Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1868-08-28

can be said TO have accrued from any willing.
ness OF tho blacks to riso 81 nl4ssc against tho
supposed opprcsaors. This spectacle has at
no time impressed the people of the North
rs it did The people Of foreign countries, and
wo have not drawn from il the important lea.
sou it should have conveyed to us.
It ehould havo taught us that whcn tho
| people of the 3oUthern States, after the war
wa9 ended, consented to ratify Til amendment
Of the Constitution Of the United States abol
ishing slavery, aud when they were ready, as
they certainly were, to nd just their legislation
end customs To system Of froc labor our
| further interference would be both III 1ccca
sary and mischicvous. 1t WAS clearly unnc-
ocss:ry, because there was no oppression, and
no feeling that ranklcd in the bosoms Of the
whitca against tho blacks. 1t WAS ccrtaiu to
prove m;achicvous; because rs legislators for
shc South we were utterly incompetent 10
dca. with p roblcm 50 far removed from us,
80 local, so peculiar, and involving 50 many
details OF which we could know nothing
We we're completely ignoraut Of the race for
| whose benefit VIC undertook to act. We wcrc
ignorant Of the proccssca Gid necessities Of
Tile ;srcat agriculture which depended upon
| their labor. What kind of contracts the owner
Of thc soil could mcae with the freedmen,
what contracts could be enforced, how subsis-
t,ncc WAS TO be provided, how the laboring
population were TO be kcpS ct work and kept
| in hcalth-that population being one Just
cmancipatcd fium the absolute will of an own.
or and no moro capablo in general of aclfdi-
rcct!on than SO many ch'drcn-thcsc were
matters with which Il WAS impossible for any
government 70 deal wisely which entirely
lacked representative men belonging to thosc
communities, and assumed the relation of
sovereign Chat had qnclcda political revolt.
tVo did tho revs weret thing thet we could
have done. We sent military power 20
deal with SOCIAL problems that required local
| knowledge and the experience which genera
tions o. tho civilized and Intelligent white
men had acquired in dealing with tho negro
and the agents Of that military power were
Northern strangers, very poorly qualified to
whose wants they could not understand, and
agains: whom they carried with thcm strong
political prcjuiicos The l'rccdmcn's Bu-
! rcan We founded upon the idea that The
blacis needed protection against the w,,itoa;
7ad along with this came caother otupcndous
| m.tta!,c, tint i, was necc@"ly to -cpvcas the
whites because ti,cy had bcon " rebels" end
= proclaim DC blacks TO be the "loyalista
and Unions.s' bcccnsc their former mui.c.a
had engaged in political revolt against the
Federal Government. This running Of po-
litica distinctions into problems Chat were
purely social, Legislative aud local-the prob
lens OF free labor whore alaye labor alone had
produced the great staplcu of very peculiar
regionsoon excited the ambition and CHI
cancry Of u certain class Of politicians who
have had the predominant control Of the Fed
cral Government since comparatively carly
period in President I.incoln's administration
These mon conceived tho idea that if the
ballot could be put into The hands Of the nc
gro they could contro! the political charactor
of the Southern Strtas, and by n,cans Of
population which they could handle IS they
pleased the Southern States might be made,
politically, Republican as they would cor
tainly become Democratic if the whites were
left in possession Of the political power But
how the ballot was % be got into the hands
or tho blacks was question NOT easy to be
| settled Tho institutions and the funlamcn.
TIL la# Of the Unitoa States did not admit Of
any interference by Congress with the right
Of suffrage. The making or making of vo-
tcrs by an net Of Congress was o thing uuhcard
Of; and cvcu the most radical of our Radicals
did not ut first SEQ thoir way to this assump.
tion Of power. They proposed an amendment
of tho nsttution which would deprive the
Southern States of their proportion Of repre-.
sentative population unless they conferred suf.
frago upon the negroes. This amendment
was rejected by tho people on whom it under
took to force change which they knew tho
freedmen wore not fit for, and for which there
was 40 kind Of honest necessity. What was
to be done? Negro suffrage must be he'd, or
the political power Of tho Radical party in
} tho North was in danger Of being lost by tho
roaction naturally to be'cxpcotod aftcr n civil
} war. Reconstruction WAS tho only remaining
rcsourcc--a scho,ne which meant that the