The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-04-18
[FroIn the Greensboro Herald. /
Address Of the white People OF
Greene County, Georgia, TO the
COlOred PeODIe of the same County.

y
We white people wish to say few
things to you black people who were
our former slaves. We wish 10 say
that we are still your friends We
do not wish to injure you On the
contrary, we are anxious to see YOU
prosperous and happy. 1t IS to our
interest to be friendly with You. for
we expect to live with you always. 1t
is also to your interest to be friendly
with US, for the same reason. You
will always live with US. You cannot
get away from US, and we cannot get
away from you. We form but one
community. We are like one family.
Now you know house divided against
itself cannot stand. The Bible teaches
US this. So ii we wish to live in
peace we must be friends. This IS
what we desire.
= We wish now to caution You against
a great danger. Strangers from the
North have come among Us, and have
endeavoTed to get you all together
into a black man 5 party. Without
saying whether their motives are good
or bad, we wish to say to you, that If
you allow yourself to be formed into
black mans, you will force US to
form ourselves into a white mans,
party, so right at the beginning you
see our house is divided against itself.
Do you not see that if the black man
is opposed to the white man, it fol
lows from this that the white man is
opposed to the black man? So we
shall be opposed to each other. Now
no good can come from this. It will
bring nothing but harm to white and
black, but the greatest harm will be
to you. These Northern adventures
who come out here pretend that they
are your friends. Perhaps some of
them are, but they deceive you
when they tell you that the North
ern people are going to do
anything for you except so far as
they can use you as tools for their
own purposes. If the Northern peO-
pie love the blacks so much, why
don't they do something for them at
home. Don't you know that only a
few months ago it was proposed in
Ohio to let the negroes vote! The
white people there voted it down by
forty or fifty thousand majority. Why
did they do it? 1t was because they
hated the black people. There are
comparatively few black people In
Ohio, and it would make no differ
ence whether they vote or not. There
is no reason why the black people In
Ohio should not vote except that the I
white people there hate them. So if .
those people want YOU to vote, 1t IS /
not because they love. you; 1t Is only .
because they think they can make
out Of you. You had bet .
ter have nothing to do with these
adventures. The advice they .
give you is bad advice.
Now listen to another thing Less
than a week ago, It was proposed In
the Senate of Pennsylvania to let the
black people vote. The members of
that Senate are nearly all Republicans
the very men that are pretending
to be your friends. Well what did
hey do? Why, almost the whole of
hem refused to give the black man
my showing. That shows how
friendly they are That shows the
,loven foot. You had better let
hem alone Do you know why they
want you TO vote? 1t is not because
hey love you. You see that By the
way they act at home. 1t is not
because they think you are quail
led to vote; because they know
-ou are not qualified, and you know
ourselves that you are not qualified
o vote. and do not know what YOU /
re voting for. You hardly know I
that voting means. Why then do t
hey want you to vote? IL 5 only &
eeause they think they can control I
our votes so as to keep themselves J
q Office in order that they may steal.
10 you know that they have been
5ealiDg you money already? They /,
ole two cents and q half ON every 4