New-York tribune., 1876-12-16
BLACK AND WHITE.
LETTER FROM DIR. LEONARD BACON.

sELF-GovERNMEST.
| To the Editor Of The Tribune
SIR: More than IL years have passed SINCE the
armies Of the civil war were disbanded. and the
work of reconstructing the States recovered rom
the enemies of the United States was begun. Moth
ing in our political outlook to-day is more manifest
than that the reconstruction attempted IN The negro
States has been failure
Let us not blink this unpleasant fact. We only
cheat ourselves if we try to do so. The States IN
which legitimate government was overthrown by
rebellion, and in which, therefore, State govern
ments must needs be reconstructed, were not Gil ne
gro States. In Texas the white population so far
outnumbers tho black that it is the State. The
same NAV be said of North Carolina and of Virginia.
But South Carolina, with a white population OF
$50 900 and black population of $4,000, Is q
negro State. Louisiana, with $4,000 whites 10
364, 900 blacks and Mississippi, with 3o2,ooo
whites 30 Az 900 blacks, negro States Florida,
with 90 OeO whites to 81 900 blacks, and Alabama,
where 521. 900 whites are balanced by 47l,Ooo
blacks, may be included in the same class. These
are dstinctivey the negro States, because IN eacn
of then the negro element is either majority Oh
the whole population only little less than ma
jority. In ell those States the negro population,
though invested with the right OF suffrage, ana
made in all things politically equal with the whites
il proved incompetent to govern the State or to pro
teet itself A white minority, accustomed TO the
use of arms and led by men accustomed to command,
dominccrs over the blacks and nothing hnt Its we'll
warranted fear Of the power that crushed the reDe
lion and bade the oppressed 60 free restrains II from
reducing the freedmen to condition more heIpiess
and more pitiable than slavery After so long an
experiment il is manifest that the reconstruction in
those States has missed its aim, and needs itself 10
be reconstructed.
We know the fact, though we may not know what
10 do with il. The reconstruction has brought pacN
"a members of tho Union certain States which,
whatever they may have been before the rebeihon'
are now notoriously incapable of seh-government-
States in which popular election, by free and un-
purchased votes honestly counted is not to be ex-
pected. If say that in the negro States as now
constituted elections are ordinarily carried either
Inv violence OF bv fraud perhaps by fraud and Ylo-
lence combined, only utter the conviction which
forces itself upon the people generally throughout
the Tinted States What makes the fact more pain
full and more perlous is that there is no remedy ior
il in the powers which our States have eeded TO the
National Government. There must be another Sc
cesson before Congress can interfere with anOther
reconstruction Meanwhile we can only " hope
araipst hopeD that the evil viii wear itself ont or
will in some way become its own remedy.
Let 1,s frankly acknowledge the great bunder
winch has ansed so great failure. what was the
blundcrH 1t was not that the magnanimity OF the
American people gave back so readily to those Who
had waged n four years war against the Union INC
rights which treason had forfeited. Ii was not tiat
ihe entire area which had been reconquered Iroh
the enemies Of the United States was not regarued
as territory gained by conquest on whlcn' aiter q
sufficient training of the people under territorial
IN m
nev names and new institutions. Ii this might have
been done by the right which the law OF nations
gives 70 conouerors cannot think that not to do II
yyce a bluuder. II was not n mistake that no his
toric nou,c Of State was cffaced from the map IN
the process Of reconstruction.
The Democratic party at the South, and at the
North too, will tell that all would have Deeh
well il the negroes had not been invested with the
right of suffrage In other words, could they have
hal control in tho process of reconstruction, the DIS
t,pc.,ou of race and color would have been per-
pe,Iated IA the hasls OF political organization Nhe
freedmen would have been left in the power of their
former oppressora, and their emancipation would
bnva been little more than word. Such reeonstrue-
tiop-makiug race or color, or former condition of
seryitudcD q reason for excluding half the popuia-
ton (morc or lcs from partnership in the state ana
from every political rght-would be the establish
mept OF irrcconclable hostility between dominant
class and a subject class and would be equally
harmful 10 both.
No. tile blunder in reconstruction was not that
which the Democratic party would have made-uni-
,r.al suffrage for white Iaen and suffrage at all
for black men, it was the more excusab.e blnnderof
universal suffrage without distinction of race or
corupiversal suffrage instead Of intelligent suf-
fr,rc In Connecticut, and in some other States, no
man who cannot read is lawfully permitted to be-
came . voter. President Grant in his late message
nronoses that some such limitation Of the suffrage
sboI Inc rcouired of all the States by amendment
of the Federal Constitution. When Congress was die
tatng 10 the seeded States the mode in which they
sbould reorganize their governments before resun-
inc their places in the Union, those States might
have been required TO make intelligent suffrage, in
stead of white suffrage the basis of their political
institutions Had the ability to read and write been
modc condition Of the right of suffrage in the re-
ructed States thousands of the class known as
" mar ,vlitosr would have been disfranchised, aud
tIousonds of the freedmen, at that early day,
vould have become voters. Tho line of demarkation
betwesn parties in those States would not have
been the line OF c0lOr-the great body OF the white
pcoplc on one side and all the blacks on the other
Questions of public policy local or national, would
have divided the State, and each party would have
sought 10 conclliate rather thhh 10 coeroo 'e 0"i
or.d voters Gradually the voting population, black
and white, would have become more numerous, with
fine multiplication Of schools and the growth of the
common school system. and the approximation to
universal suffrage would have been always in pro-
norton to the fitness of the people for universal suf
frage.
One word -party-sums up tho reasons why moth
ipc Of this kind was done in reconstruction. The
Democratic party in Congress at that time was not
very numerous; but will venture TO say that had
there been among its leaders few men, ever 80 few,
with mind and soul enough to ask how those dsoF-
couized populations might be made to pass from