Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1880-10-13
Contemplate Meanness.
Another thing [ you'd like to call

Another thing | would like to call at
tentlon to is the attitude Of the Repub.
lican party toward the colored people
Of this country. There has been con-
temptible neanness towards The ne
groes that meets my hearty contempt.
They knew the negroes were ignorant.
They knew they were weak and not
able 10 protect themselves, and what
have they done? They have prolessed
to be thei, warm friends and advisers.
They have told them they were fit TO
occupy any position in the government.
They told them they were the equals
of any man in every respect; and
what has it all come 10 when the op-
portunity is given to give substantial
proof of their love apd admiration.
I challenge any man of any color to
name a single colored man who holds
any Office under the United States Coy
erument by the vote Of the Northern
Republican party. / have seen much
of this thing. l have been IN Washing
ton for twelve years and have been a
taxpayer, and 1 know whereof L speak.
In 1870 they began to apply to the Re-
publican Congress and to make the
District of Columbia what they said
was a black mans Paradise, a place
where the negro would have to work
very little or not at all, and could sup
port himself by voting the Republican
ticket.
Well, it brought a great many there
but things went on so that they confess
ed themselves they began to recoil from
the work they had begun. They begun
by destroying the House of Delegates
IN which colored men sat, and they de-
stroyed the Governorship and the
Board of Public Works, and they had
spent not less than 100000 on the
streets of that town, and that was done
by the action of the Republican Presi'
dent, beng no less a man than Gen.
Grant himself. and to-day and for the
last six or seven years no black man
has been allowed 10 cast a vote in the
District Of Columbia, and 10 white
man either. Here this guardian OF the
public liberties, this party that sets it-
self up as a great example and apostle
of all that is correct and right in repub'
lican government, has strlckendown
that right which lies at the very basis ol
our institutions. 1 mean the right oi
suffrage. No man for five or six years
past, white or black. could go to. the polls
and express bis opinion in the District
of Columbia as 10 whether he is we'll OF
Ill governed.
I went down to Mississippi in June,
1876. as the minority member Of com
mittee of investigation. The majorlty ty
of that committee was composed ol
Mr.. Boutwell,, of Massachusetts; Mr.,
Mcmillan, of Minnesota, and Mr., Cam
eron. They called upon the colored
neople to a SIX them whether they bad
been deprived of the right to hold Office
and what had been done to them in
elections, and about all oftheir rights,
and I had some conversation with these
people: and wish TO call your atten'
ton to the fact that there is not .o'day
in the State of Massachusetts a slngle
colored man holding any office, mol
Wisconsin nor IN Minnesota, and there
fore when they are down here express
inc solicitude that the black man should
have office they are deceitful, because
in their own homes they take care that
nothing of the kind shall happen. Sc
that think we have right on the
score of common sense and justice, tc
arraign this party for its gross lnsincerl
ty IN those very things OF which Its
members proclaim themselves the es'
peclal champions.