Year: 1875

thousands but by millions, with all their
SOLDERING Influences, is already in the
hands of those who till yesterday did not
own their own blood and muscle. Ex-
perienee, hitherto a sealed volume, re-
sponsibiiity, hitherto an unused sense,
the welfare of children, the whole wide
circle of human Influences, are already
pouring in upon those whose most dar-
ing hopes ten years ago did not picture
physical Freedom even, this side the
grave. .s <r,1IDZ.s+ =


''And yet we lose faith2 And yet
we think our American system cannot
stand the strain? All, ladies and gentle
men, the government which could stand
the strain of two centuries and a half of
system hostile not merely to human
rights, but to every form and feature of
civilization, will not be moved from its
foundations by ten years of tumultuous
freedom. Have you forgotten those
words of Macaulay, There is only one
cure for the evils which newly acquired
freedom produces, and that cure is free
dom The blaze of truth and liberty
may at first dazzle and bewilder nations
which have become half blind in the
house of bondage. But let them gaze
ou, and they will soon be able to bear it.
If men are TO wait till they become wise
and good in slavery, they must indeed
wait forever"


In our American system the most
effective remedy for all political evils
has been not the restriction of the ballot
to the wise and good, but we have trust
ed to the power of experience, of intel
ligence, of what Coleridge calls "the
free. permeative life and energy of the
State acting through its organized
forces These are the influences to
which the evils of the period succeeding
the war were wisely entrusted. At
negro picnic on Independence day,
General Forrest made an address
in which he spoke of the female portion
of his audience as ladies, and his remarks
were received with the utmost enthusi-
asm. The two races have. learned to
tolerate, if not to respect each other.
They are compelled by force of circum
stances 10 live together, and they realize
the fact that they ought to be friends.
The whites have learned that an educat-
ed and responsible negro is safer and a
more agreeable neighbor than one who is
free and yet powerful only for evil.
Aud so New Orleans paper which is
not given to negro 1tttery, confesses
that the revealed experiences of Southern
men since the war shows that the color
ed people have, by their behavior in
freedom, fairly lived down the contempt
which was felt toward them as slaves,
and compelled the praise and admira-
tion of their detractors. The other
to which we referred is that of
Mr.. Charles Nordhoff, who says IN let
ter from Alabama to the New York
Herald that ''no thoughtful man can ex-
anime the history of the last ten years in
the South, as he may hear it on the spot
and from all sides without being con-
vinced that it was absolutely necessary
to the secdlity of the blacks and the
permanent peace cf the southern com
munities to give the negro, ignorant,
poor and helpless as he WAS, every po-
litical right and privileges which any
other citizens enjoys. That he shuold
vote and that he should be capable Of
holding flee was necessary, | am per
suaded, TO make him personally secure
and, what is of more Importance, to con-
vert him from freedman to freeman.
/ will add that that in this view many
southern democrats concur. IF the
North had not given the negroes suffer
age it would have had to hold our States
under an exclusively military govern
ment for ten years, said such a man to
me-"


These opinions of such men give as
surance that already the worst is over in
the South and that the policy of the Re-
publican party in giving suffrage to the
blacks was wise, and that under this
policy the evils which had been been the
slow growth of generations are rapidly
passing away.