The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-08-19
TEXAS AVN oALIRoRKIa.


George W. Gift, a gentleman and
scholar, contrasting California, inhabited BY
the Chinese, with the Mississippi valley, by
negroes, prefers the fate of California. Ht
says in his letter from Napa, california,
that the Chinese are supposed to be great
curse and drawback upon California on ac
count of their willingness to work for low
wages, which preclu1ed the white man
from employment.
ssSuppose / were to admit the charge as
true. that an ignorant, debased race Is q
great detriment To a community, especially
when that race is shiftless lazy and dis
| honest; suppose i should admit that, and
| say further that such a race when clothed
| with the franchise is not only detrimental u
a community but dangerous, and then
sho, Id cite the condition of several OF the
southern States, in which a large proper
| ton of the population belongs to this class,
and where industry is paralyzed, and trade
at a stand still, dent you think l would
answer you2 II you can put up with the
lazy, ignorant, voting negro, we can surely
get along with the industrious, frugal and
non-voting Chinaman. When you have
plucked that negrO-beam out of your own
eye, then we will give you leave to look
after cur Chinese moat. l know that
shall be told that the negro Is to be good
fellow after this, that the carpetbaggers
have heretofore put all the deviltry In him
but now, since he has sought better adj
yisers he will be better. Nonsense. He
will pass from one set of demagogues to
another, who will use him to carry out
l.L oil ia "a fe
paw with which to transfer to their pockets
the little surplus wealth produced In the
country. do not advise any man to come
TO California, much less do counsel persons
TO leave the homes of their birth; but do
say that a man should give the question
thought before he deliberately elects to
plant his progeny in community which
contains African element in quantity suffi-
cient to form political power. The evils
to come to such community are not to be
numbered, and the prudent man will rather
retire in time and while he has the ability
so to do, than stay to- become victim to
unheard-of woes. What hope has poor
Mississippi, with the negro element i'll ma
jority2 Not ray. She will go back and
tack, until she becomes a WILDERNESS, and
the voudoO man will be the highest IN au-
thoity."
In all this Mr.. Gift tells the literal, unvar-
nished truth, and we should face the facts,
and not, with base moral cowardice, con-
fess and then evade them. Demagogues
fear the rabbie, and the Federal Constitu-
tion, as amended, will not suffer the enact
ment of laws which, even in corporations,
make distinctions based upon diversity OF
race, aud it would have been quite as wise
and reasonable to have forbidden Legislation
that recognizes genera and species in the
animal kingdom. But the constitutions
amendments for the present are final, ano
we can enact no code making discrimina
ton between the races, and cannot wisel!
limit the number of those voting in elec
tions for members of the State Legislature
since, by so doing, we lessen proportion
ately our congressional representation. l
follows, therefore, that in order to escape
palpable calamities defined by Mr.. Gift
we must prevent savage and rabble suf
frage in county and town elections
Nothing else can rescue municipa)itie:
in which the African mob preponderates,
| from utter desOlatiOn. And then, in order
to seduce Mr.. Gift and many like him,
even from that matchless paradise in which
| he dwells, within two and a half hours oi
the Golden Gate, through which the sur
ever sinks to repose in golden glory, we
need only proclaim the fact that in Texas
the rabble Is impotent because in hopeless
minority, and in towns and counties, be-
cause it is impoteht by law. Mr.. Gilt went
to California in fS49 or 1850, and then, in
| 1860, returned to the valley of the Missis
sippi to spend the remainder of his days
but savage suffrage was inaugurated, and
he tells the plain, unvarnished truth, wher
he says that no civilized race will seek
homes in country in which universal suf
frage obtains. and in which blacks con
stitute even an appreciable element
of popular power. He writes truth
| fully of the doom of Mississippi as
we see it. Mr.. Lamar may speak like
an angel and break down in this single
pending contest barriers lifted up by Gods
laws and as enduring as in all the past and
future of the worlds history, and he may
triumph to-day, but conquest itself is alb
ject humiliation and defeat and ends, after
repeated victories, only in confessed degra
dation. We would have no such contests il
Texas, In the State at large, whites SO out
number blacks that it is impossible, and
that they may never occur in local elec
tions the Constitution of Texas, should de
clare that in these none but freeholder'
shall vote.