American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-11-05

gave him the Freedman's Bank. When
the era of reconstruction closed, and
the South was lost as q source of posi-
tive strength, the Republicans, instead
of al owing the negro to settle into his
place in the new order of things and
cultivate amicable and natural rcla-
tons with the white man, encouraged
race hatrcds. preached incendiary and
agrarian doctrine to the blacks. ma
ligned the white populstion, and-in
such cases rs the .'Vicksburg mas
sacrc''-incited race riots in which
the Africans must suffer severely-all
this to help the party at the North.
Even when economical sclf-gov-
eminent had been established at
the South and that section WAS reiOic-
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; II 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
loo 70 haI t.at
the Goblin of the colored man. and
would wade in blood rather than see his
I rights to absolute equality and full par
ticipation n political life questioned in
theory or in practice, it was only
natural that the colored man should
look to that party for that share of the
responsibilities and cmoluments of pub
lie administration to which he was fully
entitled. Failing toobtain such share.
his natural course is to seek for better
treatment in new associations.
AS Democrats and well-wishers of the
Nation, we shall view such a move
ment with more than equanimity. The
same impulse which throws the ignorant
and dishonest into the arms OF
demagogues and regulators will tend
and Industrious of the coloted men on
the side of good, economical and stable
government. The negro who finds
| that by attending 10 his business and
regarding his white neighbora as
human being like himself. with the
same interests, living under the same
conditions, he can accumulate property
in the enjoyment OF which he will
be protected, will have no sympathy
with inceB diarism or reputation or the
perpetuation of race hatreds. The ex-
ceptionallJ intelligent and industrious
colored m en- of Georgia would not to.
day favor robber regime such as that
which once cursed South Carolina
white neighbors would. Good Demo-
Gratis can stand "a 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 partyp This
official declaration gives additional
point to The WorLcr s query the otherday
-"WEat will be the outcome in 1881,
whether the Malone experiment sue
ceeds or faiIs?' And the whole subject
revives the eternal and pregnant ques-
tion-Why does the Republican party
at the South make no progressP 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 solidly Republican, There
must be something in the principles OF
practices of the dominant political par.
ty to account for such state oil
things. What is itp-M y World.