The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-02-01
The ..socIal Equality" Dodge

The Northern leaders are dastfng about
for new policy, and if Mr.. Wendell Phillips
is All exponent of the advanced Radlcalism
of the hour, they have made up their minds
that in the Northern and Western States
their race is nearly run. Upon the issues ol
Congressional reconstruction, upon the
pledge of an honest and economical govern
lnenl, and upon the military prestige oi their
candidate, the Radicals elected our smoky
Cesar at the last Presidential elections. But
during the past eighteen months there mas
been a thorough change in the temper OF the
country and the feeling of the people. Re-
construction is so far settled that no party
proposes to rip open the old wound and dis
turb the new State Governments OF the South,
only because they were formed in wanton
defiance Of the express prohibitions OF the
Federal Constitution. Negro suffrage is
fixed fact. The freedmen enjoy the right to
vote, and exercise that right without moles-
tation. Therefore it is that the Radicals
can make no effective appeal to the white
masses, who feel that unequal laws, extrava-
giant expenditures, oppressive taxation anu
Congressional usurpation, touch them more
nearly than the political rights and personal
nririlegns of the black man. This the Radi-
Gals understand, and they hope to retain
power enough in the South to make up for
the power they will undoubtedly lose in the
West and North.
Holding these opinions, it is only natural
that the Radicals should exert themselves
to strengthen the New England governments
of the Southern States. This is the obvious
meaning of the new doctrine expounded by
Mr.. Wendell Phillips-absolute social and
political equality, and one thousand dollars
and forty acres of land for every adult black
man. The Radicals in the South have failed
to give the negroes the famous ''forty acres
s.and MULE" and now the arch-Radical
proposes to do better and give one thousand
dollars in currency as well US the tract OF
land. This is the most audacious bid ever
made for the Southern negro vote.
And the Radicals in this new game will
have some strong supporters. The colorcd
senator from Mississippi demands equal
social and senatorial privilcges-wiatever
that may mean; and here i'll South Carolina
the House of Representatives pass Il bill inten-
ded to give the negroes the right to seat them
selves by the side Of the whites i'll every Ii
censed place oi business or amusement. This,
indeed, is the issue of the hourin South Caro-
lima. The New Englanders who have been
leading the negroes by the nose, now de-
maud for the colOred man what he does not
demand for himself They demand laws
giving the colored man the right to ride in
cars, and to visit theatres, and to marry
whoever he chooses, and to gointo whatever
society he may please. They are not will
linz to trust this delicate question to the
good sense OF the freedmen. They must
make political capital or perish. This is the
explanation of the frantic efforts of South
Carolina New England to force the negro
where the negro has no desire to be, and to
make the white man do what he will not do,
though all the adventurers and renegades
in the State fight tooth and nail against
him. 1t is political dodge, party move
the last shot in the Radical locker. The OPP
ponents of this infamous Radicalism con-
eede to the colored man every just right.
They admit, frankly and fully, his right to
vote; they concede him full civil and po-
litical equality, under the law, with the white
man. The Radicals do no more. Yes! they
do. They rob and cheat the negro, in the
name OF philanthropy; they impoverlsl the
State, in the name Of principle; they do
their best to ruin white and black, in the
blasphemcd name OF progress and cviliza-
tion This they do and will continue to do,
until the honest and diligent colored men,
striking hands with the whites upon the broad
platform Of Equal Rights and Honest Gov
ernment, hurl these usurpers from their
seats OF power and seourge them out OF the
State.