Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-03-06
The Exodus and Civil Rights.

The testimony about the exodus is
all to the same effect upon one point,
and that the most important point in
volved in the investigation. The ne
groes were not {" fleeing from oppres-
sion." There was no oppression from
which to flee. This was the case in
North Carolina, as has been shown by
ample testimony. No doubt the testi-
mony from the other parts of the South
from which there has been any con-
siderable movement of negroes will be
to the same effect. The testimony of
the refugees from the Lower Mississip-
pi has already been taken by reporters
and other unofficial Examiners in St. Lou
is and in Kansas, and the refugees have
agreed that politics, either of parties
or of races, had nothing whatever to
do with their departure. The univer-
sal desire to better ones condition &C
counted for some part of the migration,
though this desire has been disappoint-
ed in every case thus far reported.
The devices of railroad runners and of
land agents accounted for much more.
The testimony taken of an emigrant
from North Carolina, who seems to be
man of sense and honesty, shows a
natural disposition to put the best face
possible upon what has turned out to be
foolish action. He does allege
that the laws of North Carolina
are in some particulars hard upon the
negroes-not, of course, as negroes,
but as tenants and laborers-and he
declares further that the laws are not
fairly administered between whites and
negroes In all cases. Without a detail
ed knowledge of the conditions of
society in North Carolina it is i'm
possible to make out how much founda-
ton there is for this charge. We need
not say that it behooves the people of
North Carolina and of every other
Southern State to see to it that there
shall be no foundation whatever for
such a charge either against the law or
against those who administer it. The
legislation of Congress makes it all but
impossible that any law should be
passed which discriminates between
whites and blacks, and in deed no such
discrimination is alleged. All that
seems to be alleged is that classes, of
which the negroes compose a majority,
are held to obligations which are irk-
some and which they consider unfair,
and this of course is thing which is
likely to happen in any country at any
time. Such accusations as are made
against the courts are too intangible
to be dealt with satisfactorily. But
the Southern people must perceive that
it behooves them, alike as a matter OF
duty and as matter of policy, to make
the equality of all men before the law
an established and an undisputed fact
1t will be observed, however, that
nothing is charged which can, by ever
the most reckless partisanship, be des
av1hQH N fyr1th If
not to be supposed that single case
of what can fairly be so described could
occur in any Southern State without
being known all over the country
within a week and brought to the at
| tention of every reader of our Republi
can contemporaries. The "two sec
| ond-hand murders" which were som.
| time since inventoried as the politica
capital of the Republican party for th'
canvass of 1880 have not been increased
in number. 1t is not scoffing, but speak
ing seriously, to say that fresh politi
cal murder or 81 clear case of ''proscrip
tion'' in the South would be wortl
many votes to that party. The interes
of the party lies in fomenting outrage'
and in giving to any outrages whicl
may occur the widest possible public
ity. To suppose that a political reig1
of terror exists or has existed in an,
part of any Southern State and has no
been fully made known is to arraigl
the managing politicians of the Repuh
ican party for gross incompetency,
crime of which most people will hol
them guiltless. The testimony tina
there has been no such condition G
things in those parts of the South fror
which the so-called exodus has pro
ceeded is therefore precisely what ever
sensible and unbiased person would ez
| nect-N z WnrZG