The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-09-01

: politics, from unTeaSOniDg anu patIlit'
/ and from ali uncharitableness, may tn
Lord deliver US. Party fidelity Is, in tn
t proper things aud at the proper time,
. manly virtue but there are times whe
it must give place to the paramount cor
! siderations of duty | do not deride part
, traditions. l cherish them myself
What | mean is that we can't make Ma
tional anthems out Of them. 4" The haTl
is hushed, the minstrel gone"
Neither the Conservative people 0
the South, nor the National Democracy
nor the Liberal Republicans, propose
separately or in combination, to make am,
issue with our newly created fellow-citi
zens about their personal individual
rights, civil or political. They, in com
mon with Mr. Morton and the South
hating wing of the Republican party
may have doubted the wisdom OF the
measure which endowed them with the
ballot, but the question stands before III
now in very different light. They (the
colord people, pinned FOR freedom
but did not seek the ballot. 1t was
thrust upon them. They have
enjoyed it, or used it, for seven years.
They are tractable, and. unless mis-.
guided, harmless people. 1t would be a
hard measure to take from them the bal
lot. Really it rests altogether with them
and the American people how long they
will keep it, We can't deprive them of
it. But the American people do
make the issue with them, which
they make with any class of men
who use the ballot TO degrade the
institutions aud destroy the prosperity of
the country. Yesterday my eye fell
upon this very significant passage in the
Nation, a Republican, but non partisan
journal of the very highest rank, and
noted for the judicial fairness of its
treatment of political and all other ques-
tions
" You must excuse US, but we have
90 got over the idea we once had, that
when you hear that man is free, you
< need ask no more about him. We have
been taught by bitter experience that it
:" is also necessary to as k what use he has
made Of his freedom"
This ominous question will sooner or
later, if matters continue to go on here
as they do now, be asked by the Ameri-
can people of our newly made fellow-cit-
liens. Here they have an immense ma
jority, they have majorities in four or
FIVE Southern States.
1t so happens that the States have
languished. and Jagged in the race, just
in proportion to the number of cOlored
voters in each. This is an ominous fact
1t refutes the public falsehood which has
been resorted to by the few remaining
radical coteries in the South, that the
whites if in power, would take away free
dom of the ballot, or otherwise Cypress
the colored people. Have they in Vir-
ginia, in Tennessee, in Georgia, and
other States where the whites control
the government attempted to Cypress the
cOlored voter? | assure you the fact has
become known at last to the American
people, that the only oppression in the
South is the oppression of the whites by
colored majorities led by Radicals. To
my mind it has now become clear as the
MONDAY sun that the only intimidation
here, is the intimidation by few hundred
Radical adventures Of the whole popu-
lation. With unparalleled audacity they
threaten the whites with the Federal
bayonet, and assuming that they alone can
secure Federal aid, they threaten the col
ored people that they will desert them,
and take from them this protection, so
that they will be turned over to the
white people who, as they falsely assert,
will reduce them to a condition as bad as
it was before emancipation.
During last summer the colored PEG.
pie in Vicksburg undertook to assert
their political independence. They nom
mated their own men for the offices of
the city. 1t gave great Offense to the
carpet-baggers. The nominations were
bad; not exceptionally so as Radical
nominations, but they lacked the usual
proportion of carpet-baggers. The nomi-
nations by the Democrats were good
The Radicals-the carpet-baggers-
aloof. They threw cold water on the
movement of the colored men. A prom
inent Radical told me the colored mems
ticket ought to be defeated 1t was de-
feated, as it should have been When
the news reached this city (I make the
statement from report and therefore give
no name), a prominent Radical said
rubbing his hands, g | am glad of it
This will teach the colored people that
they can't do without the carpet Dagger"
This sheds flood of light on the relations
of the partners who captured Mississippi
Irepeat, therefore, that the American
people are watching the result Of doubt
ful experiment Even now they ask of
the newly enfranchised, what use have
you made OF freedom and the ballot so
generously bestowed? To whom and to
what have you dedicated them? Do YOU
WELD the weapon more powerful in the
hands of free and Independent voters
than an "army with banners" for your
countries good, or have you ignorantly
surrendered it slaYishly to the dictation
of few hundred selfish and incompe-
tent men? If you have used it wisely,
show US the State in which you control,
where there is the least sign of prosperi-
ty or the faintest glimmer of the light of
honest or intelligent government We
are guardians of all the country-of its
honor and its interests. We cannot al
low you or any class of citizens to bring
disgrace on republican institutions, or
ruin on any part of this, our great in
heritance. What answer can be made for
them? 1t is notorious that they have
patiently submitted to a political servi-
tude, which in its absolute subsection has
no parallel. The mass of them don't
vote. but are literally voted. They are
ridden and driven by little nest of men
who are alien to the State in feeling l
say III feeling, because they habitually
traduce the State when they go abroad.
What has been the result? We have
governments feeble and corrupt, present
ing strange anomaly pregnant with sig
nifcanee. A representative government
rendered entirely irresponsible by the
operation of the ballot and the represen-
tative principle in it. The voters don't
control their rulers. The rulers drive
the voters.