Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-09-01
EDUCA rION FROM A POLITICAL
POINT OF VIEW.
NO. m-Negro EducatIon.

public education as a subject for leg
islation; in other words to look at
from a political point of view. In
order to do this, we have deemed it
best to break ground by first survey
ing the field to be occupied by con-
sidering what are the classes to be
educated before we take up the
problem how to educate them. With
this view we took up last week the
boy population of our cities and in
this number propose to discuss the
negro population as a field for edu-
catiOnal enterprise not that we con-
slider either of these classes the most
important subjects for consideration
though we think their Importance
can hardly be eXaggerated-but be-
cause we think them less likely to
receive the attention they demand
than some others. The great sta
pie of our education material will
undoubtedly be the sturdy yeoman-
~ of the land, the sons and daugh-
tiers of our farmers and mechanics,
and the education adopted for them
will be the main subject for our con-
sideratiOn; but for that very reason
it can afford to wait while we con-
slider other classes demanding public
attention and less likely to get it.
This week, then, we advance the
case of our cOlOred population as
furnishing grave matter for cOnsid-
Grafton whenever the education of
the people is discussed. The prop
Osition on which we base all we
have to say on this subject is that
the colOred population have the
elective franchise, that they cannot
be deprived of it, that it would not
be expedient to deprive them of it
if we could, and that they must be
rendered as intelligent as possible,
that they may not use it to their
own detriment and to ours. Weare
far from suppOsing that all these
propositions will be allowed to pass
undisputed, and especially we antic-
ipate strong opposition to the sec
Ond we will Therefore preface our
remarks on negro education by a
few on negro suffrage.
That this measure was originally
brought about by the Radial party
for the purpose of fixing Radical
rule on the South nobody doubts +;
but before the last Presidential cleo
ton it was already failing as an in
strument for that purpose. The ut
ter failure on the part of the carpet
baggers to fulfill their promises
made to the negroes, the stealage of
the Freedman's Bureau and school
funds, the total ruin inflicted on the
material interests of those States by
their misrule, the depression of
wages i'm States so governed in COM
parisOn with States ruled by the
Democratic party, was at last having
its influence even on the cOlOred vO-
tiers, and in both South Carolina and
in Louisiana there were thousands
among them who, even while they
voted the Radical ticket for Federal
offices, voted against the .carpet-bag
candidates for State offices. Gen.
Grant who, without talking much
keeps his eyes open, saw this-saw
that the negro vote was slipping
away from the Radical party and
talked seriously of DISTINGUISHING
them again. In plain terms, those
who gave the negroes the suffrage
knew well that in using it they could
not guide themselves, but must
act under white guidance; they
hoped, and not without grounds,
hat at least for a long time they
would be their chosen guides, but
the more sagaciOuS of them always
fOresaw that the time would come
when those men would guide and
influence them who live with them,
who employ them, who care for
them when sick, and who furnish
the means for their education and
their support when disabled for
work. 1t was General Grant who
was the first man in the Republican
party to perceive that this time was
close at hand, and spoke of their
disfranchisement rs a possible meas
ure to be adopted by that very Re
publican party which had enfran-
chised them.
This is, then, the Republican poll
cy; it is obviously not ours. We do
not now discuss the possibility
of it, but maintain that it would be
grossly impOlitic. As the cOnsti-
tuition now stands the disfranchise-
ment of the negroes would diminish
by nearly one halfthe representation
of the South i'm Congress for what
ever other parts Of the Fourteenth
Amendment the Republican party
might be disposed to repeal, the fol-
lowing clause would re maintained
10y them to the death:
"when the right to vote O. = Is de-
Ried 10 any ofthe male inhabitants of such
state, @ or in any way abridged, q"
the basis Of representation therein shall
DC reduced ON the proportion which the
number Of such male citizens shall bear 10
the whole number of male citizens twenty
one wears of age in such State"
No! we should be guilty of an en-
Ormous blunder were we to consent
To the Acknowledgement Ofthe negro
even if it were possible. That is the
second alternative in the Radical
policy if their first becomes inprac-
tlcable.
First enfranchise the negro, if he
will vote Radical, and so perpetuate
the power Of the North to rule the
South ifnot, then disfranchise him
and 50 turn out half the Southern
members from Congress.
No! the cOlOred vote is now fixed
rs "A fat dccOmpH which the South