Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-08-25
Democratic and Conservative Party.
For Gopcr4or.
LANES D. PORTER, Of Henry County.
THE war OF RACES.

The attempt of Radical journals 10
make the Northern people believe that a
war of races has been inaugurated in
the South, has not succeeded to any
great extent. The Brooklyn Eagle
Republican paper, refused to be i'm
posed upon by the absurd howhngs Of
1csrpet-baggers at the South, and their
insane rawlings about war Of races.
The Eagle discovers in the political
contest here the true issue. 1t says,
very truly, that it IS fight for econ
omy against stealAge, and the article
concludes thus.
The cry Of "a war Of races arises
from those who have an interest in pre-
cipitAting It. We know such war can I
be raised in the South- We don't be-
heve that the apprehension Of one can
be lied down the throat OF the North.
Every rejecting man knows that IN the
South now It is not race against race
Ii il honesty against thieves. 1t is re-
t-enchnent against bankruptcy. 1t IS
economy against siealsge. In Nlcks-
burg the simple question was: Shall
8 policy which has rolled up debt OF
one sixth Of all our possessions go on
TIL II takes alp The question was an
swered in the negative, and if the ne
groes unanimously voted yes 1t was
the fault Of their tutors, not of those
who in very selfpreseryation voted mo.
We do not blame the negroes altogether.
They simply followed their new masters,
and because their old masters did not
follow them, ne are TO have q war Of
races" forsooth.
In North Carolina ard Tennessee the
questions for the people we're made IN
advance for them by Congress. They
hinged on the civil rights bill, a meas
ure Congress has, by passing it in one
house and suspending it IN the other,
directly relegated to the States Tor their
views, and a question which almost ex-
clusiyely affects the Southern States
themselves. By the forms of election
the constitutional American way-those
States have overwhelmingly voted to re-
iect the bill. SO far as it has been retired
10 them for decision, There are not
three Northern States which would not
do the same on direct vote. And be-
cause this question. By its very nature,
set off the races for the time, the defeat
which the blacks received is to be sue
ceeded by war OF races. We do
not see who is to make that war. The
whites have acted on the defensive in
the two cases Of outbreak which have
occurred in overwhelmingly negro pre-
cincts Of Tennessee and Kentucky.
So soon as Congress shall cease to
tinker with the fsg ends Of reconstruc-
ton and let each race stand on its merits,
each having low all the rights : of the
other, the whites and the blacks will
range themselves in politics just as per-
sons do up here, a little principle and a
good deal Of interest affecting their posi-
ton; and each party counting the negro
vote. The war of races will not i'm.
pose on the North. The North feels that
It has done for the negro a good deal
more than II would do again, or ask any
body else TO DO. Failing industries,
hard times, closed markets, the outlawry
of capital and enterprise and intelli-
Renee wherever negro supremacy OBJ
fains, are facts felt in the North almost
as keenly as in the South and the de-
termination Of all the people to try a
change of hands and influences in this
country will not be arrested by this last
and worst "bugaboo "a war OF
races" 1t had better be abandoned.