The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-06
A FEW FRIENDLY WORDS TO THE
SOUTH.

SOUTH.
From the n. Y. World.
We are not such novices as to be unaware
that people who volunteer advice are not
likely to be repaid with thanks. We also
understand that it is not quite in accordance
with the time-honored principles of the De-
mocratic party for the people of one State or
class of States to counsel the people of another
State or class of States respecting the manage
ment of their internal concerns. We never
theless feel impelled to ask the attention of
our Southern brethren to q few words of
truth and soberness.
The oppressive domination under which
the South suffers is a domination from with
out, and there is no reasonable hope of re-
dress except by relief from external tyranny.
If the South possessed freedom of internal
action, unasked advice would indeed be in
trusive and impairment. But that section
can be relieved from the incubus of Federal
domination only by Democratic victories in
the North; and this is a valid apology for the
advice we presume to offer. AS the South
needs our aid, it must not spurn our friendly
counsel.
From 1860 down to the present time many
leading minds in the South have been afflicted
with political blindness. 1t was a supreme
act of political folly to split the Charlie ston
Convention by the lamentable schism which
brought two Democratic candidates -Douglas
and Breckinridge-into the field against Lin
coin and secured his first election. The
Northern Democrats who abetted that schism
were sycophants of the South, not real
friends. Prominent among them were Ben
Butler, who promptly deserted to the r adj
calls; Daniel S. Dickinson, who took Office
under Mr.. Lincoln; Caleb Gushing, who has
been the paid counsel of successive Radical
administrations and John A. Dix, the sub
missive tool of Lincoln and Seward in shut
ting up the offices of Democratic newspapers
These are specimens. The supporters of
Mr.. Douglas, on the other hand, pitched
their professions of friendshipin a lower kew.
but have maintained them to the present
hour. If Mr.. Douglas had been elected, we
should have had no civil war, and the
South would have been exempt from it's de-
plorable train of consequences. The wisdom
of Douglas consisted in his correct apprecia-
ton of the tone and temper of the Northern
people. He saw that the safety of the South
depended on a strong Northern alliance, and
that such an alliance was practicable only on
a basis of moderation. What was true in
1860 is trebly true now, and when the North
has still greater weight and preponderance;
when the radicals control every department
of the General Government, and a large ma
jority of the State governments. The South
can be relieved only by Northern Democratic
intervention, and Northern Democrats may
claim to understand the public sentiment of
this section better than our impracticable
brethren. Unless they will permit us to act
upon our better knowledge of the situation,
they must resign themselves to the tender
mercies of radical domination.
We tell them, therefore, in all candor aud
plainness, that they only rivet their chains
by further opposition to negro suffrage.
1t is not by negro votes that they are OPP
pressed, but by white votes. 1t is vain for
them to inscribe on their political banners
that they are a "white mans party" so long
as their tyrants consist of a Congress elected
by white votes. Negro suffrage is the result
of a white movement. The negroes did not
ask for suffrage till the white radicals put it
into their heads. The negroes would vote
rightly enough, if the white radicals did not
mislead and deceive them. The infamous
reconstruction laws were passed by a Con-
gress in which the South were not repre-
sented at all; by a Congress, therefore, which
was wholly elected by white constituents. 1t
is not by negroes that the South is oppressed,
but by white men; its most dangerous
enemies are the white radicals of the North;
and it is ridiculous to expect redress from ga
white mans party" when a party of white
men are the authors of all the mischief. Is
Grant a negro? Is Holden a negro? Was
old Thad. Stevens a negro, or elected by
negro constituents? Has not Europe groaned
IOr ages uuu6r prloStiy crhlt duu Rlngly
tyranny, without a negro among all her
oppressors? Are the English oppressors of
Ireland negroes? Was Poland dismembered
by negroes? Is Cuba held in subsection by a
nation of negroes? Unfortunately, a great
part of human history consists of r~ecitals of
white tyranny and oppression; and nothing
could be more preposterous than to expect
justice from "a white mans party" on the
sole ground that its MEMBERS are white.
What the South needs to be rescued from
is the domination of the white radical party
of the North which has controlled Congress-
for ten years. The Southern people would
have no difficulty in managing the negroes if
they were freed from white radical interfer-
ence exerted through the Federal Govern
ment. In North Carolina, it is Holden's
martial law backed by Grants bayonets that
keeps the State under radical control. In
Georgia the radicals dare not hazard an cleo
ton, and the Legislature is passing an act,
under color of Congressional authority, to
continue the present radical officers in au-
thority beyond the term for which they were
chosen. 1t is not negro voting, but outside
Federal pressure, that is the unmanageable
element in Southern politics. The only
means of relief is a political revolution in
the North, and Southern Democrats must
eonoede that our opportunities for knowing
the North are better than theirs.
We ask the Southern Democrats to recoe
nize the fact that the North is the real battle
oround of ~Dolitical Freedom for their ~section