The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-06-07
Edmnnd eBufksf n'ssuhrages-con-
-."lS tinued.

'Edmund Bufks' on 'esufrrages-con-
tinued.
No. Al will venture to mako one
more quotation, in which Mr.. Burke
traces the sonsoquence ofSthe oppres-
sions to which the Irish people were
subject, from the. e.conquering English.
Its from tile letter to Sir H. Lang
rishe. He says:
"You, who have looked deeply into
the spirit of Popery laws, must be
perfectly sensible, that n great part
Of the present mischief, which we
abhor in common, if it at MI exists,
has arisen from them. Their declared
object was to reduce the Catholics OF
ireland to q miserable populace.
without property, without estima-
tion, without education. The pro-
fessed object was to deprive the few
men, who, in spite of those laws,
might hold or obtain any property
amongst them, of oil sort Of .inhu-
ence or authority over the rest.
Are we to be astonished, when, by
the efforts of SO much violence in
conquest, and SO much policy id re-
gulation, continued without intermis-
sion for near an hundred years, we
had reduced them to mob; that
whenever they come to act at all,
many of them would net exactly like
q mob, without temper, measure or
foresight? Surely it might be Just
now matter Of temperate discussion,
whether you ought not to apply q
remedy to the real cause of the evil.
If the disorder you speak of be real
and considerable, you onght to raisc
an aristocratic interest; that is, an
interest of property and education
amongst them; and to strengthen, by
every prudent means, the authority
and influence of men Of that descrip-
tion."
1 lay these extracts before you, and
before the members of the two houses
Of Congress, with no expectation that
they will induce you to undo what
has been lawfully done. But they
are the utterances of the philosophic
and ever faithful friends Of regulated
Liberty, on the other side OF the At
lantic. The opinions of Mr.. Mill,
especially, ought to have great weight.
He is contemporary with you, and
abreast of you, in all philanthropic
and liberal enterprises; and in Eng
land and America, among liberals, he
is regarded as the great political phi
losopher Of the ago. The restrictions
he would impose on euffrage-the
educational and tax-paying basis,
which he regards as all essential,
we're conceived of with reference to
white men-Anglo- -Saxons-whose in
heritance of freedom dates back to
the middle ages. How vastly more
needful are they then, rs it regards
recently emanci pated African slaves,
ninety-nine hundredths of whom are
illiterate! Can the Republican lend
ers of America afford to part compa-
ny with J. Stuart Mill, John Bright
and Goodwin Smith, in a wild pnr-
suit of temporary expedients? Are
they not sapping the foundations of
the Republican theory of govern
ment, by giving supremacy to seryile
ignorance and vice, over intelligence,
character, and governing capacity?
If MIR. Mill is right in his theories,
if MIR. Burke was right, if the lessons
Of history are of any worth, then
Congress is wrong in providing for
reconstruction, on tho basis Of servile
ignorance and pauperism.
But If reason and equity. under
the peculiar circumstances, and as a
political necessity, give sanction to
the universal enfranchisement Of the
colored race, it can only be on the
condition of comforting equal privi-
leges on the whole white population.
Or, the disfranchisement of the 60
verning class of whites, in conse.
quence Of their participation in the
rebellion, and as u aguarantee of peace
and union, may be vindicated, proyi-
ded only the intelligent blacks are, Mt
the same time, enfranchised. But to
confer universal suffrage, with the
right to hold Office, OH the negroes,
and at the same time take away those
privileges from the most intelligent
whites, is to establish what Mr..
Burke characterizes as "plebeian
oligarchy," and which he Justly de-
nounces as "a monster"
A nbuo;o;on of nroe1o,, o--a