The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-01-31

M1rka THH RAoEs.aThe New York
Sunday Times makes the following seusi-
BILE comments on this subject:
Fred. Douglass, the colored politician
and Federal office holder under Gen.
Grant, was refused accommodation, last
Tuesday. at the Planters Hotel, st.
Louis. In his indignation, he made q
bitter speech and retired, amid the
laughter of the crowd. We regret his
submission to such treatment. It GER
tainly would be wiser in Mr.. Douglass
not to attempt to force his company
upon those who deem it Objectionable,
but to ascertain in advance what hotel is
prepared to accept people of his color as
guests. He could do this without diff
Guilty, and thereby spare himself much
humiliation. Il he will noi do it, hnt
will insist upon throwing himself upon
his legal rights, surely he can have no
reason to lament notifications he so
studiously invites. As student of hu-
manity, ho ought to know that mere
ACT OF Congress cannot change peo-
pies nature. The antagonism of race
which exists between the whites and
blacks cannot be extinguished by Fedc-
raj statute. Time will remove it, and
nothing elae. It will fade out by and
by, If let alone and left to work up it's
own annihilation; but every attempt to
hurry up its extinction by coercive mea.
sures naturally reacts, aud 80 prolongs
the existence OF the prejudice it would
remove.
We do not think the colored race the
social equal of the white race We
never ShaU think 80. But it puins our
humanity as much to see ill treatment
bestowed on Que us on the other. Hence
we should not like to witness such a.
scene rs occurred ut the Planters Hotel,
st. Louis. But here let us ask one or
two not impertinent questions, viz
Would not Mr.. Douglass have been nc
commodated with IA room if he had con-
sented not to appear ut tho public table
and in the public parlors? Would not
the white guests of the hotel have aban-
doned 1T, and gone elsewhere, if MIR.
Douglass had so appeared on q footing
OF equality ut the table and in the par.
lors In question? Were the proprietors
of that hotel called upon, by common
sense, to sacrifice their business in order
to crafty Mr. Dougla' 4 1esire to min
gle with white people. u .vhom his pre-
sence wns obnoAious? Tho Act of Con
gress takes none of these things into
consideration. It was party measure,
and was passed for a partisan purpose.
But even the Republicans who voted for
1t practically repudiate it upon almost
every occasion. For aught thnt we know
to the contrary, the proprietors of the
Planters Hotel are Republicans of that
kind. In time even they may get sufli-
ciently over the prejudice of caste; but
they certainly will not be much led
thereto, nor would anybody else. by
such aggressive movements as Fred
Douglass appears to delight in.
A little modesty will go great way,
sometimes, towards conciliating those
who are governed by reasonable or nm.
reasonable antipathies We advise Fred.
Douglass, therefore, to study .Esop's
fable Of the sun and wind. It may do
him good i'll his dealings with the white
race hereafter; for surely he ought to
know that President Grant and his DO
liticnl advocates will not attempt n cru
sade on his account, in view of the
proximity of the Presidential election.
he could not persuade them to do any
thing 30 satisfactory to their political
antagonists.