Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-03-04
Communicated.
aEEQUAIITY.3

q
ter he has paid for first-class ticket
If you allow him seat in n concert ol
a lecture-room, for which he has pait
the common price. the negro is damned
by some people vehementlv for "impu.
dence," and you, for permitting it, are
cursed for advocating 'nigger equality.
| say by some peogle-yery peculiar peo,
pie, who imagine that, having white
skin, gives them a high caste, and who
mistake their prejudices for real superb
oIity. The truth seems to be that there
is in our nature strong feeling of dis,
tinction of race, even Independently O
color and that as an instinct, it accom-
plishcs all needful ends. But when that
feeling is cultivated, how soon it vic
lates equity and benevolence, and be
comes mean and oppressive! Any man
who has any generosity, any justice, OF
sufficient culture of mind and heart tc
value his own manhood, must feel that
to hate man on account of his color is
inhuman. No thoughtful man, whc
has observ ed the prejudice against our
African population, can fail to see that
most of its cruelty and ferocity is the
result of blind, unreasoning and un-
christian prejudice. We can easily re-
call the similar example of the jewish
people, who, at different times since the
Christian era, have in yariC US countries
been prescribed, banished, subject to
fines and confiscations, and in some in
stances to lawless spoliation, and to So
cial and religious preiudices; and that
only in very recent times has this bar
barous injustice been SO far overcome
as to secure for them in a few enlight-
ened countries, protection, liberation
and civil and political rights. 1t was
surely most impolitic-a line of treat
ment unfit to be employed towards the
most implacable public enemies. But
in case of the Jew, there was in less re-
fined times some show of reason for
that inveterate prejudice; superstition
everywhere that his faith
Z
Jew was not to be forgiven for being
sharp and successful in business, and
because that no amount of abuse and
cursing and blows could keep him poor.
he became rich, every
where envied, and therefore game for
robbers and oppressors. But how diff
ferent the case of the negroes? Weak,
and docile-affectionat to-
wards each other, warmly devoted to
the soil, religious and patriotic, dispo-
sed to learn, to work, and improve when
ancouraged-so that even their very
worst vices are dangerous only to them
selves. They show themselves every
lay capable of bearing patiently inju-
ries which would arouse white men to
desperate resistance. Yet when you
say kind word for these poor people,
plead for the fair-play, the justice, and
-he rights to which they are entitled,
how you are abused! You are said to
be a = white nigger," a ''ni@ger-lover,'
md worse than all, lin favor of nigger
equality"
We have lately had a revival of this
;olorphobia. The evangelists of this
gospel have had their right
eous souls veXed and their zeal infamed
by the proposed amendment to the
of the United States, con-
'erring universal suffrage on all men,
II all the States, without distinction of
% groan afresh. and 'prophesy" most
bitterly, ''Oh, see what these awful rad
Gals are doingn' Tearing down with
and sacrilegious hands this
white mans governmentr "Good
Lord deliver us !''-"they are going to
make the negro our equal!" This mat
er of negro equality is ever the bur-
len of their mourning, and the chorus
If their song. From the Senator down
o the eloquent orators of the whisky
aloon, with one accord, but divers vol
,es and in divers keys, some loud, some
lngry, some defiant, some strong and
,dorous, some spasmodic, like one who
peaketh from the belly when he hath
he collie. all cry out, "Oh! ah dreadful
-nigger equalityw Well, boys, ring
he changes on that chorus as long as
7ou can, for sensible people are not
dashed by it very much now a-days,
md before many years you shriekers
viii seem like dogs baying at the moon
having failed to scare any body nearer
It home.
If the negro is really inferior, he
leeds all the protection we can give
lin, and his very feebleness entities
lin to sympathy. f the right of suf-
rage belongs to manhood, it belongs
o him. If it is Fictitious, there is the
anne reason for creating the right for
lin as for ourselves. A man who can
hink at all, knows that this hue and
ry about negro equality is all o sham,
mean piece of hypocrisy and Of low
,ride, that often is almost confession
If an inferiority that strives to assert
N Importance to which a man is not
Does an equality of rights
make men equal? 1t does not make
hem equal physically the prize-fghter
md the feeble clerk on election day do
lot exchange constitutions. It does
lot make men equal intellectually-th
nan of superior knowledge, and the il
iterate man, who can't speak our lam
suage or read our laws, who as for
,igner never had before any share of
political power, vote together, but are
hey intellectually equal? Nor does
7oting create q moral equality among
men. The best men in a community
7ote side by side with the worst. Is a