The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-03
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToP1os-ooMP1LED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
AN ILLUSTRATION OF GOVERNMENT
AT THE SOUTH.
From the N. Y. Nation.

D. W.
cial and leading radical paper of the State,
about the character of the State government.
We said great many unpleasant things about
the State Legislature and State officers We
accused them of gross ignorance and dis
honesty, and made open proclamation of our
belief that such government as they were
carrying on could not possibly last, and that
it was in its very constitution an
offense against civilization. We
challenged the Republican to tell
us how many of the State legislators could
read the ''Pilgrim's Progress" intelligently, it
being, perhaps, the easiest reading in the
English language, and they being the law
givers of large and wealthy commonwealth
beset by some of the gravest social and politi-
cal problems 1t did not dare to answer the
question; but treated us, in reply, to one of
the usual bursts of rhetoric about the negro
members of the Legislature "a maj ajority, we
believe) having had progress Of their own
''quite similar to Bunyan's, and so on, and
informed us that ''doZenS and dozens" of
them could write far better articles about
South Carolina politics than had ever ap-
peared in the Nation.
We said, in reply to this sort of talk, that
we were among the number of those who ad-
vocated the extension of the franchise to the
blacks as a means of protection, and as a sign
of their equality before the law, and that we
believed that this would in the long run have
proved sufficient for their protection. 1t
would have furnished the whites with a
powerful reason for conciliating them and
treating them kindly, and would have, in all
probability, prevented the appearance of race
lines in party politics - perhaps one of
the greatest misfortunes that can happen
a community and it would not have
excluded from the service of the State the
great number of educated experienced, and
honest native whites which every Southern
State contains, and with whose service no
Southern State can safely dispense. They
are 'ex-Rebels, but they are not thieves.
They have owned slaves, and revolted in
defense of slavery but they are influential,
economical, and trustworthy in the manage
ment of State affairs, aud it was of the first
importance not only to the negro, but to the
whole Union, that, during the transitional or
reconstructive period following the war, they
should neither be driven into hostility to the
local government nor prevented from giving
it the benefit of their experience and ability.
Nothing would satisfy the hot-headed ma
jority in Congress, however, but to drive
these men into private life, and hand over
the Government to ignorant negroes and
worthless Northern adventurers; and the pre-
text on which this was done was, that this
was the only way in which the blacks and the
Unionists could be protected in the enjoy
ment of their lives and property and in the
exercise of the franchise. 1t was quite useless
to point out what anybody's experience of
human nature might have told him, even if
he knew nothing of the lessons of history,
how futile any such expectation was. Tue
whole American system of government and
society is based upon equality, Cancellation,
and compromise. Everybody is allowed to
vote-even the foreign rabble of this city
not because people believe their voting does
no mischief but because their exclusion from
the franchise, by exasperating an embit-
tering them, would do more. The very exc
e H. H. tt.vzx ,l,a.a oil khn
officers of the law are drawn from the body
of the people and return to it, and where the
Government has no armed force at its dispo-
sal, depends on the general sympathy of the
community with the legislation and its re-
spect for the legislators. In all that relates
to the government of his own State, these
truths are familiar as household words to
every man at the North. Anybody who
proposed here to disfranchise even "Reddy
the Blacksmith" because he was ''bad man, "
and vexed his neighbors, and was disposed
to knock people down on their way to the
polls, would be laughed at. Nevertheless,
an expedient which, proposed as a remedy for
grave political evils in any State in ths North,
would excite laughter, and does excite laugh
ter, when the well-known educated Ameri-
can" who has ''lived long in Paris" ventures
to hint at it, was solennly applied to the
whole South at the close of the war.
The American remedy for bad government
is to give the government the largest pos
sible popular basis, and let the majority get
out of their difficulties as best they can; but
the remedy applied in the South was feudal
one, and consisted in sitting the population,
and letting nobody take part in the govern
ment who could not give proof of what the
Puritans called constant good affection. -
The republican cure for discomfort is to call
the malcontents into the council chamber and
hear what they have to say, and try to soothe
and conciliate them-in short, to treat them
as brethren. The monarchical remedy is
to shoot them down, or lock them up, OF
impose disabilities on them till they Gre
pent" or confess they have done wrong, aud
promise to do better-till, in short, they kiss
the rod or lick the dust. Every American is
familiar with the former, and has always
practised it in politics and business aud
society; nevertheless, the very first occasion
on which the country was called on to deal
with discomfort on a great scale, the mon.
archical remedy was resorted to, and the
republican one unhesitatingly thrown aside
as worthless, and everybody denounced as
''unpatriotic" who said word in its favor.
Everybody knows, too, what a misleading
thing faction is, and how apt intense per-
sonal feeling is to cloud the Judgment, and
yet we see Congress listening with deep at
tention and respect to the opinions of the
frantic Unionists and colored men who come
up hot from interneeine contests with their
neighbors as to what ought to be done with
the Southland their opinions, of course, all
run in the same direction; their enemies
ought to be kept down with the strong hand,
and cowed and humiliated-a process we
should all of us like to see performed on oul
enemies, but to which in sensible eommuni
A. I'll