The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1868-04-09

| lsned people CANNOT pear up uliuer IL.
Every antagonism between the two
races is melted by it. | call npon
every white man and every colored
man to unite, resist and defeat that
Constitution, by every means our op-
pressors permit US to use. 1t is q
duty We owe the living and to the
dead.
Address to the Colored People of South
Carolina
Among the documents issued by
the late Convention in Columbia, is
the following:
The Convention of the Democratic
party of South Carolina feels it Il
high and bounden duty to speak to
you candidly and earnestly, and with
no further apology than that our in
tercsts are to 4 certain extent iden-
tical.
You have been suddenly put in
position to exercise certain powers,
tie abuse of which may result disas-
trously to you and to US. tits tmpos-
sible thatyour present po,Oer can en-
durs, whethtr you use at for good or
Ill. The whita race already outnum-
bers you in the South. Disease has
made the mortality among YOU twice
WHAT it is among tile whites, and the
rate is daily increasing. Emigration
has carried off thousands ofyour color
to distant States, while it already
begins to fill their places with whites
from Europe. Let not your pride,
nor yet your pretended friends fatter
you into the belief that you ever can
or ever will, for any length of time,
govern the white men of the South.
The world has never seen such q spec
tacle, and its whole history and espe-
cially the history of your race, gives
no ground for the anticipation. Per-
haps, however, You expect to attain
power by the aid of the radical party
tthe North. The Almightyin his WIS
''om. (perhaps to prevent the amalga-
ton Of the separate races which He
created and Marked has implanted
in every human breast a sentiment
called the prejudice Of race; and
when this feeling is once aroused, it
is one of the strongest and most uri-
versal passions of our natures. Wher
your Pace was among US as slaves,
this sentiment slumbered, and only a
compassion for you influenced every
honest hcart-those among your mas
ters-to treat you kindly; those who
believed you wronged, desired to set
you free. When you were set free,
compassion ceased to exist. When
undue power was. given you by the
radical party, from motives which all
me,l appreciated and despised,) pre-
judice ofrace sprang up. The whites
of tfis State endeavored to allay it
-hr re, at least-by inviting you to
a course and a compromise which
would have given it nothing to feed
upon. But their efforts resulted in
such an utter failure, that it would be
mortifying had it not been Christian
duty to make the effort. Every step
of your political career, so far, has
cultivated this prejudice, it until now
speaks aloud in England and is al
ready rapidly changing the politics of
the North. This is the odiuu which
must soon prove the death of the
radical party. 1t is too strong to be
resisted, being the operation of law
of nature. Do you not see it even
in your white radical friends, in spite
of their industrious efforts to conceal
it, so long as they have use for ytu?
Is it not apparent, also, in the officers,
and even the very private soldiers, of
the army whose bayonets still prop
up your power, only because they are
paid to doit? Do you hatter your
selves that your Loyal Leagues can
prevail against it? Blood is thicker
than water, and the league which the
Almighty has organized is one to
which there will be no traitors, when
once an issue is fairly made.
To repeat, then, as we began -
Your present power must surely and
soon pass from you. Nothing that it
builds will stand. and nothing, will
remain oft but the prcjudices it may
create. 1t is, therefore, a most dan
gerous tool that you are handling
Your leaders, both white and black,
are using your votes for nothing but
their individual gain. Many of them
you have only known, heretorforc, to
despise aid uistrust, until command
ed by your leagues to vote for them.
Offices and salaries for Themselves