The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-10-09

another thing, as certainly as they prove the
black man votes the Republican ticket viz :
where men are protected in the right of free
speech and free ballot, Republicanism in
creases with strong, vigorous, healthful
growth. True, the Republican party did not
carry any of the States have mentioned in
1876. OF this we do not complain. We had in
the main fair chance. We did our best. We
failed to bring the people to our way of think
best for the country to continue our party in
the control OF the Government. In the exer-
else of their unquestioned right they went
peaceably to the ballot-box and voted against
US. At the same time they did not
prevent men from voting for US. This is
all we can or do ask. These States won
their victory legitimately, and were entitled to
That the negroes are to a man Republican in
politics, and that wherever peace and order
reign in the South they vote that ticket. Sec
ond-That it is only in those States and parts
OF States where violence rules that the black
man fails to poll his full vote for the Republi.
can party. Third-That in States where there
is faic chance for argument and fair play at
the ballot-box the Republican party increases
steadily in strength and power.
The negro is not, as you and understand
the term, educated, bat there is one thing he
does know-one subject he has studied fully
and comprehends thoroughly-that is the atti-
tude of the Democratic party toward him. He
knows that this party never willingly conceded
him single right; knows just as well as you
and do that Democracy plunged this nation
into the horrors of civil war that they might
found an empire whose chief corner stone
should be his bondage, whose glory should be
his shame, whose pride should be his humilia-
ton, whose prosperity should spring fror. his
adversely
From the throb of the first gun at FoA Sum-
ter down to the hour when the last gun of the
Confederacy Numbered it's sullen protest against
human liberty at Appomattox, the black man
watched the contest with anxious heart, never
doubling if the North came out victorious he
would find under it's war-worn banners the lib
erty through which for generations his people
had cried to God, never doubling if the South
triumphed he must yet for generations bow his
neck and wear the yoke of his oppressors
When at last the North burst from the clouds
of war with victory blazing on it's banners the
negro with faith Like that Of the child in the
mother upon whose bosom it's bare head is
plllowed, looked to the Republican party to see
to 1t that the liberty that had come to him on
the wings OF battle was not wrested from him.
My fellow citizens, the negro knows the Demo
cratic party even better than you and I do. He
has felt the awful clutch for 200 years upon
his throat. Ask him what the Democratic
PdIOy WdS W ullu D0IOr6 the war. ana
he will answer: "Stripes and shame; hu-
initiation and poverty; toll from daylight to
darkness; whips andmanacles; wives sold from
their husbands, husbands from their wives:
children torn from the breasts of their mothers:
helpless maidens debauched to mini ter to the
lust OF their taskmasters; education denied;
Christ quoted to prove bondage righteous; holy
temples desecrated to forge chains upon his
soul; days without sunlight, nights without
GROW br51th head
stones, woe, sorrow and desolation" Ask him
what he has found Democracy to mean for him
since tue war, and he answers, persistent Op-
position to his freedom, unWearied efforts to
defeat his Acknowledgement, education still de-
MED him, courts organized to cheat him OF Just
ice, juries packed to convict him of offenses,
bands OF masked men riding over the country
at night to terrify him on the eve of elections,
brutal ruffians lying in wait to drive him from
the polls as he sought to deposit his ballot,
schOOl-houses laid in ashes, churches and homes
destroyed, beatings, whippngs, outrages.
Hunted down like criminal, shot like dog.
Christian burial denied, his bones left to whiten
in the sunlight. Insecurity as to property, un-
certainty as to life, deaths awful shadow al
ways across his threshold"
No, my fellow citizens, the black man does
not vote the Democratic party into place and
power of his own free will Let me give YOU
one more illustration of the effect of murder
and intimidation in the South, and I will then
pass to other and perhaps more interesting top.
les MI. Chalmers at this time represents, or
rather misrepresents, district in Congress
from the State of Mississippi. The district he
comes from has little over 26, 900 voters-2O,-
600 colored and little over 5000 white voters.
Mr.. Chalmers was elected by little over {. 600
votes and by a little more than 5000 majority.
district entitled to cast &C. 600 votes casts only
5000, and all of these for one man. Do YOU
holi thoxy had Fo;r -, - Al.
my Democratic friends? What became of the
10000 votes not cast at that election? Why
were they not polled? Simply because 1875
and 1876 had taught the negroes of Gen. Chal-
mers' district that death stood waiting at the
ballot box to blast with its icy breath the man
who dared approach to cast Republican bal
lot. A Republican vote in the hands of a black
man in the election of 1873 in Mississippi was
simply death-warrant, emitting the lordly
bulidozer of that State to shoot it's holder on
sight. .-..
Now, my fellow citizens, you may say that all
am talking about does not concern YOU It is
occurring in remote States You are mistaken
It does concern you. This Government is to-
day in the hands of the South-absolutely con-
trolled by that section. Think of it! The men
who fifteen years ago, with bowed heads and
folded banners, surrendered to Grant under the
trees OF Appomattox are to-day interpreting
the constitution to the loyal armies to whose re-
s'stless valor their legions bowed their battle
plumes in Tonnage do notobjectto "Confed-
crate Brigadiers" holding seats in the House
and Senate of the United States, provided only
and always they hold their seats by virtue Of
ia r, impartial elections. But I do object to
any man holding seat in Congress, clothed
with power to legislate for me, whose certifi-
cate of election is written in the blood OF 1nno-
cent men-men whose only crime was that they
dared to assert their manhood But for the
fact that Republicans could not vote in many
sections of the South in 1878 the Democratic
party would not be in power to-day in either
house of Congress. The Democratic party ia
in power to-day only because VIC
lence, murder and fraud have de-
stroyed liberty of opinion, and made
fair ection impossible in broad section of the
South. To the Republican party in the North
the black and white Republican voter in the
South is looking for relief and protection. The
North mustsettle this question. You cannot avoid
it if you would The cry that comes up to you
from the South is that you right wrong.
Justice demands in trumpet tones of you that
you grid up your loins and meet the issue made
by the Democratic party You cannot compro-
mise with wrong. Justice will have its full
and perfect work. Justice is of God, and, like
Him, it is eternal; its eye is never closed in
slumber; its forehead knows not the shadow Of
WEAKNESS; at it's command are weapons fash