The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-02-16
The south-The Contest for Good Gov
eminent in south CarOlIna-The Duty
OF Southern Democrats.

from MIR. John Russell Young In reference
to politics in South Carolina. Some time
since, when the condition of the Southern
States was uppermost in the minds of
all true patriots, we sent Mr.. Nordhof
to see what was the real difficulty in the
way of good government. The letters OF
Mr. Nordhoff made a profound impression
at the time, and have since been printed
in book form by the Appletons as an I'M
portant contribution TO the question OF recon-
struction. Mr.. Nordhoff did not bring South
Carolina into the sphere of his labors, and,
consequently what we print now from cor
respondent as thoughtful and unbiased, will
be of great interest, especially in view OF the
movement of Chamberlain, the Governor of
South Carolina, to secure a good govern
ment These efforts on the part of the Gov
ernor have the sympathy of good men in the
country without regard to party; for the
issue in South Carolina has long since passed
beyond the realm of party discipline.
Our correspondent writes with different
impression from that of Mr.. Nordhotf He
sees the South with different eyes. Instead
of dwelling upon the crimes of the negroes
and pet-baggers he goes into the question
which has often been asked-namely, "Why
is it that the Southern white men have not
succeeded in dividing the negro vote,
so that the elections should not always
be on the color lineP" This is an evil
which Mr.. Young, as well as Mr.. Nord-
hof, deplores But they do not agree
as to the causes which lead to this state
of affairs Mr.. Nordhoff saw the South at
the feet of mob of ''carpet- baggers,
'scalawags" and negroes, who had their
hands on the throats of proud and sovereign
Commonwealths, and who were sustained in
their work of outrage and robbery by the
military power of the United States. But
for the United States, according to Mr..
Nordhoff, the power of these miscreants
would not last for a day The ques-
ton which Mr.. Young asks, "Why is
it that the Southern people have not
taken the negro and withdrawn him
from the control of the Spencers and
Packards and the rest?" is answered
by criticism upon the Southern peo-
pie. ''Above all things" he says, "the
burning question is that of race" "It is
not intelligence or corruption, republican
ism or democracy, but race" "The negro is
thrown back upon his Northern ally"
''They have driven the negro away" ''As
consequence the negro is in the hands of
the adventurer." The negro's political
education embraces q sentiment and n fact
the sentiment is Lincoln the fact is Grant"
81 am profoundly convinced, he continues,
''that it, instead of mourning over the lost
cause, as in the.past they were wont to blus-
ter about the Yankees and slavery the
Southern people had dealt wisely with the
negro and generously with the Northern i'm
migrant, these States, and especially South
Carolina, would be free and powerful"
This is rather an extreme conclusion,
pecially when our correspondent admits that
the power of Grant is absolute in the mind
of the negro If with the affectionate and con-
fding dependence felt by the negro in Grant,
the administration had taken the Whippers
and the Caseys and the Spencers and
thrown them out of authority in the South
as so many vipers the negro would have ac-
cepted this as an earnest that Grant in Sc
curing them freedom and protection, did
not mean that they should be used to
plumber sovereign States. If we give the
argument of Mr.. Young its logical appli-
cation there is no resisting the conclusion
that even if the President we're not directly
responsible for the carpet-bag outrages in the
South he is indirectly so by conniving at so
much that has been done. Take the case of
To-, n
ernor, according to our correspondent, is en-
gagged in an effort to reform the State and
drive out the villains who have lived upon
its plumber and its shame Well, what sign
has Grant made that he in any way approves
| the course of Chamberlain and that his SYM
pathies are not with the infamous Whipper
and the degraded Moses? None what
ever On the contrary, the government
organ in Washington intimates, whenever it
has occasion to refer to the subject, that
| Chamberlain is no better than a democrat
and that it means to expose him.
At the same time there is undoubted
force in the argument which Mr.. Young
presses home, that it is the fault Of the
Southern men themselves that they have not
won the negro. We have yet to see on the
part of any Southern State, or of any con-
siderable element of the democratic party in
the South, desire to regard the negro as in
any other relation but that of one who,
having been taken from slavery by force, can
never be the equal of the white man. In
Texas, in Georgia, in Virginia, wherever the
democrats have unquestioned power, they
have never treated the negro but as an in
ferior. Well, granted that he is and the
question is answered. The negro feels in
stinctively that he is free only because his
old masters cannot make him slave. When
he is asked to vote the democratic ticket he is
asked TO vote for his own degradation. Now,
our Southern friends should see as we do