The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-08-08
Tho Work Before Us.

| Ialrly De aSSuIueQ, LueTeloIe, .lHtI du1 po'
litical movement in which tie white voters
are actively interested may count, to Ger.
tainty, upon the vote OF these fourteen couu'
ties. In these fourteen counties, which re.
turn 80 members OF the lower house, the ma
jority for any movement vigorously sustained
by the whites must be, at least, 10000. This
is what the Union Reform party has at its
back to begin with. Fourteen counties,
thirty-nine members of the Legislature, and
ten thousand voting majority.
It was evident from the beginning that
the Union Reform party could not win un'
less the whites were united and we're deter
mined to give it their heartiest help. Ard
at one time it was doubtful whether the
whites could be aroused from their apathy,
and made to understand that the October
elections would decide whether this People
should be political leeches, eXiles or paupers.
But the sterling good sense of the intelligent
men Of the State has taught them that ac-
tion is safety and inaction is ruin. and the
honest opponents of the Reform movement
are now just as rare as SHOWS in the heats
of summer. Only one newspaper in South
Carolina (besides the twin falsi6ers OF the
Ring) fights against the soldiers of Reform,
and that paper is doing the cause far more
good than harm. The whole up-country is
consolidated and made homogeneous, by the
logic OF events and the reasoning OF the
standard-bearers OF Reform. And as well as
can be judged by public act and private in-
formation, the whites. OF the middle and low
country are as firm and steadfast as the
people OF the mountain border. This was
the one great work to be accomplished. Un-
less the whites were united and showed a
frIl front, we could not win. The whites
are united, and we can win aud shall
What, after all. is the work before the
State? The colored majority, according to
the State census, is 3o,1l4, assuming that
all the voters OF beth colors go to the polls.
Any one can see at a glance that in pro-
portion, the whites will vote more generally
than the blacks. The whites know the full
extent of their danger. and men who have
not voted in ten years will so to the polls in
October. To do otherwise is to compass
their own ruin. The freedmen, on the other
hand, have far less at stake than they had
two years ago. Then, their freedom and
enfranchisement was not an accomplished
fact. Now, their privileges are confirmed
and established by law, ard are acknowledg-
ed by all good citizens. And yet at the
Presidential! election of ls6s-the election
which, in the opinion Of the blacks, was to
confirm their freedom, or remit them 60
slavery-the total vote for Grant and Colfax
was G., ,30l; that is to say, whites and blacks,
together, gave the Radical ticket 27,ll4 less
votes than there were colored voters in
the State. Again, the vote in favor of the
adoption of the new State Constituton-the
very ''charter of their liberties" as the
blacks call twas only 70,75S, counting
whites and blacks together. 1t is evident,
then, that upon the adoption of the Recon
structior Constitution, at Least 10000 blacks
did not vote at all; and that at the Presi-
Dental election of 1865, nearly 80, 900 blacks
did not vote at all, or voted for Seymour and
Blair. Now, no sensiL.e man will pretend
that there is any reason why the freedmen
should vote more generally in 1870 than
they did in 1868. The party claims upon
them are no stronger, and there is no politi
cal right or privilege at stake. 1t may be
safely estimated that there are thousands Of
negroes who, although they will not vote for
Carpenter and Butler, will not deposit their
ballots for the nominees Of the. Ring Look
at the second election of Whittemore to Con-
gress. The colored vote in the First Con-
gressional District is nearly 10000; and yet
Whittemore only pol!ed II, iOi votes. That
is to say, there were nearly ten thousand
colored men in the district who were not
willing 10 break with their party and vote
for Captain Dunn, but who were not corrupt
and ignorant enough to vote for the doubly-
dsgraced Whittemore These ten thousand
voters stayed away from the polls.
Reviewing the whole position by the light
of the experience Of the last two years, we
deliberately assert our conviction that
euough colored ooterS aciN stay apay from
the poNs, in October, to girt the election TO
Carpenter and BuAer-provided that the
whites turn out in body end vote the Re-
form ticket. This is no Wild conjecture; it
is plain arithmetical calculation.
We may say, however, once for all, that
we do not wish to see the blacks refrain
from exercising the privilege which they
have gained at the cost Of rears of agoniz-
lag war and political perturpation We de-
sire that they should come oct and vote
not as slaves of the Union Leagues, but as
free men. And, in that CAGE, the white peo-
pie exerting themselves to teach the freed
men the true issues of the canvass, we can
defeat Scott and Ransier by at least twenty
thousand majority.