Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-07-25
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From the New York Herald, 18th instant.
FAIR PLAY FOR THE SOUTH.
"THE OPPRESSION OF THE SOUTH BY THE Poll
ITICIANs-ARE WE TO HAVE RESTORED
UNION"
For some years before the war of the rebel
lion, when Northern politicians were endeav-
oring to consolidate into one great political
organization all the elements opposed to the
Southern States of the Union, either in inter-
est or sentiment, persistent and systematic
effort was made to create prejudice against the
white citizens of the South. Apart from the
crusade against the institution of slavery as
an offence against the Divine laws, and a
moral and social evil, the slave owners were
denounced as class, and were held up to re-
proach as un-American, insolent, overbearing
and tyrannical. The Southern people had
themselves to thank for the success of this un-
patriotic attempt to excite sectional animosty
and strife for political purposes Their pecu-
liar position had rendered them jealous, sus-
picious and arrogant. They had been accus-
toned to brow-beat Northern men in Con-
gress, and had conceived an unfavorable opin-
ion of Northern courage. The sense of the
insecurity Of their slave property kept alive
in their breasts constant feeling of hostility
towards the free States, and the tone of their
press and public speakers was offensive and
CALLING to the people Of the North. Eventu-
ally, the efforts of the politicians and the in
discretion of the chivalry brought about Sc
cession and civil war. A bitter and costly ex-
perience taught Southern men how erroneous
ly they had judged of the spirit of their
Northern fellow citizens, while the suferings
and bravery of the South won the sympathy
and respect Of the North, and were accepted
as an atonement for past follies and offenses.
When the last gun of the war had been fired,
and the great rebellion lay crushed and dead
at the feet of Grants victorious army, there
was not "a citizen of the loyal States, outside of
handful of scheming politicians, who did
not earnestly desire to see the South relieved
as speedily as possible from the inevitable pen
alties of her madness and restored to all her
constitutional rights under the reconstructed
Union. The Northern people required assu-
RANGES that the late Confederates would con-
sent to accept in good faith the decision reach
ed by the tribunal Of arms, and were willing,
as soon as this was received, to bury their an
ger and their sorrows in common grave.
Foremost among those who thus patriotically
sought to restore the Union in the hearts of the
people was the soldier who rescued it from
actual destruction. Towards the close of the
year 1866 General Grant made an inspection
of the rebellious States for the purpose Of
learning by personal observation the senti-
ment of their leading citizens and ascertain
ing what amount of military force would be
required for the preservation of order and the
enforcement of the laws. In his report to
President johnson the acknowledgement ex-
pressed his conviction that the South had not
only accepted the decision of battle as final,
but had become convinced by reflection that
this decision had been a fortunate one for
both sections of the Union. "My observa-
tions," wrote General Grant, "lead me to the
conclusion that the citizens of the Southern
States are anxious to return to selfgovern-
ment within the Union as soon as possible;
that while reconstructing they want and re-
quire protection from the government; that,
they think, is required, and is not humiliating
to them as citizens, and if such course were
pointed out they would pursue it in good faith.
It is to be regretted" he adds, "that there
cannot be greater commingling at this time
between the citizens of the two sections, and
particularly of those entrusted with the law
making power" The trouble of the recently
liberated negroes was not overlooked by the
victorious general He found them to be in
clned to idleness and imbued with the idea
that freedom from bondage meant freedom
from labor But he trusted to time and the
management of the State governments to rem
der the freedmen willing to work and to re-
move by slow degrees the evil of ignorance,
the legacy Of their former condition.
Nearly eight years have passed since the
war closed and the general is now the Presi-
dent. The politicians, who have unfornately
surrounded and controlled his administration.
have continued during the last three years
and a half the same course towards the South
adopted by them as soon as the rebellion was
over, when they were contending with Presi-
Diet 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 and easy. In ten of the ex-rebel
States-Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisi-
lana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and the two
Carolinas-under the census of 1870, there
we're four million six hundred and twenty
four thousand white inhabitants to three mil
lion six hundred and thirty.four thousand ne
groes, or less than one million more white
than black inhabitants. Taking the proper
tion of one in five for voters, the white electors
may be calculated at two hundred thousand
more than the black. In South Carolina,
Louisiana and Mississippi the negroes are in
a majority. In Alabama there are only five
thousand more white voters than there are COL
ored; and in Florida the white electors are
only thousand larger than the black. Pro-
scriptive test oaths and disfranchisement laws
we're resorted to for the purpose of reducing
the Southern white vote, and as amnesty be-
came more and more political necessity, ku-
klux laws, authorizing the suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus and placing the elec-
tions under the protection, or rather under
the tyrany of federal bayonets, were invoked
to counterbalance the enfranchisement of the
whites. In the last session of Congress, not
withstanding the notorious fact that the South
ern States are now as peaceful and law abb
ding as those of the North, the most disgrace
full scenes we're enacted in both houses in the
efforts to force through renewal of the ku-
klux bill at the risk Of the interruption of the
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