National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-08-26
TIE war or RACES-"HURRAn

FOR TIE DEMOCRATS"
In the last annual message sent by Ex-
President Buchanan to Congress he charged
that many a mstron throughout the
South rettres at night in dread Of what
" may befal herself and her children be-
" fore morning" This referred, of course,
to the then existing condition Of affairs
when slavery fourished in its most health
full and profitable condition, and when such
abolition leaders as John Brown were at
tempting to accomplish in a misguided
way what WIS subsequently accomplished
by the greatest civil war that has ever con-
vulsed civilized nation. In fact the NUT
tered threats Of that war were then
heard throughout the land, and In less
than six months after the charge was made
the war virtually began. Perhaps Mr..
Buchanan believed that spoke or wrote
the truth; but whether he did or not, the
same kind Of allusion to a supposed wicked
disposition of the blacks Of the South TO-
ward their white neighbors has since then
been reiterated, not ones but thousand
times. 1t has been used as the rallying cry
ofthe DemOcracyfrom the earliest date In the
memory Of the present generation, and men
who should have known better and who no
doubt did know better, have been guilty of
repeating it In the most exaggerated forms.
In fact, the idea Of negro instruction has
been bugbear for years, which has served,
as it serves now, to force the issue of race
against race in the South.
But what has been and is the truth
Before the war the blacks, as slaves
labored for their masters with affectionate
industry. We use tie word sffectionate
advisedly, because we have so often heard
ii from the mouths and read it from the
pens of Southern shareholders, whose boast
has always been that they were the best
friends and the chosen friends of their
slaves. At any rate, the service rendered
by the blacks was of such character as to
acqUit them from the charge even Of an in
tent to rise in instruction against the IN
holy laws which held them in subsection
They were, in truth, docile, tractable and
law-abiding, if object submission to the will
of their masters may be termed law abiding.
During the long, weary years Of the war,
when they knew that the armies of the
North were fighting for their freedom, when
they knew that they could have aided the
cause of thefP freedom and Of their friends
by instruction against their masters, and
when they knew that, to great extent,
they would receive justification in the eyes
of the overwhelming majority of the civ
ilized world, they remained quietly and
peaceably at their homes, protecting and
supporting the families of those who were
fighting to continue their bondage and did
more by way Of cultivating the crops and
furnishing supplies to the rebel armies to
maintain the rebellion than the Southern
troops themselves. This period of their
history furnishes a true insight into their
character, and at the same time distinctly
disproves the allegation that they are villful
or inclined to blood-thirsty opposition to the
whites.
Since the war the same cry against them
has been repeated again and again. We
have been told, In q thousand different
ways, that they have srrsyed themselves
against then former masters, both for politi.
cal and other purposes, and the country has
been kept in continual condition of alarm
by statements that war Of races is at hand.
The facts, however, do not prove that So
far as the responsibility Of the blacks Is
concerned, there Is no more danger now
than when Mr.. Buchanan uttered his last
4
construction have passed, and the Southern
States have become again integral parts Of
the Union. Riots, murders and massacres
have occurred, beginning in New Orleans
in 1866 and extending through the Ku-Klux
period down to the Grant parish affair, and
more recently to the troubles that have &C.
CURED in kentucky, Alabama and South
Carolina. In the record Of all this we find
no authentic assertion that the blacks were