The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-08-30
THE SOLID NEGRO-SOUTH.

THE SOLID NEGRO.SOUTH.
And now it is said the ..solid negro
south" must go. Tom Hamilton. a
prominent negro politician, has lately
startled stalwart Republican circles
by publishing a letter in the Charleston
News and Courier, in which he an
nounces the negro must now throw off
the shackles of political slavery. Of
course Tom Hamilton comes in at
once for liberal share of abuse from
the Republican organs, but it is not
alone in South Carolina that the move
among the negroes for breaking up
the solid negrO-SOuth gains favor.
The move has already had its effect
in good many localities in various
states. In West Virginia an influen-
tial negro, an intelligent lawyer, has
taken the field in advocacy of the
election of Democrats, proclaiming
that he will hereafter devote his
energies to exposing the SySte-
matte swindles inflicted on his
people by their avowed emanci-
pators and guardians. Professor
IL. L. Greener. now of Washington
City, declares the time is ripe for a
second emant ipation which will liber-
ate the negroes from servitude to
political party, valuing him only for
his vote, extending to him equal civil
rights only in name. Other leading
npOrOaS haUa aYpraccaJ Uaru ro,,.b tbo
same views in even stronger
language, and the signs are multiply
ing on every haad that, with the ex-
ception of few officeholders at
Washington and elsewhere, the great
body of the colored people are pre-
pared to stand UP for their rights and
to demand an eqaal share in the distri-
button of partisan patronage. 1t is
this sentiment which leads the negro
to contemplate colonization, seeking
through such means to emancipate
himself from bondage. In a letter
to the New York Times. Mr..
Fortune, the editor of the New York
Globe and a representative of the
best colored sentiment of the
country, shows that the negroes have
ample cause to be dissatisfied with the
treatment they have received from
the Republican party. He charges
that the settlement of the questions
growing out of the election of Hayes
and Wheeler, and the infamous terms
by which the state governments of
Florida. South Carolina and Louisiana
were turned over to the Democracy,
was "one of the blackest crimes in the
catalogue OF factional treachery;" that
the whining, vacillating, temporizing
policy adopted by Hayes in carrying
out the stipulations by which he came
into the presidency has completely
dlsgusted every thoughtful colored
man i'll the country" that the treat
ment Of the delegation OF Southern
colored men which waited on Presi-
dent Garfield at Mentor was an 'eye-
opener" for the race, and that his |
whole treatment of colored men after |
his inauguration as president showed |
the contempt in which he held the !
race and that the course pursued by |
President Arthur in giving into the |
hands of such men as Chambers, |
Cash, Longstleet and Speer the con-
troll of the party in the South "has
thoroughly disgusted intelligent col
ored men, who have borne the heat |
and burden of the day" To show that !
the discomfort Of the cplored men is a
very serious matter, Mr.. Fortune con-
tends that the conduct Of the colored
voters in the last elections in Rhode |
Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and |
Massachusetts gave ample proof that !
"they were not all of them machines" |
If, i'll view of the dissatifactiOn of the |
colored voters of the country at the
conduct of their masters, certain paid !
representatives Of the race were en- |
gagged to secure a convention of the
people from all states to meet
at Washington, where the delegates
might be piled with arguments, secur-
ing strong endorsement from the
party now in control of the federal
the idea being that
through such endorsement the negro
vote might be polled solidly as in the
past, But the proposition was met
with such fierce opposition by sensi-
BILE colored men all over the country, !
that the place of meeting was changed
to Louisville. Still suspicion hangs
around the movement, and in only
three or four states have delegates
been named. The existing sentiment
among negroes shows that the bosses
have lost their grip. In Virginia the
ranks of the negroes are broken up;
in Georgia they are beginning to re-
gard the Republicans as their worst |
enemies; in Mississippi they are COM
bining with the Democrats; in Ken
lucky, at the recent election, thous-
ands of black ballots were cast for
the Democratic candidate for COVER
nor, and in South Carolina In every
since 1876 the colored |
strength of the Democracy has in.