New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-03-18
WHO IL THE NEGRO LOvER7

craftsmanship of the Committee on Foreign
Affairs is but poetical justice, since it was
accomplished by the very party which he
was largely instrumental in founding by
wedding. himself to the negro over the
white man. And this suggestion will go
abroad and extend itself as any other
1allacy would be sure to spread, feeding
prejudice with the belief that its vengeance
has been accomplished.
In the first place, the negro influence
did not displace Mr.. Sumner. In the
second place, Mr.. Sumner never welded
himself to the negro nor to any other
class, but simply allied himself to human
ity. And this Old cry against men that
they were negro lovers was falsehood,
and this new CRY that the negroes have
been ,norateiul to their first friends is
another. As Republican, Mr.. Sumner
merely assumed that slavery was wrong
Now that there is no slavery, MIR. Sumner
denies that the freedmen shall still remain
in bondage by following him through
sense of gratitude. If they are what he
intended they should be. their Judgment
is now as free as their limbs, and there
can be no voting wrong upon political
question because of gratitude to their
deiverer. This would simply be to
change the slavery from one of law to one
of gratitude But since the negroes had
nothing to do with Mr.. Summers dis
placement, all this eioquence about poet
ical justice is failure.
Still there is one point tAat needs
clearing up i'll tnis connection. and that
is the vulgar expression which the ST.
Louis paper uses, that Mr.. Sumner was
and is ':nigger lover" This is slang
term, and comes up from the crowd, lie
versing the usual flow of intelligence. 1t
was originally borrowed from the mob by
demagogues, and at last found its way as
useful lever into the lexicon of the
highest leaders of the democracy When
a man was found to be too honest, brave
and intelligent to be beaten down by the
random eloquence of the leaders, he was
straightway denounced as ''nisger
lover" and this vulgarism effected his
overthrow against all his good sense and
patriotism. Men who attempted to stem
the flow of the rebellion by prayer and
argument were called "nigger lovers"
and their lives We're thenceforth in
danger if they stood for what they
thought The crowd did not stop to in
quire what the ''hue and cry" meant, but
they pursued the victim violently and
wickedly.
Is Mr.. Sumner a negro lover: He has
advocated their freedom and maintained
their rights Does this make him a negro
lover? He has declared that Ireland was
oppressed. and that England should relax
her despotism after centuries of wrong.
This makes him an Irish lover, then.
He has opposed Bonaparte and the Pope
for their evil doings in France and Italy.
He is. therefore, French and Italian
lover, is he Wherever the lash or the
blade has been raised over tue human
form by virtue of any law or custom, Mr..
Sumner has opposed it. He is the lover
of man. then And here in the United
States he found race that was enslaved.
and he declared against the wrong as he had
done before in other instances. More than
that he declared that this slavery of one
man in America was the debasement and
ruin of the free man, SO that his advocacy
of freedom to the negro was actually based
on his love for the white man. 1t is plain
that slavery is a wrong against freedom.
4 men admit that labor is degraded that
is not free: but there are some men who
say that the negro is better OF in slavery.
This argument leads to the conclusion
that We may outrage a principle for the
sake of the individual. Even the Rev.
Mr.. Palmer's great argument goes to no
greater extent than this, that the happ est
COuulIlOu Va tut uCtSIO ID III OoI.AtSC. liz
does not venture beyond, and declare the
elevation of that system where labor is
,enslaved. But he joins with those who
denounce as negro lovers the men who de-
FEM free labor.
And it is a pertinent question to ask,
who is the ''nigger lover" the man who
enslaves the African, under the philan-
thropic plea that that is his best condi-
ton. even if he has to degrade labor to
do it; or the man who declares that free
labor is the highest blessing for any
people, and sets it up in the land, whether
il suits the status of the negro or not? 1t
is evident to US that the real "nigger
lover" is the one who enslaves the negro
because it is for his good to be slave.
There can be no higher evidence Of love
than this, however much we may all
shrink from It's influence.
DRAINAGE.
The Times says the REPUBLICAN objects