Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-03-12
Tearing the Races Apart.

Mr.. Lamar, of Mississippi, is reported rs
telling the democracy there that e the gov
eminent tore the two races apart" which,
in his opinion, accounts for good deal of
the trouble existing in his section. Its true,
the government did take the Southern black
man out from under the heel of his master,
but us for separating the two classes of cti-
zens, the great complaint of Mr.. Lamar's
political associates at the south just now is
that the government is doing too much to
bring them into equal association. This is
the grievance charged upon the civil rights
law, mild and moderate ms that measure is.
All sorts of plans are devised for defeating
it, just as every other reconstruction measure
has been opposed and resisted by Southern
democrats and their Northern allies. We
have had by telegraph the movement made
in the Virginia Legislature to punish by fine
and Imprisonment those who may be charg-
ed with creating disturbances in hotels and
theaters by demanding accommodations
after they have been refused /" for want of
room or other reasonable Tin the opinion OF
the proprietor) specified causes. Other in
genious adaptations are proposed for exclude
ing colored men from steamboats, and rail
roads.
This legislative movement, however, EN-
bodies but u very small part of the ingenuity
which is now being used by Southerners in the
grand object of making the negro know his
place." For instance. some OF the bar rooms
in Richmond have this conspicuous notive:
" Drinks S5-sulject to discount" This
t. 10 ~, ,,hi
We take it that nobody cares very much
about the regulations of Southern grog shops
as affecting the frcquenters of either race-if
the colored men would stay out altogether,
1t would be the best course they could pur-
sue-but the race prejudice that crops out
there is quite rs instructive rs that shown in
other places. A democratic organ in Ten
nessee says that steamboats, will hereafter
carry none but deck passengers, the entire
cabin being appropriated to the captain and
his staff. In like manner the rear car of
each passenger train will be set apart for the
conductor, brakemen, &C., just like the " ca
boose on q freight train. " In this way all
classes of humanity will be huddled into the
forward car like dumb driven cattle, as the
civil rights law requires. But, once under
Roadway, there is nothing in that odiOus law
that can prevent n gallant conductor from
inviting what ladies he may please back into
his own luxurious quarters"
They will get over all this in time down
South, and then we shall see their orators
coming up into New Hampshire and other
northern states on the eve of important cleo
tons, and laying their hands on their hearts
and declaring that their people are univer-
sally obedient to the civil rights law, would
not repeal it if they could, but they have
some other grievance just then. As we have
said, this has been the fate of every step TAX
en- In behalf of the reconstructed Union and
tho establishment OF equal rights. So eman-
cipation was resisted to the bitter end-now
Messrs. Lamar and Gordon say they would
not have It reversed So the three last con-
stitutiOnal amendments were not only fought
by the whole democratic South, but they
were rejected by every democratic legisla-
ture of the North What docs this meant
Why, it means that IN the hands of the re-
publican masses alone rests the carrying for,
ward of reconstruction and the restoration Of
peace and harmony. When these masses
pause, the great work stops-when they fll
ter, reaction and mischief follow as the
night does the day. Let them be true to the
! cause, then, for nobody else will,-BOSto,
Journal.