Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1883-06-01

Th6 StauntOn VINDICATOR Gays that
the negro has no right to Office. In the
same sense that white man has no right
to Office, this is true.-and in that sense
only. If the electing or appointing power,
however, choose to elect or appoint a col
and unquestionable as that of white
man in like case.-Richnl0nd Whig.
What the VINDlCAroRd did say was this:
'To be school trustee is not one of the
political rights of the Negroes of Virginia,
and if they attempt to exercise it they will
deprive white school children of their
rights of public education" Nevertheless
the Why invites US. While office-holding
is as much the privilege Of The Negro as of
the white man under the law. it is priv
ilege that is not extended to him by the
dominant race. and the Coalition party has
so recognized it in the past. While Negro
has as much legal privilege to fill the Gov
ernorship as Governor Cameron, or to have
gone to Congress from the overwhelmingly
black Fourth District of Virginia as its
present white Coalition representative,
or to have been made U. s. Senator
instead of Mr.. RiddIeberger, to whom this
elevation was only made attainable
through the weight of the black vote, no
Negro was ever thought of for any of
these places. While Negro has as much
legal privilege to be an officer of the Au-
gusta county court, or to be registrar OF
Augusta, or 10 be on the school boards of
Augusta. no appointment of black man
has been made to any OF these offices. OF,
to our know ledge even been contemplated.
While the negroes of the Northern and
Western States of this Union cast large
vote and have the same legal privilege to
60 to Congress from those States as the
white man, none have ever been SO sent.
even where the negro vote was actually
necessary to make up the Republican ma
iority. If it was matter of justice and
right to appoint Negroes on the School
Board in Richmond. to which they could
never have been elected by the people there,
why is not that justice done to the Negro
here in the Valley of Virginia?
It may be true that these appointments
of blacks are the result of pressure from
this class of ignorant voters which the
Coalition leaders cannot resist, and van
ity which they must, to retain their politl-
cal power, cater to; but that very truth
makes the situation all the more grave and
should operate to bin ! the intelligent white
men of the State together in self defence.
1t will not do to puff away the mixed
school spectre as thin air, you must look
at the progress of events. The blacks of
Virginia of this generation, while not
specially ambitious to qualify themselves
to fill offices are certainly developing
an excellent appetite for them, and there
| is as strong a development of yielding
to it by the Coalition leaders.
The Wing asks this question:
Why did not the EIND1cAToR raise this
howl and issue in 1874, when KeInper,
Daniel. and Ruffner appointed Washing.
| and Hill, both colored. to the Board OF
Trustee, of the Schools Of Petersburg
Why did it not do the same under Holli-
day, among whose last acts as member
of the State School B ,ard, was the appoint
ment of ,lorad school truste s in various
parts of the Stat ? Why did it not do it
when the Bourbons and Funders of Char
Iottesville nominated and elected colored
COuncilmen
That is a long TINA ago and we know lit
tie of the circumstances attending those
appointments; indeed we did not know of
any such appointments having been made;
but we no more approve of it by Kemper
and Ruffner-if they did it, than we do of
rather SUSPECT. without knowing, that it
was one of Gen. Mahone's 'tsmart' arIan.
gements, (he vas a Democrat them, tn
| capture the Negro vnte, just as it is noto.