Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-05-22
Negro Suffrage

The Round Table, of April Goth, has q
thoughtful and comprehensive article on
the yexed question of NEGRO Suffrage "
We reproduce it prominently, as tho most
enlightened view of Northern Conserva-
tism, and as a breakwater to the impetu-
Gus spirit of some who, for the sake of
spoils, may possibly be led into a bog,
from which extrication will be difficult and
we'll nigh hopeless. The poor South is
sadly tormented and miserably tempted :;
but she need not unnecessarily add to her
miseries by becoming driyeler and a
show The Bound Table says:
"Negro suffrage IN the Southern States
is commonly looked upon as involving
nothing more than the admission of an adj
ditional number of the people to a share in
the government. It is taken to be like the
recent extension of suffrage in England.
Practically it is no such question. Negro
suffrage in the South is not mere extern
sion of the governing power to a larger
number of the people it is proposition
to give power in our public affairs to new
and strange people. It is not to bring a
larger proportion Of the community to the
polls it is to introduce new community.
It is like, but worse than, a proposition
to admit the Republic of Hayti into the
Union.
Practically there are two separate COM
munities in the South a black community
and a white one. They are separate now
and will always remain separated. No
human power can blend them into one.
The white race in this country will not mix
with the black any more than it will with
the native Indian. The whites and the
blacks will not intermarry they will not
visit each others houses they will not go
to church together. An effort will be made
to force them together in the public
schools but, like all laws which seek to
twist human nature violently back from it's
instincts, this effort will simply intensity
the repugnance it seeks to overcome, and
the law will be violated and evaded so ex-
tensively that little or no education will be
afforded to any one.
1.-THE blacks at the South constitute
black people,; the whites white people.
They cannot be blended into one people :;
for whenever the black and white blood do
intermix, the mulatto progeny is rejected
from among the white people and remains
a part of the black community. What is
really proposed in negro suffrage, then, is
to constitute one state of these two repel-
ling elements, they being in nearly equal
proportion ; TO blend together these two
distinct and repulsive elements in the work
of common government; to blend togeth-
er races " hich, even when they are mixed
for a nome Mt, start back from each other
instinctively, and remain separate to mix
these elements harmonioasly in the great
and difficult work of public government,
while in none of the everyday duties of
life can they be made to mix. If the blacks
instead of being here, were in their native
Africa or in Hayti, and had all the intelli-
gence of our negroes, and it were proposed
to import into any Northern State as many
negroes as were equal to its white popula-
ton, with the condition that the negroes
should share, man for man, in the COM
mon government-sucha proposition would
excite universal horror. It would be look
cd upon as the widest absurdity to attempt