Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-10-17
A Promising Movement.

On Thursday of this week the colored
people of North Carolina are to have state
convention, the object of which is to con-
slider the educational, moral and material
condition of the race, and to devise plans
for its advancement. Most heartily do we
adopt the language of q contemporary which
pronounces this step in the right direction.
If followed up with discretion and energy,
IL must result in material good to those con-
cerned The fact is, that the colored peo-
pie of the South have in many cases been
trusting too much to other means Tor their
advancement than those here named. Polit-
ical aids and support are important and in
dispensable to citizenship, and cannot safely
be ignored at any time. This was especially
true of the freedmen while they and the
state governments of the South alike were
passing through the process of civil and
political reconstruction. 1t was OF first i'm
portance. at such time, that the freedman's
title to equality before the law should be
made clear and positive, since his future
well-being must largely depend on that
Hence the necessity for such agencies in
the work of state rehabilitation as should
assure full and permanent recognition OF this
right. On this ground alone could have been
justified the exclusion from participation
in such work of the great body of Southern
whites, who, by sentiment and action, were
known to be hostile to the emancipation and
the enfranchsement of the blacks. To have
submitted the work of reconstruction to
their hands would have been to ensure its
defeat at the outset. As well might the
terms of capitulation at Appomattox have
been referred to Lee and his staff. What
was wanted in either case was not so much
diplomatic capacity, as loyalty to the Union
and to freedom.
But the stage of reconstruction, happily,
has now passed, and that of fixed, stable
government appeared. The civil and politi-
cal rights of the freedmen have been so far
secured to them that their attention may be
properly and advantageously turned to other
ends, and to what more wisely than to " the
educational, material and moral condition
of the race ?" These after ALL constitute
the substance of their well-being. Political
rights and privileges are important solely as
aids to the attainment and improvement of
these. The ballot, in itself considered, is
the merest shadow of good but as means
to ends, it is invaluable and indispensable
under a government like ours. The ballot
the freedmen now have, as they also have
other civil rights, and it now remains to
be seen what advantage these shall be to
them in their advancement TO the better and
more substantial benefits of citizenship.
The government, in placing in their hands
civil and political equality, has exhausted its
resources of privileges for them and per-
formed its special duty to them Their des-
tiny is now in their own hands, and they
must assume the responsibility of their own
future. Success or failure must rest with
themselves. The government, in the future,
as in the past will owe them protection in
equal rights, but nothing more. The prin-
cipe of equality before the law, which up
to this time has demanded special means for
their protection, will in the future forbid
class or race privileges.
But we do not doubt the result Of the new
trial into which the freedmen now enter. They
have borne themselves so well thus far, that
the country may justly trust them for the
future. No longer embarrassed by the an
tagonisms and hostilities incident to race
divisions, they are now free for the work SO
properly laid out for the approaching con
vention in North Carolina All of them
may not at this time justly appreciate the
great blessing to them of the policy of ma.
tional Cancellation and peace inaugurated
by President Hayes; but they will do so in
due time. As the work of educational
material and moral advancement proceeds
they will rejoice that the day for color-line
politics and race antagonisms has passed.