The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-15
SPIRIT OF TEE PRHss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current T Topics-Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE ooLoRED RACE IN POLITICS.

West
want of judgment in the leaders of the
colored race. There is, as we all know, ex-
listing through great numbers of persons in
this country profound preudice against the
negroes, and belief that they have neither
character nor talent sufficient for the new
political position conferred on them through
the agency of the Republican party. 1t need
not be said that the Times has always main
tanned that the blacks in this country have
abilities enough to perform their political du-
ties quite as intelligently as great masses of
our white voters, and that education and
free field will in time call out men from
among them of very considerable powers.
Furthermore, we, in common with thousands
at the North, have admired the self-control
and obedience to law, and the absence of re-
vepgeful feelings among this race, when at
tanning to political equality with their for
mer masters.
So far as we have been able to Judge, the
colored men who have generally been put
forward in political life were men of good
sense and character, and in the national
Offices men of decided talent. The only ex-
ception which has been marked was in re-
gard to some of the colored delegates in the
South Carolina Assembly. But even the
ignorance of these latter may have been
exaggerated, and in State where so few
whites are in amicable relations with
the blacks, and they themselves have
expect either many white representatives,
or many highly intelligent black representa-
tives, of the colored population. Still,
though thus far the course of the leaders of
the emancipated race has been judicious,
they must remember that they are yet, as a
people, en- trial before public opinion. They
must put their best men to the front. All
their leaders and representatives should be
carefully chosen. They had better take good
and trustworthy white delegates than poor
black ones. They should rather send no
scholars to national school, than Indifferent
ones.
In the case of the two colored cadets, it
would appear that no unfairness or prejudice
was shown toward them. On the contrary,
they were better treated by the other cadets
as new corners than white boys are No hos
tility of race was manifested, as indeed it
would be a lasting disgrace to a national
military school, if any were; but, unfortu-
nately, one of the lads was badly qualified
Gas happens to many white youths), and the
other, though sufficiently prepared intellec-
tually, was unsuited physically to the severe
training of the school, and both were very
properly rejected. No blame for this, of
course, rests on the authorities of the Acade-
my; and none should rest on the colored
race. Still it would have been wiser in
Messrs. Perce and Hoge, of Mississippi and
South Carolina, in the first prominent test
of the physical and mental abilities of negro
youths, to have presented the very best whom
the race could offer. We trust that others,
thoroughly we'll trained in mind and with
healthy physique, will be presented and
passed, so that the race which did such good
service for the Union in the war may be
represented in its highest military school. 1t is
Just, too, that our corps of national officers
should include some from population of
four Millions now first made freemen.
We need not saw that tO the RaDuhlican
party it will be the logical sequence of their
position, as it will be their good fortune, to
support all Just claims of the colored race
Their efforts have primarily been the means
of breaking their chains; through them they
have received the inestimable privilege of
suffrage, and now their votes will naturally
fall on the Republican side. Without any
demagcgue influence, the party now in power,
if they conduct themselves wisely, will re-
ceive, as a natural thing, the important
colored vote of the country. We have never
been of those who believed that the Demo-
Gratis, whether at the South or North what
ever repentance or new emotions of philano
thropy they might exhibit, could by any pos
sibility win any large portion of the votes of
the blacks.
With lower population, whether white or
black, tradition in politics and history has an
overwhelming force. No black man could
possibly vote long with the party whose men,
berS had mobbed him In the North, and en-
shaved him or defended his enslavement in
the South. Whatever the new Democratic
'friends of the negro" might promise, he
could not but always remember that the party
which had tried to mitigate his wrongs in
slavery, which had struggled to prevent that
curse being carried to new Territories, which
had finally, at fearful cost, broken his fetters.
and at length made him an American citizen,
was the Republican party. Inevitably, he
and his children would fall in with that polit-
cal division. The colored vote must for
many years to come be Republican. And a
very important vote it has become.
1t will control, probably six States
of the South; it will, without
doubt, determine the next Presiden-
tlal election. 1t can now decide the State
elections in New Jersey and Connecticut; it
may be the last strand of the cable which
will hold our Republican ship in New York
State to its moorings. 1t is of consequence
in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
In the future close balancings of parties in
the Northern States, the votes of the blacks
will become power which either party will
be glad to win We expect to see plenty of
Democratic tricks to gain it over 1t is ours,
however, now and ours it will continue to
be if the party conduct itself with fairness
and good seLse toward the colored race. But
their own leaders must also show ''the wis
dom of the serpent" and remember that il
will not do to present as their representatives
whether in politics or academies, any bu
their best men. Time will mature talent ant
the highest character among them, and the,
should be in no haste to offer to the public
unripe fruits.