The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-02
GOVERNMENT BY NEGROES.

4
be expected from that sort of faith. ---
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GOVERNMENT BY NEGROES.
From The Pal MdH Gazette lo
In the interest both Of history and of poll
tical science, it is much to be wished that
more were known Of the nature and effects of
the system OF government which is ON It's
trial in the Southern States of America. The
experiment is without precedent, and is of
vast Importance whether il succeeds or fails;
but there is an almost entire want of authen
tic information as to the facts. The most
careful examination of the American news
papers fails to produce any effect on the
mind except absolute distrust of their state
ments about the South. If the Democratic
writer's are to be believed, the system i'm
posed by the reconstruction laws has no
parallel for cruelty and folly. Men of the
same race and education, and mainly of the
same historical traditions as their Northern
masters, are said to be under the heel of
debauched and illiterate savaees, guided by
a handful of white scoundrels who had made
the back-slums OF the great Northern cities
too hot to hold them. The pictures of the
courts of justice and legislative halls of the
South which these journals give are the coun-
terpart of the scenes which are enacted here
by Ethiopian serenaders and Christy Mnstrels.
Black men in absurd dresses are perpetually
talking ungrammatical nonsense interspersed
with idiotio jokes. But the story of the Re-
publican press may be described as the direct
contradiction of these statements in eVery
single particular 1t represents the South az
governed upon the most approved constitu-
tional models, by population of primitive
innocence led by virtuous political mission
aries. Schools and churches are said to be
rising everywhere; and the material wealth of
the country, daily increased by the labors of
rapidly multiplying peasant proprietary, is
alleged to be steadily rising to the standard
which it touched before the war. The sole
drawback on all this moral and material pros
perity is said to be the terrorism exercised
by white conspirators united in secret socie-
ties with grotesque names. There is evidently
on both sides settled practice of inventing
or distorting facts, which is not likely to be
abandoned until party heats have cooled down
much more than they seem likely to do for the
present. We may add that the few British
travellers who have visited and written on the
Southern States since 1865 have added but
little to our information. Their interest
seems to have still centred on the war Of Sc
cession, and they were apparently only anx-
ious 10 pick up facts confrmatory of their
theories as to the past.
This scarcity of trustworthy information
is the more provoking because it has become
clear that the Congress of the United States is
not trying government by negroes as a merely
temporary arrangement. The act which it has
Just passed for the settlement of the affairs
of Georgia shows that it intends to watch
continuously over its system of reconstruc-
ton, and to insist on it being applied in its
integrity whenever it is accidentally or
totally deranged. Georgia had complied with
all the requirements of the general Recon-
struction law, and military government had,
therefore, theoretically, come to an end. But
the Legislature elected for the State con-
tanned a majority of white men, and their
first step was to disallow the election of all
the negroes who had been returned There
was some sort of legal pretext for this vio-
lent and ill-judged step, but its legality was
doubted, and the constitutional point was
referred to the courts of justice, which de-
cided against the expulsion of the colored
men. The negroes would, therefore, have
been probably allowed to take
their seats. But this did not satisfy
Congress, which seems to have speedily
made up its mind that measures of far severer
repression were required for the whites of
Georgia. The new Act of Congress directs
that the Georgia Legislature shall reassemble
exactly in the condition in which it found
itself before the expulsion of the negroes;
that nobody's election shall be disallowed for
reasons of race or color; that all persons re-
of minute precision that during the war they
gave assistance of any sort to the Secession
ist Government of the State otherwise "than
under physical compulsion," and that the
Federal land not the State) courts shall enter
tain prosecutions for perjury in falsely swear
ing to this effect II it had been generally
understood that the North did not intend at
any time to relax its grasp upon the South,
there would have been nothing very
wonderful in this measure consider
ing what the conduct of the Georgia State
Legislature had been. But its formidable
character arises from the contrary assump-
| ton having been made, and from its having
| been supposed that, when the general Recon
| struction law had been literally complied
with, the reconstructed Southern States would
| be left to themselves, and their public acts
submitted for allowance or disallowance to
| the law courts exclusively. 1t must now be
assumed that if the experiment tried in the
| South fails anywhere to give the results ex-
| peoted by the Republicans, the Congress of
| the United States, 80 long as that party is
| dominant in it, will interfere to correct the
| miscarriage Except in the case of the United
| States, there has been great uniformity in
| the history of the suppression of rebellions in
| modern times First, there has been severe
| and often sanguinary punishment inflicted
| on the chiefs of the revolt; then has sue
| ceeded period during which the successful
empire has enforced strict obedience to itseli
from its subjugated dependency; and finally
has come strong desire, growing some
times out of policy, sometimes out of sense
! of Justice, and sometimes ont of mere
/ emotion, to win its affections, or at al
events its voluntary acquiescence in accom-
plished facts. England is just at present
faal;x n, m alraout ma aai ata wish 10 he racOp