Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-09-21
The Colored People and the Repub-
Z ican Party. e..

49, ncaA Party.s- ~.-g- & 80
The soIored people Of New England
are waking up to the fact that they do
not belong to the Republican party, and
the do not propose to be used much
longer for the special purpose of giving
sthe Republican party predominanee IN
the affairs Of the Republic. The city OF
Newport, r t., has a citizen. Mr. Geo.
T. Downing, one of the most intelligent
cotored men of the country. who pub
fishes his views I'M the Providence
<R. L. Journal, and boldly takes the
position that the Republican party owes
fully as much to the colored people as
the colored people owe to it, and that,
as there is at issue between the two
great parties no question in which the
~colored man is specially interested. he
is at liberty to join whichever one his
present circumstances show to be best
disposed toward him, irrespective of
any sentiment of gratitude for past
favors. Mr.. Downing maintains that
whatever help was given to the negro
by the Republican party was given for
the party's own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and
profit. and not for any philanthropic de-
sire to free the slaves.' Undoubtedly
Mr.. Downing's view of the subject is
correct. Doubtless there were men in
the Republican party who wanted the
slaves emancipated, but the great mass
of the Republican party were not i'm
bued with any such sentiment. With
them emancipation was war measure
and not peace nor 4 humanity matter.
The Union was on one side and slavery
on the other side. If the Union could
be saved by getting rid of slavery.
amen. If the Union could be saved
without getting rid of slavery, amen
again. Is that so? In a letter written
by Abraham Lincoln August %. 1862.
TO Horace Greeley, the President said:
81 would save the Union. l would
save it the shortest way under the Con-
stitution. The sooner the National
authority can be restored, the Eearer the
Union will be the Union as 1t Uas.- If
there be those who would not sare the
Union unless they could at the same
time SAGE slavery, l do not agree with
them. If there be those who would not
SAFE the Union unless they could at the
same time destroy slavery. do not
agree with them. My paramount OBJ
ject in this struggle Is to save the Union,
and is not either to save or destroy
slavery. If 1 could save the Union
s0ithOat freeing any slave would do it;
and if could save it by freeing all the
slaves | would do it; and if could do
1t by freeing some and leaving others
alone L would do that. What I do
about slavery and the colored race / do
because believe it helps to save this
Union, and what forbear, forbear be-
cause do not believe it would help to
save the Union.' q q
Such is the language of the great
leader of the Republican party. Eman-
cipation for the good of the slave,
emancipation in the cause of humanity;
emancipation, owing to the crime and
curse of slavery. form no part of the
Republican idea. 1t was emancipation
for the salvation of the Union. Every
thing turned upon the Union. nothing
upon the well-being of the slave. 1t is
gent colored men have come to the con-
clusion that they owe the Republican
party nothing, and that the Republican
party does owe the colored people much
in point of supremacy. everything
1t is we'll said that without the negro
vote not one branch of the National
Government would be under Republic
an control The slim maiorities in both
Houses of Congress depend upon the
colored voters so entirely that an even
division of these voters between the two
great parties would have left a far
larger balance on the Democratic side
than now exists in favor of the Repub-
Gcans. In the White House sits a Pres
ident elected by the faithful devotion
of the colored people to a phantom ben
= efactor. whose real form was long ago
laid in the grave with Lincoln, Greeley
: and Sumner Intelligent colored men
are everywhere beginning to realize the
fraud of Republican professions of love
for the colored people. and they are
breaking away from its embrace. and the
day is not distant when the Republican
party will find out that the colored people
, fully comprehending its mean treachery
: and false professions, will turn from it
with loathing .-Lndiana State Sentinel