Daily Kennebec journal., 1884-11-19

decisive element which gave to that section
the control OF the National Government
Speaking now, not at all as a defeated candi-
date. but simply as a loyal and devoted
American | think the transfer of the political
power of the government to the South is a
great national misfortune. 1t is misfortune
because it introduces an element which can
not insure harmony and prosperity to the
people. because it introduces into Republic
the rule of a minority.
The first instinct of an American is equal
ity-equality of right. equality of privilege
equality of political power-that equality
which SAYS to every citizen. your vote is
just as good, just as potential as the vote of
any other citizen" That cannot be said
to-day in the United States The course of
affairs in the South has crushed out the
political power of more than six million
American citizens and has transferred it by
violence to others There are f0rty-two
Presidential electors assigned to the South on
account of the colored population, and yet
the eolored population with more than eleven
hundred thousand loyal votes have been una
bic to choose single elector. Even in those
States where they have a decided majority of
more than a hundred thousand they are
deprived of free suffrage. and their rights as
citizens scornfully trodden under foot. The
eleven States that comprised the Rebel Con-
federacy had BY the census of 1880 seven and
a half million white population. and five
million three hundred thousand colored
population. The colored population almost
to man desire to support the republican
party, but by system OF cruel intimidation,
and by violence and murder. whenever
violence and murder are required,
they are absolutely deprived of all
political power If the outrage stopped there
1t would be bad enough But it does not stop
there, for not only is the negro population
disfranchised but the power which rightly
and constitutionally belongs to them is trans
ferred to the white population, enabling
the white population of the South TO
exert an electoral influence far beyond that
exerted by the same number of white people
in the North. 70 illustrate just how that
works to the destruction of all fair elections,
let me present to YOU five States in the late
Confederacy and five loyal States of the
North. possessing in each section the same
number of electoral votes. In the South the
States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia and South Carolina, have, in the
aggregate, forty eight electoral votes. They
have two million eight hundred thousand
white people and over three million colored
people. In the North the States of Wisconsin,
Minnesota Iowa. Kansas and California, have
likewise in the aggregate forty Eight electoral
votes, and they have white population of
five million six hundred thousand, or just
double the five Southern States which | have
named. These Northern have practically no
colored population. 1t is therefore evident
that the white men in those Southern States
By usurping and absorbing the rights
of the colored men are exerting just double
the political power of the white men in the
I r frtn do hat
such a condition of affairs is extraordinary
unjust and derogatory to the manhood of the
North. Even those who are vindictivey
opposed to negro suffrage will not deny that
! if Presidential electors are assigned to the
South by reason of the negro population, that
population ought to be permitted free suffrage
in the election. To deny that clear proposition
is to affirm that southern white man in the
Gulf States is entitled to- double the political
power of a Northern white man in the Lake
States. 1t is to affirm that Confederate sol.
dier shall WELD twice the influence in the
nation that Union soldier can, and that
perpetual and constantly increasing superior
ity shall be conceded to the Southern white
man in the Government of the National
Union If that be quietly conceded in this
generation, it will be hardened into custom,
until the badge of inferiority will attach to
the Northern white man as odiously rs ever
Norman noble stamped it upon Saxon
church
This subject is of deep interest to the
laboring men of the North. With the South
ern democracy, triumphant in their States
and in the nation, the negro will be compelled
to work for Just such wages as the whites may
decree-wages which will amount, as did the
supplies of the slaves, to a bare subsistence,
equated in cash, perhaps at thirty-ive cents per
day. if averaged over the entire South. The
white laborer will soon feel the destructive
effect of this upon his own wages. The re-
publican party has clearly seen from the
earliest DAYS of reconstruction. that wages
IN the South must be raised 10 a just recon-
pence of the laborer, or wages in the
North ruinously lowered, and it has
steadily worked for the former result.
The reverse influence will now be
set in motion and that condition of affairs re-
produced which years ago Mr.. Lincoln warned
the free laboring men of the North will prove
hostile to their independence and will inev
itably lead to a ruinous reduction of wages. A
mere difference in the color of the skin will
not suffice to maintain entirely different
standard of wages in contiguous and adjacent
States. and the voluntary will be compelled
to WELD to the involuntary. So completely
have the colored men in the South been
Already deprived DN Ine uempcThllc party OF
their constitutional and legal rights as citizens
of the United States, that they regard the
advent of that party to national power as the
signal of their re-enslavement, and are
affrighted because they think all legal pro-
lection for them is gone
Few persons in the North realize
how completely the chiefs of the rebel
lion WELD the political power which
has triumphed in the late election.
1t is portentous fact that the demo-
cratic senators who come from the States of
the late Confederacy, all, and | mean all
without a single exception, personally par
ticpated in the rebellion against the National
Government. II is a still more significant fact !
that in those States man who was loyal to the |
Union. no matter how strong democrat he
may be today, has the slightest chance of po |
ltical promotion. The one great avenue to
honor in that section is the record of jealous
service in the war against the Government.
1t s certainly astounding that the section in
which friendship for the Union in the day of
its trial and agony is still political disquali-
fication. should be called now to rule over the
Union. All this takes place during the life
time of the generation that fought the war
and elevates into practical command of the
American government, the identical men
who organized for its destruction and plunged