New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-02-21
sourH CAROLINA.

! | fairs in South Carolina. This State, onct
: so imperial in her pretensions, is reduced
:: to petition government which she
claimed had no power except such as had
been delegated at the discretion and in
structicn Of the States. She petitions the
federal government for relief from the
abuses of her own government by bel
own people.
Mr.. Calhoun would have been appalled,
if any shadow Of a State, kneeling at the
foot Of the federal government, had risen
before his midnight vision. Yet these
consequences are to our mind directly
traceable to the tenets of the South Caro-
lima school. We say this because in no
other States have the consequences OF
conquest been so sad, and in no other
State were the peculiar doctrines Of South
Carolina in the ascendant.
The institution Of slavery was naturally
productive of ignorance; and ignorance
may be perverted to wrong. The system
OF Carolina was aristocratic. It assumed
the incapacity of the people to govern,
and so retained in the hands of wealth
and intelligence the administration of
public affairs. Such form of govern
ment, if sufficiently powerful to sustain
itself, would perhaps be the best But
such governments are not Of this world,
and certainly not of this republic. Here
all men are equal in political power, and
in their right to hold Office. True wis
dom, then, would consist in qualifying
each citizen for his duty. This has been
more or less done in all the Southern
States, except in Carolina. Mississippi,
Tennessee and Alabama were among
the first States in the Union
to make suffrage universal among the
whites. Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and
Georgia encouraged the mixed industries,
Carolina, from her peculiar stand, gave no
encouragement to popular education, the
immigration of skilled labor, or 70 do
nestle manufactures. Hence when con-
quest came, her government was deliv-
cred over to persons of less than average
Intelligence, nor did those mechanical
industries exist which in other States
have created higher average Of popular
knowledge.
The abuses Of legislative power have
not, then, arisen in Carolina from the re-
suits Of war SO much as from the failure
to prepare the popular mind for those re-
suits always possible when people goes
out to fight. 1t has been difficult to teach
the white people Of Carolina that they have
interests in common with those who but
recently held them in bondage. There
has been a similar difficulty in teaching
the same truth in all other Southern
States, but directly in proportion to the
kindness of the white people toward the |
colored race has been the confidence Of
these last. Wherever the States have &C.
quiesced sincerely in the fact that their |
political destinies were at the disposal of |
the federal government and in the right |
Of suffrage given to the colored people. !
they have found the colored people ready !
to cooperate. even under their guidance. /
in the restoration of material interests in |
which each race was equally interested.
Wherever these States have not so &C.
Guiesced, but have endeayored to defeat
the rights conferred by the federal gov.
eminent. they have forced the colored
people under the protection of those who
may not have been as sound, perhaps not
as sincere advisers as the white natives of
the South should have been.
The ignorant people of Carolina may
have readily imbibed the idea that the
Egyptians should be des?oiled, but the
enfranchised here and elsewhere have
been taught that the spoliation Of the
was permitted to a people who
were about to leave the country of bond
age. whereas the emancipated here have
been elevated to citizenship and will re-
main with their posterity in the land Of
their birth. The interest. then. Of the
resident citizen by no means consists in
his neighbor, but in pro.
tecting the rights of labor and the fruits
of acquisition In despoiling an Egyptian.
then. he is perhaps starving several He
brews. himself included. 1t is plain that
if planter be compelled by taxation to
sell sugar estate. it by no means follows
tina. his unpaid laborers can buy and
work it.
The demonstration Of this truth has
been impeded in Louisiana by the vic.
lence Of certain politicians who. with the
political potentates Of Carolina, believed
themselves born to hold administrative
Office. But with the defeat of this class,
and tie cooperation Of the business in
terests of the State and city, better state
Of sentiment has been established. Men
have had time and experience to think.
and the singular spectacle is presented
tia: the colored representation in the
left to their own exclusive
governance, have originated measures of
reduced debt, amended taxation. and
moderate official fees that relieve the
holder. II has been demon
stratei tina. labor and capita! are
siamese interests: that one synpathi1es
iii the suherings Of the other.
The arrogant schoo: o! Carolina has
been .Ur: pressed By events. Some have
elsewhere. bU: their doctrine Of
a!sco.'el: With any government that they
may not ,.:rec. has found few disciples.
The aristocratic idea has faded out. The