New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-03-12
APRToANTzTNe THg sOUTH,

AOAC ACNGA was q uAOA0
of that venerable practice ''blOw hot and
blow GELD" than is now furnished by the
old shareholders in their cutlery about Airl-
canizing the South. In one and the same
breath they tell us that our colored voters
are Ignorant and stupid, an inferior race
wholly incapable of rising to anything Ike
an equality with the Caucasian race, and
also-oh, beautiful consistency that the
South is threatened with black domination
This we call blowing hot and blowing cold
in one breath. Do the Southern" whites
speak honestly when they express such a
fear Then must they stand convicted OF
strange logical defect. 1t is prejudice
and not reason, passion and not Judgment
that carries sway with them. As they
were hurried into the rebellion by preJu-
dice amounting to frenzy, which for the
time drowned the voice of their better in
stincts, so now they suffer themselves to
listen to thesssenseless appeals of interested
demagogues, who urge them to resist the
reconstruction of the madly ruined South.
At first the cry was raised against Yankee
Ting the South. That has been proved a
humbug and a swindle, and has pretty
much subsidized. Now it is the Africans"
who are to be the target against which the
whole Southern battery is to be emptied.
All this is for efect-to gather about their
standard that large class North and
South whose political creed is summed up
in their antipathy to the black man. In this
way cunning leaders hope to recover fer
the Democratic party its lost supremacy,
and thus, through its ever un-demosratic
principles enable the South longer to set
at defiance the axioms of the Declaration
of Independence and the universal instincts
of liberty, and again domineer over the
freedmen.
Now the ex-slaVeholders either believe
or do not believe in the danger of African
rule. If they believe it, it is certainly
most humiliating and astounding confession
from acivilized, enlightened, high-spirited,
and chivalrous people, superior" race,
"bora to rule One would think they
would be ashamed TO make it, and that it
could only be dragged out Of them by dire
necessity. But, on the contrary, they faunt
It everywhere that if negro suffrage
is universal, ignorance will triumph
over knowledge, stupidity over intelli-
gence, barbarism over a high civilization.
The bare fact Of small numerical superb
ority is to give the lie to the long-aeeepted
proverb, knowledge is power" Knowl-
edge is no longer power. Brains are no
longer to rule. In this strange confession
is there not betrayed a secret fear that after
all the abuse heaped upon the black man
he may yet run not unequal competition
with the white in the race of civilization
Do colOred schools raise up horrid spectre
before the vision? If SO, it can be nothing
less than sheer blasphemy against God to
undertake to legislate the black man into
state of political degradation. Let
every man of every race stand
where bis God-given faculties, be
they more or less naturally place bin.
But, again, it is not so much the black
man they fear "as his manipulation by
Northern demagogues."
And. pray, why may not Southern dema-
gogues try their hand at the same game
And what shall we say to the statement so
confidently put forth that the real sympa-
thies of the freedmen are with their old
masters, for proof Of which we are referred
to the peaceable conduct of the slaves dur
ing the war; If the freedmen are in politi-
cal sympathy with the old shareholders,
and 50 inferior, too, SO ignorant and stupid,
what cause have the cold citizens . for
dread3
The fact is, this natter of suffrage must
take its own course. 1t is true democracy,
aRd must prevail, with all its legitimate
consequences. But, practically, this cry of
Africanizing the South is a great faIlacy.
Except in Louisiana and South Carolina
the colored voters are in the minority, and
in many localities the whites nave only
themselves to thank because they are in the
minority. They would not register. Shame
on those who are afraid Of race that,
according to their own statements, is ig-
norants stupid, and semi-barbarOus, and is
dying Outln But thank God such foolish
ness is fast passing away, and under the
rule Of justice and equality men will grow
wiser and better.
TaMrs q T1TTarppvo