The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-14
A SOUTHERN sP0OK.

Inc Charleston News ana courier mas the
nightmare Its hallucination arises from
the same old source-the colored man. In
times past he has vexed the dreams of South
ern Democrats of every degree An unin-
vited but ever present guest, he has stalked
through their banqueting halls, and unbid-
den has sat at their feasts. Shadowy phan-
tom, portentous of indescribable dangers to
peculiarly Southern institutions, he has
never been beyond the vision of terrified
leaders of Southern opinion. Before the
war the black man was a "snark," because
he was always plotting the slaugh-
ter of his white owner During
the war he developed into a
vertable "boojum" as a contraband and
friend of the enemy. Since the war, and es-
pecially since the time the Republican party
clothed him with the right of suffrage, he
has been a combination of the two and the
ice is phenomenally thick on the Gulf when
/ Southern man passes night not haunted
by this spook The News and Courier is in
possession of information of the direst char
acter and of the truth of which there can
be little doubt. Like all great truths, it has
come to the public through private sources,
and what comes from that direction
is generally trustworthy. 1t is to the
effect that the colored leaders in
Washington have determined upon grand
colonization scheme Cooking to complete
separation from the white people in all their
relations" Now a colored colonization
scheme is not so horrible to South Carolina
politician lift only selects the right place.
Liberia is good country, and New Mexico
| isn't bad, but when it comes nearer home,
it is not to be thought OF. Just here is
where the News and Courier's particular
nightmare glides in upon its startled vision
while its eyes bug out and hang down like
twin icicles. The movement has its eyes
fixed on aristocratic South Carolina. The
! negroes already outnumber the whites in that
State-that is, in the census report-while
at the ballot-box they are still in a hopeless
minority, and now they propose secretly OBJ
tanning ownership of the whole country ly
ing between the Edisto and Savannah rivers,
and extending from the sea to Aiken coun-
ty. Negroes are to be encouraged to emil
CRATE thither from all parts of the country,
and by making the situation as disagreeable
as possible, freeze out the white people,
force them to sell their property and seek
homes elsewhere. In course of time, by &C
quiring additional territory, South Caro-
lima will ultimately be converted into
black republic" While such a consumma-
ton is so grotesquely absurd that only
a Democratic editor could conjure
it up, it would be fine irony of justice to
have just such metamorphosis take place. 1t
would in measure atone for the wrongs so
long perpetrated against the negroes by the
white Democrats of that State.
But, after little reflection, the News and
Courier regains courage and takes a more
cheerful view of the prospect. 1t ridcules the
idea that the blacks can crowd out the whites,
and declares that the only result of any consid-
cradle influx of colored people would be to
course, cheaper than it now is. 1t is hardly
probable that any such wild scheme is con-
templated. 1t would be failure without
doubt, and ought to be failure. This is no
country for clans or cliques. There is no
greater need for a solid black republic than
for q solid South The interests of the peo-
pie are too closely allied to allow of such ex-
clusion. If any such move is really contem-
plated it should be abandoned at once and
forever. 1t ought to be the highest ambition
of our colored fellow-citizens to be good citi-
zens of the American republic and being
that, they will be great deal more than are
many Southern Democrats We give the
colored leaders credit for too much common
sense to be foolish enough to contem plate
the founding of a COLONY