The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1872-05-23
NAV Sd, 1872.
I'he Negro Vote.

Benton, Tenn.
May Sd, 1872.
l'he Negro Vote.
4 Northern contemporary, famous for
the amount of hlather it dispenses in
calculating the chances OF General Grant
tor re- election counts confidently upon
'seyau hundred Thousand colored votes
III The United States" We can hardly
see how the very act ofwrjing this down
could fail to suggest to the writer that
this negro vote was q point Of weakness
IN Grants prospects. When We rerem-
Der that the authority Of ,ho admlnistra-
tion and hewhoie power Of the Govern
ment have been seven years cmployedin
tie work Of securing tins negro vote to
tie neglect Of nearly every thing else,
how can we suppose it impossible that
the great white public, which numbers
millions to the negroes hundreds Of
thousand, could fail to be in y great do
gree alicnated from Grants Gdmiuistra
ton?
In the country, where the negroes are
most humorous, the inevitable cJnsc-
QIonce has been the banding together
OF the whites against the negroes and the
party sustaining them. No matter how
the banding of the negroes was hostility
unmistnhablo. Naturallyaud inevitably
there would be coUnteractl0n. But in
the case Of the enlistins Of the whole
negro population against Southern
whites, there was q cruel interference OF
the National Government, in the at
tempt to exaIt the negroes to conditions
entirely above their capacities, and TO
humlliqtc the white race down to It level
below the negro, Whata cringing, low
bred, and craven race would be the
whites who failed 10 staad as one man,
and resist with the means lawfully in
their power the adverse force which,
under such agencies IS the administra-
ton brought to bear, threatened the
hopeless degradation of the public char.
nctcr and the ruin Of the physical pros,
| perlty Of the land.
Is is true that tho Northern people
have been in 4 great degree separated
from tie Southern by the Goyornmen,
/ policy Of distrust and persecution Of thc
Southern people Nevertheless, it is i'm.
! possible to destroy all commerce anC
sympathy between them. There art
abundant channels of intercourse tha
have never ceased to he available in re
minding the Northern people Of tn,
proper relations that should exist be
tween all the States and between then
and the Federal Government. The nd
ministrations through these gently IN,
in still small voice, bat the have nov
ertheioss been persistent and pertina
cious They have stimulated the "sobc
second thought and the North has bee
for some time learning that equalit
{ amongst tho States is in liapon5tblo t.
the preservation OF their righis-tl
rights Of Northern States MS well :
Southern; and that the power that d,
stroys the localauthoyityo ono may d.
} stroy tie authority Of any otheror OF a
! But there is sentiment that las col
yeyed through these channels of int
), course that is even more important
present issues; it is the sentiment
sympathy with race---a sentiment
once III tlral and irresistible. The Go
+ eminent Investigations with the view
conyicting the Southern people and ca
& ing down the indignation Of the Nor
upon them have, on the contrary, ,broug
to the knowledge OF the Northern pc
pie the cruelties and frauds pructicsd
the Government itself through its agol
in the South. And people who had d
credited information through 9th
means were compelled to yield 10 t
, truth Of official documents. These, wi
the statements Of the hundreds OF hon,
. Northern travellers who have paint
=, pictures OF Southern suferings and m
government, have excited feelings
:. sympathy with Southern people, al
horror Of the impoicy Of the Cover
ment, which nothing that the Sou
: could say could have elected
!. Truth cannot be suppressed in a cot
st Try like this, nor can human nature
p stifed. Sympathy of race will have
n effect; sell. preservation must prou
le men to disapprove OF expressions Ct tn
n own Government, which may in turn
brought to bear upon them. Aud 81
y will be found to the credit oi the Nor
H. ern people that Grants policy to secl
a the negro vote for himself has heer
,r fatal mistake. 1t has been impolitic a
injurious TO the country, andis and '
be still more revolving TO the civil;
Ist and humane sentiments Of this II
'ir Union. Richmond Dispatch.