Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-07-10

lanes Republican votes Ia A Radical
| direction, and for nothing else What
ever. We have yet to meet an honest
Republican who, having obtained his
knowledge Of his Southern neighbors
at first hands, did not express himself
very much as did the gentleman from
Michigan.
But in this Fand similar instances
scant justice is done to the negro. He
is hardly as black as he is painted"
The wonder is, not that he is no bet
ter, but that he is no worse. Eman-
cipated before he was fit for free
dom, and enfranchised while still utter
ly unfit for citizenship, he is like a
child called to do the work of man.
Proper teaching would have done
much for him, but he has had little or
none. The Republican carpet baggers
who fastened to the South as soon as
the fifteenth amendment was adopted,
had an interest in keeping him ignor.
ant and fostering his prejudices against
the Southern whites. In short, the
negro was converted into a political
tool for the Republican party at large,
and used as a cats paw to pull carpet
bag chestnuts out of the fire. As long
as carpet-bag rule lasted, his many
vices we're aggravated and his few
virtues discouraged. He was made to
believe that his best friends were his
enemies, and his real enemies his
best friends. He was literally sled
as a sheep to the slaughter" by the
Republican rogues of high and low
degree who wanted his vote to fur
Their their schemes of ambition or
plumber. Ten years more of such in
fuences as surrounded him from 1865
to 1879, and he would have been hope
lessly ruined. Baving escaped from
the clutches of sham philanthropists
and INSCRIPTIONS demagogues, he is
now in fair way to become all that
nature will allow him TO be. He is
improving; very slowly, indeed, yet
steadily. He is Eot as "lazy, shiftless,
thievish, ignorant" and as much of
general nuisance" as he was. The
Southern people, who know him most
intimately and have suffered most
from him, bear witness to thisimprove-
ment and are doing what they can to
aid it. The following item clipped
from a Republican paper, tells how:
Major Bellamy, who once was one
of Georgia's most prominent slave
holders, now employs one thousand
negroes on his large plantation, each
family has a neat cabin, vegetable
garden and some fruit trees. A plan
tation church and school are also
maintained at the Majors expense"
Ut course not many ex-slaveholders
are able to do as much as Major Bel
lamy, but so far as disposition goes he is
no exception to the rule. Independent
of the higher consideration of human
ity aud justice which the Southern
people fully recognize, they have the
powerful motive Of self-interest. The
negro is with them and must stay with
them. They need his labor and his
vote, and by gaining his confidence
and friendship they materially assist
their own pecuniary and political for
tunes. That they are succeeding in
these worthy efforts is proved by the
complete collapse of the EXODUS"
movement, and by the prevailing peace
and good will between the races. From
1865 to 1877 the whites and blacks in
the South seemed to be drawing fur
Their and further apart; since 1877,
they seem to be drawing nearer and
nearer together. A comparison be-
tween the South Republican and the
South Democratic, reveals many
striking and suggestive features, but
none so striking and suggestive as the
great change for the better in the
mutual relations Of the two races. If
such change has occurred in only
five years, what may we not anticipate
IF the political conditions remain
the same-in twenty? Meanwhile we
commend the sentiments of the con-
verted gentleman from Michigan to
his Republican brethren through
out the North-particularly New En-
gland.