Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-05-01
THE ooLoR LINEIN The SENATE

Cadet Whittaker's case is likely, we
fear, to bring out more pitiful mean
ness and more shallow humbug of va
rious kinds from politicians and party
newspapers than anything which has
happened since the. .brazen age of rrcon-
struction in South Carolina and Louisi-
ana. Republicans in private aud pub
lie life who would no more think OF
asking negro to dinner than of asking
their French cooks to their tables, men
who wonld view with apprehension and
alarm the behavior of their sons if their
sons chose to associate with negroes,
ard who would look with absolute hor-
ror on the behavior of their daughters
if their daughters chose to dance with
negroes, are not ashamed to put on
ais of astonishment as we'll as of indig.
n ton when they learn that at West
Point young white cadets, who may al
a:'y time become the friends of their
sens or the suitors of their daughters,
decline to associate with colored cadets
outside the lines of military and aca-
demic duty. Senator Hoar shamed his
education and his name by Stimulating
Mysteries on the subject when the Whit
taier case was first reported. Senator
A lison made himself ridiculous by pro-
pc sing to compel the President to ap-
point two negroes out of the twelve ca
6.-Fe f-1o =, I \, i
Sc I'd to West Point. Whether negroes
OF the full blood are demanded by Sena-
to Allison, or whether his notion OF
Justice and equality would be satisfied
with compromise candidate" in the
foom of mulatto, does not appear from
the telegraphie report. His resolution,
he weyer, demands that the President
81 all make discrimination on account
of race in favor of negroes, to the ex-
teat at least of two appointments in
tv elve. Not to say that this demands
one-sixth of the Presidents appoint
mcnts for race which constitutes at
the utmost no more than one-tenth of
the population of the Union, the resolu-
tion, if it does not violate the letter, is
&C ceeIainly inconsistent with the spirit of
the Civil Rights law, and is an attempt
te limit by legislative action the Presi-
de ats discretion in a matter which is
&C lfided wholly to his discretion. Sup
pc se< the President should decide to dis
pc OF his appointments by competitive
eX EXAMINATIONS to be held in twelve diff
fe. ent cities. If none of these success
sf,il competitors happened to be negro
tha President would be forced, under
Sc 1ator Allisou's bill, to rule out two
yo1ths who had won their appoint
nj snts fairly, and to appoint in their
pi .ces two negroes who might be among
til defeated competitors. Would moi
tl.-s two excluded and competent whites
have reason to complain? If negro
wtre successful in competitive exami-
nskion, and were to be denied his ap-
pc ntment because he was negro, he
W. uld have just cause of complaint
S'.ch case has never happened and is
noG in the least likely to happen. What
Sc lator Allison proposes is that negroes
sielply as negroes and only because they
are negroes, shall be appointed to Wesl
Point. What Senator Allison PROCESSES
that he means to secure by the amend
ms MT does not appear, though it does
appear that he was cruelty and griev.
ously entreated so to do by Senator
Css:krell and Senator Salisbury. Per
haos he means to make future Whittak
err less lonesome by nominating then
in pairs. But at West Point it frequent
ly happens that one of two cadets i:
tar en- and the other left; and to make
M ;. Allison's bill complete it should
pf,vide that no colored cadet shall here
af sr be found deficient in his studies
an that the instructors shall alway:
gi colored cadet the highest mark il
al branches of study. This would b,
pc cisely as rational and precisely al
de ,ent as the measure which Senator
Allison does propose. If Senator Hoal
ar1 Senator Allison really desire to vim
di, ate the rights of the colored people
to social recognition let them organic,
cries of dinner parties at their OWL
ia les, to be composed of colored guest
in ,he proportion of two out of twelve
witch Senator Allison thinks effica
cie us. Let them instruct their owl
so s, If they have sons, to associate witt
co ored youths, or let them send thei
daughters, if they have daughters, tt
the summer hops at West Point witt
inj motions to dance with the colore6
ca, cts. These would be silly perfor
ms noes, no doubt; but they would b.
nit ch less silly and much more respec
tai lie, as being much more sincere, thai
ths transparent humbug with whicl
Senator Hoar and Senator Allison hav,
diseredited themselves and the United
Stases Senate.
CUR candidate for President is th,