Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-07-03
s.THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH"

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ssTHE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH"
To the Editors Of the Boston Advertiser:
Will you permit few words on the subject
of your article entitled "The Spirit of the
South" and the series of extracts from Rich
mond newspapers? Three months passed in
the South during the winter and spring enti-
tie me to speak with some confidence of the
situation there, and / may add that my own
observations and opinions have been shared
and confirmed by hundreds of thoughtful peo.
pie from the North, out of twenty-five thou
sand who have visited Florida and the South
this last winter These persons, intelligent
men and women from all parts of our country,
have been largely Republicans in politics,
anxious for the education and elevation OF the
colored people, and most tenacious of what are
called the results of the war. do not care to
offer your readers any South-side views or
"copperhead" comments, nor even the politi.
cal fault-6ndings oft Democracy. l would
have this question understood at the North as
it has been seen by Republicans-and Repub-
licans only. .,...
1t is tedious matter to discuss the meas.
ures adopted for the reconstruction of the
South, or to apportion the blame upon ex-
President Johnson or the South, or the failure
to adopt the wise recommendations of Cover.
nor Andrews farewell address. Whatsoever
the cause of the muddle which now exists, the
result is simply horrible. In our desire to
protect the colored people from > real or sup.
posed hostility of their former masters we have
given the suffrage to them all-most of them
hopelessly ignorant we have organized them
into political leagues; elevated them into po.
sitions of high trust for which they are de-
plorably unsuited and then handed them over
in the helplessness to the most corrupt and
incompetent set Of shysters, called carpet-bag-
gers, from the North, of which it is possible to
conceive. have yet to learn Of a single man
who has gone from the North to better his po-
litical fortunes (who is "on the make, as they
themselves tell you,) who has any real, earnest
desire to help the colored people or the COM
munity in which he lives. One of these car.
pet-bag politicians, in reply to question of
mine upon investments, remarked that he
wasn't fool enough to invest in the South
when he had madehis pile he should leave the
id concern"
1t is impossible for Northern people to un.
derstand the terrible corruption at the South,
which is still kept alive by careless or de-
signed use of the patronage and political in.
huence at Washington. We have organized
society at the South upside down. Ignorance
and crime override intelligence and decency.
The great educational, financial, commercial,
charitable and political interests of the States
are entrusted to our common field hands of
the South and unprincipled adventures from
the North Can you wonder that these peo.
pie desire to free themselves Of this tyranny
and corruption? Such state Of thingsis con-
trary to nature, Gods laws, and all the teach
ings and the wisdom of mankind. Such gov.
ernments are the most grotesque travesties
they command no respect from black or white;
they are scandal and disgrace to them and
to US. And does it help us of the North in
any way, to have lot of men, the natural
product of this condition of things, sent into
the halls of Congress to legislate for US, there
to become the tools Of bad men, and ready to
combine with vicious elements from the North
and West? 1t certainly is Of some conse.
quence to US that the twenty-four senators
and eighty or more representatives from the
South should be clean and intelligent men.
We can have them reasonably so if we desire;
but not by sustaining the present state OF
things. .....-- r-...
1t may seem singular that the colored man
should 60, as he invariably does, to the native
whites for advice in the care Of his family, his
money, and all his temporal concerns, except
his politics. He won't vote with the whites
because, like the Indian, he worships the great
father at Washington, and minds the orders
of his political league Gradually and surely
these oppressed people are finding out, amidst
their weary search for true friends, that the
politicians who have settled among them ION
the make" are not the wiset and best ofguides.
There is no hostility--at least the writer has
never seen any-between the former masters
and their former slaves. The blacks 60 to
these men for advice they even, in many in
stances, support their old masters or mistresses
who have been stripped Of their all by the
war. I know that the leading gentlemen of
Charleston, old and young, are studying the
problems Of race and government with an
earnest desire for the welfare Of its blacks.
They feel that their own prosperity, tor veal
or woe, is indissolubly bound up with that of
the colored race, and that race must be educa.
ted and trained to citizenship. The general
satisfaction with the colored police Of Charles
ton, and the favorable comments from old
residents, are proof that the whites are viii.
ling and anxious to have the colored people
do whatever they can do we'll. To make judges,
adjutant and major-generals, State and con-
gressional legislators of them in their present
ignorance, and in league with bad whites from
the North, is simply reducing society and gov
ernment to chaos, and creating state ofthings
which augurs no good for the colored race.
A distinguished Northern Republican told
me that he could not possibly reconcile the
conservation of public morals and the public
welfare with this deluge of ignorance and cor.
ruption let loose upon us by the measures of
reconstruction; he thought every step in the
process since 1865 had been q terrible blum.
der, from which there seemed no escape. 1t
WOULD beeasy to quote high political and mil
itary authority in support of these statements;
and many influential business men and capi-
talists, and persons interested in philanthrop-
ic movements, and students of social problems,
have returned to their homes from their
Southern visit determined to do something to
the public as to the outrageous state
of things in the South. And. what shall be
the remedy? 1t is difficult to say; but one
thing can be done, and that is create public
sentiment which shall enable the Southern
States to rid themselves Of their present polit-
ical rulers, white and black; and secondly,
withhold all government and political patron.
age from men known to be connected with
the "rings" in the South and we can safely
leave the rest to time. '.-' A. j. @. S.
BSzs friand savs Goino, m Cana Nav the