The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-09-12
Tie Southern Political. Situation.

The last number of Hayper's Weekly,
under the head of "a Crest Question:"
reviews the situation of the white citi.
zens in their relation to the negro vote.
The article, which is in the style of Mr.
George William Curtis, and was proba.
bly, written by him, recognizes the
strength of the plea set up by the South.
ern whites in defense of their action,
while deploring the violation of the law,
which contemplates everywhere an
equality of the suffrage, and especially
forbids the suppression Of vote on &C.
count Of race or color. Mr.. Curtis
recognizes that the political situation is
an anomalous one, and that it is exceed
ingly difficult TO find a remedy for it.
"It is fact of she highest significance" :"
he says, "that the great multitude of the
most intelligent and substantial citizens
of the Southern States, the leaders of
their education, industry and prosperity,
who are neither Jacobites nor Bourbons,
who rejoice that slavery is at an end and
who cherish,no aims or desires apart
from the Union and the national welfare,
are firmly persuaded that the political
equality of the races, the unrestricted
exercise of the rights ofequal citizenship,
is impossible in those States" As show.
ing the cause of this feeling, Mr.. Curtis
cites the condition Of q County in North
Carolina, one of the quietest of the South.
ern States, where the colored population
is about one.tbird of the whole. Gust
after the war;" he says, (when many of
the white people were disfranchised and
the carpet.baggers we're in the ascen.
dancy, and consequently during the
negro dominance "the County commits.
sion was composed ofa negro chairman
and three negro members who could not
write their names and one white man.
They levied high taxes, and the financial
situation was such that when they were
driven from power the County paper was
hardly worth ten cents on the dollar, and
the colored Sheriff, one of the ring
absconded with nearly thirty thousand
dollars. There was universal and com.
plete misgovernment. But under white
rule the County has paid the debt, the
taxes are low and schoolhouses are open
everywhere for black and white. There
is general content and prosperity, except
that the negroes are represented as even
more ignorant and auperstitious than
when emancipated. There is, however,
no ill feeling toward them upon the part
OF the whites, and no disposition what
ever to re.enslave them. But the new
generation, which never held slaves and
is perfectly loyal to the Union, is deter
mined to prevent what it considers the
lapse of their community in barbarian
under negro aacendancy." This deter
mination, as Mr.. Curtis points out,
"contemplates, if necessary, that destruc.
tion of the right of the majority, the
overthrow by the whites of suffrage, from
which alone they derive their own right
to vote, and whereby they secure politi-
cal advantages over those citizens in
other States who obey the law" To
determine to do this, Mr. Curtis says,
aia to contemplate an iDtolerable and
impossible condition"
He goes on to say: "It is, however,
undeniable that the reasons for this course
are of the most powerful kind. It has
been demonstrated that any other course
in many districts abaudons them practi.
cally to the control of those who are
absolutely untitled for civilized govern
ment. Apparently it must lead to their
abandonment by the whites, and to their
total occupation by aemi civilized negroes.
Yet, again, the negroes are acquiring 8
certain degree of INSTRUCTION which will
reveal to them their rights and their
superior force, while the habit of fservility
sprung from slavery is rapidly disappear.
ing. And all the while the negroes are
increasing in numbers moro rapidly than
the whites, while the instinct of social
self.preaervation naturally YIELDS the
whites together, aud what they hold to
be the safety of society itself is with them
necessarily the paramount public issue.
This compels the Intelligence of the
Southern communities to oppose any
party which, by favoring negro ascen.
dancy, seems to them to threaten civil.
cation among them. In this grave
situation something more is necessary
than to say that a free vote and a fail
count will settle the question. Nobody
has yet proposed to show either how
under the circumstances, a free vote and
a fair count can be secured, or how they
would settle the question. A free vote
and q fair count might restore the North
Carolina County Of which we have spoken
to the condition from which it ha;
escaped. Is that result which the
country desires, or which it would wisf
to employ the army to maintain?"
What ought to be done under these
circumstances, he confesses, he !: unable
to say. He regards the question al
zone of the most serious, and certainly
the most difficult, that confronts the
American people," he is far from
thinking that they are unequal to its wise
settlement, but he warns them that it,
treatment should not be approached in s
narrow and partisan spirit. "Itappeals;'
he says, "to patriotism, not to party, lik'
the question of slavery and the war;.
- The Philadelphia Record says
1.-THE amount of water that has fallen in