The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-04-01
CIV RIGHTS
OPENING THE FLOOD GATES OF HATE

OPENING THE FLOOD GATES OF HATE
THAT'S WHAT CONGRESS DID FOR THE SOUTH
WHEN 1T PASSED THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL,
ACCORDING TO A CAREFUL AND CONSCIEN-
TIoUS CORRESPONDENT.
The results of the civil rights bill in the
South are thus summed up by Redfield, the
painstaking, able and conscientious CORE
spondent of the Cincinnati Commercial:
Oh, the poor negrol His condition in the
South is to-day more pitiable than any time
siDce the war. The passage of the civil rights
bill has loosened the foodgates of hate as
they were never loosened before. That law
has Oecssioned more excitement and bad
| blood in the South than any other measure
that congress has passed. Negro suffrage
itself was and is less dreaded, aud occasioned
less race III feeling than this mischievous
measure. The negroes, L fear. can
never recover from l.. II viii iniure
them in thousand ways. It will hurt
them where they can be hurt worst. 1t
makes tie white people hate them like the
devil. They can stand negro Suffrage and
every right under that, but the provision
of the civil rights bill they can not stand,
and say they do nc intend to submit 10 il.
They claim they accept in good faith the
results OF the war. but they deny that there
what they call Niger equality" The agi-
tation of this measure has aroused race ma
tired 10 such pitch that q majority of the
Southerners rejoice at the accommodating evil
dence OF the decline OF the negro race. 4
death rate showing that the negroes are dying
from two to tour times faster than the
whites, is received with such expressions as
this: That's right" "that'n settle the mat
ter" "Tbe North is determined 10 force
niger equality upon us; they want to de-
grade US and our wives and children, and
the sooner the nlggers are out of the way
the better" What an alarming state OF
feeling is this; how unfortunate for the ne
groes, who have everything TO lose and no.
thing 70 gain by the arousing of race AMI
mosities. In all the phrases of war and re-
construction, in all the legislation about the
negroes, there has nothing occurred which
has aroused
RACE HATRED AND AIMING sIrY
like this civil rights bill. The most destruc-
tive feature in the bill as it passed the Senate
was the school clause. That would have
swept every tree school in the South out of
existence. The Senate did not know this. or
did not care, but the House took warning,
and struck out the clause. But / fear race
hatred has been so aroused that the colored
schools in the South will be seriously
shaken, if not entirely destroyed. There is
already clamor that they receive only the
money collected from negro tax payers, an
amount so insignificant that it would not
support this class of schools month. Not
one negro in a hundred owns any
taxable property, and not half of
them pay even poll tax. There had al
most as well be no colored schools in the
South as to try to support them from such a
fund. Another bad effect of the civil rights
bill is the exaggerated notions that the ne
groes have of it. They have a vague idea
that it willbriDg them great stock of pri-
vileges and happiness of which they have
heretofore been deprived. Some way or
other, they scarcely know how, they are to
reap an immense advantage without cor
responding outlay OF money and muscle.
Before the bill passed, while they were still
looking for it in a dreamy way, expecting
grand results, few incidents came to nv
notice illustrating the air castles they were
building. Late one night, DIR. Curry, of
Nashville, was seated in the porch ot his
residence, while some one was playing
piano inside. A negro man and
woman passed by. The doctor overheard
the man say to the woman, "When dat
swivel rights bill passes we can go anywhar
and hear piano play!" One stormy night
a negro came to DR.. Buchanan to get the
doctor TO visit his wife. The doctor told
him the weather was so bad he could not 90.
"Afore long," said the colored person, "a
bill Will pass in congress maxim yor go wbar
WANT yOr 10, nlgnL or DAY. without aXlng
cent for it!' The doctor seized fire poker
and told him TO git. He got. A negro wo-
man called at the express Office and asked |
for a money package. "There is none forf
you," said the clerk, without looking
"How does you KNOW" said the woman,
without yor look?" because l know
every package here, and there is nothing for
you; "Never mind" said the negress, in |
high state of indignation, congress is
GwINE FOR TO PASS A BILL
giving me rights to come behind that air
counter and look in that air safe for mysef, |
without bein' beholdin' to you'll" Another |
negro woman stopped at Tschopick's frui. |
store, on Market street, and commenced |
squeezing the oranges one after another. |
The clerk requested her to pick out what she |
wanted and not feel of them all, as 1t caused |
them to rot sooner. She became indignant
'Tha's bill gwine to pass frew congress-"
she exclaimed. "that will glib me the right
to feel OBJ ebbery orange in that air box, and
take as many as l want, too" The evils of
this exaggerated view of things is apparent.
The negroes have an idea that the civil |
rights bill gives Them great deal
more than it does, and that
the whites deny them the
precious privileges that the new tangled law
allows. In their innocense and ignorance
they think congress can do anything; that
1t Is powerful institution set up away off