The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-07-25
The Oppression of the South by the Polit-
clans.

The Oppression of the South by the Politi-
clans.
From an earnest and outspoken article on
this subject in the New York Herald we make
the following extract:
Nearly eight years have passed since the war
closed, and the General is now the President.
The politicians, who have. unfortunately SUR
rounded and controlled his administration,
have continued during the last three years and
half the same course towards the South
adopted by them as soon as the rebellion was
over. when they were contending with Presi-
dent johnson for the political control of that
section of the country. The efforts of these
men have been to secure political power IN the
Southern States by colonizing the South with
carpet-bag politicians, and holding with them
the solid negro vote. The process was simple
bama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi Texas, Virginia and the two Caro-
linas-under the census of 1870, there were
four million six hundred and twenty-four thou
sand white inhabitants to three million six
hundred and thirty-four thousand negroes, or
less than one million more white than black
inhabitants. Taking the proportion of one in
five for voters, the white electors may be cal
culated at two hundreA thousand more than the
black. In South Carolina, Louisiana and Mis-
sissippi the negroes are in a majority. In Ala
banla there are only five thousand more white
voters than there are colored, and in Florida
the white electors are only one thousand larger
than the black. Proscriptive test oaths and
disfranchisement laws were resorted to for the
purpose of reducing the Southern white vote,
and as amnesty became more and more pollt-
ical necessity, Ku Klux laws, authorizing the
suspension of the writ of ha6eGs corpus, and
placing the election under the protection, or
rather under the tyranny, of fedora! bayonets,
were invoked to counterbalance the entran-
chisement of the whites. In the last session of
Congress, Notwithstanding the notorious fact
that the Southern States are now as peaceful
and law-abiding as those of the North, the
most disgraceful scenes were enacted in both
Houses in the effort to force through renewal
of the Ku Klux bill at the risk of the inter-
ruption of the whole machinery of the govern
ment To-day the South is held under military
idespotism, subject to the rascally corruptionss
of carpet-bag civil government and threatened
by the dark shadow of political negro suprem-
acy. Her people have done all in their power
to prove their willingness to accept the lessons
and fruits of the war, and to obey the laws OF
their country They point to their paralyzed
industries, to their impoverished homes, to
their broken fortunes; and plead to be allowed
to enter once again the highway of prosperity
and happiness through the paths of loyalty
and peace. But the question occurs to the
minds of the scheming politicians who hold
power in Congress, Are the white Southern cit
izens to be trusted politically? Will they not
use their recovered franchise against the regu-
lar Republican party? If these questions can
not be answered to the satisfaction of our pres
H. N m.
pressed and the effort to force negro supremacy
upon the Southern States must proceed.
General Grant can have no sympathy with
the course of the men who seek by such means
to renew their lease of political power. Ills
whole life and the free expression of his sentl-
ments on every occasion show that he favors
Government of white men and that he despises
those who endeavor to renew or keep alive sec
tional prejudice and hate between the North
and the South. When he suffers the politi-
clans who surround him to resort to such legls-
lation and such policy in his behalf, he risks
the loss of the sentiment of public esteem and
gratitude still clinging to him and unwilling to
acknowledge itself misplaced. The people OF
the North demand that the Southern States
shall no longer be treated as rebels, but shall
receive in good faith, and without reservation,
the pardon that has been extended to them
To give over the beautiful and commercially
important States of the fairest section OF the
Union to the ignorant and degraded rule OF
negroes lust released from bondage Is an insult
to the white citizens of the North as well as OF
the South and an outrage on the whole nation.
To subject them to the corrupt and reckless
schemes of the carpet-bag plunderers Is but
little less infamous. To hold them under mil
itary subsection for political purposes ls not
only cruel injustice, but is dangerous as
sault upon the freedom of the republic. AS a
consistent and independent supporter of Gen.
Grants administration, we now call upon him
to show his detestation of these political Ma
chialelisms by openly proclaiming his determi-
nation not to avail himself of the Ku Klux
law in the approaching elections, and to with.
draw from the Southern States every federal
soldier not required for the actual legitimate
purposes of the government. The enforcement
of this odious law is optional with him, and he
has the authority and the power by proclama-
tion to declare the South in condition to war
rant the restoration of civil law and OF the
writ of habeas corpus in every portion OF her
territory. This will enable the President at
once to free himself from the responsibility
and the unpopularity of the measures OF his
unwise supporters in Congress, and a radical
change in the character of the federal ofhce-
holders throughout the South will further show
his inclination to do justice to the Southern
people at last. For the future, whatever may
be the result of the pending Presidential cleo
change chan of policy towards the Southern States
under the next administration, and will hold
every Congressman up to the contempt and
scorn of the American people who fayors any
measure for the oppression of the white men
of the South We shall demand from Presi-
dent Grant or President Greeley, as the case
may be- an honest obedience to the will of the
people, which is unrestricted amnesty and non,
interference of the domestic affairs of any of
the Southern States. The Herald will diligent-
ly watch for and expose every future attempt
to control the Southern negro vote as unit for
any party, and any injustice that may be done,