Bloomsburg democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1867-1869, 1868-01-29
Nc s(cp backwards.

MIR. Coiax, the speaker oi RepuEican
House Of Representatives Of q Rump Con
gress, has said in q recently published letter,
that the Radicals win take no step back
wards. We are glad to hear this from SC
high all authority in the Radical camp
But does Mr.. Colfax honestly mean wha,
he says? We ask the question, because
Mr.. Forney asserted precisely the sams
thing in three column leader in his paper,
the Press, just after the late Pennsylvania
election. Forney has since come out fol
Grant for the Presidency. Does ColfaS
use language in The same loose way? The
Radicals, il we understand them, arc for
negro suffrage and equality, in all this great
and broad lanl-north and south, east and
wcst-and the. is tie grand and fpndamen-
tal article Of their political filth as a party
Does Mr. Colfax mean that when he says
that his party will take no step backwards?
The people should not be cheated now and
hereafter by eqaivocation in words, as they
have sadly been in the last seven years All
public men, all politicians, should be held
to the strict liberal seEss Of their declara.
tions. If Colfaz, after the assertion he has
made and which we have just quoted, means
that Gen. Grant is in favor of negro suffrage
and equality and all the measures which
Congress has taken to subject ten States
of the Uricn to negro rule and that he and
his party are for Grant as the Radical Re-
publican candidate for the Presidency, then
we will understand him. But Grant 10 not
a Radical Republican. lie has been care.
lnl enough not to define exactly his political
views, out he has been sufficiently explicit
in she little he has said and written to salts
fy us that he is not with Sumner, Stevens,
Wade and Coifax. lie is not fool enough
to hc'ieve, and not isneva onnrrl 10 ei!ec.
to believe, thet an ignorant negro, Just re-
leved from slavery, is fit to be the equal,
civilly and politically, much less socially, Of
a white freeman ty birth and education.
He may he, and we believe he is, in favor
Of fpoli,ical equality Of all men who are sub.
ject and tributary to che same political gov
ernmcnt But We hope that he has too
much political sagac;ty, as well as personal
self.rcspect and pride Of race, and clear.
eyed patriotism and sound philanthropy, to
wish to raise the regro in the scale of social
and civil life faster than he is morally and
intellectually lifted up to tho standard to
which it is proposed to exalt him. The
raising CT any man, or any race OF men,
artiioially, above their natural or real status
in society, IS equally unjust to them and to
those with whom it is sought to eqnalizc
them. The practical effect is not the eleva-
ton OF the inferior, but the degradation of
the superior man or race. Civilization is
the result Of education, and civil society or
government Of popular kind, can never
be built firmly except on certain degree of
general intelligence and moral virtue. The
negro in the South has not reached the plat.
form of the white race of this country in
those respects He should not, therefore,
be clothed with equal social and political
rights. Human equality is very plausible
and facinating doctrine, and it lead France
into fearful revolution in 1893. Let us
avoid tho same mistake In trying tc effect
the equality ofsl men, let us level upwards,
not downwards. - Sunday Mercury