The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-08-01
never heard. What object the writer had In
view seems hard to determine By reading the

never heard. What object the writer had In
view seems hard to determine BY reading inc
article.
He saws further. adverting to the attitude oil
Southern representatives before the war: Inc
labor they represented being the personal and
political property OF those who represented H.
they were Jealous to the last degree OF every en-
croachment upon it rights, and no Legislation
was permitted which could effect its power.
don't wish 10 misunderstood the article or lead
Others to do so, but it seems to have been IN
tended to induce The colored people to lay ASIDE
all aspirations and place themselves as near the
position they occupied before the war as possible,
and let some high toned scion Of the old regime
represent them as he did years ago" stay home,
boys, attend to your work, we don't need you
until election day-then come up, vote Tor me
and GO back no need for you to know anything
about politics or parties; know what is for
your interest better than you, so don't interfere
Such men as Lee of Duval, Chandler of Marion.
Ballard of Nassau, have not the power "politi-
cally or otherwise" nor do they sustain suffi-
cient influence to have their rights respected
nor can they give to labor that "force and
dignity it deserves" Still we are asked to
support an Independent party. If we have no
power what good will we do? We must get
out of politics to prevent prejudice, and to draw
to us the aid of other laborers.
On the whole, the article exhibits the fact that
the editor, and leaders of the party for which he
speaks, has not advanced one step beyond the doc
trines held by the most ultra Democrats at the
close of the war-that the negro was and always
would be unfit for self government, and needed
guardian to regulate. fix and protect his moral
social and political welfare. AS early in our
political history as The closing hours of the leg
islatve session of 1868, the present honorable
Attorney General, then member from Franklin
county, paid the highest compliment to the cour-
tesy, dignity and intelligence Of the colOred
members, and his sentiments were reiterated and
endorsed by the Independent candidate for Con-
gress, then member from Walton. And still,
after fifteen years of political education, when
we have men as infinitely superior TO the colored
members of that House as Henry Clay was to a
backwoOds stump orator, TO be told that we must
eschew politics and voluntarily assume the posi-
ton of vassals to obtain power, is humiliating if
not insulting. honor the heightened probity of
the writer in that he has not attempted TO in
veigle the flies to destruction with mOlasses but
has given them vinegar, and if they are caught
ii will be no fault of his
The day is not distant, and Others beside my
self see its approach, when the people OF the
South shall be foremost TO welcome the colored
man to higher plane of moral, political and in
tellectual development, and do full justice to his
powers and capabilities, not as in ante -belum
days nor as a vassal or serf but as a NAN in the
fullest sense of the term H. S. ii.