New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-25
communicated
MIR. Kelley and the South

EDITOR REPUBLICAN,:
AS friend and admirer Of Mr.. Kelley
am surprised and deeply panied by his re.
| cent letter on the Southern situation. anu
| surprised to see such q man make such a
mistake. / am panied at the thought that
he game of political diplomacy which the
Confederate leaders are now employing 60
skillfully should be able to blind man as
astute and conscientious as is Mr.. Kelley.
The truth is that the negro is subordi-
mated in every State of the South where
| white msjorities prevail. In these States
he has accepted the situation-stitied his
manhood aspirations and fallen back upon
that distrust and reserve with which all
| endangered men shield themselves. The
Southern negro knows that he has been be-
trsyed by the North, just as he knows that
the North has been deceived by the South.
He knows that he has nothing to expect
from his former master but serfdom and
menialage. This "subordination" of the ne.
gro is what the whites are satisfied with.
In word, the negro is in his place; the
white man is once more the master, and
Mr.. Kelley accepts this as a cordial recon
ciliation between the races. 1t is kind Of
peace, admit; the same kind which reigned
at Warsaw after Russia had trampled the
life out of Poland. 1t is more than peace;
it is pro found sleep as of death, from the
Delaware bay to the Rio Grande. But from
this sleep Of death what dreams may come.
Beneath this calm surface of outraged hu.
manity and outraged citizenship what fires
restoration to make the subordination OF the
negro to the white the corner stone of
policy of Southern reconstruction which
will reduce the freedmen to serfdom, and
resectionalize the late slave States of the
Union on the issue of caste as the balance
of power in national affairs.
Do the intelligent people of the South
suppose that the North will remain quietly
under the dominion of this Confederate.
Democratic coalitionl Do the intelligent
people of the South suppose that the con-
science of the North will rest while the
negro of the South is being thus reduced to
serfdom and menialsge7 Do the intelligent
people of the South suppose that the man
who remembers the wrongs of slavery and
who has once tasted the sweet air of liberty,
who has felt thS throbbings OF manly
self.respect. who has marched under the
flag of his country and worn its uniform,
will consent to remain the serf and the
menial of those who fought to make his
bondage perpetual! Oh. wisdom, thou hast
flown to british beasts and left the royal
reason throne of man! Oh, folly of follies!
Has slavery in the past taught US nothinga
Has the war taught US nothinga Are the
whites of the South indeed those whom the
gods first make mad1 was born and reared
q STAKEHOLDER. neither hold, nor seek, nor
desire Office, but l appeal to the reason
of the South to stop this game of
political diplomacy in time. We are
under this Confederate leadership rushing
headlong to another war, more bloody,
more terrible, more protracted than that of
the civil conflict through which we have
lately passed. In the new conflict to which
we are thus being driven, the South will
again be overthrown. The cause Of human
ity will reign in triumph over the bloody
field. But the settlement which will follow
this second war will be one.from which my
mind draws back aghast.
Like causes ever produce like effects.
History ever repeats itself-it ;s simply