Year: 1867

denial OF unqueSt0naDle CIVIL rights, upon ,tno
ground that, if granted, they viii be abused.
IL Is this egregriOus fallacy which has made
historical reading a perpetual PAIN Kings
having arrOgated to themselves the paternal
relation, have also assumed the perpetual
childhood of their subjects, and then sought TO
make good their claim by retarding in every
way the intellectual and moral growth OF their
people. They have prohibited printing, muz-
zled discussion, drilled priests to their own
purposes, guarded frontiers against the inroads
of any higher civilization. and, having driven
human patience to the very verge of
desperation. they have deprecated the
justice which right and the age called
for, by arguing that license would follow
liberty and that h persistence in wrong was
necessary for self-preservation. This is all that
Gov Perry can say for himself. A plain
American citizen, he has all the instincts of an
anointed monarch, with geneaiogy stretching
back TO the Caesars or to Charlemagne He
would deny suffrage to fthe Black of South
Carolina. because if the Black is made voter
he "wil feel his numerical strength To be
/ sure he will. That is why he is to be permitted
to vOte-that he may 3" feel his numerical
strength DO White men vote for any other
purpOse2 We should like to know what can
vassing, and counting, and bristling columns OF
election returns, and majOrities and minOrities
prove, except that one set of men have been meas
urng their numerical strength" against that
of another set of men, and that one side, how
ever honest, or active, or enthusiastic, has been
outnumbered by the Otherg The minority al
ways loudly declares beforehand that the ma
jority will do wicked things, and pursue ruin
Gus policy but in Republic we run our risk
of that. We do So or we must divest our
selves of every rag of our Republican princi-
pies. IL is an American nOtiOm to hold on to
the principle and take the chances. If Gov
Perry wants the other kind of government, he
had better take ship for Austria, where he can
be supplied.


But the Black voter, according TO this Gov
ernOr is to do worse. He is not only to feel
his numerical strength" but he is to seize
" the political power of the Statew Let the
reader mark what force and virtue there may
be in single word The colOred voter is to
"sei-e" political power. There is an insurrec-
tionary smell in the syllable. There is blood
shed in each of its five innocent looking let
ters. There is a suggestion of the seven capi-
tai sins in the very sound. But by what right
does this Ex-Governor stigmatize in this way
the plain and simple results OF the elective
franchise When Republicans carry an cleo
tion do they seize" the governments When
Democrats are equally lucky, are they written
down unprincipled graspers of what does not
belong to them? If so, every triumphant party
is to be regarded only as an organized and
prosperous felony. Some such maggot must
have got into Mr.. PeTys brain, for he de-
clares not only that the Blacks will feel
"their numerical strength not only that
4" they will seize the political power of
:" the State but !(now we come to the
pith of the whole matte) that will exercise
" it to oppress and plunder the white race"
If the Governor had said this of any individual,
he would have been liable to an indictment for
SANDER or to an action for damages. 1t is safer
cruelty to malign whole masses. 1t is cheaper
to charge an entire class with thirst for
plunder than to bring the same accusation
against an individual. Yet how mean is it for
a man, strong in his social position, education,
| perhaps wealthy, and possibly refined, thus to
vent his nervous suspicious as if they were
incontrovertible facts, and thus to fling the
slime of his gratutous aspersions over strug-
Cling people just emerging from the long night
of an unmerited misfortune, just liberated from
restrictions which denied them education and
estate lust rescued from the most degrading II
not the most distressing of captivities is this
the reward of the unexampled and astonishing
good conduct of the Blacks under circumstances
of temptation such as rarely visit any class of
men! Is this the best Gov. Perry has to say
of those who have so often been lauded for
their simple fidelity, for their hOmely virtues,
and for their religious enthusiasm! Are these
the fruits of the vaunted patrarchal systemf


There are other high crimes and misdemean-
ors which this public coward apprehends. The
Blacks. he fances in his nightmare, will insist
| upon dining with him, and upon going to
| church with him, and will cut his throat should
he decline to share with them both his repasts
and his religion. Here again he is inexcusably
gratuitous How does he know that any Black
will condescend to dine with hlm, however
good his dinner may be How does ne KNOW
| that any Black will feel willing to JON with
him in religious exercises But he Is still
hankering for the tlesh-pots. There is still the
old magisterial twang in his speech, and III the
| hour of emancipation, he thinks as ID master,
he speaks as II master, and he writes as
master. He has neglected to revise both his
manners and his modes of thought. He Is be-
hindhand in his moralities If the Blacks are
to comprehend the new relations with no more
Justice than he does he may well anticipate
that they will act like fools, and very foolish
fools at that.


Perhaps we have said too much of this per-
sons dismal guesses. But it shall not, II we
can help it, be assumed here, in South caro-
lima. or anywhere else, that the Freedman IN
the future is sure to 90 wrong. We Will have
| Wv IL n,.os@;oo ~