The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-09-25
"The Wards OF tho Nation"

GsTho Wards OF tho N6LlOus
The one great demand Of the Southern
whites, since the Acknowledgement Of the
blacks, has been that they be treated as
American citizens, that the sounding phrase
equality before the law" be applied to
the conquered "rebel" as well as to the ig-
norant freedman. This did not suit the
leaders Of the Republican party. They de-
sired negro political supremacy In the South
to couuterbalance the Radical losses In the
North and West. Upon this determination
they acted. The cry was raised that the
freedmen would remain in moral bondage
unless they received the boon Of the SUI
frage. 1t was done; and the colored voters,
with very few exceptions, have used their
votes to elect Radical dolts and Radical
| knayes to Office, and to grind the life out OF
the whites by oppressive laws and excessive
taxation. This they have done under the
leadership and tutelage of just such men
as those who:now raise the cry OF reform in
South Carolina.
It was not enough that the freedmen
should vote, and that they should use their
votes to depress the whites. There was in the
North, even four years ago, an awakening
feeling that the Southerners had been sufH-
GENTLY punished. This could be overcome
only by; persusdipg the liberal minded citi.
zens who fought for .the Union" that the
Southern whites were still 'srebels at heart"
and that the truth was not in them. This
policy has been successfully pursued. Every
word and every phrase Of a Southern man,
announcing hia anhmisaion to the Inevitable
and his acceptance Of the results OF the war,
has been Knocked at and denounced as false.
To restore the old bitterness and rekindle
the hates Of war, the exaggerated stories OF
Ku-Klux outrages were spread over the
country. Whatever was said against the
South was accepted as gospel. Whatever
was said in Justification and %vlndication OF
the South was denounced as a lying trick.
The freedmen were taught that the whites
would remand them to slavery II they ever
had political power; and, lastly, they were
assured that as "wards Of the nation" they
would be petted and coddled until they chose
to look out for themselves. The. whites
might work for a living. The blacks should
live by taxing the whites, or upon the sub
sides OF the government.
There was hardly q CLEAN Of hope until
the redemption Of Virginia and Missouri
was accomplished, and Horace Greeley
stood forth. as the candidate Of Liberal Re-
p~ublicans and National Democrats. In Mis-
souri, the battle-cry was Acknowledgement and
equal rights. That, also, Is the platform OF
the millions who look up to Horace Greeley
with confidence and hope. What they de-
mand is o true Union, 10 which no citizen
shall be under political pains and penalties,
in which white men and black men shall be
treated alike, in which there shall be q de-
cent burial of whatever is unworthy In the
days gone by, and q quick resurrection OF
the old love and faith in q country whose
glories belong not to q race or class, but to
all her people. And the ~corollary Of the
axiom that one class shall not be preferred
to another is found in Mr.. Greeley's Louis
vile speech. In that speech the colored
are warned that they have nothing 10
rely on but the equal protection Of equal
laws, that they have their living to earn as
well as the Whites have, that they have to
use all their abilities and energies and make
the most OF them. The pledge is given
them that their children shall be educated
and, enlightened; for in the diffusion of
Ia the only lasting cure for the
evils OF the times. They are promised fair
play, which is all that any race have a right
to expect, and is far more than the Southern
whites have had since reconstruction began.
The cry will be raised that Mr.. Greeley
is ready to betray the colored people. Al
ready he is called a rebel, a Ku-Ktux, a
copperhead, q secessionist, and Heaven
kaows what besides. But these campaign
tricks will have very little permanent effect
upon the people. The Administration party,
with the army and navy and treasury at
their back, may defeat the liberal movement;
but, as sure as there is q God above US. the
ideas Of which that movement is the expo
nent will take root and spread until they be-
come the controlling force In the minds Of
the people. The Southern whites will have
equal rights; the e%nfranchised blacks will
have fair play. And unless the blacks mend
their ways where they are in the majority,
unless they prove themselves worthy Of the
great political trust, they will arouse the in
ssinct OF race, against which their only pro-
lection will be the sincerity and good faith
OF the Southern people. Parties and party
names may change or perish; but whenever
the hardy whites Of New England and the
West begin to ponder whether the semi
barbarous black man is not, like the Indian,
a hindrance to the general progress, the only
salvation Of the blacks will lie in the very
white mem whom they now plumber,