The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1869-05-28
The Negro Convention.

The Negro Convention.
Our readers will know perhaps that
i'll the ncighboring State Of Kentucky
the negro has not yet been admitted to
the civil franchise which he enjoys in
Tennessee. Kentucky is largely Dem
ocratic, and the party seems to be di-
vided on the subject. That able paper,
the Louisville Courier-Journal, tavors
the'propo;ition to confer upon him the
privilege of the ballot and jury-box.-
The following article is from that jour-
nal, and we think contains as much good
sense as could well be embodied in the
same space:
The negro question is almost univer-
sally misunderstood. The ncgro--be-
ing now q creature in transitional
thing in an embryo state-neither fish.
flesh, nor towl-will ultimately become
a citizen. II voter and an equal with the
white man: or being by nature unsuitcd
to this social and political consanguini-
ty-hc Will relapse into barbarism or
remove to a separate and distinct ex-
lstence Of his own, or. under new con-
ditions of life and government return
to voluntary servitude. If he is fit to
be a citizen, he ought to be voter: if
he Is voter, he cannot be barred from
holding office; and. if he is admitted
to political equality. social equality
must ensuc and will cnsue provided he
is able to hold his own long enough.
These possibilities will adjust them
| splVpg IF thn aIynrotpp ~ Of
ity are correct in their estimate of his
capabilities, he will make his way in
spite OF them and us. II they are
wrong-as we think they are-he will
go just as far as political artitce will
carry him, and then-being in himself
unable to maintain the place which vi
olence has secured for him--he will fall
of his own weight, and the velocity
and depth Of his descent will be in pro-
portion to the unnatural height of his
elevation.
We believe that miscegenaiion--soc social
or political-is not the interest Of either
race. The old system of slavery was
doubtless imperfect: but it had been
better had the system been reformed
than abolished. As it is. the destiny of
the negro must be vcXed with many
evils. We cannot give our consent to
his becoming citizen. We do not be-
licvc he can be made to work in the
traces with the white man. We should
prefer to try him first on his own ac-
count. If he could be lifted up and
carried off somewhere--if we could
! purchase Cuba for him and establish
him as sclf-governing Repubican-it
would be best. 1t would save us a
world Of trouble. 1t would save him a
world Of trouble. But so long as lie is
among us we should treat him Justly
Offering all reasonable resistance TO the
power which is seeking to use him in
order that it may crush us-conlident
that the great law of nature will solve
the problem the moment that il is di-
rcctly invoked.
So far the Radicals have not over
strained the temper of the North. They
have introduced the negro into our sys-
TEN only as an injection. When they
present him to the people Of the North
rs their portion of the medicine which
must be taken to cure national dis
ease, its effects will begin to tell. The
North has not felt the negro vet. 1t has
had him sugar-coated. When he be-
comes the agent and chief strength of
reputation, and when his peculiar
friends propose to place him in the as
cendant in the North as they have plac-
cd him at the South, the stomachs of
Northern men will sicken as the stom-
cchs of Southern men have sickened.
and we shall have him belched out of
the belly-polilic, we fear, most Violent
ly. Meanwhile, we may rest in peace
The current questions of the hour are
mere incidents. Citizenship, suffrage,
Office, are all but the stepping stones
that lead up to that high altar OF sacrifice
social equality.irom which the negro
will be cast if he be not demi-god
with power over the earth and air, and
all the senses of our human nature
The proposition to admit negroes to
testify in the courts has no relation to
these things. 1t is proposition in
which the white man has superior in
tercst to the black, but in which the
State has a greater interest than either.