The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-07-04

government, 20 much the worse for the
black belt. Il il q " nuisance and must
be RENTED to the uncertainties, the sus-
/ pense and anxieties of period only re-
membered with fear and dread.
/ What Of the g black belt what reIa-
ton does it bear to the other counties in
respect of population, &C.. Let as see;
In respect of population: The whole
population of the State is given by the
census of 1880 as 269,493. Of this there
are in the black belt 1873, sos, leaving to
the other thirty counties ls5,79s inhab-
itants. Of the lss,695 people in the
black belt, eo,ls2 are negroes, leaving
1865 whites. In the other counties
there are 1855 blacks to 97,94s whitesl
| In respect of taxable resources: The
last Comptroller's report shows that the
taxable resources of the State were $780,
243,523 in 1881. The same report gives
the property return of the black belt at
$l5,sO4,2S ninety-nine hundredths of
which belongs to the whites.
| In respect of taxes contributed The
total Of State taxes assessed in 1881 was
| 1906, 065.l4, one-half of which was to
| pay the current expenses of the State
government and the other half was for
interest on the public debt and for gen.
eral school fund, and the amount assessed
for county purposes was $500, 765. IA;
making the total State and county tax as
sessed in 1881, $665, s3O.2s. The nine
counties Of the black belt paid of the
State tax $l25, 95o.5s and Of the county
tax $l7l. 3o9.l7, making Of the State and
county taxes paid by the belt 1921, 259.75,
or within 81, 3lO.7s as much as was paid
by all the other counties in the State,
thirty in number.
| THESE pregnant facts point Significantly
| to the important relation which these few
counties sustain to the wealth, growth and
prosperity Of the whole State. In re-
s. eted political sense their Importance is
equally as great. It is in the black belt
where the chief strength of the Radical
party is to be found. Their possession of
the election machinery gave them oppor-
tunities for swelling their vote at pleasure
and furnished the means for perpetuating
their power. In 1876, Stearns, the Re-
publican candidate for Governor, received
| l6,4ll votes in these nine counties, and
in the balance of the State he got only
1905 votes, 1888 of which came from
Escambia. Drew received GAGS votes in
the "belt y and 1915 elsewhere, l,43l
of which were given in Escambia In
1880 Conover received l4,5O4 votes in
the black belt, or 1907 less than were
given to Stearns, and s,sO4 in the other
counties, or l ,O99 more than Stearns got,
while thevote for Bloxham was lO,44O in
the belt, or 992 more than Drew received,
the Democratic gain therein being 2,s79, or
more than one-half of Bloxham's majority
in the whole State, which was 5,06S. His
vote outside of the black belt was H.
933. Do not such facts as these indi-
cate the danger of any action, unless prop
erly and wisely guarded, which would
make it possible for the party of igno-
rance and cupidity to possess themselves
again of the election machinery in these
counties, to say nothing of the blow such
possession would give to the rising hopes
of the order-loving and property holding
people therein ?
| To sum up: The black belt" contains
within a fraction of one-half the popula-
ton Of the State, has nearly As per cent
Of all the taxable resources, pays about
the same per cent. of all the taxes, and
gives in the neighborhood of 38 per cent
of the Democratic vote cast in the whole
State. It's drawbacks are the presence of
nearly IS per cent. of all the negroes
within the commonwealth, which deprives
the tax-paying people in the belt, except in
exceptional cases, of any voice in shaping
Legislation or in controlling questions
vital to the whole State and especially so
to themselves Being thus powerless, the
people of these counties have necessarily
to look for protection against vicious leg
islation to their brethren of the white
counties. No one among us is in love with
the appointing power so-called in the
hands of the Governor. Not one in a
thousand seeks Office or expects place.
They simply look upon the existing mode
of providing local officers as better
means of protection to all their cherished
interests, social, moral and religious, than
the more Democratic plan of choosing
them by unrestricted ballot, which they
cannot help regarding as no protection at
ALL
| Having few days of idle time recently
the writer concluded to make a trip up
the st. Johns river, taking in St. Angus
tine and Palatka. The time, however,
was so limited that when Orange county