The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1881-03-11

MONROE. La. MARCH IL. 1881.
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uR. GARFIELD AND THE NEGRO VOTE.
The President In his inaugural adj
: dress congratalates the couatry on the
extension Of the right Of suffrage to tho
negro race. Jiis
Ifsurprises Us that 80 astute states.
man as our new President evidently is
should SO unhesitatingly express so
broad doctrine. We have looked
upon the sudden infusion into our
politics of million of ignorant voters
just elevated from slavery into freedom
and with all the evils of their former
condition still upon them, as anything
else than a blessing to our country. 1t
was one OF those alarmlngly perilous
actions which occasionally startle tho
world, and which ought, "a a natural
+ sequence, to have had disastrous re-
suit. II was very easy matter for
the a hetabula statesman, seated quietly
in his ONCE at Mentor whilst preparing
a pleasing period for the people, to
state that negro suffrage has been a
great blessing to the country but let
us poor Southern sufferers make our
statement, and then let the quality OF
the blessing upon which the President
congratu,ates the country be deter
mined. stssH @
r With the introduction of tho ballot
to the negro, the carpet-bag politician
the meanest creature with which God
has, perhaps, ever cursed a people
) sprang into existence prepared to take
every possible advantage OF the negro
vote. And when these shameless crea-
tures, the off-scouring of Northern bar
rooms and prisons, had risen high in
/. office and grown rich in worldly
possessions, the scalawag, willing to
sacrifice the good opinion ofhis friends
and nelghbors In order to obtain a share
/, of the disreputable spoils, came to the
front and fercely contested with his
fellow leader and pretended friend, the
Northern scoundrel to whom we have
referred, for all the fat emOluments of
Office and all the steals and grabs |
which thievish ingenuity could invent
or consummate. This was the day
when we could see the man who caught
runaway slaves with dogs for a liveli-
hood, or he who had spent his life as n
dealer In slaves, or driver, become
the good Republican friend of the negro
and. enter our legislative halls by the
negroes foolish franchise. Everywhere
In the South, AS matter of fact and of
history, virtue, refinement, Intelligence
and modesty went into obscurity-
ashamed TO be seen-whilst vice,
depravity and brnzen ignorance pushed
to the front under the especial protec-
ton of the enfranchised slaves servile
vote.
The consequence was, that in every
State Of the South where these crea-
lures obtained supremacy through the
negro vote, system of corruption was
inaugurated which ia without parallel
In the history of the world and which
Within a space Of five or six years
created fraudulent debt of hundreds
of millions of dollars. Bankruptcy
and reputation followed, or should
have followed, as inevitable and natu-
raj results /; and IL was only when the
Northern brigand and his Southern
ally had quarrel over II division of the
spoils, ana when the State treasures
were entirely depleted, that the negro
vote became sufficiently independent
and divided to allow the true element
of the South to obtain the reins of
government ana bring something like
a healthy financial system out Of
chaos of fraud, theft ana corruption.
Mr.. Garfield we'll understands this
he was in Louisiana upon u memoir
able occasion and could not help see-
ing the disastrous results OF negro stuff
rage.
The Southern people are yet suffer-
ing, and will for years to come, from
the hurthen of debt created by negro
votes There Ia M oanociol annlnuse