Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-09-13
The Issue in the South.

For some time in the past there has
been manifest in the ranks and ana eng
the leaders of the Democratic party in
Virginia spirit antagonistic to the col
ored race. Among the descendants of the
F. f. VS. caste distinctions have from
Etimo immemorial prevailed to greater
degree than in any other part of the
South. Leaders in the party and mold
ers of public opinion there still assert
that the negro is of a lower order than
the white man and is fitted only to be a
newer of wood and drawer of water,
and they decide in their own minds and
inculcate in the minds of the coming
generation the ideas they have for so
long time held, which were not eradi-
Gated by the long four years war and
the subsequent events that freed the ne
gro and made him citizen. The claim
that the votes of the colored citizens
are in time to be turned ever to the par
ty that kept them in bondage for scores
of years is preposterous, when the con-
dition of the negro in Virginia and the
South is so well known. Many South
ern leaders and speakers for the
party are becoming too polite TO
give utterance to the views they hold III
private and express to their own famil
lar circles. Instead of declaiming against
the negro, politicians in the South make
the most of fiattery and endeavor in
this manner to secure his vote unless
they are sure of overcoming it by the
use of tissue ballots and intimidation.
Some tine since the Richmond State,
published in the capital of Virginia by
Mr.. Beirne, the champion of the code
duello who so recently winged his fel-
loW-editor Elan, in commenting Oh an
editorial in the New York World. made
use of the following language regarding
the colored race in Virginia:
Here in Virginia we have never and
| never will place the white race on the
same level With the negro, save in mat
ters eff common humanity. Socially and
politically, we do not admit his equality,
but insist upon his inferiority and the
superiority of the white race. We do
not hate him Ohe negro), nor have we
any prejudice against him. We only de-
mand that he shall keep his place, and
intrude where he does not belong, that
he remain where nature intended to re-
main, and fulfill the purpose of his Gre
| alton. This is all, and this is the logic
of the situation that the North must re-
cognize, and govern itself by if it would
have peace between the two great sec
| tionS of cur common country. 1t must
| leave us alone to determine for our
selves the solution of the negro queS-
ton, or that question will assume very
threatening proportions, and may be the
cause of more trouble in the future than
it has been in the past.
This is revival of the doctrine that
prevailed before the war, and which
still prevails in the Old Dominion as
well as in ether States and sections in
the South. 1t is of part with the prac-
tice which few days ago led party of
ruffiians to brutally fog negre con-
tractor in Georgia for th9 sole reason
that lie employed colered men and paid
them good wages. The principle sought
to be enforced in this outrage is that
the negro shall be suffered to do the
work, but under white 0verseer in
stead of one of his own color-tbe old
doctrine that the negro has no rights
the white man is bound to respect.
The principal issue in Virginia can
not be said to be strictly between the
repudiators and readjusters; it is the
keeping of the negro under the heel Of
the white. The leading Democratic Or