The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-09-04

Tor will Ostracise the white man who
may honestly give counsel to the color,
ed masses and would withhold employ.
ment from the negro worker, and thus
deprived of leadership and impoverished
without homes and without bread, the
negro masses will become dOcile and
easily induced to act in harmony with
the resident whites. This is q mon
strOus proposition, both in the ends con-
templated and the dangerous agencies
used to accomplish it. 1t suggests the
idea that the man who hires his muscles
to honest toll, that he may make honest
bread, sells his conscience, as a citizen,
to the purchaser of his labor, and pro-
poses that no brOnzed son of toll shall
have awarded to him by the intelligent,
conservative white mel Of Louisiana
the right of unprOscribed work, except
on the condition that the worker shall
yield to his employer his honest politi-
cal convictions. If the negro citizen
would for an instant yield to the de-
mand thus conditioned and made, he
would prove thereby not only his incom-
potency for but his unWOrthiness of
citizenship.
Radicalism, as it stands represented
to-day and illustrated in public affairs
in Louisiana, is an evil which every citi-
LCl SIlUUlu N4Sl ~ dDdJts IIU IL N1CbOIt
WOn over the vandals that have outraged
us would be more nominal than real if
achieved at such a cost, and we should
neither desire o seek a governmental
reform Oh the race movement, when it
is BASED upon conditions that would
require the voluntary or enforced sacri-
flee on the part Of One-half, if not the
majority, of Our citizens, of both their
individual independence and political
convictions.
Permit me to say that there is a solu-
ton of the political problem that so
veXes our people, that wars upon neither
race, stultifies neither and e embraces the
rights of both. This solution does not ar
ray the interest of the white man against
the cOlOred man-requiring one to be des-
and unites them and perfects them by
the union. 1t further does not propose
to destroy the political elements of the
State, but it improves them, not by pro-
scriptiOn, legislation or otherwise reduc-
ing the number of voters in Louisiana,
but by instruction in all the duties of
the citizen, to educate and elevate them,
and by a kindly, patient, brave spirit
shown by the educated white masses of
the State to their less highly favored
cOlOred neighbOrs, a hearty, genuine con-
cert of action may be obtained between
the races, that will result in securing all
legitimate reform and restoring the lost
prosperity of Louisiana. Neither indi-
vidual nor national growth is the work
of n year, nor of ten years. Great
changes are slow, and permanent only
as they are gradual, and we must not, if
we would subserve III interest, ungen-
erOusly estimate the capabilities of the
cOlOred voter on the insufficient data of
the brief and unexceptiOnably difficult
probation through which be has passed
MOI must we conclude from the unsatis-
factory results following the titful, in
adequate and fugitive efforts made by
the white residents to- secure the Negroes
and cooperation in political
affairs, that it is eitherimposSible rim
practicable, by continuous and sufficient
on our part, to bring about
such an understanding and concert of
between the races as will not only
give us the blessings of stable and good
government, but make our beautiful
State the Eden among the States that
her soil, climate and resources fit her to
be.
| can not see any occasion or cause to
bring the question of social equality into
the issues of the pending canvass. In
exceptional cases | have seen white men
who, OfChOice, sought negro association,
and negroes who preferred the ~assOcia-
ton of the whites but as the rule, with
an exception, the healthy minded
cOlOred alike seek domestic
with those of their own race.
In common with my uglo-SaxOn kin
1red, | I'M not Indifferent to the reputa-
lion and claims of my race to pre-emi-
hence, and feelan honorable pride in the
fact that | am a Caucasian; but the pride
hat leads the superior race, exultant in
is strength to dOmineer over the infer
OF, is a questionable virtue in the Ameri-
system, but whatever s~elf-gratula-
ion ! might indulge in, when retrospect
ng the requirements of ourcOmmOn an
or in contemplating their pros
growth in the future-far strong
II than any feeling arising from this
'Ource-is the desire to deal justly with
ny fellows, and more especially if he is I
ny inferior. ,
The teachings of the civil liberty I'M
which DIR. Taylor and myself were .
cared, recognize as the personal i'm l
rights that belong to an =
American citizen and that are not sub {
eCts of legislation, because existing .
Defore and above the statute, the right {
+ Individual conscience, the right of in =
lividual taste, the freedom of aC0rship :
nd of personal fellowship; and in my [
Judgment the American people would .
10 sooner by statute attempt to deter I
nine and regulate the question of social e
than they would violate the in Q
tividual conscience by establishing a
system Of worship. I suggest $
hat the people would be rid somewhat j
f their %m0rbidity in their Judgment e
pom this subjectOfsocia equality scare v
row, which hedemag0gues so constant
and incOnsiderately introduce into ?
ur political campaigns, II they would u
ppreciate practically tile effect of eman- '
and acknowledgements upon their .
servants. As a slave the negro s
not only helplessIy dependent upon q
be white man, but his condition bred =,
curt white recognition In every form r.
ut with his freedom has come political {;
and with his political and u
ivil rights has come seifI-respect, and =
e Is learning more and more daily to u
EEK associations more congenial to him q
l his own race, and in the operation of ce
lese causes there will be found not on o
a protection to the virtue of the negro =
ice, but a sufficient guard to the sane g
ty of the firesides of the whites. Il
Like pr. Taylor, / have had the res Z
possibility attaching to the ownership
{ 300 slaves, nor could I feel that their al
Emancipation and franchisement releas- CT
| me from the obligation to care for III
lem. I have deemed it not only expe- ,
lent, but a duty as opportunity offered I'll
do what | could for their enlighten- :,
.ent and advancement in the new q
ohere in'whieh they, as suffragans, have U
cen called to move. Nor have I been !,
sappointed in any reasonable expecta- NJ