New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-07-11
From the Philadelphia PressJ
Liberal" Arguments 10 the Cot.
Ored Voters. -saas I.


"Laberni' Arguments 10 the Cot
Ored Voters. -lss s.
Next to the fact that colored men hav,
been endowed with that right of suffrage
and the endowment made irrevocable, tina
which most distresses the Democratic hear
is the obstinate unanimity with which the,
persist in voting with the Republican party
Especially do the Southern Democrats, tn,
ex-rebels, deplore and denounce the tenact,
with which the freedmen cling to the party
which made them free, and deprecate tht
very natural instinct which leads them tt
dlstrust all the overtures and wooings of theil
old-time enemies and oppressors.
The Louisville Comier.Jowaal few DAYS
since delivered column lecture to the col
ored voters, telling them how they must vote
why they must vote so, and of the dreadful
penalties which are sure to follow adherence
to their present outrageous practice of voting
solidly for the party which has given the
strongest proofs Of friendship for them. In
this article advice, exhortation, entreaty, ex.
postulatiOn, warning, and intimidation are
curiously and amusingly blended. This is the
way it began
We are afraid the colored people fthe South.
ern States do not appreciate the critical stua-
tion in which they are placed. They are in
very great danger. They were admitted to
the right of suffrage as a party measure and
1t was not only contrary to the wishes OF
most of the Southern whites, but very many
of their most energetic and consistent friends
at the North doubted whether, in their ig-
norance, so great trust should be confided
to them. Their docility was remembered,
however, and those who took the strongest
interest in their welfare expected that they
would be guided by the counsels of disinter-
ested advisers, and that though, in their ig-
noranee, they might make many mistakes,
none of them would be vital.
This reads like mild, paternal advice, but
is really a threat, as appears further on. I'm
less they shall consent to be guided by the
couns0ls of their disnterested advisers, that
is, OF the Democratic leaders who need their
votes, the blacks incur some Every great dam
ger" What is this danger? Is it Ku-Klux-
ism? No other explanation is consistent
with the tenor of the article.
Let us see If any other meaning can be
made out Of it. There follow some of the
stereotyped denuneiations of carpet-baggers
and scallawags, which terms, as used by
Southern Democrats, mean merely white Re-
publicans-the former name being applied to
those who have emigrated to the South from
other States, and the latter to those born in
that section.
A blatant Democrat who moves to the
South and continues there to "damn the
is not considered carpet-bagger.
BY no means. He is taken Immediately to
the bosoms of the unreconstructed, and made
to feel that he is one of them. The writer
then proceeds to show that the colored men
are banding together and pledging them
selves to the united support of the Republi-
can party. lone Rapier," he says, +" an
Alabama negro, and one of the most in
telligent leaders of his race in the South,
remarked recently to newspaper cores
pendent that the colored people would not
support any man, no matter who, that the
Democrats support adding, they see the
Democrats supporting Greeley, and that is
all they want to know Indications of the
same sort are OF frequent occurrence"
Now, there seems to be nothing very rep
in all this-nothing warranting
the menace Of a every great danger" The
white Democrats of the same section are
equally stubborn in their partisan prejudces.
They would refuse to vote for the angel
Gabriel if he were nominated by the Re-
pubicans. Mcssrs. cx-Slaveholders, please
to remember that you no longer own the
colored people, and have no further claims
upon them, nor any right to control them.
If you concede at last that they are men and
properly entranchised, why not accord to
them cheerfully the same privilege which
you exercise, and let them vote as they like
But this disinterested adviser" further
explains that the crime of the colored men
consists not so much in their preference for
the Republican party as the solid unanimity
with which they vote ON that side. If they
would only dissolve what he calls "their
oath-bound associations and "support
Grant or Greeley as their common sense and
such information as they are in possession
of may dictate" he would find no fault. 1t
is their determination to array themselves
en- masse against Greeley" which exasperates
him, and which, If persisted in, is to bring
upon them the "yery great danger"
Really this is most puerile argument, or
would be, If addressed to the reason instead
of to the fears Of the coiorcd men. If this
long-suffering and greatly-persecuted people
have learned by bitter experience to trust
the Republican and distrust the Democratic
organization, whose fault is it? And if con-
WINGED, as they seem to be so thoroughly,
that the one is the friend and the other the
enemy Of their race, have they not the most
powerful of motives for voting together en-
masse on the right side? Under these cir
cumstances, would it not be evidence Of utter
imbecility instead of dOcility for any of them
to struggle away from their brethren to the
support of the Democracy, which threaten
even while they coax them? But here we
have clearer statement Of the threats above
alluded to-: = .,'"Fr'of.' ,a 47's
Should the colorsd voters OF the Southern
States array themselves en- masse against
Greeley, who has always been their friend,
and for Grant, who has no claim whatever
upon their gratitude, no interpreter will be
needed to explain the meaning Of their con-
duct. If the negroes really mean TO bring
about conflict ofraces, the course they now
seem to be taking is, of all others, the one to
accomplish their purpose. They ought not
to enter lightly into such a contest, however.
They should take into account that the eau
casian race is generally the superior in all the
elements of strength and power to the Afri-
can in the United States.
This "conhict of races" has always proved
at the Sonth wholly one-sided war In
many OF the States, as the Carolinas, for in
stance, it has been wont to come on every
year some time before election, and has been
wagcd by armed white rlfians against I'M
armed and unoffending blacks. They may
call it a war of races down there. Up here
it is better known as Ku-Kluxism. ,...
Can anything equal the audacity of a paper
claiming to be LIBERAL" which, feeling the
weakness of its argument to the colorcd
voters, thus appeals to theiFfears, threaten
ing them with a renewal of Ku-Klux atroci-
ties unless they abandon their principles and
their party? This is literally " Liberalism
with n yenpeance - ..--. ~.