New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-10-09
How Alrorn Wanted CoIored PEG.
pie fo have sheIr Right, iu Pub.
lie (onyeS

1t will be remembered that Senator Al
corn, in his 4sngclp's Hall speech, in which
he announced him,e rs a sorehcad, boiling.
and seii-uominated candidate for Governor,
said. quite bua>ttully, that he it was who
had secured to the coIored people the right
To ride IN ilrst-Class cars on the equality with
white persons. As was the case With nearly
every word OF selt-praise in which he iudul.
this was really untrue. Here is the style
and manner in which this pretended bencfac-
tor OF the freedmen desired the blacks to be
accommodated in railway carriages In ls7O
lie called meeting at the executive mansion
ot all the colOred members of the Legi,!a-
ture aud the managing men OF the principal
railroads in this section Of the country The
gentlemen met. Among the railway mag
mates were Col. Murdoch, Of the Mobile and
Ohio; Coils. Edgar and Frost, OF the New
Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern and
Mississippi Central; DR.. Emanuel, Of the
NIcHsOurg and Meridian railroads, with some
ot the attaches OF each line. After all had
arrived and been seated in one of the par
Tors, Governor Aicorn arose and made q lite
lengthy address, in which be succjactly eX-
piained his ideas Of the civil rights vi col, red
men on railroad cars. 1t was, in brief. t.
have two sets of passenger coaches, one tor
white persons and another for black, and
they were not to he used by any excepting
those tor which they were expressly pro-
NIded. That is, rs cOlored men or women
could not enter the car devoted to whites,
and white man or woman was not to be
allowed to 60 into that used by his darker
! brother or sister. After this exposition the
members Of the Legislature were put 10 one
parlor while the railroad men went into an
other, and the matter was duly and sepa-
rately discussed by both parties.
IoloDpl - + Iralap6 ,os ch,.,,, n , ,,,,,I-o,
man to communicate the decision Of the
/ legislators, which was that no such silly COM
promise would comport with the manhood of
legislators. and they would much prefer to
abide by the law as it then existed, at least
until the civil rights bill then under discus
sion could be passed. This was the unan-
imous sentiment. Colonel Ireland made an
effective speech, after the two parts of this
strange meeting had again come together in
which he very clearly made known the result
OF his section OF the conference. Alcorn was
OF course greatly displeased. In fact he was
exceedingly mad. But this was not ALL The
cVlored people were determined to have Their
full rights, or nothing, and in this they were
exactly right. AlcOrn was entirely wrong,
as usual. And when it came to the railroad
gentlemen to talk, the Governor was maie
still more angry to find that Colonies Edgar
and Frost had already received their orders
from Gen. McComb to accept the law as it
then stood, or as it should be made. They
stated that they had no difficulty in allowing
respectable and wcll-behaved cOlOred people
adnlttance to their tirst-clas5 cars. some of
the others were not SO easily satisfied. but all
refused to entertain Governor Alcorn's civil
rights commandments, and, as our readers
are aware, all finally accepted tie law and
carried it out. And the legislators were
equally firm in the decision to have all they