Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-06-18
From the New York Tribune.
TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT 1T.

On Monday, two members of Congress from
Mississippi made rather remarkable speeches
Oh the condition of political affairs in the
South. Both men are persons of some note,
as the representatives Of the two great classes
into which Southern society has always been
divided and in both speeches we find matter,
not only for immediate interest, but for care
full thought. Mr.. L. @. G. Lamar in old times
was typical planter and 6re-eater. He left
Congress to take a seat in the Convention
which voted Mississippi out of the Union. He
was colonel in the Confederate army. He
was diplomatic envoy from the Confederacy
to Russia. He is man of culture and a pro-
fessor in the University of Mississippi. No
one could be better qualified to speak for the
class which ruled the South before the war,
and which still embraces nearly all the educa-
ton and social refinement of that unfortunate
region. 1t is only few weeks since Mr..
Lamar won the respect of the whole country by
his noble tribute to the memory Of Charles
Sumner; he deserves no less honor for his ad-
dress on Monday, in which he reiterated those
sentiments of union and brotherhood which,
in spite of the bloody past and the cruel op'
pressions of the present, do unquestionably
animate the Southern white population. Mr..
Lamar confessed not only that the Lost Cause
was lost beyond all hope of recovery, but that
the war had utterly overthrown the princi-
pies upon which it was founded. Secession,
hereafter, was not merely impracticable and
unwise, but it was false in theory, and repug-
nant to the we'll settled principles of the
American Government. Slavery was not
merely destroyed, but it was acknowledged on
all hands to be gigantic wrong which the
South would not restore if had the power.
And with the downfall of slavery the South
recognized the full personal and political
rights of the freedmen, and the sacred force
of the constitutional amendments enacted to
secure their privileges. But Mr.. Lamar
spoke with honest indignation of the outrage
Gus abuse of the Federal power in the recon.
structed States (the contested election case of
Sheridan against Pinchback being the subject
of debate,) and warned his Republican hear
ers that "no party could endure the intamy
and disgrace that had been brought upon the
American name by those grotesque caricatures
of the government" All which was strictly
true and most proper to be said.
On the same day Mr.. Lynch, of Mississippi,
made a speech in the Republican caucus,
where the faithful were discussing the pros
poets of the party for the next campaign, and
considering what principles it should profess
during the canvass, or whether it was prudent
to profess any at all. Mr.. Lynch is young
negro, born in slavery. He was entirely with
out education until the Union armies at
Natchez made him contraband. Then ne
picked up little schooling, and after the
war was made justice of the peace under
the carpetbag government of Gen. Ames.
From one office to another he worked his way
along until he got to Congress- He seems to
be type of the shrewd. glib, active, ambi'
tious coored men in whom Northern adven-
turers find their aptest allies and instruments
in the manipulation ofthe Southern satrapies.
We know nothing discreditable to him per-
sonally, but there can be no question of the
class to which he belongs Mr.. Lynch spoke
of the civil rights bill, and he was of course
not we'll pleased at the manner in which the
House had treated it but he assured the eau
Gus of the strict party fidelity Of the colored
people, There was to be no reconciliation
between them and their old masters. They
would not believe that slavery was beyond
revival They would not trust to Southern
white men with their liberties. They cared
comparatively little for honesty in Office
this at least was the general drift of his ad-
dress-they could pardon fraud, corruption,
licentiousness, anything mean or disgraceful, to
an orthordox Republican politician and they
would sooner vote for thief like Moses than
an upright gentleman like Lamar. These are
the conclusions logically to be drawn from
the remarks of Mr.. Lynch, as we collate them
from the reports Of the various papers; and it
will be seen that they are equivalent to a
notice to the party that it may nominate any
rascal they please, and the Southern negroes
will swallow him.
These two speeches are the platforms of the
two contrasted forces between which the
future of the South remains to be decided
one caring little for party and everything for
pure and honest government; the other val
uing party above everything and official in
tegrty not at all. We need not ask which
offers the country the fairest prospect Of peace
and prosperity. But ask the Northern Re-
publicans if they have no moral duty to full
ill toward their ignorant colored wards, and
if it will not be their fault if Republicanism
in the reconstructed States becomes merely a