The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-06-18
The PrOstrate State.

We published, the other day, a letter
from South Carolina. which shows that
the sheriff and the auctiOneer are about TO
complete the work of the negro electOr
and the carpet-bag officehOlder. The fair
est portions of the State will be sold for
taxes, and when the proceeds have passed
in regular order from the swarm of col
lectOrs to the larger swarm of thieves who
imposed the taxes and impatiently wait
to realize them, we suppose there will be
another levy, another sale, and another
steal, until nobody will buy at any price.
When that point is reached the State may
begin the slow process of recuperatiOn.
When the cloud of vultureS find nothing
left to feed upon they will rise and settle
elsewhere. South Carolina will be liber-
ated from her alien OppressOrs when she is
no longer worth plundering, when her
fields are naked, and her cities grass
grown.
But the carpet-bagger will leave his
curse behind. He will stuff his pockets
and pass on, bat the blight that he brought
will remain perhaps forever. He has i'm
pOverished whites and negroes alike.
If the Pinckneys. and MOultries, and
Sumters are posted among delinquent
taxpayers. whose estates are wanted 10
satisfy his greed, so IS SambO BOnaparte
He has taught the ancient blue blOOds that
triiling with the best government the
world ever saw is, after all, no light mat
ter-a lesson which in common candor we
are compelled TO say might have been de
livered at less cost TO the public Treasury.
But he has taught the negro politics and
unless he would hoe corn or pick cotton
he must of necessity continue the new
business long after his former master has
departed TO other fields of labor. The
black voters are there in overwhelming
numbers. They look upon the ballot first
as an instrument of vengeance, and last as
a means of support. Except this they
have nothing valuable in the world; and
they will use it to reduce the former own
ers of the soil to their own level. The
latter, according to our correspondent,
feel even now the shadow of barbarism
closing over the State.
What. then, is to be done? Appeal to
the country at large? The friend of the
carpet-bagger is in power. His bayonets
sustain him; his officers cOnspire with and
encourage him; Congress legislates in his
favor: and the surest reliance of the party
is this black vote. The President turned
the South Carolina taxpayers away with
hot words and malignant sneer, but he
heard Whittemore and his congregation
of representative thieves with encouraging
smiles and gracious attention. Is not
Grant President? and is not John Patter-
son Senator?
But the South CarOlinians have turned
their faces to the wall too soon. Theirs
has been but short struggle of ten years.
They should reflect that the barbarism
which approaches them is of kind that is
not ameliOrated by time. There is no in
stance on record where a body of white
people, having once fallen under the DOM
inatiOn of bar barOuS or semi-barbarOus
negroes, ever emerged from the house of
bondage and darkness. They may ANAL
gamate and degenerate, but they never
rise. We certainly shall not be accused of
any prejudice against negroes on account
of ''colOr or previous condition of servi-
tude;" but this is not question between
handing State over to educated negroes
or retaining it in the hands OF educated
whites. If any uncivilized race is to have
it for possession, the claim Of the Afri-
can is doubtless the best. But is the At
rican claim so imperative in point of jus
tice that it is entitled, irrespective of all
consequences, to the aid and cOuntenance
of the Republican party and the Federal
Government Weask for the taxpayers
of South Carolina only fair field and no
faYOr.-N y. San.