The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-04-28
TIE STATUS OF THE NEGRO SETTLED :
WHAT THEN.

AS far as colored voters were left to their
spontaneous action at the recent election,
they showed general inclination towards the
ratification Of the Constitution, and not less
general willingness for Southern white men to
administer Office and make laws under 1t.
That the carpet-bag radicals secured the cleo
ton of their executive State ticket is owing
less to its popularity with the colored people
at large than 10 the indecision, dilatoriness
and lack of complete organization and con-
cert on the part of their conservative oppo-
nents. This is now evident Nothing was
wanted but confidence, audacity and prompti-
tude to inAict upon carpet-baggery in this
State Waterloo defeat. The field was, al
most to the last moment, abandoned to their
bold display of self-assurance, and organized
opposition to their ticket was commenced too
late. Otherwise, not in one or several par
ticulars only would their calculations have
been disappointed, but in all; and the whole
carpet-bag fraternity would now, for at least
once in their lives, be in a mood to perform
patriots part, by quitting the country for the
country's good, with sacks as empty as those
treasures become into which they can thrust
their rapacious paws. Nevertheless, the cleo
ton has afforded the conservatives an oppor-
tunity to learn something which it is useful
to know in regard to the political tendencies
of colored voters.
Opinions which have, from time to time,
been speculatively thrown out by the CREs-
CENT respecting the normal relation between
the Southern negroes and the Southern
whites, are sustained by intelligent observa-
ton of the conduct of colored voters in
various country parishes at the recent cleo
ton. For example, a correspondent from
Pointe Coupee whose letter is given in another
column, judging from what he saw in that
parish, concludes that "the negro will con-
fde in the Southern white man in all things
except those which concern his political
status" This correspondent adds: "When
negro suffrage was first proposed, the radicals
were fearful that this vote would be infu-
enced by the white population of the South,
and radicalism will find to its sorrow and con-
fusion that it will be so influenced the moment
it has been finally forced upon us and estab-
lished as an element Of government"
This remark Is extremely suggestive. Let
it be supposed that the naked question of
negro suffrage is, for practical purposes, no
longer open; that the political status of the
negro is settled as far as constitutional guar
antee can settle it, and that he feels assured
of it under such guarantee. What then? 1t
will greatly assist towards an answer to con-
slider why colored voters in general eagerly
desired the ratification of the Constitution,
and why so many of them have acted with
, some degree of enthusiasm in coalition with
the carpet-bag radicals. They were induced
to believe that without suffrage, their civil
liberty was insecure; that, as long as they
should not be voters, they would be in dam
ger of falling back into slavery; that their
rights as free people depended on their pos
sessing the right of voting; that, in short,
their civil status was involved in their politi-
cal status, and could not safely be separated
| from it.
| EHaving taken up such belief-erroneously
to be sure-their subsequent conduct was not
strange, but in logical sequence to that falla-
cious premise. Anxious to establish their
freedom, with all its civil and social concomi-
tants, beyond hazard, they coalesced with
white men who seemed most intent though
from motives whose honesty they might
doubt, on obtaining the guarantee which
they sought. This guarantee obtained, where
| is the basis for a continuance of the coali-
ton? If the negro was before disposed
| to trust in the Southern white man
respecting all things save those which con-
cerned his political status, and if his political
status is no longer in dispute, what bar re-
mains to restrict the negros confidence in the
Southern white man, and to prevent them from
acting on public questions in a spirit of amity
and unreserved cooperation? As populations
inhabiting the same section, having the same
material wants, affected alike by adversely and
| prosperity, with no distinct interests in their
relations to national policy, there is no reason
why they should not be political friends, and
strive to eliminate all insidious influences that
tend to engender between them an unhappy
suspicion and a fatal enmity. This cordial
understanding once established, there would
be no room for carpet-baggery.