The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-08-06

ACQUISITION Of power for themselves, which 9th:
erEise thew could not obtain or expect-ano
after that to leave their deluded victims to their
fate. Their reconstruction means among con-
trolling men Of their party nothing more than
the pending Presidential election. What Say
does not rest upon my opinion or assertion
The doom of this misrule has been solemniiJ
adjudged and recorded. The great Atan9e
States, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania
New Jersey-the Pacific States, California, Ore
gon-the mighty West, her river and lake
States, Ohio, Michigan leven Michigan, In
Kentucky, proclaim with one mighty, uniteo
voice, that the white man SHALL, and the col.
ored man sHALL NOT, participate in and contro
the government of this country. They have
pronounced that it shall be "a white mans
government" and their voice is potential
But they have said that upon this question
each State is free to speak for ITSELF Who, then.
and what are the States? Alas that there
should be need Of such question. There was
once q South Carolina was q State and
had history. Her history remains, and,
hope, will ever remain in the perpetual memory
of men. The destroyer came, and there ls now
no South Carolina Slate. I do not venture to
call that limping, tottering experiment set up by
bayonets, now on exhibition at Columbia-the
"Nen, high-minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;
Men who their duties know, and knowing dare
maintain,
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain;
These constitute State"
Such men are not to be found in the swag-
pering exhibition at Columbia, which calls it.
self the State -Thepeople Of the great States
which I have named are at this moment united
with us in the most eventful election this
country has ever Witnessed. 1t is life and
death struggle for the restoration of the con-
stitution and the Union it created-for the re,
1ival and preservation of the sGfed judicial
department of the government t-for the re-es-
tablishment of the Constitutional Executive
power, now reduced by progressive usurpatlons
of the legislative branch to the mere SHADOW
of name"
With US, beyond all this, the struggle is for
political life, for country, for civilization, Tor
relief from the bondage to which the love OF
power and the hatreds, not the purposes, OF the
those States, the struggle is to save themselves
from military despotism seen in the brief
distance of the future, or from the present
vulgar tyranny Of corrupt and foresworn Con-
gress. They seek to avoid the fate Of the an
oient Samnites, who, failing both in courage to
destroy, and in magnanimity to be generous,
to conquered enemy, stripped and degraded
under the yoke their Roman captives.. Their
reward was the same yoke, measured by the
same measure, and final ruin. In this great
contest we can give but little, if any, aid to our
friends; il our vote is against them, it will be
declared legal and counted for our enemies.
II it is for them, it will be declared illegal, as
in truth it will be, and will not be counted.
Such is the Radical intention. Good faith
then, and all the propr!eties Of our position,
require Of US to be cautious, that We do not
risk doing injury or causing embarrassment.
doing too little than from saying or
doing too much. That which is left
unsaid to-day may be said to-morrow-what
is said to-day cannot be unsaid tomorrow.
Nothing would add more to my modification
and pain at the close Of the present canvass,
If it should end in defeat, than to have it said
had, by any word or act Of mine, added 8
feathers weight to the heavy burden our
salvation to the South, before the disordered
public sentiment of the North and West. Vic
tory-nothing short-might console me for the
modification that it was won in spite OF the
embarrassments gave. shall not, there
fore, by any word or act during the canvass,
diyeIge from what understand to be the SEN
timent Of those States which have named
upon the subject Of suffrage or the political
disabilities or rights of the colored man. My
omu yuuBmehI 10 thaC, 40 9ueoV!on Va PoiA0y,
of mere campaign strategy, it is unwise to
make, at this time, any offers or promises on
the subject. 1t belongs to the future-not
the present. When, Immediately after the war,
President johnson, in 1866, suggested to Gov
ernor Orr, to myself, and to others that it
might be well for the State, in advance of any
attempt to interfere with this question, to
step forward and give qualified suffrage to
the colored man, aceeded to 1t as measure
o1so ~ hot II mil mt
at this time, make that or any other offer or
promise upon the subject. 1t was not then
approved or seconded by others.
But instead the basis of representation was
itself narrowed, go that the colored man, un-
der the constitution Of 1865, was no longer what
he had always been before, part OF the basis
of representation. This was achieved 1y tne
votes and influence Of Governor Orr and Judge
Moses over the opposition of Chief Justice
Dunkin, Judge Ingls, Judge Wardlaw and the
late Judge Frost, and other distinguished and
influential men. Without them, or either one
of them, it could not have been done.
The present happy relations between the col
ored politicians and Messrs. Orr and Moses
NAV be taken as evidence that the former are
by no means unforgiying to those VINO Woulo
exclude them from all representation, thus
placing them below the grade ofproperty.
But there is another consideration OF this
subject Of great and turning weight, it we are
free to deal with it at this time. The truth is,
the colored politicians have not by their pub.
lie conduct, since they have held power, recon-
mended themselves to the favorable estimate
of their best friends, or Of rejecting men gen.
orally. They neither assume the administra'
tion of power themselves, nor confer 1t upon
such men as they know to be fit and proper.
They have done exactly the contrary; they have
placed in power men whom they would not
themselves trust for day wages. II by such
courses they expect to gain the confidence OF
good will of Taxpayers, holders of land. o1
capital, and Of substantial people generally
in fact, Of whatever constitutes State-they
greatly deceive themselves. II We think such
conduct offers proper opportunity to approach
The colored man with concessions, we are,
think, wofully mistaken. Of those who at this
time form The de facto government Of South
Carolina, there is not one who might not find
his peer and superior among the colored peo'
pie. Who would not say that DeLarge, Car
doza, Whipper, Wright and Cain are better
men than any one OF the four members Of
Congress by them and by their influence
inflicted upon the people OF this State
Less cannot be said Of the colored poll
ticians than that they have failed in 6del::
ity to themselves and to the great body OF
the people and the property OF the state. Id
their late Convention, in their present l. eSls
lature, the colored element was and ls vastly
superior to the white, not only in numbers, ,bu
also in character, in department, i'll education
and in all the elements which make substantla
responsibility. They, too. were really repre-
sentatiyes of something and Of somebody. They
represented labor and large population
their own race, and they could, had they been
wise. have made themselves the representatives
also of capital and the white race. But, ,as have