The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-07
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL oPINIoEs or THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPoE OURRgNz roPICs-CoMPmRD EvRRY
DAY PoR TEE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
The Value of Southern DecIara tions.

IRON The ~. Y, N0ttof.
Two hundred influential citizens' of
Charleston, S. c., have held meeting and
issued an address to the white people of the
district, informing them, in substance, that the
blacks have come to the conclusion that true
happiness for the negro can only be found in
''the most degrading vassalage of the white
citizens Of the State" and are "fred with a
sentiment of hostility to the white population
of the city and State" and prophesying that
unless "tmely averted, the purposes of wicked
men will be accomplished in deadly strife, and
in the streets of the city scenes will be enacted
which all good men will deplore." The docu-
ment is written in what, considering the season
at which it appears may perhaps be called
campaign English, anditis therefore impossi BILE
to say what its value is, either as an express
sion of feeling or as description of state of
things actually existing. The account it gives
OF the su1elings of the whites and of the bad
conduct of the blacks may have some truth in
it, but the reader is furnished with so little
means of guessing how much truth that he is
almost driven into refusing it all credence
whatever as the only safe course. What adds
to his difficulty is that the picture the paper
draws of white sufferings makes the advice to
the whites to be "patient" and do nothing
violent, with which it winds up, sound very
like the famous admonition to the mob, on no
account to nail the ears of the sheriff officer
to the pump.
HNNO mdLJ0r 10 WndJ OOuJQ6r0 S0urc9 one
turns for information as to the real condition
moral as well as physical, of the South, one
finds ones self plunged in the same per-
plexity. 1t is not simply that the language
of Southern speeches and articles is inf ated
but the propositions they contain are in such
direct opposition TO familiar facts of Southern
history that one could not believe them, even
If the language in which they are stated were
never so simple and direct. For instance, we
find in the report of General Rosecrans' inter
views with General Lee at the White Sulphur
Springs, published by the Richmond Thiq,
that "as to Southern animosity to the negro,
nothing could be further from the fact and why
should there be 2 Said he there is no rivalry
between the races, but reciprocal interest
growing out of the fact that each is dependent
on the other to a great extentn etc. etc,
Now, whether General Lee actually said this
or no makes little difference for the purpose of
our argument Southern men of his class are
constantly saying it, aud the newspapers keen
repeating it, and it is such clear evasion of
the real question that hearing it so often, one
is almost driven to the conclusion that discus
sion with Southern men is useless, and that
wild abuse of them, such as the Hunnicuts
and Underwoods indulge in, is as good way
of dealing with them as any.
They are not enemies of the negro, it is
true, provided the negro accepts their theory
of his rightful condition. But looking at
enmity in this way, it may be said with equal
truth that nobody has any enemies. All any
man has to do in order to put an end to all
hostility to him. is to accept the conclusions
of those who do not like him as to the place
he ought to occupy in society. A proud man,
for instance, is dislked because he thinks
he is superior to his neighbors, and lets it
be known that he thinks it; but if he became
very humble in his manner, and acted every
day as If he was the inferior of everybody he
met, his former enemies would soon get to
love him, or at least cease to hate him. A
close rich man is disliked because people
think he has acquired his wealth in an i'm
proper manner, and that the generous and
kind hearted would have his money if Justice
were done; so all he has to do to make every
body his friend is to divide his possessions
amongst his neighbors, and leave himself
poor and mean, as people think he deserves
to be.
This same difficulty is at the bottom of most
national antipathies. If Americans would
frankly accept the English view of the Ameri-
can character, and of the part which Ameri-
cans ought to play in the world, the English |
would like the Americans very much; or if |
the English could be got to see themselves as
the Americans see them, warmer friends than
the two nations could not be found on earth.
so, also, the long standing hatred between
France and England has been due simply to
the resolute refusal of each nation to adopt |
the others view of its character, capacity aud |
rights. Cases of hatred, flowing from pure |
devilishness of disposition, are almost un-
known in civilized life. So that when the
Southerner tells us that he is the friend of the |
black man, he simply means that he is the
friend OF the black man as long as the black |
man remains in what he considers his proper |
place-that of the member of an inferior race,
who is, for the benefit of his superiors, to be |
restrained and prevented from exerting all his |
faculties. In other words the assertion is |
mere bubble, and does not forward the dis |
cussion i'll the least.
The war arose out of the fact that the |
North and South held two widely different |
theories of society and government, and the
existing strife and confusion is kept up by the |
fact that the South refuses to accept and |
apply the Northern theory as to the result of |
its defeat in the field; and yet in nearly every
thing the Southern press and orators say
about their aims and intentions this fact is
kept out of sight. The North finding, at the
close OF the war, that the South was unwil-
ling to accept its social theory, applied the
screw in the shape of negro enfranchisement
and partial white disfranchisement. Now,
this might be called, as the Southerners do
call it, reducing the Southern whites to was
salage,'" " ii 1t were done deliberately for the
purpose of permanently degrading the whites
but it is done for precisely the same reason
that cannon was used against the Southern
armies In the war-tO make them submit to
the will OF the stronger. To call it "vassal-
age" under these circumstances, is simply
silly.
What we want from Southern orators and
statesmen is declaration of their feelings
and intentions in language used in the same
sense as that in which we use it. For in
stance, we want to know, from General Lee
and others, not whether they are friends of the
frnr fhafr NJ Of xr;o