New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-09-24

and enforce the great amendments Oi tn
Constitution, the pride and boast of the lie
publican party and the connecting link b
which the immortal Declaration of Indepcnl
was made Il part of our declaration of GOV
eminent. have seen, one by one, the mar
row priudices of caste which denied to tn
black race the rights of human nature mel
away without evil results, and wish to Sc,
this work complete and perfect by sccurin!
to all men who are citizens of the Unite,
States precise equality in all civil! and polti
cal rights, whether they tend to protect hi
person and property, or lift him above degra
datiOn by local or State authority
take great comfort from the uneouiyoca
endorsements Of this humanitarian measure
by these great party leaders aud statesmen
OF the North and West. ! am certain thai
with their influence, Joined with the support
and influence ofour other tried and true lead
ers, not many days will elapse before the
Civil Rights Bill' will pass the House, re.
ceve the signature Of the President, and be
come law of the land Sellowcitizcns, | am
50 hopeful of this result that do not deem
it essential to discuss in detail the features OF
this measure but ms the >.:h,,i clause i, con-
sidered the most Obieclionai,!., propose to
notice briefly this point. To me this clause
| constitutes the very germ 81 the bill, all else
is ''stalc, fiat and unpro;ital,le' without this.
| How in the name of heavenr,n YOU expect
, to produce those harmoniou, relations that
| should exist among the citizens of il common
country, and which are essential to pre-
serve the rights OF all, rich and poor, white
and black, when at the "pcint Of learning"
you teach the rising generation that one is in
| ferlOr to the other: 1t IS an Inconsistency so
glarlng and mOnstrous that | cannot conceive
that any sane man could for Il moment ser
ously entertain the idea. 1t is said that if
that bill becomes Il law, the public schools of
the South will be broken W; that irretrirv-
able Ills will result therctronl, and horror be
heapcd on horrors head. Ii this was the
first time that the raw head and bloody bones
of the South had been shaken at the North,
| should expect it to start back and stand
agllast at the awful spectacle but you have
heard OF these before. and rs the bu,-a-boo
story loses its force upon the children as
they grow older, SO this sensclcss cry, ra.ed
upon every occasion when legislation is ask
ed for the ameliOration Of the condition of our
people, uIust have lost much OF its power to
trighten the people Of the North. In many
portions of this State, ana nearly every
Northern State, white aud crlored children
attend the same schools, and nobody is hurt.
How is this? Are Southern white children
any better than Northern white children: |
pause for reply. All ask is calm, dis
passionate consideration of the equities of
this subject by the American people, and
am satisfied that they will render ver,lc, in
our favor. The charge that negro suffrage
has proven Il failure because in certain South
crn States where the colored voters are in
ma jOrity mistakes have been made, and
through unwise and prohigate legislation the
public debt has increased, and some corrupt
and dishonest men have succeeded i'm obtain
ing office, is as ridiculous and absurd rs it
would have been for the people of the older,
more intelligent and experienced communities
to have held that the people Of Indiana, in
their earlier days when similar mistakes were
made, were incompetent to exercise the right
OF suffrage; or when 'Boss" Tweed and his
cOntedcratcs robbed the city of New York,
therefore the people of that city were incOm-
petcnt to vote. To the thoughtful and I'M
biased mind, the conduct of the colored Ueo-
pie gives hopeful evidence of their capacity
this been made more apparent than in their
modest demands and the universal desire to
obtain the best material to be had to III the
offices. In South Carolina, Mississippi and
Louisiana, with ma GRITTY of voters, they
have never claimed or taken more than 4 third
of the offices, and these generally second
rate ones. In Louisiana, where YOU hear so
much about NEGRO government" ''negro
domination" and negro supremacy" the
Governor, Auditor of State, Attorney-Gen-
eral, Supreme Court, consisting of judges,
every district Judge, every parish Judge but
one, all the tax collectors but four or five,
are white men; in the last Legislature
twenty-three Senators out of the thirty-six
members composing the Senate, were white;
in the House Of Representatives, siXty-four
of lO7 members were white, constituting a
majority of whites in both branches of the
General Assembly. The colored representa-
ton III that Leg islatare was by far the largest
they have ever had. The city government of
New Orleans are all white but one. The
board of metropolitan police have a white
majority. The hoard of State engineers are
all white but one. The district superntend-
ents of education are five white and one col
Ored. OF the six Congressman five are white
and one cOlOred, and the minor offices ma
jority are whites. From this exhibit YOU can
see that the charges are untrue. 1t also slls-
tans the modesty in the demands for official
recognition which claim formy people. The
reports of NEGRO insurrectiOn, Ourages, dia-
bOlcal plots to murder the whites" etc, are
also without foundation, and nine times out
of ten are circulated for the purpose of fur
nishing an excuse to outrage and murder cur
people, whom the world knows are IA simple
hearted harmless race.
TO give you some idea of how the intelli-
gent cOlored men of Louisiana feel, | will
read you an extract from letter received
few days ago from friend in New Orleans.
The elimination of the more fearful outrages
on our poor people in North Louisiana, in
the cOld-blooded murder of several white Re-
publicans, has at last commanded response
from Washington, and "ths thing must be
stopped" as it ought to have been a month
sooner. There is no precedent under any
form Of government where the demonstration
of actual atrocity, and frequent aud cold
blOOd'd murders are required to arouse the
keepers of peoples safety to measures of
protection. Nor is there a parallel anywhere
where SO many citizens have been regularly
sacrificed to a purely rebellious spirit and
caste hate aud so little punishment inflicted
as the miserable history of the Southern
States has furnished since the war.
1t is sickening to contemplate and dsheart-
ening to 10 TX forward and see no hope of a
better condition of things for us and ours.
The startling news in this mornings tele-
grams will convince you that he has not oyer
drawn the picture: The terrible condition
of affairs in Louisiana and the South is attri-
buted to reconstruction. Governor Hem
dricks, in his speech last night, says: "Dur-
| ing the war, when the Southern men were
off in the field, there were no Instructions
the cOlOred people preserved the peace al
home :" and he might have added, took care
of the defenseless women and children, and
thereby proved to the world that they were
the most docile, patient, and harmless people
on the face of the EARTH What they were