Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1872-05-16

SldIAg lllC SuDlJOcE'
strength of Horace Greeley among tn
Southern colored citizens, will com
, mand attention. Mr.. Clark is clos
observer, a man of liberal tendencies
and has recently travelled extensivei.
in the South. 1t is his judgment tina
, the eolored vote in the South will, un
derall circumstances, be pretty neafl,
! a unit fer the Philadelphia nominee.
Can Greeley. Get a Large Share o
the COlOred Vote in the SOuth2
. To the Editor of the Commercial. -
, If the Greeley party are building an,
hopes on the oft repeated assertion tina
the colored people of the South will vot,
for their candidate, they are surely
doomed to disappointment. That som,
coloredy men viii be found on their sid.
4 is perhaps true. Some colored mef
have been found to vote the straight
Democratic ticket, but the number il
4 small and not likely to increase
The fact that the Republican. party i.
the instrument which has freed and en-
franchised him, which guards him il
the exercise of his rights as freeman
which promises him great future good
4 Is knOWa and well knewnte tl4edullesi
black man in the South, and if he can
get a chance to approach the ballot-bO1
unintimidated, :, le will vote for the can.
didate of that party. "a n
| 1t isspossible that, at first, many d
| the colored voters wera disposed to take
a liberal view of politics, and togo with
their neighbors and former masters
against the earpet-baggers; but the uni.
f0rmity of the results when sO-called
Conservatism has triumphed, has pretty
effectually cured them of that tendency.
i The treatment of the colored people Ol
1 Tennessee, ,Alabama, Georgia and North
! Carolina by theC Conservatives is enough.
they will avoid all such parties how
ever favorably they may be labeled OF
headed. The Repub bIican party is their
ark of safety; and to it they will cling
until t..ey deem all danger past. They
lknownOthing about tariffs and ques-
tons of eiyilservice reform, and if they
did. they would regard them as subtle
devices of the enemy to div. de the Re
publican party, - ,''...e =, 20.
With the complaint made about CEN
I tralization and the interference of the
Washington Government. with State
affairs, they do not sympathize. They
make, IN fact, just the opposite COM
| plaint. The government does not in
terfere enough to suit them. They
| find, in too many localities, the police
/ force utterly demoraliZed blythe fact
! that it depends upon the 1awless ele-
tmentS of society for its official life, and
| that the property and life ofaH whoare
\ opposed to this element is never safe and
if life or property be taken, there is no
redress. A distinguished State official
! in Mississippi said to me few days
ago: 81 am sure there have been more
than five hundred murders perpetrate
in this State, within two years, by men
actuated by the Ku-Klux spirit, which
murders have not only not been pun
ished, but they have not been report
ed by the press or the State" Here, J"
said the same gentleman, 1--WE are safe,
but" vomiting t. Pearl river, "we dare
not go across there to discuss our
principles unless we go by day, and in
large armed parties" To men who
sleep quietly in their beds only because
the arm of the Federal Government is
interposed between them and slaugh-
ter, the talk about interfering with
States Rights will have but little infiu-
ence. ai U fssi.t.1 iit-7 ~ ..fi.si
. In thiststate of affairs the colored po-I
ter only seeks to know who is the can
.didate of the Republican party and tn
Vote for him if he can. ssa1 df4a-
Ina tour leading through the States
of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana,
l sought in many. conversations to find
attitude off the colored people relat-
ing to Mr. Summer, in the then posi-
BILE contingency of his being the candi-
Hofa of thu Cipoinnofi+ Cnuxyonftny,
The response was. unanimous: "If he
goes into that movement, we are sorry
for him; but he has left us, and we will
not follow him. ~ Hon. Jere HARRISON,
a man efnancipated by, the proclama-
tion, living in dailyeontact with. his
people, and admirably fitted to speak
ifor them, said: s'If Mr.. Sumner goes
into this movement he will be another
proof that q man isaa Y ike tae-lans For
the good of his rcputation, and / for.
one am not going to follow him any,
where" -H 80
'm If Mr.. Greeley is presented to the
,cOlored voters of the South as a candi-
either as the leader of party formed
for the special purpose nOf breaking up
the organization which. they regard as
tilGiE SICdiSPHN ouu UHly
friend; or as the leader of the Demo
cratic party, whose policy is inimical
to their rights. -, iinst 1ii1id
The white Republicans of the South
are, as rule, in close sympathy with
their colored allies. They are by far
more RADICAL than the mass OF. the
party in the North. If they are "scala-
wags," they have been hunted from
their homes by the friends of slavery
of the Confederacy; they have re-
turned from months of hiding in
swamps to find those homes pillaged
and in ashes. They have had their
sons torn from them by copscripting
officers to fight in a cause their souls
abhorred; they refuse to be comforted
for fhe loss of those sons, lying in dis
honored graves. They have stood up
on the scaffold, with ropes around their
necks, and We're only saved from the
deaths which their fellow-U Unionists
met by the chance freaks of the mob.
Such men will haze but. one vote to
give. and that viii be for the regular
nominee of the Republican party. If
they are etbaggers, they are either
office-holders, and as such anxious to
reflect the wishes of the colored voters
upon whom they depend for office;
or they are of that noble class of men
who went South to aid honestly in the
work of reconstruction. They have
risked life; they have endured social
prescription; they endure what is
harder, the aspersions of those who, at
safe distance from the scene of con-
fiict, criticise and abuse men whose
work in saving the Union is only sec
ond to those who fought for it on the
field Of battle. They have organized
and taught the colored people; they
have inspired them with hope and self
respect; under their guidance and pro-
lection schools are opened, churches or
ganized, Justice administered, and a