The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1881-07-16
A BOLD ASSUMPTION.

The assumption that the negro
vote in the South is either suppressed
or neutralized seems to beflecessary
to the existence'of the republican par
'ty. 1t was once faverite theory
that the vote was bulldozed into sub
mission, bat correspondent of the
New York Tribune has recently aben-
:doned this position, for the very
surprising reason that he could not
find trace or evidence of it in any
Southern State. Having gone thus
far, however, he hastens to insist
that although the suppression by
pothesis has been for years and years
fraud and a lie,th neutralizing as
sumption rs not only admissible, but
admitted. We might feel disposed
disposed ordinarily TO challenge the
truth of this, but SUPPOSE, in a mo-
iment of argumcntative liberality, it
should be granted, and granting the
truth of all the facts in the cores
pondent's letters, upon what sort of
defense does opposition to the neu-
tralizing process rest? Wltat is the
negro vote in the Sonth? The Irib-
une correspondent furnishes this an
swer, the fruit Of long, careful and
laborious research: IF man who
owns hundred sheep could pin a
ballot into tie wool of each, drive
the flock to TIRE polls, and have the
ballots accepted and counted, the pro
cess would be voting on the part of
the sheep as truly as is the carrying
OF tickets to the ballot-box by null
titude of these negroes, the exercise
Of the right of suffrage on their
part. The chief difference is that
the negroes have hands in which to
hold the balldtse, which are put into
them by their drivers or managers.
Their mental relation to the act Of
voting diSers little from that of the
sheep in the case supposed. A very
few have improved in their desire for
the acquisition of property in those
regions, and are beginning to save
their earning, 'or at least to expend
them less retklessly than formerly.
But as to any knowledge, intelligence
or judgment, such rs should equip
hnan, even in the lowest degree, for
the exercise of the right or power of
suffrage, l cannot sec that they know
anything about it, or possess it any
more than sheep do One might he
pardoned by letting the whole case
rest here. The Southern people have
been striving fSr years to represent
that this is negro suffrage in the
South as it has existed since the
franchise of the ballot has been ex
tended to that ignorant and unfit
class of people. 1t is not necessary
to speculate as to what the result
Of the performance of this element
inpolitics would be. The Southern
States have borne terrible evidence
of it in the past. Public plumber,
official corruption as black and infa-
m0us as ever was recorded upon the
pages of history, the blocking of the
wheels of industry, the terrible pes
thence of carpet-bag rule, have be-
come things of record to bear witness
of the abundant harvest of calamit-
les which were a natural sequence of
the preponderance of such political
suffrage. 1t needs no proof, other
than the record, that if this political
~cattle," as the Tribune correspond
ent has classed the negro voter, is to
be herded, counted, and found to ex-
coed in numerical proportion the 9th
er male population of the South, it is
virtually ruin, moral and financial.
Suppose this is the question which
confronts the South to-day? Must
there be a remedy or must one of the
finest sections of the country be Civ
en- over to be sacked by a hungry
and reckless band of political van
dals, who can manage to control an
element without comprehensive reas-
on, and in every way unfit for polit-
ical life? Take the Tribune at the |
word of its correspondent Admit
that the sheep can outcount the I'm
telligence and property Of the Sorth.
The alternative is az clear as day |
light. 1t is naturalization or death. |
Gazette.
SUPERINTENDENT HEAlS, of near |