Wilmington journal., 1874-08-21
Politics OF the South.

IT, has now passed beyond the limits
of dis,,ute that the sentiment OF the
Southern people is not at the political
service of the Administration party,
and it is not less indisputable that 1t
was from the conviction that 1T never
would be that the carpet-Sag, mid
night league system OF array1ng the
blacks politically against the whites
was inaugurated. This deliberate IN
tention to incite a war of races, for
purposes as paltry as those OF part1-
sanship, was one of the most mal1g-
nant and cruel that ever marked the
course OF civilized government. All
fair-ninded men must admit that the
people Of the Southern States, as
community, accepted the three later
amendments to the Constitution as the
condition of their restoration to the
privileges of full citizenship IN the
Union. That was broad enough
pro11nd for honest craftsmanship, cast
ing anxiously about for the means OF
restoring what four years of civil war
had practically destroyed, to take po-
sition unon and establish itself firmly.
Tt will amaze the readers of history in
the future. however, to learn that al
most ten years after the close OF the
war. and many years after this frank
occeDtapce OF three amendments,
full and complete amnesty was the
subject of discussion in the party sun
in possession of power. The local dis
tnrbances between the blacks and
whites in tie recent North Carolina
and Tennessee elections can be dis
tinctly traced to this spirit OF the party
in power at Washington, whose Jour
nails, many of them, seem to relo1ce
more at their occurrence, as the means
of disparagiDg and denouncing these
triumphs for law and liberty, than at
any near prospect OF the eradlcatlon
OF this fell influence of meddle-
someness and tyranny. When two
States Of the Union like South
CAROLINA and Louisiana lie pros
tr.ttc at the feet of n President
whose own party is getting ready III
silence to discard him, and delegations
of their foremost citizens are repclled
by him with a rudeness and 1nsolence
which a ruler invested with autocratlc
power would not assume in this age OF
public decency, how is it to be expect
ed that the people of that entire sec
ton will not unite at the ballot-box, on
the first opportunity, and thunder
back their judgment III voice that
can be heard everywhere ?
Despite the local outbreaks for
Which this malignant and reyengeful
policy of the President is responsible,
the clear result Of the elections in
North Carolina and Tennessee is calcu-
lated to confirm the faith of all men in
the final steadiness and reliability of
popular opinion. Outrages that stand
condemned in Louisiana by a Repub-
lican Committee of the Senate, and
that have been brought homo to the
President as their responsible author,
could not nationally be expected to
conciliate the feelings of the popula-
ton. Nor was the cool and cruel plum
dering of South Carolina, with the
subsequent insult flung in the face OF
its protesting citizens, calculated to
secure either the confidence or respect
Of those whom this policy Of robbery
has hopelessly bankIupted. These are
the same people whom President Grant
himself officially certified, from per-
sOnal observation soon after the close
Of the war, to be thoroughly well
disposed towards the Government
again and ready to resume their
places as citizens of the Union. It can
not be but that some dark and sinister
influence has been at work in the
South since that time. The harmony
between the two races was without Sc
rious obstruction. All men of refec-
tiOn admitted that the question Of the
rcadjustment of society in that section
was an exceedingly delicate one, and
that constituted the stronger reason
why it should not have been rude'y
interfered with for the purpose of Sc
curing a supposed party advantage.
Least ofall should the Southern States,
any of them, have been turned over
to horde of carpet-baggers, let loose
to fOment enmi:y between the blacks
and whites at the critical period when
the efforts of peaceful industry were in
the most urgent request for extrica-
ton from the common ruin wrought
by the war. The reconstruction
scheme was conceived in a spirit of
enmity and tyranny, and not of friend
ship and good faith. Judge Pierre
pont, himself distinguished member
OF the Republican party and a favor
ite and friend of the Administration,
declared in his address to the students
of the Yale Law School, in New Haven,
only this summer, that politicians
fastened to reconstruct the South up
on theories crude, ill-considered, and
Impossible Of success" and he ad-
ded that "'the seeds CT this folly are
now producing fruits after their kind,
and bitter fruits, more dangerous to
liberty than any that were ever be-
fore ripened on American soil. -
1t is needless to go over the dreary
ground Of this history for the past six
years. It will forever form blot on
our professions of Republicanism, and
remain consistent with the courageous
confession of Thaddeus stephens, the
acknowledged leader of the Republican
party in Congress. that it is entirely
outside the Constitution" The
present peaceful struggle of the South
is to bring itself within the limits of
the Constitution again. Neither they
nor the people of the North believe
that the task is to be aided by melting
the blacks to riot and bloodshed by
them, or, as in Kentucky, by plying
them with whiskey by the buckets-full
and leaving their blind brute passions
to do the rest. The war of races is too
fearful thing to be contemplated
without profound alarm even by those
not Immediately exposed to the great
peril. Every citizen of every State
should desire to avert it as the most
deplorable of calamitics that can befall
a people. Yet the Administration and
its followers play recklessly with parti-
san firebrands at the very door of this