The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-11-11
Are Negro Rights Put in Jeopa:dJ by
the Democratic VictOriess

The Democratic party is SO evidently on the
| high road to national success that the friends
Of the colored race will teel some anxiety and
misgivings as to the security OF their newly &C.
quired rights TIE Democrats SO resolutely
contested every inch Of ground against the
negroes, fighting the constitutional amend
ments one by ons fighting the enforcement
acts. sympathizing with the Ku-klux intoler-
ance, and denouncing without stint the
abuses of negro supremacy, that Democratic
ascendarcy in the Federal Government might
\ seem like putting wolves over the flock in
place Of the faithful shepherd dogs.
Peril to the negroes will be the chief topic
OF inaammatory appeal by the Republicans in
| their attempt to stem the tide of Democratic
! victory during the ensuing two years. This
topic may be urged with great plausibility,
but probably with no great success. Fears
of this kind will be simulated by politicians
Who DO not feel them. The Rrpu1blic,n lead
ers cannot SO underestimate the shr ewdness
Of their Democratic oproaents as to believe
they will attempt to deprive the negroes Of
either their freedom. their civil rights, or the
elective franchise. 1t would be impossible to
conceal such purpose if it were entertained
and nothing would SO certainly arrest the
political revolution now in progress as belief
that the Southern negroes would be remanded
by the Democratic party to their former con-
dition
We have no doub. that the rights of the Ne
groes will be more secure il Democratic than
in Republican hands. 1t is the tendency and
effect of the Republican policy to array the
negroes in hostility to the best classes OF the
Southern popuiati on, and thereby obstract the
ascendancy OF intelligence, character and pro-
perry in Southern politics. Negro suffrage
has proved to be great evil, chiefly on account
Of the divorce effected in the South between
numbers and intelligence. The Southern
blacks have been formed into political
party under outside guidance and control
a party which had a sets of interests, or
supposed interests, separate from the gen.
eral interests of the Southern community |
In healthy state Of politics there is q
% solidarity" Of feeling between the prosper
olls and the poorer classes, and although |
there may be two parties--as there always are |
in free countries-they are composed on both
sides of the rich and the poor the intelligent
and the ignorant. 1t is the prerogative Of IN
telligence to control ignorance, and the chief
evil Of Southern politics since the war has
consisted in such an organization Of the blacks
as has arrayed them in opposition to the en-
lightened local feeling Of the communities
with which their lot is cast.
But as soon as Federal influence shall cease
70 control the negro mind, intelligence and
capacity will re-assert their sway, and negro
voting in the South will be as safe as the i'm
migrant vote has always been in the North
The Democratic party will have no temptation
% deprive the negroes of the right Of suffrage,
he mind when the potent Federal influence
cooperate with local intelligence instead of
and defeating it.-N +. Herald
|