The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-06-05
s.THE NEGRO AS A RULER"

t1IS AtOPsoAAS0n PtANJ
great measure to make him the Ruler "
When he was endowed with the right
of suffrage, and made the Political equal
of the whites, was it not common sense
that he should be treated politically as
all other voters were treated. A minori-
ty party can become the majority, only
by gaming sufficient recruits from the
majority party. The party comprising
the most Of the whites did not pursue
the proper plan to do this. 1t has been
asserted that the negro has not ruled
directly in this State, but that . carpet
baggers" have ruled through him
Neither have ruled in this parish and
the great mass of colored voters here
are now willing to vote for our best
citizens, ito the manor born" TO hold
ofice-foG those of them whe will give
them that justice and protection which
all citizens are entitled to under the
law. Ignorance and vice should not
rule; and an educational or property
qualification on the part of voters
would not restrict the right Of suffrage
to the. white race, but to individuals of
all Traces who had one or both Of these
qualifications. A horde of ignorant
MongOlians or of Mexican greasers
would probably make worse rulers than
the negro; but the negro we have and
mustsmake the best of him. VIZ will
not do without him if we could. Those
who complain most bitterly of his bad
rule, toiU be ruled by him. They have
and viii have negro servants, and no
Other--they make sacrifices to get them
They can not or will not do their own
work or serve themselves, and pre-
fer negro 1aborers aud servants to
white ones, Many. Of II Louisiana
planters have brought in thousands of
negro laborers from other States, there
by continuing and increasing "negro
rule Every now and then some white
man treats his Negro laboreTs unfairly
in business transaction, and they /" pass
him round,n and will no longer work
for him then he is down on the niger,
Again, some s0-ealled planter hires d
lot of negroes, advances to them freely
ON credit supplies, neglects the manage
ment of his crop, and finds at the end
OF the year that he owes his merchant
and the negroes owe him, with no ade-
quate crop to pay with and he is down
on the negro, when he should blame
himself most. Sometimes the ~so-called
planter does not even attend to the
division of the crop, and the niggeTs
cheat him and then he loses faith In
them. Why do not the white men re.
duee the are of land they half cult
vate, and produce more OH fewer acres
and with less labor? then negro rule
would begin to decline. And If some
OF the larger planters who brought SC
many negroes in from other States had
made the same efforts to get white la
berers, white rule would have gone ur
and negro rule down. But they want
the negro without the accompanying
evils Of which they complain. Why dc
they not put him away entirely and
employ white men, or none? A planter
has but one vote, and his forty or fifty
negro laborers have one each, Can he
convert them to his way of voting by
always violently opposing them and
the exercise of the rights they have ae-
quired under the law? Some of them
say they prefer negro laborers to white
ones. White men will not as q rule be
simple laborers O tenants always; they
aspire To owning farms of their own,
and it is to the interest of the country
that they should. But the. planters
generally, large ones so-callea, do not
want such hence they stick to the ne
gro. Few of them accumulate property
and own Il farm of their Own-this
makes them dependent on planters and
"hewers of wood and drawers of water
Why has white immigration failed in
this StateP Simply because there was
no proper inducement. White people
would not come here to take the place
Of e~mancipated slaves as field laborers
for wages, on a diet of pork and meal.
They could get homesteads in Texas
and the West, and they went there.
Many OF our landowners have more
Land than they and their posterity for
many generations can ever cultivate;
but they would not give it up to white
immigrants on reasonable terms, but
prefer to keep it that it may DO gradual-
III confiscated BY taxation under negro
rulei Giving part Of it to white immi-
grants, would have made the remaining
part more valuable than all of ii is now,
and destroyed negro rule in the bargain.
How much money has been sunk and
how many fortunes wasted by planting
since the war; One half Of the amount,
invested in improvements for home
steads, and the latter sold ON reason
able terms to immigrants, would have
made the planters and landh0lders
richer than ever and relieved the coun-
try from the negro rule. But it seems
thai at their own instance, or directed
bY some higher power, they have pur-
sled the very course to make negro
rule. There were enough white people
in Louisiana just after the war, and is
nows to make the State rich, at least
sufficiently % for necessary purposes
~ &EKaYy Hal s1aunYElas3 -, +b1s
Dor and not oil tIat De negroes. H the