The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-27


inserted which did not meet the approval of
the main body of the Republican leaders at
Washington. But the great crime, in the
judgment of Mr.. Trollope, is that in the
Southern States "all men shall hereafter vote
alike" aud that "white men and black men
shall be the same for all practical purposes"
In abolishing the distinctions of color the new
Southern Constitutions have only followed a
British example. Mr.. Trollope will look in
vain in the statute books of his country for
any prescription based on color. Great Britain
has prescribed men for almost every other
imaginable reason, and especially for religion and
poverty, but never for color. In her West India
Islands the rich black man votes, while the
poor white man is denied the right of suffrage
and the same general rule holds good in Eng
land. The Southern States, therefore, de-
waited from the British example only in the
particular that the North have violated it, by
authorizing all men to vote, and the tendency
Of British progress is in the same direction of
extending the franchise to all classes. Mr..
Trollope in arguing that "a negro is not fitted
to exercise political power amidst commu-
nifty of white men" must obtain the assent of
his countrymen to this doctrine before he eau
expect Congress to receive it as the authorized
judgment of our loving British cousins. They
have been reproaching us as a nation for many
years, because we did not treat the negro as
ga man and a brother" and worthless as
their advice has proved hitherto, it will sink
still lower in our esteem If we are to be re-
preached for following it. Two of the reasons
given by Mr.. TrollOpe for denying to the
negro the right of suffrage are contradictory
viz.:-First. That che will always do as some
white man shall instruct him." and second,
that "there will, in those Southern States, be
a war of races" growing out of "hatred from
the white man to the poor, timid,
incapable, unconscious negro" If the
English critic had studied with due care
the profound teachings of that eminent profess
sor of pro slavery philosophy, Petroleum V.
Nasby, he would have seen that it is scarcely
prudent to allege in a single letter that the
negroes will become, in a political sense, the
subservient slaves of their old masters, and
also that, notwithstanding their amiability,
the white race will nevertheless cruelty de-
stroy them. If this be, indeed, true, our sym
pathies for the men whom Mr.. Trollope thinks
deserve the most polite and generous consid-
eration-the 'late Southern slave-owners"
will be much weakened. He contends that
'never has there been more terrible condi.
tion imposed upon free people" than that
imposed upon these plantation lords. If his
assertion were true, it might we'll be asked
what people in the world ever so richly de-
served condgn punishment. But it is not
true. For an offense which any other nation
would have punished bywholesale executions
and confscations the magnanimous American
people have been content to say, "You shall
let your bondmen go free, and they shall here
after share with you the political power you
have so shamefully abused, and which you are
only capable of exercising in an unjust and
traitorous Manner Justice would have eX-
acted far more rigorous terms. Mercy could
not have asked better treatment for the batfled
foes of the Republic.
The Evils of the ssPreviOus Question
THERE is a custom at present exceedingly pre-