Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-07-27
rhe Negro In poIltLcs-What Is He

The Negro In POlitics-What Is He !
1t was natural for the African slaves,
when emancipated. to place themselves
in the hands of the Republicans, who
professed to have won for them the
boon of liberty because they happened
to be in power when the war ended. It
was still more natural for them to give
their confidence, without restraint, to
those who. in addition to, as they be-
lieved, having given them freedom,
had invested them with civil and
political rights. Had they not been
grateful and confding they would have
been recreant TO genuine manhood. Tn
educated, and consequently with little
general or special intelligence, the
freedmen gave themselves up
with child-like faith to the in
structions and orders of their supposed
benefactors. While unskilled in politi-
cal history and intrigue, they accepted
as true and pure the fictions Of hypocriti-
cal philanthropy that were poured into
their ears. Is it wonder then that the
negroes became willing victims of the
frauds subsequently practiced upon them
by their supposed liberators and the I'M
conscious instruments of carpet bag cor
rupt plans and practices Dazzled by
promises of land and loot" the imagi-
nations of the freedmen rioted in dreams
of landlordism and white laborers,
aud in visions of paramount dignitles
at elections and musters, and as planters,
county squires and Congressman. The
whole South, in all its elements of social
aud political existence, was to be turned
upside down, bringing the former slaves
on top and putting their old proprietors
underneath.
Fooled to the bent desired by their
Radical friends, the ''bunko" game
began. The negro was put at all the
hard work and the carpetbaggers, with
their scalawag allies, enjoyed the offices
and the profits. A freedmen's bank was
opened for deposits, at first on a sound
basis, commanding confidence. The
trap was well laid, and the
money of the trusting blacks
flowed freely in. When enough of the
savings of their hard earned toll had
been accumulated to warrant divide,
the trigger was sprung, robbing the in
dustrious, innocent and saving cOlored
people of their money. Meanwhile the
shrewd manipulators of Republican tao
tics had so tutored their ignorant proteges
as to shut from their minds any glim-
merings of constitutional knowledge in
regard to the separate political existence
of the States and their Federal Union
ignoring the domestic sovereignty and
rights of the States by impressing
upon them the fallacy that all pow
err was centered in the President, and
Congress, the army, the navy, and the
United States Courts. So thoroughly
has this political falsehOod been infused
into their minds that the colored people
are to-day without State pride, and only
think of themselves as members of the
Republican party. Who has heard a
colored man boast of being Georgian,
or CaIolinian, or an Albanian, or the
citizen of any State? All they cherish
is their Republican nationality"
In consequence of this, the Afro
American race is not merely the ignorant
tool of the Radical leaders, but, in truth,
their very slaves; held in political tolls
of party service, as stringent as were the
old bonds of personal slavery. Do they
get office at the North and West2 They
do the work while their masters sit in
the custom houses, post offices, internal
revenue offices, etc. Do they hope to
get office? Perhaps, but only a small
proportion at the South succeed. OF
the fifteen thousand negroes in Savan-
nah, how many hold office And
measuring the time these few have been
feeding at the public crib, and the hold
they seem to have upon their offices,
what are the chances for the thousands
who do the work at the elections to get
even one bundle of fodder? Not many.
The track" and "feed trough" belong
exclusively to the white carpetbaggers,
scalawags and coiOred drivers" who
oversee the ignorant colored hands, who,
having no pride at stake within their
bosOms, are the slaves of any Republican
"bOs ses, whether from Boston, Chicago,
Skowhegan or Kalamazoo.
This is the present position of the
negro in politics. How long is he to
continue in it? The answer is plain, viz (:
Until he becomes intelligent enough to
understand his privileges as a citizen OF
a State as well as of the United States;
and, freeing himself from the thraldom
of party, becomes in its full meaning a
freeman-a free citizen of Georgia, for
instaDce-and of the Federal Union. At
present the negro in the abstract dares
not think for himself and chose his poll
tical affiliations The more intelligent
have cast off the Republican collar, and
their influence is largely felt, though, as
a rule, stolid ignorance and credulity
still bind the race in Radical chains.
The negro is improving, however.
Already he is beginning to look
upon the Radical claim that because
he is negro ne must be a Radical is
manifestly presumptuous, and there is
good reason to believe that during the
next decade his condition will be, both
mentally and politically, decidedly
changed for the better If it is not, his
true friends must abandon hope.
The New York Financial and Com
mercial Bulletin concludes that the pres
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