The Van Buren press., 1867-11-29
The Niger Question and the Republican
Party.


Shall this country be given up to bar
barism for fanatical experiment and a
party scheme This, and none other. is
Low the question before the American peo-
pie. Shall we throw away villa; we have
acquired Of science and civilization, blot
out our history, give up all aspirations of
the future. that the nigger may become SUI
premc and restore the land to that happy
state Of nature in which Africa now is Is
Africa such a magnificent evidence Oi the
Niger. greatness that the example Of its
history should induce us to change our sys'
TEN for his? For uncounted centurie. the
negro has Ia possession ol that continent
aud never uuil cIty, never brldged river,
never made the smallest discovery having
any tendency TO widen the little space that
separates him from the gorilla,-ncver even
borrowed the discoveries OF races with
which he came in contact, except as they
supplied more efficient means for the graft
tication Of his instinct for cruelty. Such is
the history of the niger in his native land. :.
But he comes TO another continent, becomes
subordinate to race that icrces him to Ia
Dor, and presto there is a change Free
dom had Kept him a brute, slavery had
made him man, and what must the sec-
ond freedom make him? Lord Of the as
cendant lie must be the master and must
control the political destinies OF the nation,
though it be to the exclusion OF race of
white men without superiors Oh the face Of
the earth, which is the DIANA now in pro-
gress. The white man of the North holds
down the white man OF the South while the
niger trampleS upon him.
Wendell Phillips and Thad Stevens are
right There is nothing in the platform of
the Republican party out The Niger. and
no other subject in national politics worthy
of thought, by comparison with the discus
sion of the position, but the rights and the
powers the niger is TO have in the nation.
This involves the most momentous revolu-
ton people ever passol through 1t iu-
wolves the complete ovcytmning of our
present social and political system. We
are accustomed to look upon the French
Revolution as sufficiently terrible chapter
of history yet that was only a war between
classes, all Of whom were of the same race,
and its bloodiest phase was merely the in.
sanity of revenge. Here it is insisted that
superior race shall give way to an infe-
rior, when that inferior race has derived
only from contact with the other what
sembance orhumanity it has Men whose
fathers fought side by side with the men of
/ the North in three wars for the honor Of the
republic-men of race whose instincts are
all towards progresS-must yield to a race
whose instincts are so I OSl'lvely the other
way that, left alone, they fall to absolute
barbarism and wldness in a single genera
ton. OF what moment are financial dis
cussions. free trade theories, or political
hairsplittng of any sort, by comparison
with the deiberation of this nigger question
bearing with 1t as it does the possibility
that the westward progress IF civilization
is stayed, was definitely arrested by the
success Of the Northern people in the great
war that they supposed was war against
barbarsm?
Nothing can have forced the Republican
party to its present extreme position in re-
gard to the niger but sentiment Of dos
peration, feeling that this degraded race
is its forlorn hope, and that lift cannot rule
through the slave vote it must lelngush
power altogether. The attitude of the
Northern people justiiies this thought. The
protest of the people at the polIs--a protest
heard from the widest separated eXIrcmitic>
ol the nation-nDt only announces to the
Republican leaders that they have gone
farther than the people would permit, but
that they have gone so Gar they can never
hope to secure popular confidence again
To abate some portion of their pretension,
would therefore be useless, and they deSper-
ately choose to push the game to its uti
mate limit, hoping yet to control by mean,
OF the power to be given to the niger. Ii
is clear enough that this is in all ways !
murderous policy-murerouS to the coun
try if it prevails and to the men who have
planned it if the people can see their pur
pose. And the people must be made to see
and thus every iot gained in power givcr
to the niger will be lost by the depth tha
this policy will inevitably give to the reac
tion of the nation against the bold, bad, IN
scrupuous knot of politicians who are def
nitely determined to ruin if they canno
rule.-N Y Heraid. "a .a EH
The Dead Party-A Dialogue,