New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-05-16
Senator AlcOrn.

Aa5cl-eE
This gentleman has some qualities that we
admire. He is no coward, and that is some
thing. What he thinks he speaks right out
without much concerning himself as to who is
pleased or who is offended. When running
for Governor Of the State of Mississippi he
! fairly strangled the pretensons of the unre-
constructed secessionists in the remorseless
grasp of his logic. In that case he had de-
cided advantage. He knew that he was a
citizen Of great nation as well as citizen
of noble State that secession was dead
failure, and that citizenship of State cannot
warrant any abridgement of the rights or
duties of the citizenship of the United States,
and in fact the State can have no rights as
| against the United States. That was great
knowledge for Southern man at the time he
learned it and with that knowledge he ac-
copied the situation. In addition to this
knowledge and thisswisdom he flung himself
boldly between the colored people and the
reactionary forces arrayed in his State against
them as well as those against the Federal
Government. Being one of the sold master"
class, he well knew how to ingratiate himself
with the former slaves of Mississippi. He
did not approach them like Miss Feely,"
of Uncle Toms Cabin, holding them at dis
lance. He was not afraid Of contact with
negroes, for many of his class had nursed at
the breast of colored mothers. He called the
negroes about him and took council with
them. He was rich, and could well affqa to
give them meat and drink under. i Is own roof
anu MAXI 'lie'n rnSi..lcal associates. BY his
proiessasaA !e of friendship and apparent indie
Evidence be won the hearts of the colored
people, and by their support Qor they are the
majority he reached the Gubernatorial chair
and finally the high place he now fills in the
Senate of the United States. No man who
holds seat in the Senate owes less to the
late rebels, no man more to the colored peo-
pie than this same Senator ALCORN. They
have made him. 1t is therefore with deep
regret that we see him now turning his back
upon the men who made him and joining
with their enemies to keep them a degraded
caste.
When in Mississippi few weeks ago, we
heard it regretted that Senator ALcoRN was
not IN Jackson at that time. 1t was said that he
would have gladly welcomed us to the capital
of Mississippi and thus showed his contempt
for the spirit of caste which is now springing
up all over the South, and which it is hoped
will in some measure take the place of slav-
cry. But those gentlemen who expressed
themselves SO warmly concerning the brave
and good qualities of Senator ALcORN must,
in view of his words and votes on the Supple
mentary Civil Rights Bill, confess themselves
deceived in the man. five understand him,
the negro boy who was good enough to play
with him in the dirt when slave is not good
enough to be in the same room with him at
the school house when ne is free; that a
well.dressed, well-behaved colored man when
free, should not be allowed in the same
dining-room of hotel, though dozen I'M
educated colored men may be allowed in the
same dining room and all around the table,
if they are only there as walters to serve
white folks! Could any caste be more abb
surd and wicked. Against Senator ALCoRN
we take the ground that there is no more
uaneScT VI CoHtailHlalioH lron CoHldct Will
the negro when free than when slave, when
a gentleman than when a servant, when
learning together at school than when play
ing together in the dirt. If he can quote
Senator REvELs against this common sense
view of the case, so much the worse for
Senator REvELs and for those who think
with him. The time is at hand when the
colored people of Mississippi will not allow
any man, white or colored, to represent
them who is not at the same time in favor of
perfect equality at every point now claimed
by Mr.. SUMMERS Supplementary Civil
Rights Bill. Mr.. ALCoRN owes it to the
people who breathed into him the breath OF
political life to stand by them now, and we
still have hopes that he will do so.