Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1872-03-02
SOCIAL EQUALITY.

IF ans one had predicted, a few years
ago, that there was, in the United
States, a white man, 70 hst to com
mon sense, enlightened patriotism and
pride of caste, as to propose the polit-
ical and social equality of the Afri-
can With the Angio-Saxon, the proph-
ct would have Been considered mad.
But the degeneration which follows
unreasoning fnnaticism and unbridled
passion has developed pany such men,
who, mistaking sectional hate for en-
larged philanthropy, are moving Hcav-
en- and earth to bring about the un-
natural condition, Of equality between
races, whom nature has declared dis
tinct, by marks too plain to be mista-
ken even by the corrupt tyrants who
nre striving to make the laws of ma
ture subservient to their lawless will.
If all this damphoolry is sanctioned
by the high-sounding, but false, as
sumption that "all men are by nature
free and equal, why have the Indians
and the Chinese been excepted from
the provisions Of the natural law ?
Why is not the idiot equal to the sage
the thief to the honest man; the pau
per to the man Of wealth and the pig
my to the giant? Why is not the hon
est lsborer, stained with toll, well
come visitor in the gilded halls of the
effcminate millionaire? Why are the
really rscful-the wealth producers
cut off from social intercourse with
the accidentally and dishonesty rich ?
1t is because fixed law Of nature is
change and inequality, and because So
ciety enacts its own laws, more bind
ing and irrcpealable than those of the
legislator. The grossest manifestation
Of tyranny il the attempt to regulate
the social relations of people and to
harmonic the multiform differences
which grow out of the differing pur-
suits and conditions of social life
With these things, good Governments
never interfere, and the most despotic
have failed to control.
a law of Congress may throw open
the theatres and bathrooms; the steam
boat state-rooms and sleeping cars
the church pews and the parlors Of
the rich, and invite the negro to enter
and make himself at home, but those
who vote for the law, well know il
will be dead at its birth, and those
very men would be the first to kick
the intruling negro out of DOORS
Then why enact such laws? There
are three important reasons for it
in the estimation of the Radical Con
gress-the FIRST il that it may secure
the negro vote for Grant, the second
that il is an insult to the South and
the third, that it multiplies the chan.
ccs Of collision between the white,
and blacks, and thus invites the armed
intervention 30 eagerly desired a
Washington, az a prctext for CONTROL
ing the elections in November,
As before stated, a wise government
will not only leave the social relations
to adjust themselves, but will prohibit
by the most stringent provisions, an.
governmental interference. So lon
~ society exists, distinctions between
wealth and poverty, learning and ig
norancc, refinement and rudcness, vir
tue and vice will continue to diyid
sscicty, and any attempt, by the gov
eminent, to break them down and sub
stitutc perfect equality, can result onl
in mischief And the attempt, nov
making by Congress, to elevate tn
most ignorant and debased Of all on
population to an exact level with tn
most cultivated and refined, is a ape
cies of tyranny too base TO be tclera
ted by any save the most degraded @
mankind. 1t is strange that thos
who make idols of the negroes wit
the hope that the negroes will max
gods of them, cannot see that tn
course they are pushing is sure to en-
sooner or later, in the dethronemcu
of their idols and their consignment
to a deeper social degradation tina
that from which abolitouists are at
tempting to raise them. Nature wi
assert its power, and the foolish effort
Of man to resist that power, will ri
coil, with terrible force, crushin
alike, the workers of the great iniqu
ty, and the idols Of their pretcnde
worship
1T is reported that Gen, Sicklcs is I
stump New Hampshire in the Interest
of Rldicalism. Whilst about it, 1
should explain to the people how
happened that our Minister to Spai
comes to be clectionccring in tn