The Portland daily press., 1870-10-12
THE PR ESS.
Wednesday, Morning, October IL, 1910.


The COlored MAN ms a POlnich""'
Our Maine readers will regret to learn lnaI
Hon. A. E. Buck ofthe first Alabama Mopilej
district has failed to secure renomlnatlon LOT
Congress. colored man having been selected
to succeed him. Col. Buck is a gentleman OF
unusual courage, energy, ability and patriot
ism, as the people of this, his native State,
well know. I'VE understand that he has made
a favorable impression ON his associates dur
ing the short time he has been in Washington,
and that he bids fair to become an active and |
influential member. He is decidedly favor |
able specimen of that not very popular or re- |
liable class of Congressman known as Scar
pet-baggers"-so different from the White |
mores and Buffers 1.-THE Tennessee Butler, we |
mean, not the Lowell Gloucester celebrity |
who infest the House, that be is not to be
reckoned as belonging to the same genus.
So far as Col Buck is concerned, there is Oc-
casion for sincere regret that he is to be sup
planted by another man, white or black. But
it is not very unpleasant thing to find that
the "nigger"-the being that short time
ago was represented as partially rational
baboon, with chronic tendency to relapse in
to cannibalism and the grosest and most cruel
idolatry as soon as left to follow his own de-
vices-is not unacquainted with the value OF
political rights or Indifferent to the allure
ments of public employment. How often we
were formerly told that enfranchisement Of
the blacks would degrade the right of suffrage
by adding to the body polite an immense
number of brutally ignorant and mercenary
voters who would be absolutely controlled by
willy white poiiticians-that they would be
driven to the polls in focks by their former
masters or by Northern Adventures. This
conjecture proves notably unsound. The COL
ored men seem entirely capable Of appreciat-
ing the balance Of power. and they are by no
means slow to take advantage of it. In South
Carolina the Republicans have nominated
none but blacks for Congress. As the colored
people constitute a majority of the people of
the State it is probable that all the Republi-
can nominees will be elected, so that South
Carolina, which began the last decade by de-
nying to the negro position as member of
the human family, will singularly begin the
present decade by sending none but negro
Representatives to Washington.
We are not so fanatical as not to rejoice ID
the entire exclusion of Southern whites from
Congress- But people suddenly emerging in
to a period of security and power, after long
years of oppression, are very likely at first to
be clannish, and to enjoy the prescription of
their former oppressors. This seems Ito some
extent the spirit Of a portion of the Southern
freedmen. Time and the gradual perception
of Identity of interest founded on a thou
sand things besides race, will soon Danish
this illiberal spirit which so grotesquey paro-
dies the caste feeling that was lately rampant
among the South Carolina chivaIry. Mean.
while the active, intelligent, and even the sell
fish interest in politics evinced by the late
bondmen, is so much better than the apathy
and helplessness into which it was feared they
would fall, that they may be forgiven for
many lapses from generosity and fair play.
They have now made it certain that they are
capable ofbecoming intelligent and useful citi
zens. If so make no worse use of their new
power than to send honest and able men of
their own race, like Senator Ruby of Texas,
tor instance, to Congress, they will deserve to
be commended for the prudence with which
they make use of Their political rights. II
they had proved as stupid and manageable as
many people supposed they would, their grad
ual incorporation into the ranks of the De.
mocracy would have been inevitable, since
That party has almost a monopoly of the un-
thinking voters of the country. But now
when they have shown themselves to he ca
pable of acting independently even of their
friends,their is no danger of their falling prey
to their enemies.