The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-03-17
Suffrage and the Democracy.

t1e next freSlueutidA oioouioa' AAo
ing feeling among the white people OF Soutn
Carolina, we think. we may say, is not oy
any means of character to justify what
seem to be the apprehensions Of the World.
We resisted what were called the recon-
struction measures, as policy unreasonable
and hostiie-defcieat in craftsmanship as
well as in magnanimity. The schemes by
which the two races at the South were diyid-
ed, and the colored people were turned over
in body to the control Of worthless adven-
turers, we opposed, for the freedmen's sake
as well as our own. Mr.. Beecher's pet
argument that the franchise was like gun,
the use of which must be learned by prac-
tice, served the purpose of the great sensa-
tionalist very we'll; but we fancy that he
would have liked it less had an experiment
of the sort been first tried upon his own
premises. Any one can judge now, by its
results how puerile was this method Of
handling great national difficulty.
And the Radicals are discovering to their
CONSERVATION that policy intended to con-
solidate their party is precipitating their
downfall In some of the Southern States
the genius loci has prevailed, aud the color
ed people have already formed Conservative
alliances. Besides, the new distribution of
voters in the Republic at large has caused
political power to drift away from New Eng
land, Westward and even Southwark. The
recent overthrow OF Charles Sumner is more
than an event-it is symptom. 1t is more
than the piercing Of a wind-bag-it is the
discharge of malignant boil which threat
ened to be chronic ailment.
Now it is of more Importance to the South
than to any other section that the decline
of Radicalism shall not be arrested. 10
lament the past is idle; to recall it is i'm
possible. A new age has begun. We must
perforce accept its conditions. And, among
these conditions, negro suffrage is one for
which we have no responsibility, and over
which neither we nor the Democratic party
have any control. Now, when the amended
Constitution confers this privilege-new,
when the majority Of the States maintain it,
and, among them, none more imperiously
than those which suffer most from its
abuses-now, when Rainey, DeLarge,
Elliott, from South Carolina; Wall, from
Florida; TurHer, from Alabama, aud Revels,
from Mississippi, have already been vel
coined to the dignities it has assigned them
in Congress when the triumphant
North clings to this as the one abiding fruit
Of the war, and the only guarantee Of eman-
cipation, we regard the question OF negro
suffrage as no longer among the living
political issues. 1t is an accomplished fact
and the party which nql tassails it must
fight at fearful disadvantage in the ap-
preaching Presidential struggle. 1t may
have been impolitic, malignant, and uncon-
stitutional but-the thing is done.
Whatever the political hacks Of q bygone
era may say, we believe that the people OF
the South are neither so oblivious of the
past nor so blind to the events OF current
history as to wish the great Democratic
party to risk defeat by launching out upon
an unpopular platform. The instincts of
that party are with the South. It's triumph
will afford such security to person and prop
erty, such social order and financial pros
perity, such public safeguards, and such
civil acknowledgements, as have not existed
since the war, and cannot exist under the
rule OF Radicalism. Those very States
whose painful experiences would incline
them to be most intractable, well know that
their only hope of redemption lies in the re-
establishment of the reign OF justice in the
General Government. They know that to
cripple and defeat the Democratic party is
to perpetuate their own bondage. And they
will he slow, we fancy, to embarrass their
friends in other sections by demanding of
them sheer impossibilities.
Seward Us u SiSht-Seer.
The English journals are poking fun at
Mr.. Seward on account of his grandilo-