The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-03


enjoyed; and these things II has given. and
they can, In our opinion. never be taken away.
OF this great glory the Reconstruction nolicv
can never be deprived. But there Ia an evi
dent disposition In every direction now "a lat
Reconstruction alonei to let the asts and the
CONSTITUTIONAL amendment-whioh We trust
before long will be adopted-work az we'll as
they can; or, in other words, to leave the ne-
groes themselves TO work as best they oan the
legal machinery provided for their use. One
seer this tendency In the increasing oonoen-
tration of the public mind upon Questions
such as the fnaDo' 8 and municipal and ad
ministrative reform, which only affect the
freedmen as they Affect ali other members of
the community. Itwas worthy of remark that.
although nobody doubts Grants determine.
tion to enforce order whenever the law mar
mits him to interfere for its enforcement. he
made no mention of reconstruction. or of
what some people call the "main question. -
in his reply to the deputation which informed
him OF his election. He enumerated the
leading objects of his admiuistrstion. but
they were all questions of revenue and of
financial administration. He Is going to try
to have the Government economically aud
efficiently served and the public obliga-
tions bonorably met; but he Is not going to
assist any man or body Of men in taking
care OF themselves. In other words,
he is going to follow the good Ameri-
can plan Of leaving everybody to
work out his own salvation under the protec-
tion OF the Constitution and the laws. Even
Wendell Phillips admits at last that he looks
for nothing more than the ratification OF the
fifteenth constitutional amendment, and de-
clares that with this he will be content So
that the negro must clearly make up his mind
to share the common lot and submit to the
COMMON discipline. There is no doubt that
for time he will be dealt with unfairly. As
we pointed out last week, neither the amend
ment any more than the Reconstruction acts
can, under all the circumstances, prevent him
from being frequently wronged and oppressed,
because there is no political machinery to
protect ignorance and mex perienoe com pletely
against skill, vigor, and unscrupulousness,
and the Southern whites can boast the posses
sion of all three.
But it has now to be borne in mind that
there is nobody 30 much interested in the sue
cess of all the reforms now under discussion
as the negro. Any body who has entertained
extravagant expectations as to the results of
the Reconstruction acts or of the constitu-
tional amendment, and is now suffering from
disappointment, has the consolation of know
ing that there is no class OF the community
which will derive so much benefit from a re-
form in the civil service, from an improved
system of taxation, from the more honest and
faithful collection of the revenue, from inn
provements in the administration of justice,
from the purifcaion of the ballot box, and
from economy in all branches of the Govern
ment, as the weakest and most despised class
|. whatever that may be. 1t is not the rich or
the dextrous Or shrewd who are most inte-
rested in good government. These generally
manage TO take care OF themselves under any
government or even under no government at
all. The people who go to the wall when
Legislators are ignorant and reckless, judges
unlearned and corrupt, and tax gatherers
thievish and lazy, are the very poor and very
weak, no matter what may be their color, and
the thorough remedies for the evils of poverty
and weakness are found not in specifics but in
general tonics. To make any part of the COM
munity permanently better in our day. you
have to make it all better. To diminish the
number of victims of oppression, you have to
begin by diminishing the number of op-
pressors. In other words, you have to elevate
| the whole Of society.
| The devotion of the best portion of this
community through a whole generation to the
task, first, of preventing the spread of slavery,
and then of destroying it, has permitted the
growth of an enormous crop of abuses, which
undoubtedly have weakened all the usual
guarantees possessed by either poor blacks or
poor whites for the enjoyment Of their rights,
| so that the citizenship We now offer to the
negro is undoubtedly worth considerably less
than the citizenship we could have offered him
twenty years ago. He is poor, and poor men
count for less in politics than they did then,
| because the power OF wealth, and especially
of wealthy corporations, over legislation has
enormously increased, and because the choice
of officers for nearly every position in the
| Government has passed into fewer and less
| reputable hands, because the bar and judi
ciary have declined in learning and indepen-
dence, and because the weight Of taxation has
! increased without any increase OF skill in the
distribution of its burdens; because the num-
ber of officials has increased without any i'm
provement in their organization or discipline;
because crimes have increased, II not in num-
ber at least in variety and ingenuity, without
any increase in the certainty or efficiency Of
the machinery of punishment or repression.
We look now for the rapid and successful
application of the reformatory energy OF the
country to the extirpation Of these new
abuses, and anybody whose history or sympa'
tbies render him mere interested in the lot o.
the negroes than in that Of any other class o.
poor men--and this many good and able mer
may confess of themselves-may feel assured
that whatever he does for the reform OF ths
civil service, for the independence and learn
ing of the judicial bench, and for the bring
ing of brawliDg, ignorant, and corrupt poll
ticiaps into disrepute, he does for the freed
men, The next best service he can rendel
. them Is to assist in their education. To edu
cate black man is to make him literally. II
, ! spite of the unpleasant state OF things On tn,
coast of Guinea, "an heir OF all the ages, ant
to give him wear pom OF offense and defens
worth all the constitutional amendments eve
passed. Men who know their rights hav
never yet been utterly coufOunded or brough
to naught. No tyrants have ever yet lon
tyIannized over men who knew how to argue
: and how to save money and wait, though man.
I tvrants bava ~ rannizad long in spite of sta