The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-09-17
Wrongs to be Redressed.

The late election i'll Alabama which
announced 101, 900 Democratic majority
is beginning to thoroughly arouse the
North. The fearful system of false
counting the ballots and bulldozing the
negroes of the South by the dominant
Democratic leaders has proven beyond all
question that free and fair election can
not be held in the southern states until
the devilish spirit which animates 80
many of the Democratic leaders
is restrained by the strong arm Of the
national government. False counting,
bulldozing and terrorism will be aug
mented throughout the south, if Han
cock is elected, but if Garfield is chosen
the powerful arm of the nation will be
effectively used in protecting every indi-
vidual whether he be black or white in
his right to enjoy the elective franchise.
Judge John p. Souihworth formally
an attorney in Illinois, and for the last
twelve years resident of Louisiana and
other southern states, is now in Chicago.
He has been interviewed by the Inter-
Ocean and his experience, like that of many
other northern men who have seen the
inwardness of southern politics, is abso-
lutely frightful. The oppression prac-
ticedupon the colored man under the forms
of law made by white Democrats is 80
appalling and so disgraceful that it
should induce every Observation-Disclosures
man Of whatever party to cast his vote
for Garfield, under the conviction that a
tried and true executive, aided by a
Republican house, can do much
to stop this wicked oppression.
Judge SouthwOrth thus relates
how the colored men are ham,
pered, tied and oppressed by the laws
passed in Democratic legislatures. The
Judge quite clearly proves that their sys-
tenn of state laws has SO fixed things that
justice for the negro cannot be obtained
in the courts. What would our Irish
fellow citizens think if the American and
German Republicans in the Legislature
should pass laws that they couldnot collect
their dues for labor until they had paid a
tax to the state of $500? Yet this is pre-
cisely the condition of affairs imposed
upon the colored laboring man of Louis
lima by the Democratic legislature of
that state. Judge SOuthworth does thus
unfoldthe southern plan of starving the
colored man into submission. His mar
rative should be carefully read:
The schools are oil private aud for the bene-
the I'D niggers educated. The state con-
stitutiOn of Louisiana requires negro TO pay q
tax Of 81 before no can bring civil SUIT for the
collection of wages. What IL the resultp All
through the state are negroes toiling for white
southerners. After three or four months work
they are discharged. They ask for pay. and are
cursed and told to go to H. Driven OF the
MIA ntatian the napr0 haa reS0lrCe but IN
beg or get work from some friendly northern
white man. He has no "a and cannot bring
suit, and mis- ex-owner knows it. In the north O
pauper can bring suit and collect his honest
dues. The black man il the laborer of the
south, and the southern, gentleman lends
shutting him up and owning his
labor az of yorc. You may visit the state peni-
Tertiary of Louisiana, and you will find one or
two white gentlemen sitting lazily around, and
no other signs of life; yet Louisiana. with one
third the population Illinois, has ], 100 negro
convicts. Where are they? Why, they are
hired out AZ slaves, and are under the lash upon
the plantations Of the state. The practice is
universal in the south, and will give you an
example of how II IL done. volunteered to do
fend negro who had robbed drunken white
man Of $25. / knew what was IN store for the
negro, and desired to save him. He was sem
fenced to ten years in the penitentiary.
A policeman killed his mistress, shooting her
in tho head. II was deliberate and cruelmur-
der. He was sentenced to two years in the PEN
itentiary. The negro was put In stripes under
the whip on plantation, and his new master
paid the state 20 cents o day for his labor. The
white mans friends hired him of the state, and
paid 25 cents day for his time. Ho dresses in
fine clothes and lives at home, and drives abou
town with his friends
He has friends and money, and the poor
negro has neither. There are thousands Of
such cases all over the south. Negro cOnyicts
are being made by the hundreds for trivial
offenses every week. and they are treated more
cruelty and are IN worse condition Of slavery
than before the war.