The Caucasian. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1874-1875, 1874-08-01
The White Mans Party It tho North.

A0PUUIlC11 VVUA u0SO ~ N00 AWFUL
are raising . howl over the move.
ment to organize a party Of the
white people upon the basis Of col
or or race, in the Southern States,
for the idea is not confined to Lou
isiana, and virtuously protest that
they can see in it only the revival Of
the Ku-Klux and the re.organiza-
ton Of the knights If the White Ca.
melia, with the assumed intention
and purpose Of depriving the ne
groes of their official rights. This
is the clap trap ofparty politics and
we have no hope Of convincing
any one Of them to tho contrary
but the subject is one of Importance
and should be properly present.
ed, whether or not suca representa-
ton shall do any good.
These very same Journals have
seen the negroes of the South or
ganizetl upon this same issue of
race for eight years, they have wit
messed special legislation over and
over again for their exclusive bene-
st, they have seen them take charge
Of the government OF Southern
States, once the prondest and
wealthiest in the Union, and make
them the most morally corrupt and
the most utterly depraved that
figure in the history Of ancient or
modern civilization they have up
plauded while our legislative halls
were made the resorts of thieves
aud the home of shameless plumber
ers while our courts have been
presided over by men whose ignor-
ance was only surpassed by their
venality and while the executive
branch Of our Safe governments
has been usurpcd by adventurous
cormorants, whose greed for money
blinded every dictate of decency
and whose lust for power OVERRIDE
all the instincts of honesty. They
have laughed while we groaned un
der a burden of taxation without a
parallel in history or All excuse to
Justify it; they have approved
while the negro in the insolence Of
his power has rejected with scorn
every overture we have made him,
and repu'sed with contempt every
proposition we have made him to
secure a better government.
These same Journals have seen
and known ali this, but yet when
we, the white people Of the South
attempt to organize a party upon
the issue forced upon us by the ne.
gro, not for the purpose of depriv-
ing him Of any single, solitary right
secured to him by law, but only to
protect the rights equally secured
to us, the inalienable rights of Sc
curity in tho possession Of our pro-
perty and the enjoyment o: our
lives and liberties they can see
nothing praisewortby or noble in
this struggle for good government,
and they must needs raise the hue
and cry Of Ku.Klux! Ku-Klux {! !!
We ask them in the name OF all
that is holy ana sacred, we con-
jule them by the ties Of IL common
parentage, we beg them III the
name of humanity, to tell us what
we are to dot We have given the
negro every guaranty that al hon
est purpose could suggest, every
pledge that u reasonable being
could demand, and none Of them
have succeeded in drawing him
from his idols.
We have accepted political equal
ity without a murmur, and have
only stopped a little ways short Of
what he calls social equality, with
out influencing him at all in his
merciless crusade against the white
race. What can we do, what re.
source is left us but to organize the
white people upon the same issue
which has so successfully united
the negroes to a man : Not to
wage any war upon him, but to
protect ourselves against the war
that he is waging upon us.
We have never advocated any
=" League" and have been rs open
as the day in all we have advised.
There is in Rapides no such thing
as a league, but if adopted for the
campaign, the name of our party
will he the White Mans Party,
with nothing to conceal. nothing to