The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1871-07-13
A Few Words about the Riot OF the
18th Instant o.

now on trial beforethe country, ana the worio,
to test their capacity for freedom and self
government They are the only negroes on
the face Of the globe who enjoy the advantages
Of sovereignty as citize-s of free govern
ment of'the people. Elsewhere, there have
been a few instances of Negro Republics, But
they have all failed and passed under the
dominion of an absolute and tyrannical des-
potism. They have failed because the peo-
pie we're incapable of. that moderation and
selfrestraint upon whitehall free government
must rest. A free government is govern
ment of the people, through laws and rulers:
Of their own choosing. In the freest gov
ernment, the laws act as restraint on every
individual, so far as may be necessary to
prevent one citizen from doing wrong to
another. If such wrong be done, the law
punish the wrong-doer. If any person
undertake to avenge himself for a wrong
done, he becomes,a public offender-does
wrong to the State, and lays himself liable to
more severe punishment than he who only
wrongs an individual, because his crime
strikes at the very life of the State. If
every man were allowed to right himself his
own way, there'would be an end Of all law
and all liberty. Society would be resolved
into its original elements and man would be-
come savage The strongest man would
then rule in the majesty of his strength, by
violence and Blood. Therefore, the negro
mob, which, on any provocation, undertakes
to set the laws aside and avenge its own
wrongs, real or fancied, prove to the world
their own unftness for selfgovernment Or
citizenship, and not only renders all con-
cerned liable to punishment by the laws of
their own choosing, but disgraces their race,
and eudangers the continuance of their lib
erty.
We have said that the negro race were on
trial. They are invested with the highest
privileges of the American freeman-privile-
ges superior to those enjoyed by the people
of the most favored nations Of the world, #
rightly exercised. These privileges we're CIV
en- to them by the Northern people, partly
because they did not know what else to do
with them: partly because they believed in
the dogma of universal suffrage; partly from
a fanatical idolatry of the negro race, be-
cause they had been SO LONG slaves, and SO
long the object of their cultivated sympathy;
partly TO punish and disgrace the Southern
people, but chief to stfongt then The Radical
patty and seed IS It's success. NoH..a par
.t,ies|is0fsn and South, have shaken hands
with the negro, and ratified the rights given
him. But let him not forget that the great
American people will never tolerate a peo-
pie who set their laws at defiance, and seek
to drag them down to condition of beastly
anarchy, paralleled only in the wilds of Da-
honey or the degraded, corrupt and abomi-
nable communities of San Domingo, the half
way house to Dahomey. They were given
t.e suffrage and the privileges because of
sentiment and supposed expediency.-l
When they violate every sentiment of de-
oency, and demonstrate he inef6oiency of
continuing the trust reposed, It aciW be taken
a,coy By the same po'ccr that gaue At to them.
But there is still another view which we
would impress upon these misguided people.
They lay themselves open to the attacks of
the whites, with every advantage against
them, when they resist. the law as they did
On the 4th. IF ono hundred of'the rioters
had been killed on that occasion, not one
person would have been punished for it, be-.
cause they would have acted in defence of
the law, and to maintain order: All who
were present aiding and abetting those pro-
eeedings were committing a high crime
against the government, of which Governor
Scott is the head, and are liable to punish
ment therefor. The leaders, those who were
the most violent, and those who, knowing
better, instigated the violence and distribu-
ted ammunition at the very time when the
excitement was greatest, will receive their
just punishment They merit and should
receive not only the severest penalties Of the
law, utthe detestation Of every colored man,
because knowing, as they did, that nothing
but ruin to the true interests of the race
could result from such course, they not on
ly did not restrain, but melted them to their
mad resistance of the law.
For tho long suffering friends, whose pri-
vilege of descent from Caucasian ancestry
has long been made most hcinous crime in
the eyes of their rulers, We have but words
Of commentator and congratulation. Their
blood was never put to stronger test than