New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-02-26
South Carolina.

There is a chronic disposition on the part
of many of the editors of leading Republican
journals-such, for instance, as the New
York Times-to attempt to make the negroes
as race responsible for corruption in the
management of public affairs wherever any
number of them are voters. The disposition
to condemn whole race for bad acts of in
dividual members of it, and to fail to credit it
for abilities and honesty displayed by it, is
so manifestly unjust as to excite our wonder
managed and edited by able and, when not
warped by prejudice, just men-using its
columns for the purpose of holding up to
contempt, not the guilty perpetrators of
wrong, but the race with which the wrong
doors are identified.
That we are living in an age of corruption
in public affairs, whether under Democratic
rule or Republican control, the charges Of
fraud; the Investigations the seizure of
business establishments the Credit Mobilier
suits not confined to any one part of the coun-
try,all testify. Charges offraud and corruption
are as rife against white men as against black
men, and if the whole race of black men is
to be condemned and negro supremacy" to
be deplored because it may be true that a few
black men have followed the example of
white men and proven themselves rascals,
we arc unable to decide why in the name of
Inexorable Justice, white supremacy is not
equally deplorable
hoe -,
bringing about reform in New York City,
and of Kidding that great commercial centre
of the perpetrators Of fraud; in this work
1t was Jealous and effective; its articles were
clear and to the point. The blame for cor
ruption was made to rest where it properly
belonged, and no nonsense was allowed to
creep in, condemning the white people as
whole, nor implying that they were unfit to
take part in public affairs, On the ground of
white supremacy having brought the city
of New York to debt of over hundred
million dollars, "with nothing secured in
public improvements for this prodgal waste
Of the public revenue"
Colored men, the same as white men, are
corrupt from selfish motives alone, and do
not care fig as to who are injured by their
corruption; neither do they care whether
they misrepresent their race or their con tit
uents. Their sole regard is for SELF, and as
in the case of the New York thieying
Statesmen punishment should be visited
upon the wrong doors, and they be made to
suffer the penalty for Outraging decency and
honesty, instead of the race identified by
color being made the object of the contempt
and miserable prejudice of the unjust editors
and color aristOcrats of the New York Times
and negotiating people generally. For the
colored wrong doer, we ask the same punish
ment as for the white one; and that the
same circumstances admitted in mitigation of
ofenses committed by the one be allowed to
control for the other.
In the State of South Carolina, much cor
ruption is charged, and the New York Times
attributes it solely to negro supremacy, when
the fact is that the negroes have been de-
ceived by their representatives, and rings
have been formed and have become as potent
as that of which Tweed was the ruling
genius in the city of New York. The evils
in South Carolina are to be redressed and
remedied afterthe manner and upon the plan
adopted by New York, /. e. the election of
honest men to office; the arrest and swift
punishment of the bride takers, and corrup-
= tionists of whatever race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
Already the Hon. r. B. Elliott, the able
representative in Congress from South Caro-
lima, is on the alert TO bring about refrom
in the management of the public affairs Of
his State; and he is a colored man, and the
success he will attain will come through the
assistance Of colored men, or the supremacy
Of colored men in that State. The white
element in South Carolina, as rule, carry
their hatred of the restored Union, and the
enfranchisement Of the negro, to such an
unwisc and ridiculous extent as to stand
aloof from the controlling power in the State |;
consequently, very little help in the work of
reform is to be expected from that quarter.
We as firmly believe in the thorough hon.
esty Of the masses of the colored people of
South Carolina, as does the New York Times
in the honesty of the white people of New
York. Honest though the white people of
New York were the most shameful corrup-
ton and misrlle, were true Of the chief city