The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-13

perty from the benefit of an amnesty oDe
rated as flaw in their title, so that
they could give no security for the loNns
which they needed to set the machinery
OF production in full operation. Toe chief
necessity Of section of country so exhausted,
was large influx of foreign capital. Fhe
vengeful policy of the Republican party for
bads cautious capitalists to risk their money
without security In a community that was
Kept in state of turmoil and disturbances,
and held in the iron grip of military despot-
ism. The future of the SOnth was too
uncertain, under this provoking expert
ment, for the men of prudence to embark
in any enterprise which looked to dis
tsnt returns. The consequence is, that the
South has been subsisting merely from hand
to mouth, and all its greater interests continue
to lie PROSTATE. 1t was for the common ad-
vantage of all sections that the war should
have been forgotten speedily as possible by
the absorption Of all the best business talent of
the South in industrial recuperation. II proper
encouragement had been given for Southern
activity to have taken this direction, and things
had been put upon such footing that capital
would have flowed in, to De employed in great
material enterprises, the demand for labor
would have so outrun the supply that every
thrifty freedman would have been on the sure
road to independence.
"But in that case" il may be said, ''the
negroes would not now have been in possession
of the BALLOT True, they would not nor
can we see that the ballot is of any advan-
tage to class who cannot vote with iudepen-
| dence. But the elective franchise would have
come to the negroes in time as consequence
| OF the thrift and prosperity of the South. In
| the competition for their labor, the different
| States would have bid against each other by
| Offering political advantages, just as our
| Western States did in their competition for
immigrant settlers when they made voters of
unnaturalized aliens. The laboring classes
can have influence only when the demand for
their services is so great as to make them in
| dependent of their employers. The ability to
| give al independent vote is the most important
qualification for the suffrage. The laboring
| classes are not exalted but degraded by
nominal POSSESSION of the privilege when
| their condition is so abiect that their employ
| ers can control their votes. The first care of
| those who wished well to the negroes should
| have been TO have made them sharer5 in the
| material prosperity of the South; but labor
ing population can thrive only when their
employers are prosperous. The life OF industry
| is the rivalry of profitable undertakings-the
kind of rivalry that can never have place in
an impoverished apd unsettled community
where credit is blighted and enterprise pros
trated by the uncertainty that hangs over the
future. Whenever the material prosperity of
the South begins to be built up on stable
| fouuda ion, and its magnificent resources are
| in he full course of development the demand
for labor will so far exceed the supply that the
fleedmen--like the workipgmen who engage
! In the frequent labor strikes in the North
| will he more likely to dictate terms to tn cir
employers than to suffer any oppression at
| theiy hands.
The Southern OppOsitiOn-What is its
| Nature9
From the ~. Y. Times.
The Northern Democratic press, having
! at.I ba axtr nt
utteIances of their Southern allies, effect sur
prise at the disgust they have called forth.
Instead of meeting fairly and squarely the
issues raised by Cobb, Wade Hampton,
Semmes and others OF that sort, the Northern
friends OF Seymour and Blair refuse to see in
the Rebel declarations anything more than
reasonable opposition. IL is an old trick
this Of hiding the real thing, and then con-
founding things that are different. 1t is
played now by ignoring all that is objection
able in the Rebel displays, and treating them
as legitimate resistance to an obnoxious
policy. The Philadelphia Age for instance,
assumes an indignant air, thus:-
"We demand oil these Northern presses which
object TO Soutberners seeking redress of their
| wrongs through the ballot, whether they desire
to establish III the South any kind or form Of
| government in which Lnts mode of redress shall
| be oinittel? Because this is what 1t comes 10,
Every opposition to the radical ticket, accord
ing 10 radical IDEAS, is support OF Rebel doc.
held in subjection TO The black, is an opposition
| to the radicals. and therefore the Re bel doc
| trine; therefore anybody who holds IL should
| vote for 1T, votes with the Rebels. But IL Is q
| dOcuine peculiar neither to the North nor the
! south. IL III common to all white men,. Recol-
I.ltclpg, Then, that the whole OF our theory o
| government is founded on this right of any part
OF The country TO urge by means of elections
| whatever they may, rightly or wrongly, believe
10 be- their rights; recolecting, too, Jnat IL was
4 not because the south struggled to maintain
certain rights, but because II sought TO main
| tutn them by force, we ask what IL is Hampt
| or Forrest means when he Identifies the sue.
cess of Seymour and Blair with his own
| Wishes" ID. .. ."
If the Southern opposition were confined tc
the fair exercise OF lawful and peaceablt
means, we should have nothing say against
it, except on the ground OF its own merits
Such an opposition, however zealously con
Quoted, would not furnish q valid reason fol
impugnipg the loyalty or the objects of its pro-
10. moters. ANY form OF government under which
this mode of obtaining redress might be dis
couIaged, or branded as an offense, would
deserve all the censure of the Age and its
friends. t''~ .A F.'a- .'hAn p stsl
We have recently shown, however, on nc
less authority than that OF the Charleston
Vi MeTcurA that the newly formed governments
admit OF the largest liberty to their opponents
No obstacle is offered TO those who are il
opposition; no authority invoked to restrain
OF battle their endeavors. The opposition is
III truth, at once SO free and so powerful thai
the more boasttu of the Rebel prints claim
for it certainty of success in at least three
OF the reconstructed States. No stronger proc
could be had OF the absolute freedom o
opinion and action which properly belongs to
republican government! Ioo- 4. +.
: IA