The bee., 1883-11-24

During the Presidency Of General Grant a
delegation of colored Republicans from
Southern State once visited Washington to
ask the support of the Administration.
They discussed the condition Of affairs with
one of the members Of the Cabinet, complain
ing that, although they had large majority.
the white people would not let them vote.
"How large is your majority ?" asked the
Cabinet officer, about 10000" "Do you mean
to say that you are 10000 stronger than the
whites, and yet cannot get in your votes!"
swell, sir, you see the white people they have
guns" "And you?' "We did get guns, but
the white people took them all away from US. ="
This Is good illustration of the chief diff
Guilty the Republican party always had to
contend with in its attempts to sustain the
freedmen in the exercise of their political
rights. They were not used TO self-assertion,
were easily cowed. too prone to depend upon
outside help, running to Washington for as
sistance when they had 10000 majority, for
getting that in free country men are what
they make themselves, and that political
rights are safe only in the hands of those who
will defend them. The Administration tried
to hold them; but the consequence OF import
ing white politicians to do what they ought
to have been taught to do for themselves was
disastrous When the carpet-bag system
broke down, the colored Republicans all over
the South were instantly suppressed. Their
organizations disappeared, their majority
were wiped out, and from that day TO this
they have been of no more consideration in
the greater political contests than if they had
no votes. The negro has been entirely elimi-
mated from the calculation of Presidential
chances. And the disheartening thing a
bout it is that he seems SO ready to acquiesce
i'm the injustice.
The colored orators who are denouncing the
recent decision of the Supreme Court as "di-
aboIical," because II has merely defined the
constitutional limit between Federal and
state authority. would do a service TO their
race by dropping the agitation for equal priv
ileges at the dinner table long enough to at
tend to this vastly more important matter of
equal privileges at the polls. The law gives
black people the same political rights as
white people, and the same means of defend
ing their rights, and il is only necessary for
them TO stand up and take what the law al
lows. II is childish to cry out, as one of their
bishops did the other day, that they are ''ab-
solutely unciYiliZed aud outlawed by the
Supreme Court becauee that tribunal has
decided that 1t is not the business of Congress
to legislate for them in the matter OF sleeping
cars and theatre-tickets; and yet to endure
without complaint the political subsection to
which they have voluntarily bent their necks
for seven or eight years. If they were manly
and steadfast at the South in asserting the
e
have no occasion TO trouble Congress in the
minor points of social equality. Men who
vote as they please and insist upon having
their votes counted need never go begging for
civil rights.
Now see this:
''The stay-at-home voters gave the Demo-
Gratis their only crumbs of comfort this year.
In Ohio there were 81, 600 or more, and they
elected Hoadly. In New York there were S0O,-
900, and they elected Democratic candidates
to the minor State officers. but failed on the
Secretary of State and the Legislature. In
New Jersey there must have been at least
60. .0OO-for with the natural increase in three
years full vote would nave been about 26S,-
600. The proportion of stay-at-homes there
being larger than anywhere else-almost a
quarter of the entire vote-they elected
Governor and majority of the House. In
Virginia the proportion of stay-at-home Re-
publicans was larger still, apparently, buthow
large cannot yet be accurately determined,
and they had an excuse in the fear of such
causeless massacres as the one at Danrille.
But the Republicans of the North, who do not
live in terror of the rifles and revolvers of
Democratic mobs ought to feel il q sacred
duty to make up by their fidelity for the fail
ure of those who have not the same freedom.
They have no excuse for being Cipher Citizens
and electing Democratic candidates, even in
what are called ''off years"