The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-02-26
GoyERNMENr By NEGROES.
From the London Pail Mall Gazette.l


were known Of the nature and enects OF tue
system of government which Is on Its trial IN
tile Southern States of America. The expert
ment is without precedent, and Is OF vast I'M
portance whether II tsucceeds or fails; but there
Is an almost entire want OF authentic informa-
lion as to the facts. The most careful exami-
nation Of the American newspapers fails to
produce any effect on the mind except abso-
ute dstrust Of their statements about the
South. If the Democratic writer's are to be
believed, the system imposed by the Recon.
struction laws has no parallel for cruelty and
folly. Men of the same race and educa-
ton, and mainly of the same historical tradi-
tions as their Northern masters, are said to
be under the heel of debauched and illitcrate
savages. guided by q handful of white scoun-
drels who had made the black-slums OF the
great Northern cities too hot TO hold then.
The pictures of the courts Of justice anu leg
islatiye halls of the South which these jour-
which are enacted here by Ethiopian Serena
ders and Chrlty Minstrels. Black men In ab-
surd dresses are perpetually talking ungram-
matical nonsense. intersperscd with 1diotic
Jokes. But the story OF the Republican press
may be described as the direct contradiction
of these statements in every single particular.
It represents the South as governed upon the
most approved constitutional models, by
population of primitive innocence led by vir-
tuOus political missionaries. Schools anu
churches are said to be rising everywhere;
and the material wealth of the country, daily
Increased by the labors Of rapidly multiply
ing peasant proprietary, Is alleged to De stead,
lily rising to the standard which 1t touched
before the war. The sole drawback on all
this moral and material prosperity Is said 10
be the terrorism exercised by white consplra-
tors united in secret societies with grotesque
names. There is evidently on both sides a
settled practice Of inventing or dlstortlng
facts, which is not likely to be abandonea
until party heats have cooled down much
more than they seem likely 10 90 LOT Inc
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 to pick up facts confrmatory of their
theories as to the past.
the more provoking because 1t has become
clear that the Congress OF the United States
| is not trying government by negroes as q
| merely temporary arrangement. The act
which it has Just passed for the settlement or
| the affairs OF Georgia shows that 1t INTENDS
to watch continuously over It's system OF re-
construction, and to insist on it being ap-
piled in ite integrity whenever IL is acciden-
tally or totally 0eranged. Georgia had COM
| piled with all the requirements Of the general
Reconstruction law, and military govern
ment had, therefore, theoretically come to an
end. But the Legislature elected for the
| State contained majority OF white men, and
their first step was to dlsallow the election of
all the negroes who had been returned: There
was some sort of legal pretext for this vto-
lent and ill-judged step, but Its legality was
doubted, and the constitutional point was re-
ferred to the courts of justice which decided
against the expulsion of the colored men,
/ I,T Il hou
probably allowed TO take their seats. But
this did not satisfy Congress, which seems to
have speedily made mp It's mind that measures
Of far eeverer repression were required Tor
the whites of Georgia. The new act of Con-
gress directs that the Georgia Legislature shall
reassemble exactly in the condition In which
1t found Itself before the expulsion of the ne
proes; that nobody's election shall be disallowed
for reasons Of race or color; that oil persons
returned shall take an oath denying In Ian
guage of minute precision that during the war
they gave assistance OF any sort to the Seces-
sionist Govern ,ent OF tho State, otherwise
ssthan under physical compulson," and that
the Federal land not the State) courts shall en-
tertain prosecutions for perjury In falsely swear
| ing to this effect. II 1t had been generally IN
derstood that the North did not intend at any
time to relax it's grasp upon the South, there
would have been nothing very wonderful IN
this measure, considering what the conduct
of the Georgia State Legislature had been.
But its formidable character arises from the
contrary assumption having been made, and
from its having been supposed that, when the
general Reconstruction law had been literally
complied with, the reconstructed Southern
States would be left to themselves, and their
public acts submitted for allowance or dlsal-
lowance to the law courts exclusively. 1t must
now be assumed that if the experiment tried
| in the South fails anywhere to give the results
expected by the Republicans, the Congress OF
| the United States, SO long as that party Is
dominant in it, will interfere to correct the
miscarriage. Except In the case OF the Uni
ted States, there has been great uniformity
In the history of the suppression OF rebel
lions in modern times First, there has
been severe and often sanguinary punishment
inflicted on the chiefs of the revolt; then has
succeeded period, during which the success
flll pmni:e has enforced strict obedience to IT.
self from its sublugated dependency; and
finally has come q strong desire, growing
sometimes out of policy, sometimes out OF
sense Of justice, and sometimes out OF mere
emotion, to win its affections, or at all events
Its voluntary acquiescence In accomplished
facts. England Is just ut present feeling an
almost passionate wish to be reconclled to
ireland and TO be beloved by the natives of
India; Austria has done her best to come to
terms with Hungary, and there are signs that
the sutfcrings of Poland ore beginning to
cause ulSCOLIllOTL diu COupuuStiVu StCu Az
Russia. The United States seem destined to
an experience of q different kind. On the
morrow of the conquest their treatment OF
the Southern leaders was marked by o gentle
ness which will always be remembered to
their honor. But in the next stage of their
relations with the South, the necessity for
combining despotic rule with something like
| the forms ofloCal selfgOyernment forced them
to adopt policy which has more than MADE
I'M for their abstinences from bloodshed. NO
body whose intelligence has not been impaired
BY the habit Of repeating formulas about uni
versal suffrage can doubt that the punishment
inflicted on the Southern whites is far the
seyerest which one community has ever in
hcted on another. England governed Ire
land through minority, which the mass OF
| the Celtic population, however it might nate,
never dreamed of dcspising; the United States
rule the South through majority OF negroes,
contempt for whom was almost religion
with the planter before the attempt at
secession. We are not considering whether
the punishment was deserved, or whether
the Northern States could possibly help infllct-
inr il; we merely say that, after the capacity
of the negro for improvement has been rated
as highly rs possible, and after all possible de-
ductionS have been made from the credibility
of the stories published by the Democratic
press, the fact remains that government oCt "
white men by colored cX-slaves Is the aculest
| form of moral torture which mas ever peen ap.
plied to a community. How unfortunate IL
has been that the punishment OF the South mas
taken this shape the United states are e,I n0t