Year: 1866

lne OlaCeS WeHG OuG VI OoHSIess oLe
by one, and one by one they must go
back.


We think the Sentinel is rather too
fast in assuming that the Congress will
require the following conditions to be
complied with by the States:


"We are, first, to adopt an amendment to
the Constitution preventing the State from
making any discrimination in its laws on &C
count of color; secondly. to accord to negroes
the right of suffrage from and after July 4th,
1876; thirdly, to agree that, between this
and that time, there is to be no representa-
tion for colored persons not allowed to vote !;
and then all these things being conceded, we
may be admitted, prooided our representa-
tives can swallow the test oath"


The Sentinel adds:


| "We prefer being excluded from repre-
sentation, indefinitely, rather than volunta-
rily make these oppressive, unjust, and in
iquitous concessions"


We shall not argue these points, for
the reason that they have not been Off
cially presented. Sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof"


But the Sentinel should remember
that the whole work of restoration, SO
far as many of our people are concern
ed, has been invol,tntary. Certainly,
the late insurgent States are passive in
this business. They can do nothing
but propitiate the government by GER
tain line of policy. 1t is zoe who have
sinned by attempted secession. We
are in the power of the government
We cannot improve our condition by
fretting or acting defiantly. Such a
course will only sink us deeper and
deeper in the slough of ruin. To say
we will accept only such terms as we
may deem proper and just, and that un-
less we can get our own terms we will
remain out of the Union indefinitely
would be to aggravate our condition
year by year, until at last we should be
reduced to petty provinces, under mill
tary rule, our lands taken from us in
various ways, and all hope for the ma
tive generations in our midst blasted OF
cut off. We must either rule ourselves
as part of the Union, or be ruled by
the Union. Partial government is
better than no self-government. Once
IN the Union, no matter what our con-
dition might be, we would be the equals
of the other States, and could demand
our rights in the face of the world.
We could point to the Constitution as
oar Constitution, and ask that the
same measure of justice should be given
to us as to Illinois or New York. We
could be heard in Congress, and could
take advantage of divisions among our
opponents to promote our own interests.
We would be exempt from military
law. We might be poor, and our coun-
sells might not be often needed, but we
would be free, and we would have am
pie protection to life, liberty, and prop
erty. But out of the Union as we are
now, what can we hope for?


We now say to the Sentinel and It's
friends, that ii North Carolina will pur-
sue the proper course she will be ad-
mitted soon after Tennessee. We have
assurances in this respect of the most
satisfactory character. If we had car
ried out the Presidents plan in good
faith, we should have been admitted
qoith Tennessee. It is not too late to
carry out that plan now, but it may be
six months hence.


Every thing was working well in this
State up to the beginning Of the cam
paign for Governor and members of the
Legislature and Congress. The State
was being reorganized through the
agency of loyal men-that is, the spe-
cia1 and peculiar friends Of the P'esi-
dent. We do not say that others are
disloyal, or that they took the oath with
the intention to break it; but what we
insist on is, that the Presidents plan
should have been completed as it was
commenced; that this was indispensa-
BILE to put the State on an advantageous
footing before the Congress that it
was due to our best friend, the Presi-
dent; that the course of our people-in
the November elections has weakened
the President, and has "greatly dam
aged the State,' to use the Presidents
own language, Sin the restoration of
its governmental relations" These
things are so. No change for the bet
ter has been effected since the election
Of Gov. Worth, but things have been
getting worse and worse. What, then,
should be done? We will discuss this