The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-13
INTELLIGENCE, EDUCATION, AND MUIR


ment" Their plea is that education and in
telligence must rule and that to secure this
the negro vote must be Kept under, or that
public affairs shall not be Influenced by ne
gro sentiment. Education aud intelligence
do rule everywhere With few exceptions
of short duration this has been the expert
ence of all times. The Goths and Vandals
overran Rome when Rome had been the
but skin-clad barbarians, skilled only
in rudest warfare, and mighty be-
cause toughened by hardship and
exposure. But Ostrogoth and Visigoth,
Vandal and Hun, could not hold what they
had seized. They were swallowed up by the
intelligence they had invaded.
Education and intelligence do rule. This
is true in every nation and among every peo-
pie under the sun. If. there be exceptions,
they are but exceptions, and can not endure.
1t matters not what form of government it
may be, the best intelligence directs If it
be an autocracy the Car, or Khedive or
Sultan is influenced by the ablest councillors
he can secure. England is monarchy, but
who will say that Victoria rules
is the present moving power? And why he
than any other man, except that he is fitted
by disabilities to conduct that empires vast
affairs. The same rule holds in America
MI 8
fairs. It is the Websters and Calhouns and
Clays and Summers and Mortons who direct
things, and leave their impress on legislation
that stands The ablest men are at the head
of their respective parties. If one wishes
Democratic sentiment he looks to Bayard, or
Randall, or Mcdonald. 1t is such men as
Edmunds, Blaine and Sherman, now living,
who give guidance to the Republican party
1t is a measure of self-defense that makes
the people push forward the ablest men as
leaders. 1t was so in war, it is no less true
in peace But intelligence and education
have no need of resortng to violence to hold
their place against the ignorant and vicious.
If the best education and intelligence in Vir-
gina are united to maintain good govern
ment, no other power can hold out against
them. The best intelligence has no need of
an argument ad hominem. Nor will the
best sentiment of any community
resort to the revolver. 1t is al
ways confession of weakness
and a revelation of brutality for any person
or people to appeal to violence. Sooner or
later the best sentiment of Virginans must
control that State That such sentiment
will favor the suppression of the colored vote
is not to be believed without insulting the
best element of society in that State Ma
hone has been beaten, it may be finally. 1t
matters little, however, for the principle of
popular suffrage would survive a dozen such
reverses. Bloodshed cannot permanently
kill the spirit of liberty. Malone may sink
into obscurity, never again to emerge, but
some other will take up the work and carry
it on. .R
The perverted education and intelligence
of Virginia may for time ntimidate legal
voters and drive them away from the ballot
box. But the plan cannot be perpetuated
There is juster sentiment in higher quar-
tiers that will compel justice, not necessarily
by violence, but by political retribution.
There was a time when the education and
intelligence" of the entire South favored
slavery. This institution was so strenuously
upheld that civil war was inaugurated
in its behalf. The institution
thus upheld went down in irretriev-
able ruin despite the united and
determined support that came to its help.
1t will be so in this instance, Justice will
eventually prevail. The education and in
telligence, the conscience of the American
people will not allow the very foundation of
our form of government to be destroyed
The free-voting citizens of other States can
not allow a mob or canalle of eminently re-
spectacle Virginans to carry the vote of that
State in their pockets, Virginians may have
to be left to the tender merces of the revolv-
ers of their enlightened fellow
citizers in matters of State concern,
but in federal elections the
question takes on another phase, and it is
hardly probable that the people of the Unit
ed States can be brought to consent to al
low any party or mob to prejudice the YER
dict that bears upon federal affairs. 1t is
Infamous that people, white and black, can
not vote their sentiments freely anywhere.
In general elections it is dangerous to allow
this fundamental privilege to be abridged.
The attitude OF those who claim to represent
the better sentiment of the Old Dominion is
one of hostility to good government. 1t is
undemocratic and at variance with the spirit