The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-08-11
RECONSTRUCTION.
From the Round Tablet

| with the Southern States as they have been
dealt with. 1t has consisted in the assumption
| against the whites. The general belief in suoh
q necessity has led the people of the North to
| acquiesce in measures which they certainly
would otherwise have condemned, and of
which they are now beginning to see the mis-
chleYous fruits. The error has extended to
the means as well as to the end. we nave as-
sumed that the negroes needed protection ut
our hands, and then have committed the blum
der OF supposipg that the ballot was to be the
great panacea. Il has proved to be a Pando-
ra as box. -.-.-.,
II supreme ruler, having unrestrained au-
thority and an ordinary share OF wisdom and
beneyolence, had beou called to consider the
problem presented by tue sudden abolition Of
slavery as one of the consequences of civil
war growing out of political revolt against his
government, it is probable that one Of tho last
projects that he would have adopted would have
been to reverse the political and soclal relations
of the two races By comforting political power
upon the inferior race and taking it away from
the superior. But wise or unwise, constitution
al or unconstitutional, the action Of Congress
toward the Southern States has been founded
on q monstrous assumption. The whole social
history Of the South Tor period Of fifty years
preceding the rebellion shows that the relations
between the two races had in general been kindly
and.harmonious There were evils enough at
tendant upon slavery. and it was certainly blot
upon the escutcheon of such republic as
ours. We have all reason to be thankful for
it's removal, and this we believe is the opinion
of ninety-nine in every hundred of the former
masters. But whether it arose from the nature
Of the negro, from the fact that for 80 many
generations he bad been q slave, or fiom the
virtues which such system engendered in the
whites along with vices which it produced, it
is undeniable that protection and good treat
ment Of the blacks we're the settled habits and
the firm disposition OF Southern society. If it
had been otherwise, we never should have wit
messed the extraordinary spectacle, which
was displayed all through the war, Of ser
vile population remaining poaceably at work
in the absence Of their masters who were
carving on war one Of the avowed objects of
which was to continue them in their servile
condition. There was no such thing as o Sc
rious slave insurrection in the whole South
while the war WAS going on. In cases almost
1nnumerable the slaves on isolated plantations,
where white women and children were left
without any protectors Of their own race except
ing alngle overseer, were faithful to the last,
carving on the labor Of production which fur
nished the sinews Of war as well as the meaus
Of subsistence for all. The national govern
mentobtained no important military advantage
in the whole course Of the war which cam be
said to have accrued from any willingness of
the blacks to rise en- nadsSe against the sup
posed oppressors. This spectacle has at no
time Impressed the people Of the North as 1t
did the people of foreign countries, and We have
not drawn from it the important Lesson it tshould
have conveyed to us.
It should have taught us that when the PEG
pie Of the Southern States, after thew was
ended, consented to ratiiy an amendment OF
the Constitution Of the United States abolish
ing slavery, and when they were ready, as they
certainly were, to adjust their legisla ton anu
customS to system of free labor, our further
interference would be both unnecessary and
mischievous. It was clearly unnecessary, be-
cause there was no oppression, and no feeling
that rankled in the bosoms Of the whites
against the blncks. 1t was certain to prove
mischievous, because as legislators for the
South we were utterly incompetent TO doal
with pI oblem 80 fur removed from US, 30 To-
cal, so peculiar, and involving so many de-
were completely ignorant Of the race for whose
benefit we undertook to act. We were ig-
norant Of the processes and necessities OF the
great agriculture which depended upon their
labor. What kind OF contracts the owner Of
the soil could make with the freedmen, what
contracts could be enforced, how subsistence
was to be provided, how the laboring popula-
health-that population being one just eman-
cipated from the absolute Will Of ON owner and
no more capable in general OF self-direction
than 80 many children-these were matters
with which it was impossible for any govern
ment to deal wisely which entirely lacked rep
ties, and assumed the relation OF sovereign
that had quelled political revolt. We did the
very worst thing that we could have done. We
sent military power to deal with social pro-
blems that required local knowledge and
the experience which generations OF the
civilizedsc.and- intelligent white -~men had
acquired In dealing with the negro; AID
the agents Of that military power were
Northern strangers, very poorly qualified to
legislate for people whose interests and whose
wants they could NOT understand, and against
whom they carried with them strong politi-
cal prejudices. The Freedmen's Bureau was
founded upon the idea that the blacks needed
protection against the whites; and along with
this came another stupendous mistake, that 1t
WAS necessary to repress the whites because
they had been ''rebels," aud to proclaim the
blacks to be the "Ioyafistsa and 'sUnionists"
because their former masters hsd engaged in
apolitical revolt against the Federal Govern
ment. This running OF political distinctions
into problems that we're purely social, leglsla-
tive and local-the problemB Of free labor
where slave labor alonehad produced the great
staples Of very peculiar region-soon excited
the ambition and chicanery Of q certain class
Of politicians who have had the predominant
control Of the Federal Governm ent since COM
paratiyely early period In President Lincoln's
administration.
These men conceived the idea that if the bal
lot could be put into the hands OF the negro
they could control the political character of
the Southern States, and by means of popu-
lation which they could handle as they pleased
the Southern States might be made, politically,
Republican; as they would certainly become
Democratic il the whites were left in posses
sion of the political power. But how the ballot
was to be got into the hands Of the blacks was
o question not easy to be settled. The institu-
tions and the fundamental law OF the United
States did not admit Of any interference by
Congress with the right Of suffrage. The max
ing or unmakng OF voters by an act OF
Congress was thing unheard Of; and
even the most radical Of our Radicals
did not at 6rst see their way to this as
s1mption of power. They proposed IN amend
ment Of the constitution which would deprive
the Southern Sta!es OF their proportion OF
representative population unless they confer
red suffrage upon the negroes. This amend
ment was rejected by tine people on whom it
undertook to force change which they knew
the freedmen were not fit for, and for which
there was no kind OF honest necessity. What
was to be done? Negro suffrage must 5e had
or the political power Of the Radical party in
the North was in danger Of being lost by the
reaction naturally to be expected after a alyl
war. Reconstruction was the only remaining
resource-a scheme which meant that me
Southern States, as they :hen existed
and always had existed, shorld pe cup
pressed that The whites wto wcnld TO-
consent to negro suffrage Should be d-s-
franch:sed BIZ the direct force c! an act
OF Congress; that suffrage should he coz