The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-11-11
THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH.

Recently you Pupti3HCu t"C 'PNNS'. W
John Quincy Adams, Jr., at Columbia, ), ..
There were many things about that speech
both remarkable and suggestive. The part
purely political was perhaps the least lmpor-
tant. 1t is of very little moment, politically,
whether Mr.. Adams speaks this or that, for
the condition of the South in that respect is
fixed by The reconstruction acts and the
Fourteenth Amendment, and 1t seems that
the terms of the amendment are such that
Congress has now constitutional power to
Interfere by force whenever the negro shall
be put, by any act of the Legislature, on I'M
equal terms, civilly or politically.
sec it stated by some papers that the
States-the Legislatures OF the late rebel
Statcs-may in various ways disturb the
negroes in their civil condition. This is not
so. Under the Constitution, without amend
ments this would have been the case. But
Congress has now the constitutional right to
interfere and maintain that civil condition
OF equality which it has conferred upon the
negroes. The State Constitutions which
confer Negro suffrage are also guaranteed.
Then the civil and political status of the ne
gro is fixed, and there are certainly no signs
in the political horizon that it is likely to be
changed. Negro suffrage is fixed fact
there. and it only remains to knew whether
the Southern people have sense enough to
deal with the negroes as becomes their own
true interest; or whether the Government
must treat them like madmen, and put them
in strait jackets? What is their true inter-
est !? Evidently it is not their interest to
keep up u political war on one of the chief
elements of their material welfare.
Yet that is exactly what they have done.
ANY one can see that the violent speech and
conduct of Southern men-the threatened
war of races-the "cannot live with them
of Mr.. Hill, and the whole outrage and COM
motion in the South, is nothing but a part
ofthe machinery set in motion by the Dem
ocratic party to prevent the political equal
ity of the races. 1t is not moral nor u So
cal question 1t is simply a question
whether Mr.. 3. II. Hill and Mr.. Robert
Toombs shall go to the polls and give their
ballots on terms of political equality with
Mr.. Pompey and Mr.. Cesar. I confess that
1 don't see why Pompey and Cesar have
not as good right to vote as Hill and
Toombs. It is no doubt very disagreeable
to Hill and Toombs, but they have RENE
where things are managed better In fine,
this whole outcry in the South is nothing
but a piece of political party machinery to
raise the rebels into political consequence.
In that aspect of the case have no sympa-
thy with them. They have made their own
bed and they may lie in it. What does Mr..
Adams say? Exactly this: that negro suf-
frage is fact, and they must put up
with 1t.
But the question of importance to the
South still remains-hOw these Southern
people treat the blacks, So far as they have
power over them2 Will they continue to
act as if the negroes were alien to them, or
will thew treat them as human beings, and
try to elevate them to the dignity OF intelli-
gent citizens? They can do much either
way. 1t is here that Mr.. Adams is not sug-
gestive. 1t is true there is nothing in his
speech consolotory tC the pride or the
power of the South; but there is much sug-
gestiye of wiser and better course. Mr..
Adams says-after discussing the political
no nation can afford to keep
any large part of the people in Ignorance.
Hence it is policy, as we'll as duty, to edu-
Gated the blacks. The South has proved
this even in state of slavery. Every one
knows that slave, who was a good me
chanic, would bring three times the price
that common field hand would. This was
a practical demonstration, even in the COM
monesS things, that an educated man was
worth more than an ignorant one. The
South will be immensely the gamer by hay
ing its black population educated. No ma
ton, and especially no Republican people,
can afford to have a large part of its people
uneducated -9. .
Mr.. Adams goes far beyond this and says
that no free people can afford to perpetuate
a caste. This is precisely the point made
in former letter. The South say, we don't
want to revive slavery Wemean nothing of
the kind Exactly they don't want chattls:
slavery. They probably don't want Next
can peonage. They do uant caste. This is
the whole burden, not only of Southern, but
of Northern Democratic speeches. This is
the great point they have made. Harping
upon ''negro-equlity" is the only thing
which has really sustained the Democratic
party. The Democratic organs go to sleep
upon it and rise in the morning to break
fast upon it. 1t is their daily food and their
nightly meditation. 1t is no new thing.
They began upon it more than thirty years
ago in charging Abolition tendencies upon
the Wing party. John Quincy Adams
would not have been allowed to say what
his grandson says in the South with i'm
punity. +....-..
Looking upon the conduct and conversa-
tion of a genuine Democrat, should say his
ancestors must have been negroes, from
which he has been gradually bleached into
white condition, for the mention of ne
gro makes him start, as Sir Piercie Shafton,
lin one of Walter SCOTS novels, whose
Grandfather was q tailor, started at the men
ton of a bodkin. Probably the Democrat
ic nerves will be strengthened when they
get accustomed TO such doctrines and phil
osophy as Mr.. Adams deals out 10 Them
Mr. Adams says there cannot be caste in
Democratic country, and this is to intelli-
gent minds an evident truth. The South
ern demagogues want to create a caste of
the blacks-not because they fear any social
equality, Or instruction, or serious difficulty
of any kind, but because they don't want
the blacks to have political power, and
they don't want them educated to the level
of the whites, because they know that their
chances for Office and power will then be
the same with their own. Mr.. Adams tells
them that, whatever they may think or de-
sire, they cannot establish caste, and will
not be allowed to make any political in
equality. 'r.. sts
Seeing they cannot do this-and the cleo
tons of this Fall will be finally decisive of
the whole matter-what is best for the
South Unquestionabiy submission and
peace. The decision in November will, in
my opinion, be a final and decisive iudg-
mcnt of-the American people. Despite all
the forms of the Constitution, and all the
theories and discussions upon them, the
grand fact remains hat sovereignty IN Amer
lea resides in the American people From