The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-07-22
The Negro in Politics.

tmie interests. and is inclined to break
the bondage which has so long held him
as the slave of demagogues and design
inc knaves, who sold his vote and stole
his hard savings. While the army ant
civil power of the Administration were
used to uphold the thieving crew OF car,
pet -baggers, it was not surprising thai
the negroes, in their ignorance, depen'
dent habits, and superstitious nature
should be massed together and led to the
polls like sheep to the shambles.
The Republican leaders and managers
cared nothing for the elevation or i'm
provement Of the black man, or they
never would have concocted the wicked
policy by which his moral condition was
made worse than in slavery. They wan.
ted the eight hundred thousand colored
voters as a means of controlling. the
Southern States, and therefore enforce
ment acts, civil rights bills, and other in
iquities were passed, in order to run q
color line between the two races, and
force them apart in discord and strife.
This atrocious system was maintained
for years by an unscrupulous President,
who employed the Federal troops and
misapplied the public money to promote
it, with the full sanction and encourage
ment of the Republican majorities in
Congress. Success of the party was the
motive, and that success, as the country
has seen, was utilized by the carpet-bag-
gers to enrich themselves by the most
Infamous and corrupt means.
Finally, public opinion revolted atthese
outrages, which were not only iniquitous
in themselves, but imposed large bur
den on the taxpayers. Arkansas was
saved from the Presidents violent at
tempt to continue the misrule of the
plunderers, who had brought the State
to bankruptcy and anarchy. Then fol,
lowed the compromise in Louisiana, and
the exposure of the frauds in Alabama.
The reaction which follows these events
might have been expected, for even in
this short experience it has been proved
beyond all controversy that the charges
made by the Administration and its con-
federates were false and fabricated, and
that their whole policy rested on fraud
In thirty days after the fall of Clayton,
Dorsey, Mcclure, and their Ring in Ar
kansas, the State was perfectly tranquil,
credit was restored, the races harmonized,
enterprise became active, and labor was
contentcd none of which had been
known during ten years of carpet-bag
rule.
The colored people of Arkansas are as
we'll protected in their rights under a
Democratic Governor as arc those OF
Massachusetts. They recognized the
fact, and admit the deception by which
they have heretofore been estranged from
the white race, among whom their des.
tiny is cast. Their children are educated
and the door is open to preterment with
far more liberalty than exists in most OF
the Northern States.
Even in Louisiana peace reigns. The
people accepted q compromise which
cheated them out ofrights fairly acquired
at the polls But they had either to take
what a Republican committee forced
down their throats, or to confront the
powerful persecution Of Grant, Sheridan,
kellogg, and Casey, backed by the
strength of the army, navy, and Treasury
They chose the lesser of the two evils,
and this submission is likely to be we'll
rewarded.
Alabama, though but partially freed
from the yoke of the carpct-baggcrs, is
greatly improved in condition, and since
the villainies of Spencer and his gang
have been exposed by their formesr con
iederatcs, the Administration will hardly
dare to repeat the atrocities of last year.
when treasure and troops were scattered
over the State to support an organized
band of public robbers.
The blacks have seen the practical ef-
feet of the changes in these three States!
and find that instead of being injured
they are benefited in proportion as the
power of the carpet -bagger is diminished
or entirely disappears. As a consequence
they are drawn more closely to the native
whites, and the old confidence is tas'
coming back under the new relation be-
tween the races.
In this condition of things it is evident
the negroes cannot be made to vote as
they have done since reconstruction
Many of them who are intelligent ant
upright, separated from the main body
before they had al inducements to ac
independently. Tens of thousands will
now follow this example, and when thai
step has been taken, it will be the begin
ming of new era for the black man
Destroy the color line, let him exercise
suffrage upon some principle, and share
in the sentiments which divide the rest
of the community, then he will be really
emancipated. AS the tool and ally of the
carpet bagger, he is not only degraded
slave, but the worst enemy of his owr
interests.
The utter ruin of the Freedman's
Bank, from which nearly three million:
of dollars were stolen by the Washing
ton Ring, did much to awaken the seven
ty thousand poor and betrayed depositor'
to the real character of their friends, wht
managed that institution for their owl
profit. More recently, the appropriation
of Howard University by the Congrega
tional Church, and the virtual exclusion
of the coored people from what they
regarded as their peculiar institution
have aroused no small degree of wrath
and with much reason. Fred Douglas
and Langston have both denounced this
proceeding, and intimatcd pretty broad
ly that they will not stand the usage tt
which their race has been subjected an.
longer.
Their resentment is natural but it il
| NOT from, such nnrsonal eyDlOSiOnS tha