Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-11-05
The Republican Party and the South

We make the following extract from
recent speech delivered at Springfield,
Mass, by Congressman Henry l.. Dawes;
The first complaint that ] ask you to con-
slider, you dissatisfied Republicans, is the
charge against the Administration that ii has
not done its duty toward the South, that the
condition of things in the Southern States is
such to-day that the Republican party ought
to be abandoned on account of it. Let us
see. Abandoned for what? For the Demo-
cratic party, for there is no other. Abandon
the Republican party for the Democratic,
turn over the Southern States to the Demo
cratic party, for that is the logic of your com
plant. What is the complaint? Is it that
the Republican party has withheld power
from the white men down South and turned
it over to the negroes down there and the car
pet-baggers? have heard that, and that the
negroes and carpet baggers had run riot with
that power and ground down the white peo'
pie there and wasted their substance Suppose
they have done 1t for moment, how came
they to do it? Not because the Republican
party or any other withheld power from the
white people down South; the difficulty was
that the Republican party extended the
power, the ballot, down there, instead of with
holding it. They never took the ballot from
white man down there; every living white
man. from the keeper OF Andersonvlle all the
way up to Jefferson Davis, had from the mo-
ment they laid down their arms at Appomat-
tox Court House to this hour, the ballot just
as much as they ever had. That was not the
complaint. 1t was not that we took the ballot
away from them, but because we extended it
to Others. We made it too large, we gave 1t to
the negroes as well. That is the complaint;
we gave ii to the negro who fought the bat
ties of the nation, who was made citizen as
the result of the war and became entitled by
the Constitution to the ballot The negro
Ill. a..
won't--to use the boys phrase-they
won't play if the negro does. The white peo-
pie of the South stayed away from the polls
and let the negroes have it all their own way.
The reason was that the negroes ignorant as
they were, would make such a condition of
things that it would cause such a reaction
here at the North, and that power would be
taken away from the negroes and restored to
their exclusive exercise, and therefore they
stood back and let the negroes and the carpet
baggers have the control of the Government;
and whatever OF evil, whatever of corruption,
whatever waste of the substance of the South
has come from that unfortunate and igno-
rant rule OF these negroes, has come from the
fact that the white man would not partici-
pate with them in common government ex-
tended over them by the Constitution of the
United States That is all there is to-day;
that is the whole of it. When they found that
it didn't react at the North, when they found
that the whole extent Of it was few people
gathered at Cincinnati, who dropped like
ripe apple into the loving arms OF the De
mocracy before they got home-see what reac-
ton there was-then they undertook to wrest
the power from the negroes and the carpet
baggers, and the consequence is the terrible
condition of things at the South to-day. 1t Is
traced directly back TO the white people Of
the South stimulated and encouraged as they
were by The hope of the return Of the De
moc"acy topower. Why, there are seventeen
Confederate officers, to-day, members Of Con-
gress, and on which side do you think they
are? Did you ever hear of Confederate Re
publcany That is enough.
Then, because you are not satisfied with the
condition Of things down South you propose
to deliver over, bound hand ana foot these
four millions OF coored people To the Demoe-
racy, the Confederate officers Of the Democ
racy in Congress assembled You deliver the
lamb over 10 the wolf, and the dove over to
the vulture as certain as you accomplish the
Legitimate result of your leaving the Repubii
can party for that cause. just look at the ef
feet it has upon these men. And when the cry !
came up this summer from the poor, defense
less colored man Of the South that he was be- |
ing hunted and murdered, and he went TO bis |
cabin at night trembling for the morrow, |
every one of these independent and Demo
cratic journals at the North shouted derislon
at the cry of these poor men for help. Let me |
just read what I cut, week ago, out OF an |
independent journal Of the North that had in |
years past under another management, fought |
yaliantly for the rights OF the hunblest and |
poorest man, though his face was as black as |
The heart of him who is now hunting his life |
in midnight masks and with midnight muir
derous weapons and outrages. The next
morning after it was ascertained that the
Democratic party had triumphed In Indiana
and Ohio this Independent journal shouts