl. When the South
Caronian aristOcrats can get better picking
and more lordly Incidence elsewhere than IN
South Carolina, they will go. Not before But
if anybody is to be c0lOnized, by ali means leu
it be the class which Wade Hampton repre-
sents. South Carolina could do without her
gentlemen as well as Ireland without her es-
tablished church, or France or Italy without
their Bourbons.
Over two-thirds of the population of South
Carolina are black. The division of the Legs
lature between the races represents each tairly
in proportion TO its numbers. There IS at hrst
glance an obvious fairness in this, compared
with the old constitution, under which the
whole voting power was vested III less IMAM d
third of the people, and which was as oDvl-
ously despotic and undemOcratic South Caro-
lima has ever been a superciliOus and pesky
dukedom in our family of republics. Now 1t IS
converted into republic, and of course the
ex-dukcs dol MT like it, more than BOmba pre-
fers a felt hat to the crown of Naples. HE
facts, if they are facts, which Gen. Hampton
sets forth are not free from harm and wrong,
nor do they indicate perfect state OF society and
government. Though the amount Of taxes paid
by any legislative body is very small compared
with paid by the whole State, yet Gen. Hamp-
ton is right in arguing that South Carolina
needs more taxpayers in her Legislature, and
it is wholly the fault of Gen. Hampton and
his class that they not there. Let Gen.
Hampton, Gov. Orr, l.. NJ Keitt, Il. Barnwell
Rhett, and the like. say TO the colored men of
South Carolina, 1--WE no longer oppose yOnr
exercise of the right Of suffrage, or any other
political right but on the platform of
"tequal and exact justice to all men, and
aristocratic and exclusive privileges to none,
"we ask your suflrages," and we will
guarantee that they can at any time
be elected to any offices in the gift
of the people. But so long as they go before
the people asking the minority to elect them
to Office for the purpose of DISTINGUISHING the
majority, they will be fortunate if they are
not themselves disfranchsed. That a Legisla-
ture should contain taxpayers who will guard
the rights of property is desirable; but the
defense of property is less important at
present, in the South, than the maintenance
of the personal and political liberties of a full
third Of the Southern people. While the Leg
islature of South Carolina, with its one humid
red negroes and no tax payers, may be poorly
prepared to defend property, it is well fitted
to defend the personal liberties of the freed
men-the rights of the working class, by
whom all the property and capital of the
State have been produced and must be
renewed. Against this freedom formidable
conspiracies still exist There are but two
ways to insure it. Its enemies must "ground
"arms," or its friends must keep the political
power in safe hands until they do. So long
as Wade Hampton and his class say to the
majority of the people of South Carolina,
"The only condition on which we will vote
"is that you shall not vote" they exile them
selves from power, and surrender the offices
of the State to non-taxpaying negroes and
pet-baggers." We can appreciate the evil
of governments controlled 10y men who
pay few or no taxes. We do business in
the midst of a city governed by carpet baggers
not long over from Cork, Limerick, and Sauer
Krautenthal. The difference between our
pet-baggers from Europe and those with
which the rebellious Hamptons are afflicted is
that ours are generally as deficient in mental
and moral cultivation as in property. We
believe most of the Southern pet-baggers
have at least made the acquaintance of the
schoolmaster. Nor is the South peculiar in
finding carpet-baggers willing TO accept her
offices. The new States of the Far West and
the Pacific slope have far more of them than
the South. The remedy for such evils as may
be incident to universal suffrage is for the tax
paying people to take part in the Government
If they refuse they must submit to be feeced
until they do, just as the taxpayers of New
York City are feeced by their Democratic
carpet-baggers until they are forced to vote
III SUI uClChoo' III PolIiCS, "S III agriculture,
the Southern people, aristocracy and plebeians,
white and black, Republicans and Democrats,
must "root hog or die" If the taxpayers want
the offices they have such superior facilities
that they get their fair share of them. If
they refuse them the non-taxpayers Will accept
and make the most OF them.
1t is a comfort to know, however, that so
far the arpet-baggers and the negroes have
shown far more decency and equity than the