Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-11-10

During the era of reconstruction the
negroes were used to help the scala
wags and carpet baggers to accumulate
| fortunes, the scraps of the feast being
thrown to the least respectable and
| representative of the colOred men.
| Nothing was done to educate the negro
! to qualify him for the discharge of the
duties suddenly thrust upon him, to
enable him to hold his own in the COM
petition with his white neighbors, and
| to conquer their esteem and friend
| ship. To teach him the advantages of
thrift and forethought the Republicans
gave him the Freedman's Bank. When
! the era of reconstruction closed, and
the South was lost as a source of posi-
tive strength, the Republicans, instead
of allowing the negro to settle into his
place in the new order of things and
cultivate amicable and natural rela-
| tons with the white man, encouraged
race hatreds, preached incendiary and
agrarian doctrine to the blacks, ma
! ligned the white population, and-in
sacre"-incited race riots in which
the Africans must suffer severely-all
this to help the party at the North.
Even when economical self-gov-
ernment had been established at
the South and that section was rejoic-
! ing in an immense cotton crop, which
meant for the laborer employment
and prosperity, the Republicans had to
start an exodus, which meant for
thousands of credulous negroes the
sacrifice OF their little property, the
breaking up OF their homes and ultimate
| idleness and Decentralization, if nothing
/ worse. 1t is a sad and shameful page
in the history OF the Republican party.
The colOred men lent the Republican
| party their votes and gave it all its cap
ital-and what was their reward? One
negro Senator and two or three negro
Congressman who were never admitted
to social equality; appointments for
such men as Fred Douglas and ''Milt -
Turner, who could render service on
the stump and never were recognized
as equals; few clerkships or minor Of
fees, usually bestowed on the least
reputable of the party workers-that
was all. When the Republican party
had for years cracked the high vault of
Heaven with it's bellowings that it was
the Goblin of the colored man, and
would wade in blood rather than see his
rights to absolute equality and full par
ticpation in political life questioned in
theory or in practice, it was only
natural that the coloted man should
look to that party for that share of the
responsibilities and emoluments of pub
lie administration to which he was fully
entitled. Failing to obtain such a share,
his natural course is to seek for better
treatment in new associations.
As Democrats and wellwishers of the
! n QfInn cho11 Wow c1Ioh q
ment with more than equanimity. The
same impulse which throws the ignorant
and dishonest into the arms of
| denlagogues and regulators will tend
to array the intelligent, peace-loving
and Industrious of the colored men on
| the side o. good, economical and stable
government. The negro who finds
that by attending to his business and
regarding his white neighbora as a
human being like himself. with the
same interests, living under the same
conditions, he can accumulate property
I in the enjoyment of which he will
! be protected, will have no sympathy
with incendiarism or reputation or the
perpetuation of race hatreds. The eX-
ceptionally intelligent and industrious
colored men of Georgia would not to-
day favor robber regime such as that
which once cursed South Carolina
under Moses, any more than their
white neighbors would. Good Demo-
Gratis can stand ga break in the solid
South,'' for it will break right across
both races.
But can the Republicans? What do
the Northern Republicans who have
encouraged and excused the surrender
to Malone on the ground that it would
benefit the party think OF the declara-
ton that the negroes have gone over to
Malone to destroy the party? This
official declaration gives additional
pointto The Woria' squery the other day
-. What will be the outcome in 1891,
whether the Malone experiment sue
ceeds or fails?' And the whole subject
revives the eternal and pregnant ques
tion-Why does the Republican party
at the South make no progress9 There
were Wings there before the war;
where are the Wings and their descend.
ants and successors? Why is the white
population of the South solidly Demo-
cratic? Why is the negro population no
longer to be soldly Republican, There
must be something in the principles or
practices of the dominant political par
ty to account for such state of
things. What is it?-M. y Horld.