Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-04-09
Oscar Africanus-The Everlasting Negro
on Tour.

on Tour.
From the New Orleans Crescent
Mr.. Oscar j. Dunn, who acquired
about year ago, by the grace of fraud
and the potency Of the bayonet, the ficti-
tious title of Lieutenant Governor oi
Louisiana, cannot shake his Angola locks
at New Orleans or Louisiana, and say
that they did it, or that they are in any
way culpably complicated with it. We
refer to the distinguished but not compli.
mentary manner in which he was re-
ceived when he made his transit through
Louisville in the course of tour, under
taken, it is supposed, for the purpose OF
ascertaining by the test of personal ex-
perience the opinions and feelings of the
people in the West and East on the ques-
ton of social equality regardless of race
or color. Having tried the experiment
on the inside of an omnibus, public opin-
ion soon disclosed the result in the shape
of his summary extrusion. Then he ad'
dressed the same practical inquiry to the
promiscuous white trash of railroad
ferry boat, and he obtained in short order
an answer of a precisely identical pur-
port, namely: that on at least one of the
highways in the West. the white travel
ing public insist on drawing an impassa-
BILE line of social separation between peo-
pie of his race and color and themselves.
Aud, depend upon it, the senti.
ment prevailing on this thoreughfare
is not exceptional. 1t exists in
all parts of the West, and in all parts Of
the East, as general fact which is only
projected into bolder relief by few ex-
ceptions, more simulated for the most
part thar real. Indeed, Mr.. Dunn will
find before he finishes his tour, that in
the South the manifestations of the in
stinct Of caste with respect to the negro
are mild, gentle and gracious, compared
to what they are in the North. The
scant consideration which he may meet
there will be due to the strained courtesy
of few politicians, or to the morbid
sympathy Of few fanatics. 1t will be
accorded because he wears the title of
the second officer of Southern State,
and in this way symbolizes the political
abasement of the Southern white man
and the political apotheosis of the South
ern negro. Bat in the South, it is in
spite of this fact, which is precisely cal
culated to embitter the white popula-
tions, that as a general thing they are
hab;tually courteous in their demeanor,
and kind and considerate in their acts to-
ward the negro. The contrast is rreplete
with profitable instruction, and Mr..
Dunn and his colored psrtisans cannot
ponder too deeply if they hope either to
understand it or to solve the social prob
lem which nov perplexes them.
Nor should this titular dignitary i'm
agiue that Louisiana is dishonored by the
social snubbing inflicted upon him in his
peregrinations abroad. The genuine
voice Of the State has never made him its
representative. He represents system
which is founded upon a lying assump-
tiou-a system which aims to establish
q political domination in q self-evident
and revolving uachronism-a system for
which nobody is responsible outside of
the unscrupulous faction which has de-
vised it and the weak or the wicked tools
who have accepted the detestible and
mischievous mission of putting it in prac-
tice. These are the people who are re-
sponsibie for the absurd and unseemiy
spectacle of O soi-disant lieutenant gov.
ernor. who cannot travel in any part Of
the country and claim social equality,
upon his personal merits only, without
subiectipg himself to hunilisting rebufts
that are as remediless AS they are gross.
Laying aside the question Of abstract
right and fitness, it is clear that their
system is condemned by the imperions
facts of the situation; and under this
it is bound to result in
trouble and confusion. Neither
statesmanship nor intelligent patriotism
would ever ignore such facts, either for
the sake of illustrating an uncongenial
and impracticable abstraction, or for the
sake of maintaining in bad eseendency
corrupt, tyrannicsl and desperate faction.