The daily gazette., 1880-04-12
c Negro ..Edaeatson.' ~

Your pointed criticism of the New
York Herald transcript of Thursday
last suggests q consistent defence OF
Delaware's method Of treating the ne
gro, and more especially as regards his
education. ms Fsi-t a
Even The most preJndiced acknowl-
edge the necessity and Importance OF
educating all citizens, or those who ex-
pect to enjoy that high privilege, wheth-
er white or, black, and only the Republi-
condition Of the negro race In this conn-
try. Ignorance of itself is not an evil
but a misfortune, swhich. produces. evil
only when uncontrolled. 1A
When the Republican party had over
thrown the Constitutional sanction OF
slavery. they were not content to provide
for the emancipated freedmen even 1T
the expense of the people whom they so
unscrupulously robbed they were not
content 10 heed the dictates Of true phi
lanthropy, TO educate and fit them for
the exalted position Of citizenship which
they might In time occupy with credit to
themselves and benefit to they commu-
nifty they were not content to provide
for gradual extension of the right Of
suffrage To those qualified, but with the
high hand of power when the Recon-
structed States were held in the wise of
martial law and iron clad paths, they
forced universal suffrage upon them;
they broke down the last safeguard Of
enlightened government and let loose q
food of isnUIanc and prejudice which
has carried its baleful influence into
every section of the country and left its
evil results nausea to modern civiliza-
tion. .e-i AsiF
Uncontrolled ignorance has wrought
rapine and murder In the South, where
violence and lawlessness has reigned su-
preme; has given uUbridled license TO
the baser passions, alarmingly iDcreas-
ing miscegenation, an offence against
decency and revolving 10 nature; has de-
moralized society; has bankrupted trea-
suries; has prostrated business by plac-
ing In authority horde of unprincipled
men who have scrupled not at the mean
est artifice to perpetuate their power.
(, The Republicans, (there are few
noble exceptions) have repeatedly
charged such acts of violence to the
Democrats, conveniently forgetting
that there no more peaceable and pros
porous States than those of the South,
until they come into poser. Who for
a moment would have thought that
Virginia, the "Old Dominion" the
mother Of five Presidents, would have
thought ofrepudiating her obligations?
Surely the spirits of Washington and
jefferson must have become disguised,
else they would have risen from their
graves to rebuke her. To such a con-
dition, certainly your contemporaries
of the north and east, boasted cham
pions of State and national honor,
would not have Delaware or any other
State come. The trouble is our sister
States of the North and East, fail to
unders and the difficulties that beset
us. They have but few negroes and
these few were gradually educated
long years before the right of suffrage
was extended to them. They being
few, worth and qualified, exert little or
no influence for evil. Not so with us.
We have many and they necessarily
are extremely ignorant, and the ex-
ample of other States (farther south)
and less fortunate than ours, warns us
not to let them get the reins of power,
else bankruptcy and ruin would be our
doom. Instead ofgiving them suffrage
as soon as freed, had The Republicans,
when in power, named day in the
future when they should become citi-
zens, and had Delaware or any of the
border States refused or neglected to
provide for their education, then could
she, or they, be justly and deseryedly
censured or condemned. As 1t is,
their censure lacks the strength of con-
sistency or a proper understanding Of
the matter, and partakes too much of
the nature of scurrilous partisan
criticism. TREBLA.