The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1876-10-27
sou. sr. Reg.a..,.e. G. Ce.se-

g.encr Of Eep.siie~s success.
One Of the most benefcient effects
that will follow the election Of Gov
Tilden, will be that the minds Of the
Southern negroes will he disabused Of
the idea that the Democratic party ]:
hostile TO their freedom or TO Their
right Of suffrage. When they learn,
as they only can learn through the tri
umph Of the Democratic party In the
national election, that their rights as
citizens do not depend upon any party,
but are fixed by constitutional pro
visions, 80 that they are incapable Of
being disturbed by any political
changes, they will begin to know what
a constitutional right is.
Hitherto, the great mass Of these
negroes have been kept in ignorance Of
the meaning Of the constitutional
amendments, and Of the fact that they
are not dependent upon the pleasure Of
either of the political parties for the
continuance OF their freedom or of their
right TO vote. They have been made
To suppose that in some way and by
some process, they will be reduced to
their former condition, IL the Demo-
crats become possessed Of the political
power OF the States in which they
dwell. They have thus been made the
unconscious agents for perpetrating the
political power Of the vilest set of mis-
creants that ever cursed any country
since free government and universal
suffrage we're known upon the earth.
AL the capacity all the opportunity,
and all the means which the Republi-
can carpet bag crews have had for
obtaining and holding the governments
of the States which they have plum
dered to the verge Of ruin, have con-
sisted in the dense ignorance Of the
great mass Of the negro voters, and
their consequent liability TO be misled
by their fears to act against their own
interests and their own welfare, by
procuring for their States the very
worst government that the world ever
saw. In all history, there has never
been such a result produced, in so short
space of time, by the sheer imposi-
ton with which uhscrupulous dema-
gogues have been able to play upon the
unnecessary fears of an ignorant
population.
The war ended more than eleven
year. since. The whole Of the debts
of the Southern States contracted dur
ing the war and for its purposes, have
been wiped out by an amendment of
the Constitution of the United States.
The debts Of nine of those States,
created since they came under Repub-
lican control, amount to more than
$3.50, ,000, 900; how much more, il is
impossible to say, because no one can
tell what the debts of North and South
Carolina are. For this enormous mass
of debt there is substantially nothing
whatever to show. The money has
been squandered, stolen, and carried
off; and at this moment, the States of
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louis
lana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vir-
ginia, are unable to pay the interest on
their bonds.
One hundred and fifty millions is a
huge anonnt of plunder to be obtained
out of the use Of the public credit of
those nine States and it has been all
by men who have had the
public credit of those States put within
their reach by the pretenee that the
Republican party is the party Of free
dom, and that its political supremacy
is essential to the safety of the negroes.
There is no fraud in the whole history
of fraudulent pretences that can show
$3.50, 900, 900 of plunder obtained by
the. simple swindling of an ignorant
peasantry, suddenly endowed with a
right of suffrage, making them the
tools of great public !
robbery.
The simple truth is that if the carpet
bag movements are not overthrow,
the public debts of these States can
never be paid. What system of tax
alton, what system of economy, can be
looked for from the Republican party,
that will put their bonds into good
credit in the money centres Of any
portion of Christendom ? These States
could not borrow dollar anywhere In
the world, could not fund their debts !
upon any basis of agreement with their
creditors unless the result of this elec-
ton shall show that the virtuous and
intelligent among their citizens have it
in their power to control the course of
legislation and the executive conduct
of their governments.
Keep up the cry that the rights of
the negroes are in danger, and by it
continue in power the men who have
created these debts, and repudiation
will assuredly follow. Put an end to
that delusion, and enable their legisla-
tive bodies once more to be filled by