Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-11-17
FRED DOUGLASS
Lets On: Scrap OF History-what
Hayes Is Going to do at the south to
Break up the SOIidity SO Often
sIVe to the Republican Party.

Washing ton correspondent of the Cincln-
natl Enquirer: "Apropos 10 this change of
| policy on the part of the President, Fred
| Douglass, the well-known colored man, lets
| out at this late date a scrap OF heretofore I'm
known history. He says: Two weeks before
President Hayes came to Washington to be
| inaugurated, 1t was my good fortune to meet
him in the statehouse at Columbus, Ohio, and
| to have free and full conversation with him
| on what had already been foreshadowed as
his southern policy. l began conversation
with him by expressing sense of alarm at
| the outgivings of the press, through sundry
reporters, as to the course he meant to pur-
sue toward the late rebels. | asked him
directly if the report which had reached me
| that he intended to appoint southern men
| not Republicans to office IN the south was
| true. His answer was frank and to the
point. He said that was his purpose, and
gave as reason that something must be done
| to bieas up the race line and color line In the
politics Of the oopth. The fact that the col
ored people were in one party and the whites
in another was provocative of race
hostility and bloodshed, and something
! mast be done to put an end to such
strife; tbst he had assurances from lnhuen-
| tial men at the south that such policy as he
proposed would lesd 10 a correction of this
evil and to the organization of such indie
pent political action as would conduce TO har-
| SAID but very little in the way of argument,
but invited me to speak my whole views
frankly in respect to his proposed policy.
| This invitation 1 was not very slow to accept.
| For an hour or more | argued against 1t,
showing as we'll as l could by brief review
of the conflict between freedom and slavery
during the last forty years that every conCes-
sion which had been ma ie to the south had
been followed by increased exactions and ar
| rogance; that there was no satisfying or APP
peasing the ruling element of the south;
| that there had always been a class of men in
that section who esteemed themselves as
above law, and were esteemed law unto
themselves, who were not impressed with any
Just sense of the sacredness of human life,
and thought that negroes especially might be
killed with inpunity. | insisted that policy
Of Cancellation would be as pearls cast before
swine; that orr concessions would be treated
as cowardice; that what the south needed
was to be taught there is God In Israel;
that the laws of the land might be enforced
in South Carolina as in Massachusetts and
Ohio. | said much more to Governor
Hayes to the same effect, and after giving
me patient hearing, the governor assured
me that he stiA intended to give the south
fair chance to right itself, and to remove all
cacse of complaint if possible. But said
he, If what ! propose shall fail OF the good
results at which I aim, | shall certainly adopt
some other course. In no event do | intend
to abandon your race, or to fail in extending
them the rights guaranteed by the constitu-
ton l left Governor Hayes impressed by
the idea that he is an honest and courageous
mana man welded to no policy to the
extent of pursuing it without regard to con-
sequences-and controlled by patriotism as
firm and inhexible as that which controlled
the action of the wise and good Abraham
Lincoln himself. What do you think will
be the result of the new departure (if there
is a new departure) of the administration in
dealing with the south?' Most salutary,'
was the reply. 4 think the south itself will
see its errors and correct them. 1t will, l
believe, find out that solid south is danger
GUS even to itself when secured by disfran
chising freemen. 1t will, | believe, after
learning the lesson, be ready to grant equal
rights to ALL"