Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-10-24

mentary culture and cultivation is Sc
cured. So much for the South. Blu
, why does Mr.. Pillsbury come to this con
clusion as to the South He makes an
swer in these significant words:
E'IIe surely must have low estimate OF
the solemn responsibilities of govern.
ment involving the liberty, the person,
the property and life of every individual
in that government, who would force the
ballot on thousands and thousands to be
seen all over the South. And forced
il was on many men, wherever the slaves
have voted; as much as were ever theiI
tasks in the cotton field. They knew nc
more and cared no more for what they did
in voting, than if they were as infantile
in years as they are in citizenship and in
political experience"
Mr. Pillsbury is not the only abolition,
isl who now fears that negro suffrage is q
dangerous experiment. The New York
Eeeaing Post, one of the steadiest and
ablest of the old abolition organs, is OPP
posed to the acquisition of Cuba on the
ground that it will introduce into our pol
itics more negro suffrage, of which that
paper thinks we have rs much already as
can be well managed. The EceRing
Post says:
eve have already, in the Southern
States, large population of very igno-
rant people, to whom, for their own pro-
lection, it has been thought necessary to
give the vote. However that experiment
may turn out, even those who most yehe-
mently urged it will acknowledge that it
is an experiment; and no one probably de-
MES that it is a disadvantage to the cOun-
try to have as part of its population so
many ignorant citizens, unacCOstumed TO,
and macquainted with the forms of free
| government, and, to q great extent, una
ware of the Importance Of the vote they
are TO cast
There is reason to fear that the more
ignorant of the blacks there, like the more
! ignorant of the whites here, will become
the sport and tools of political demagogues;
and the immediate future of the country is
certainly not made more hopeful by the
fact that they form q part of our popula-
lion.
''Now, if this is 50, should we not make
a grave blunder TO take into our Union,
even if we could get it for nothing, a new
State in Caba, an island, large part of
| whose population consists of barbarians,
not very long ago imported from Africa,
and of the very lowest class of
| Chinese Can we with safety or
| comfort to ourselves adopt this popu-
latiOn as part of ourselves? 1t may
| be, rs most people say, that Cuba's mani
| fest destiny is to he State of the Union;
| but have we not the right, and is it not
| our duty to ourselves and our country TO
keep her out as long as possible? Should
we not, in all that we do in relation to
Cuba, insist that if the island is to be free
| from Spain, it shall become an independ-
| ent state! May we not rightly prefer to
see Cuba remain under the Spanish flag in
| preference to having it under the Ameri-
can 1ag?"
tisratheTremarkablc that men who were
so persistent before the war in demanding
freedom for the slave, and upon his at
tanning that boon by the operation of the
war, that he should Immediately have con
ferTed upon him the ballot, should so
early see and confess the danger to our
government from 50 ignorant a mass of
voters. There are others of the old abo-
litionists who entertain similar convictions,
but lack the candOr to confess as have
Pillsbury and the Post
Not content with showing the evils that
may grow out of the exercise of the right
of suffrage by the ignorant negroes of the
South, upon whom the ballot was forced
To subserve partisan purposes. Mr.. Pills
bury tears away the curtain which hid
from the public gaze many Of the vices
and frailties of the negroes, and holds
them up, rs will be seen from the extract
from his letter printed elsewhere, a.
most prohglte and vicious race. This is
the report sent back 10 New England by
one who is prejudiccd in favor of the ne
gro, after he has had an opportunity to see
and study HMM his native South Mr. Pills
bury sees that observation-disclosures like him
self, by their own efforts and the trickery
Of their emissaries, in striving to ruin the
white man of the South, the 'Rebel'
if You please, have driven the
negro TO destruction. The war freed the
negroes, and we accepted 'the logic of
events in that case. We were ready and
willing to give them every protection I'M
der the law; to care for them, TO educate
them, TO improve them, and to enlighten
them. We asked that decency and in
telligence should come first and the ballot
last But the freedmen's bureau and as
piring carpet-baggers stepped in between
US and our slaves who had been made cit
liens, and instead of waiting for the ne
gro to pass through the necessary tutilage
and prepare himself for the iudicious eX-
ercisc of The ballot, If such Il thing be
possible. that right was huITiedly con
fered upon him by Congress that he
might be used, as he has been, to enable
these graceless carpet-baggers and their
scalawag associates to monopolize all the |
offices and control the governments, State
and municipal, in the South. Four years |
have now elapsed since the hondmen be
came not only free, but citizens and yo-
tiers. In several Of the most fertile sec
tions of the South, the negroes have alb
solutely controlled all State and municipal
legislation, and what has been the result2
As a mass, they have not only not ad-
yanced, hut have sunk lower and lower
each year, and are still tending towards
the depths of degradation, as Mr.. Parker
Pillsbury, whose record shows that he is
not prejudiced against them, confesses.
While presenting to our readers the dis
mai picture of the negro in his state of
freedom and the full enjoyment of all the
rights pertaining to citizenship, drawn by
Mr., PillsbuTy, and conceding its truth, we
must say that we do not wholly despair of
he ultimate regeneration of the blacks.
But this must come, if ii come at all,