New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-12-02
TWO POLITICAL REMEDIES,

TWO POLITICAL REMEDIES.
A faction in this State demands, as the
principal exigency of the times, white
mans party. Another faction in Ken
lucky acting in concert with the Louisiana
philosophers, demands that the negroes
shall be seized upon and made good citi-
zens by compulsory education in books
and machinery. These two political sug-
gestious originate in the same desire,
which is to dispose Of a population, con-
sidered at present insuf6ciently educated
to WELD the right to suffrage. Louisiana
simply proposes to give the government
of the country into the hands of one race
| by force Of the ballot box. That is, the
whites are to combine and outvote the
negroes. In Kentucky, the idea is to
make the negro better man by forcing
an education and trade upon him. He
is to be forcibly subjected to an appren-
ticeship Of sufficient time to learn his
grammar and his surveying rod, and is
to graduate as scholar and an artisan at
| the same time.
These are the newest political sugges-
tons which have been let loose upon us
by men who pretend to understand how
the country is to be saved. If the whites
will only combine into solid political
bedy the negro question will be settled.
That is the Louisiana lotion. IF we edu
cate and train the negroes they will be-
come useful members of society That
is the Kentucky application. If we &C.
eept the white mans party, Louisville
will declare that we do not understand the
necessities of the situation. If we con-
cur with the forcible education party,
Louisiana will at once proclaim our adhe-
sion to the social equality party. Per-
haps, therefore, it would be better to fight
both parties. Our independent attitude
may offer temptation to each that in time
its arguments and persuasions may over
come us.
The difficulty about the white mans
party is that it can never be realized, SIM
ply because there never will come time
when the people of this country will con-
sent to declare that they have no other
politics but the color of mans skin.
There are thousands of people, We know,
who have no better sense than to suppose
that such party can and ought to be
formed, and that it ought to be success
full because the white men are in the ma
jority. These men forget that there>are
such questions as the tariff, revenue re-
form, land distribution, monopolies, and
war and peace, about which other men
will differ. They forget that thousands
of white men appreciate the freedom of
the negro as political blessing, and that
these men can never engage with any
party which proposes to exclude a man
from Office or from the ballot-box because
of his color. Such men forget that the
very proposition which they advocate is
the one that was beaten at the last cleo
ton, and that it is the identical proposition
which bad men use to, beat good men
with. We may thus set it down that since
all the colored people, and large de-
tachment of white people, will refuse to
join the white mans party, that that
scheme is improbable to discuss. A few
madmen may be willing to array them
selves in such desperate party, but they
are not entitled, by their numbers or their
intelligence, to be considered by us.
The Kentucky. project of Selling upon
the negro and forcing trade and an edu-
cation upon him is equally impracticable,
because it disposes of class without con-
sulting them, and it operates to the dis
advantage of the white people. The ne
gro in Kentucky is political power, and
he intends to be left to the idleness and
degradation of the corner grocery on the
same scale of freedom that the white man
is. This is to be deplored, but it must be
tolerated, for the constitution Of the United
States declares that the laws of the land
must respect the black loafer with the
same impartiality that it does the white
one. Kentucky must educate and train
all her people alike, or she must train
none. This is the spirit of the middle of
the nineteenth century. Color has nothing
to do with vagrancy. 1t has been abol-
ished as badge of partisanship. Lazi-
ness is as Objectionable in white
man as it is in negro; the tariff falls as
heavily upon the pound of coffee con-
sumed in the cabin of the one as in that
of the other; free farms are as necessary
to the one as to the other; eight hours is
as just to Sambo as to Smith Williamson,
so that when the ballot-box comes around
for our votes the employe, whether white
or black, will vote for short hours: and
the employer, whether white OF black,
will vote for long hours. The farmer
will oppose the tariff, whatever his color,
and the manufacturer will demand pro-
lection, no matter if he is white or black.
These questions affect us according to
our situations, and not according to our
colors, and in the cooler moments of the
hereafter, when we have buried the agita-
tors, we shall have forgot that there are
races in the State while we are fighting
and contesting for principles.
If Louisiana and Kentucky could fra
ternize in one thing, the result would GER
tainly be of immense benefit to her in this
connection. If the white mans party of
Louisiana would seize upon and forcibly