Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1869-05-27

10 slriho ploW aSalust haulcaIlsH ahu
Tyranny, whenever the opportunity offers.
Northern Views OF the Issue in Vir-
ginia.
The New York Journal of Commerce
defines correctly the political situation in.
Virginia when it says, desiring to be un-
derstood literally, that the only issue in
State is not whether the negroes shall
vote, nor whether the negro shall hold
office-both those points having been long
ago conceded by the conservatives of Vir-
giuia, and belonging to the political rub
Dish of the past-but whether those men
whose misfortune it is to have been born
white may be permitted to take part in
the government on a par with the blacks.
This is confirmed by mass of Virginia
newspaper articles and speeches by con-
sentative candidates fox Office, which de-
clare in the most earnest language their
kindly feelings for the blacks, their full
recognition of the right Of colored suffrage,
their intense anxiety to avert war of ra-
ces. their longing to co-operate-not
against the blacks but with them in re-
stirring lost prosperity to the State and
happiness to her people. The force of
language could not go further than some
of the speakers do. At a conservative
campaign meeting in Norfolk the other
night, a Mr.. Lyon said that the question
was-s'not whether the colored pc ople
should enjoy the same power, the same
rights and privileges with the whites, but
whether the aohite people should be placed
on the sanee footing aoith the blacks. y
Colonel Walker, the candidate for Gov
ernor, said she did not consider the ques-
ton of the civil and political rights of
the two races in this contest. That was
settled beyond controversy, and he would
not discuss it. The colored man has the
same right to cote that he (the speaker
has But there is one other question at
issue in this canvass of commanding in
terest, and overshadowing everything else
in Importance is the right Of tie
white man to cote" Mr.. Cox, of Chester
field county, said let US talk no more
ssssout the political privileges and rights of
the people-that is fixed fact The
colored man can 60 to the polls and vote.
NV servant can vote and hold office while
| cannot" Colonel Boiling said: eve
are now considering how to unite and IN
manacle the hands Of white men, that
they stand equally with blacks. Colored
suffrage is fixed, and ace 'vonld maintain
1t umder the Llo." Such is the tone OF
speeches and editorials without end in
Virginia Even the New York Tribune
makes forcible appeal to the radical
(Wells) organization to throw proscrip
ton overheard frankly and forever. 1t
gives its resons as follows:
IF they do not, they practically re-
solve that the canvass before them is to be
one of intense rancor and bitterness and
they subject the blacks to a counter pro-
scription most damaging to them and in
inical to the general well-being. Of the
blacks, We presume two-thirds live on the
lands Of and are employed by, Of in some
manner dependent on, those whom these
proscriptive clauses would exclude from
important public trusts 70 vote to
ratily these clauses is to proclaim a social
war between the mansion and cottage. 1t
is to provoke what will, in fully half the
State, be practically an antagonism Of ra-
ces. The blacks are already much the
weaker race-inferior in numbers, in pro-
perty, in social position, in education, and
i'll familiarity with public affairs. 1t is
inevitable that this disparity should be ag-
gravated by the deluge Of white immigra-
ton just beginning to pour into the State
from both Europe and the North. If
the blacks are to-day four tenths Of the
population, it is morally certain that they
will be less than fourth in 1870, and
hardly fifth in 1890. We all know
that bloody instructions return 20 plague
the inventor and that prescription of
whites by blacks will surely be avenged
four-told in the not distant future. Poll
cy, nay, safety, concurring with sound
republican principle in debating that tie
blacks themselves so recently emancipated,
should decline to impose disabilities upon
others, We urge that the republican lead
ers should promptly and fully relieve them
from the imputation of even wishing to do
SO, by publicly throwing overheard the
clauses excepted by the Presidents proc
lamation."
1t would be well if these appeals could
reach the class no are most likely to be
The chief sufferers in tbs end from the es-
tablis hment of temporary black suprem-
acy at the. sacrifice Of white equality =
But their interested white patrons, who
seek to keep political control of the State
at the expense of the now DISTINGUISHED
class, will neither spare money nor ma
chinations to blind them to their tue in.
terests. The happiness. prosperity, per-
haps the very exlstencs of the two races.
and the future prosperity and progress of
the State are all involved in the result.
Baltimore SIN. g
-@ 81
The JEFF. and Joe Davis plantation,