The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-07-29
The Colored MAJ in Politics.


The attitude of the colored man in
American politics is subject of perpet.
ual interest and remark. 1t is not sat
isfactory attitude. either to him or the
public; and yet almost nothing has been
done to improve it. 1t is claimed thai
the colored people have made notable
progress since their emancipation; that
they are more intelligent, self-reliant,
methodical and industrious-and the as
sertion is strongly supported by facts.
Still they are not what they want to be,
what they ought to be, and what they
were promised they should be. They are
voters only-and not independent and
intelligent voters at that. If they were,
they would be something else. They are
not allowed to hold Office. True, there
is no statute which forbids them to hold
office; but neither is there one that for
bids them visiting the moon; and an es-
say of the lunar enterprise would prom
Use about as successful results as the
other. 1t is charged that in the South
ern States the colored people are habit
ually prescribed and deprived of their
political rights. And yet the Southern
States are the only part of this country
where they are permitted to hold Office
and figure conspicuously in juries. In
the North, they are RECALLED sumptuously
upon the feshless and fiavorless bones
of nominal rights. but they know little
of the sap and substance of that equality
with their white brothers which their
white brothers are never weary of sound
ing as the inevitable chorus Of Northern
politics. Northern laws allow the colored
man to hold Office if he can be elected
to it; but Northern people take particu-
lar care that he shall not be elected,
nor even nominated. In Missouri the
Republicans sometimes nominate col
ored man for an Office, but they never
carry their affection for him SO far as to
elect him. even when they carry the
rest of their ticket. Pennsylvania has
a colored population of IS, 900, 80, 900 of
whom it is estimated are voters; and
New York has a similar population of
IS, 900, 10000 of whom are said TO be
voters; yet. colored men are not allowed
to hold Office in either Pennsylvania or
New York. They are not taken 40
count of, at all, III politics, though both
Pennsylvania and New York are claim
ed to be Republican States. and their
colored people are far superior to those
of Mississippi and South Carolina. A
colored man sat in the Massachusetts,
Legislature few years ago, and the
fact was pointed at as an illustration Of
the superiority of the cultured and
liberal people of that commonwealth to
the unreasonable preiudices that encrust
the less fortunate inhabitants of other
States. But there must have been a
good deal of cant and c'ap-trap about the
matter, for no colnred member has sat in
the Massachusetts, Legislature since, and
it is not probable that another will be seen
there in the next three generations.
Perhaps it is the negro's misfortune.
and it may be that he will overcome it,
in time. But he will never overcome it
by holding meetings and demanding the
rights that are withheld from him. Ho
will never get office by demanding it.
If he is ever to secure the recognition
he covets, it will be by deserving it and
becoming qualified first. Then it viii
follow as an inevitable consequence.
The things that command respect and
Difference from persons and parties in
this country are virtue, intelligence,
public spirit and, last, but not least.
property. The colored people must &C
cumulate property, even if they have to
neglect politics to do it, if they would
command the recognition which the
possession of it ALMOST invariably in
wolves. As long as they are content as
a class to be hewers of wood and draw
ers of water in the social hive, so long
will they be allotted these tasks exclu-
sively in the apportionment of political
favors. No party will or can lift the
negro up. He must lift himself up. or re-
main where he is.-Sk Louis Republican.