Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1872-11-29
The Negro in Politics.

The universal application of the democratic
principle OF civil equality, has developed the
fact that though all citizens are apparently
equal in rights under the present constitution,
IA minority of the citizens, closely and clan
nishly bound together by the ties Of race or
class, may WELD an undue and dangerous
| power. This is fully proved by the political
action of the negroes Of the United States since
their REIMBURSEMENT in 1870. They have
voted solid, as a race, the same party ticket
every election held since the acquisition Of the
right Of suffrage. This race, though small
minority of the people Of this country, to-day
controls the results of popular elections. By
| refusing to divide between the two great po-
! litical parties and by concentrating its entire
vote on one ticket it is enabled to hold the
balance of power. The whites are about equal
| iy divided between the two parties as the late
| elections have shown. The negroes are arbi-
| tiers between the evenly balanced parties, and
| their decision is given with unanimty which
| springs entirely from The clannishness of race
1t will not be denied, we think, that the pow
er thus welded by the negroes is too great 10
be safely entrusted to any class Of citizens,
white or black, native or adopted who CON
slitute only small minority Of the voters Of
the country. Such power so exercised is at
war with the genius Of republican institutions.
AS well might the Germans unite under a Ger
man political banner and the Irish under
partisan flag of their own, and each strive TO
become the arbiter of the political differences
OF the other constituents of the nation, with
out exciting the distrust and alarm of the
friends Of genuine republicansm. If the
adopted citizens of European birth should at
tempt to organize a European party for the
purpose of controlling the politics of this
country how soon would the ghost of Know
Ncthingism revisit the gimpses of the moon
and re-invest itself in flesh and blood and the
paraphernaila of political organization The
solitary ray of the dark lantern would again
light sworn league to its midnight conclave,
and forum, press and pulpit would once more
thunder against the foreigner" But the
Africans form an African party hitch chooses
our legislatures, congresses and presidents,
and the work of this party of color is accepted
as the deliberate verdict Of the American peo-
pie When this fact comes to be generally
understood, as it will be by and by, notwiih-
standing the horror ofstatstics which charac-
terses the average American mind, the negro
will find it for his advantage to disband his
party and yield what no other race or class
has yet been permitted to enjoy the arbiter-
ship in American politics. He will discover
that if his race persists in this political clan
nlshness, the whites who now make no oppo-
sition to his full enjoyment of the elective
franchise, will unite TO destroy the balance of
power Mt present held by the consolidated AZ
rican vote. He will see that he must be will
ing to stand on the same level occupied by
other citizens, that he must be content to be
the equal and that he may not aspire to be the
superior, politically speaking, of other con-
sttuents of the nation, that, in short, he must
not attempt to Africanize our government any
more than citizens of English birth may at
tempt TO Anglicize OR those Of Teutonc origin
to Germanize it. He must make up his mind
to yield the prejudice of race and to make an
effort to consider public questions from the
standpoint Of a nationality which regards not
color, nor race, nor origin. If he cannot do
this, he must prepare to go to the wall. No
race, no class, native or naturalized, white or
black, can be permitted, as SUCH TO hold the
balance of political power under our system
of government Exchange.