The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-10-28
Tho Niger Question aud the iiepubi'can
A Party.


Shall this continent be given up TO barbarism
for fanalical experiment and party scheme
This. and none other, il now the question be-
fore the American people. Shall we throw
away what we have acquired OF science and
civilization, blot ou our history, give up all
aspirations of tbs future, that the niger may
become supreme and restore the land to that
happy STATE Of nature in which Africa now is?
Is Africa such magnificent evidence Of the
n.ygor's greatness that the example of its his
tory shoald induce us to change our system
for his For uncounted centuries the negro
has had possession CT that continent and
never built city, never bridged a
river, never made the smallest dis
covery having any tendency to widen
the little space that separates him from the go
rilla-never even borrowed the discoveries OF
races with which he came in contact, exc ept as
they supplied more efficient means for the graft
fication OF bis instinct for cruelty. Such is the
history Of the niger in his native land.
But he Genes TO another continent, be-
comes subordinate to race that forces
change! Freedom had kept him brute, sla-
very made him man, and what must the
second freedom make him? Lord OF the
ascendant He must be the master and
must control the political desinies OF
the nation, though it be to the exclusion
Of race of white men without superiors
on the flee Of the earth. Such is the drama
now in progress. Tie white man of the North
holds down the white man Of the South while
the nigger tramples upon him.
Wendell Phillips and Thad Stevens are right.
There Is nothing in the platform OF the repub-
lican party but the niger, and no other subject
in national politics worthy thought, by COM
parson with the discussion Of the position, but
the rights and the powers the nigger Is to have
in the nation. This involves the most momen-
tous revolution q people ever passed through.
1t involves the complete overturning Of our
present social and political system. We are
accustomed TO look upon the French Revolu-
ton 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 insanity Of revenge.
Here it is insisted that superior race shall
give way to an inferior, when that inferior race
has derived only from contact with the other
what semblance OF humanity it has. Men
whose fathers fought side by side with the
men of the North in three wars for the honor
Of the repubic-men ola race whose instincts
are all towards progress-must yield to race
10 a fha Othar xvay
that, left alone, they fall to absolute barba-
rism and wildness in q single generation. Or
what moment are financial discussions, free
trade theories, or political hairsplitting Of
any sort, by comparison with the delib-
Grafton of this niger queston-bearing with
it as it does the possibility that the Westward
progress OF civilization is stayed, was def
nitcly arrested by the success of the Northern
people in the great war that they supposed
was war against barbarism?
Nothing can have forced the republican
parry to its presen. extreme position in regard
to the Niger but sentiment OF desperation,
feeling that this degraded race il its forlorn
hope, and that If 1t cannot rule through the
slave vote it must rclinquish power altogether.
TIE attitude OF the Northern people justifes
this tnought. The protest of the people at the
polls--a protest beard from the widest sep
arated extremilies Of the nation-no; only an
nounces to the republican leaders that they
have gone farther than the people would permit,
but that they have gone so far they can never
hope TO secure popular confidence again. To
abate some portion of their pretensi0n would
therefore be useless, and they desperately
choose to push the game to its
ultimate limit hoping yet TO con-
troll by means of the power to be
given to the niger. 1t is clear enough that
this is in all ways a murderous policy-mur-
derous to the country it it prevails and to the
men who have planned it il the people can see
the r purpose. Aud the people must be made
to see; and thus every jot gained in power
given TO the Niger will be lost by the depth
that this policy will inevitably give to the re-
action Of the nation against the bold, bad, un-
scrupulous knot Of politicians who are def.
nitely detcrm ned to ruin If they cannot rule.
Explosion Of the Managers Association.