Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-10-24
Plain Facts for the Colored People.

Editor Morning Nea0s: By your per-
mission, propose to address few sim
pie, plain truths to our colored people,
feeling the importance of the fact that
they have arrived at period in their
history when reason and not passion
will be the controlling element in their
votes and actions.
In the first place, TO all such, desire
to say: the whites owe you debt of
gratitude for your noble conduct and
kindness to their families while thou
sands upon thousands were absent dui;ng
the war. You could have given them a
great deal of trouble and brought dis
tresses upon them; but you did not.
You could have made the war much
more brutal and horrible, but you did
not. Hence, l am free to confess that
we owe you debt of gratitude, and that
il is a duty for your white Southern
friends to be kind to you and advance
your material and educational interests
Pc far as they can. Judging from daily
observation, and from the rapid strides
that YOU have made towards wealth and
intelligence, it is safe to say that you
have been kindly treated and encouraged
bv the Southern whites, who are moved
by gratitude, charity and interest, for it
is greatly to our interest for you to be
prosperous and happy, since when you
are so it adds to our prosperity and hap
piness.
You were turned foot loose immedi
atelv after the war with freedman's
bureaux established professedly for your
relief, but while they might have done
YOU some good, the carpetbaggers and
scalawaos appointed to distribute arti-
cles got the biggest share themselves.
They induced you to put your scanty
earnings in the Freedman's Bank and
they swindled you in that. They col
lected tax for educational purposes
and robbed you and us out of over two
hundred thousand dollars, and but for
the Southern whites, with few good
Northern men scattered in the country,
YOUR lot would to-day be hard one
indeed.
We have had a hard summer. The
Door man has ''seen sights and heard
sounds" but not the sounds of pros.
perity. The whole country is on the eve
of financial trouble, and the party in
power at Washington is responsible for
the present state of affairs and should be
repudiated. The Republican party has
fulfilled its mission, and the sooner it is
dissolved the better for all races, classes,
conditions and sections; for the only
party holding the principles that
will bring prosperity to our
common country, if properly
carried out, is the Democratic.
1t is the party of the people, white and
black. 1t is the party of honesty aud
economy. 1t is the party that should be
over all for all, and its candidates should
be supported. for their interests are your
interests. We are one and inseparable in
prosperity or adversely. Remember that.
The interests of the races are welded to-
gether, and when you touch one race
YOU touch both; hence the great i'm
portance of our living in peace and act
ing in unity politically and against the
party that looks to passion and not rea-
SON for success in the South.
The candidates in this Congressional
district are Colonel Nichols, Democrat,
and Colonel Atkins, Republican.
Nichols is the candidate of those who
give you employment by which you get
food and clothing for yourselves and
families, and is bound to leglslate for the