The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-06-17
The Negro Election Riots in Washing
fOn.

THE negro suffrage experiment is be-
ginning to bring forth its natural fruits,
in scenes of riot and bloodshed. That
disturbances similar to those IN Washing
ton have not yet taken place throughout
the Southern States, is doubtless owing to
the fact that all the elections yet held in
those States under the egro-suftrage
reqime have been under the overawiDg
and repressive superintendent of the
Federal army. In the seven States which
ratified negro constitutions, the officers
were chosen at the same time that the
constitutions were voted On. and while the
States were still under martial law. Had
Washington been under martial law on
Monday, with an armed Federal force
present to preserve order and repress
outbreaks, the election riots would not
have occurred. The natural working OF
the negro suffrage experiment can be
Judged of only by its operation in places
where the terror of military authority
does not hold the negroes in check. The
District of Columbia is, as yet, the only
place to which this description will apply.
AS like causes, in like circumstances, pro-
duce like effects, we may expect similar
disorders throughout the Southern States
as soon as the eItCllOuS lISC
There is no pretense, in any quarter,
that the Washington election riots were
provoked by aggressions or insults offered
to the negroes by white men. There was
no attempt by white men to prevent any
negro from voting or to interfere, in any
way, with the freest exercise of the rights
conferred on the negroes by law. The
riots were begun by the negroes they
were the fruits of the domineering inso-
lence of black Radicals, who attempted to
murder other negroes. Until the distur-
Dances became dangerous and alarming,
white men did not appear on the scene (;
and then not to- participate in the riot, but
to subdue it by the lawful exercise of au-
thority as members of the police. White
men may have instigated these riots; but
if so, they did it as friends and fellow par
tisans of the negroes, setting them on in
the interest of the Republican party. The
object of the riot was 20 frighten and
coerce the whole negro population of the
CITY into voting the Radical ticket.
The system of terrorism and coercion
which has been begun in Washington will
probably be extended through the South
ern cities. The suffrage was conferred on
the negroes from sheer partisan mo-
tives; the object was not to pro-
tect them, but TO benefit the Republican
party. 1t was foreseen that without uni
versal negro suffrage every Southern State
would be almost unanimously Democratic,
and that as soon as the two political par
ties should become t0lerably equal in the
North, the power of the Republican party
would be extinguished forever 1t was
assumed by the Republicans that they
would always be able TO control the negro
vote and WELD IL as solid mass. II this
expectation should be disappointed if the
negro W tie should be divided and con-
siderable portion of it be given to
the Democrats, the Republicans would
lose all the expected fruits of their
conspiracy against the rights OF
the States. To prevent their con.
spiracy from recoilIng against its au-
thors, INSCRIPTIONS politicians, like For
ney, have set the negroes on to regard
every negro who does not vote the Re-
publican ticket as traitor to his race,
whom they may hang or shoot with as
little cOmpunc' ion as they would q mad
dog The Washington negroes have been
educated by their white Radical patrons
To tolerate no negro voting except on their
side; and the blOod-thirsty vengeance
with which they sought, on Monday, to
take the life of colOred men who intended
To vote the other ticket, shows what kind
of influences have been at work in mould
ing their feelings. The future ascendency
OF the Republican party Is staked on its
ability To keep the negro phalanx un-
broken; and when they can no longer
control it by the Freedmen's Bureau and
the army, their last desperate resource
consists in inspiring the boldest and most
INSCRIPTIONS of the negroes with feel
in OF bloody intolerance, W hich will make
It unsafe for any negro to act with the
Democratic party.
In Washington, which is the focus OF
Republican iDtrigues, where a Republican
Congress and Republican administration
are so overshadowing and powerful, they
have succeeded in imbuing a majority OF
the negroes with a spirit of brutal i0mi
neeriI z and murderOus intolerance which
thirsts for the blood of every black man
who refuses to vote in accordance with Re.
publican dictation. But ia the greater
part of the South, the Legroes will be less
exposed To Republican influence than they
are in Washington. II, even in Washing.
ton, they Can be kent in the Republican
traces only by threats of violence and st.
tempts on their lives, it is prc.s.s biz that
large numbers Of negroes an Democratic
neighbOrhOods will incline to act with the
Democratic party. In the cities and large
towns, where the Republicans can
get access TO them, the negroes will be in.
splred with the same diabolical feelings
which broke out in bloody riots at the
Federal capital but throughout the rural
portions of the Sou'a, black men will be
able to vote as they please without ex
posing themselves to instant death at the
hands of Infatuated Radical negroes and
large numbers of them will be found act
ing with the Democratic party. After the
Republicans have conferred universe
suffrage on the negroes for partisan OBJ
ject, Democrats will vindicate their righ'
TO use the elective franchise in the spiri
of freemen, in defiance of the dictation O
negro mobs, instigated and set on by
reckless Radical politicans-New Yor)
World.
GOin2 Back ON their Friends