The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1875-06-17
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great. In mostofth Southern States
The enfranchised blacks were numer.
ically superior to the disfranchised
whites, and, bought in unbroken
columns to the polls, they were able
TO effectually reward their supposed
friends and punish their supposed
enemies. There were, in fact, intox-
icated by the new power they WELD
ed and the new dogma of equality on
which it was based. Their ignor-
ance made them the easy dupes Of
every political adventurer who set
himself up as a guide, philosopher
and friend in the premises, and they
continued dupes until they them,
selves became experts in the wicked
ways of Radical rascality. Thus it
came about that the control ofalmost
every southern State passed, at the
close of the war, into the hands Of
carpet-bag banditti, and q system Of
plumber, corruption and misrulc was
established such as had never previ-
ously been known in the history OF
civilized communities.
The Radical pa,icy Of keeping the
i5r purposes so dis
reputable, drove all respectable white
people into the ranks Of the opposi-
ton. Then it was that the scalawag
put in an appearance. He was will
ing to sell his birth-right for the poor
reward Of becoming q participant
with the enfranchised negroes in
their pottage of corruption, and he
did so with a full consciousness Of
the fact that the rule to which he
lent himself meant ruin for his peo-
pie.
Gradually, however, the power of
the vampire plunderers became I'M
dermined. The promises they made
to their negro allies were broken to
the hope. No mule and forty acres
of land were distributed to the ma
TONS wardsas material consideration
for their sentiments. A few Of the
more unscrupulous sort-smart fellow
of the Pinchback stripe-wcrc indeed
permitted to growrich on the wages
Of iniquity; but tie many, WHOM the
first flush Of their political enthus-
isam had laid down the shovel and
the hoe, were compelled necessarily
to take it up again, and they pro-
that freedom 4 mockery
which did not relieve them from the
necessity Of labor. While these re-
suits were being wrought out among
the colored people, 4 gradual removal
OF the disabilities Of the Southern
whites, gave Radicalism another
wound which neither time nor salve
could heal.
Had the carpet-bag adventures
been less grasping and lcssdetermin-
ed to array the. tworaces ofthe South,
against each other, they might have
established a rule which, if not per-
would at least be difficult to
overturn; and chad the blacks and
whitcsbeen divided on political as
they are on religious and other ques-
tons the strong race prcjudiccs which
have thus far Kept them apart would
long since have been obliterated.-
But perhaps it was necessary to the
future welfarcof the country that the
wind should be sown and the whirl-
wind rcaped. Ifso, the Radicals have
builded wiser than they knew. They
have shown both races the terrible
results of a corrupt, improy;dcnt and
grasping government, and the mis-
chievous effects of divided house.
The people of the same country,
no matter how great their diversity
in race and color, have 4 community
of interest, and one halfcapnot be inn
poverished without scriouSlyafecting
the welfare of the other. This is now
beginning to be understood by both
the blacks and whites, even in the
States where they most nearly APP
preach each other in equality of num-
bcrs, and the further they are remov-
ed from the prejudices of the past, the
more apparent the proposition will
become.
1.-THE negroes but consult the teach
ings of experience they must see that
the strategy Of race alignment has
proved utterly deceptive. Whileithas
impoverished the whites, it has not
achieved prosperity for them. They
are now, we trust, ready to adopt a
wiser policy. Never again shall We
see them flock together at the bid
ding of plunderers, as has been their
wont during these years oftransition.
Through the evil fruit plucked by
them from the tree of knowledge, they
are now learning to judge what is
best for themselves as members of a
great political community. From
that lesson will redemption spring.
As the Fourth of July occurs this
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