The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-04-28
Government In the sooth.

epeFaUon TO places or hlSh nonOT aOu VIE
tinciion, In the Southern States. Of men who
are alike unworthy and incompetent for
proper discharge Of the duties Of their posi-
sions. This state Of things has been the
natural and inevitable result of the disiran-
cbisirg provisions Of the third section of the
fourteenth amendment, rs well as the en-
forcement Of the test or iron clad oath. but
more especially of the adoption Of negro
suffrage and its legitimate consequence. the
right to bold Office. Under the white dis
franchising process of Radicalism and the
enfranchisement of the slaves, the intelli-
Rence, culture snd wealth of the South have
been banished from her Executive chambers.
her legislative halls, and her courts of jus.
than all, carpet bagism, have been installed
In their place.
OF oil the States that composed the South
ern Confederacy, only three Of them have
State Executives who were born on Southern
soil and who had q fixed and permanent
residence there. The rest are Cover ned by
needy Adventurers from the North, having
| in most instances been connected with the
| Freedman's Bureau, and who reached their
present positions by the force of bayonets
and by pandering to the worst passions and
| prejudiees of the negro. In tie legislative
bodies OF the South but very few men are to
be found who are native and to the manor
born, OF who, by residence. had identified
themselves with Southern interests. They
are composed mainly of the slmy, Scheming
carpet>bagger and the ignorant. uncultiva-
ted negro-the former intent only on PUN
Ger, while the latter seeks merely the glory
Of holding Office, ignorant alike of its duties
and responsibilities. While Northern legis
latures are proverbially venal, the same
bodies in tie South are equally as corrupt,
with the superadded curse of being shrouded
in utter ignorance ard imbecility-that Of
South Carolina containing eighty odd MEM
bers who can neither read nor write. A
majority Of the Governors of the reconstruct
ed States have been openly charged by their
own partisans with the most stupendous
frauds and peculations upon their respective
State treasures, while others have been
threatened with impeachment for gross mis-
demearors in Office.
North and South Carolina. Florida. Goor>
gia, Louisiana and Arkansas have presented
q wide field for the innate cupidity and OH
cial rapacitv of such corrupt creatures as
Holden. ReaGe. Bullock, Yarmouth and
Clayton. The Judiciary of these States has
not escaped this frightful upheaval of igno-
rance and incompeteucy. Men without
ability. exper ience or character have been
elevated to the highest judicial seats. A
Judge of the Supreme Court il South Caro-
lima has the same duties to perform that are
required in judge of the same court in
Pennsylvania, and ought to possess the same
that State, under the new order of things,
the disgraoeful spectac le has been presented
of Pennsylvania negro, who never tried a
cause in Court House In his life, reaching
at one bound seat on the bench of Ler Su-
preme Court.
We publish below a biographical sketch
of this negro judge, taken from a recent
number of Harper's Weekly, an intensely
Radical sheet. which of course presents the
subject in its most favorable aspect. We
will not discuss It. The mere reading of the
article affords its own best commentary:
JUDcE ]. J. WHoHr, OF SourH CAROLINA
The Hon. J. j Wright recently elected to
a seat in the Supreme Court OF South Carroll
ma whose portrait give on page l49, was
I hnr N Eulv onfa nd -
now about thirty one years of age. When he
was about six years old his par ents removed to
Montrose, Susquehanna county, in the same
State, where for several years he attended the
district school during the winter months, work.
ing for the neighbOring farmers the rest of the
year. Having saved up a small sum of money
he entered the Lancasterian University, at
Ithaca, in Few York State and after a thor
ough course of stndy there returned to the
village where his parents resided and entered
the Office of law firm. where he read Law for
two years. supporting himself by teaching
He subsequently, entered the cffice of Jude e
Collins. in Wilkcsbarre, Pennsylvana, with
whom he read law for another year. Feeling
himself qualified for the legal profession. he
now applied for admission 10 the Bar but so
great was the e1is ing prejudice. against col
ored men that the Committee refused to ex.
anime him.
In April, 1865. he was sent by the meIicau
: Missionary Society to Beaufort, South Caro-
! lima, as teacher and iaborer among the freed
men. He remained in Beaufort until after the
Civil Rights Bill had passed, when he returned
to Montrose, Pennsylvania and demanded an
| examination. The Committee found him quail
fled, and recommended his admission to the
Bar He was admitted August l3, 1865. being
the first and only colored man ever admitted to
practice law in Pennsylvania In April, 1866,
he WAS appointed by General o. o. Howard
legal adviser for the freedmen in Beaufort, and
, acted in that capacity until be was elected to
the constitutional Convention OF South Care.
lima. He WIS soon afterward elected Senator
from the county of Beaufort, ard acted as such
. until February l, 1870, when he was elected to
the Supreme Bench of the State, and immedi
ately entered Upon the discharge of his duties
; as Judge.
A Carpel-Bagger FIOored.