The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-22
THE NEGROES IN THE SOUTH.

AhcIc 10 MAOol) pIoNul6Ill dldILl aiming bu6
colored people of the South because of the
success of the Democratic party in the recent
national election, and there is every symptom
of an exodus of the negroes of even greater
proportion than that of few years ago, which
set its face toward Kansas. With its natural
mendacity, the New York Herald charges
this upon the Republican party; but it was
not the Republican party that was responsible
for the Coushatta and Grant parish and Ellen
ton massacres, for the Danville riots, or for
the deliberately planned murders at New
Iberia, La, in which twenty colored men
were killed to prevent any possibility of that
State returning its unquestioned majority for
the Republican candidates. The Republican
party was not responsible for the midnight
rulings of the Ku-klux, nor for the
Red Shirt clubs of South Carolina.
The Republican party is not re-
| sponsible for the laws to be found upon the
statute books of most of the Southern States,
which deprive the negro of the rights proposed
AOI uilL III Il6 udtlO1ldl CONSTITUTION anu laws.
The Republican party is not responsible for
the fraud and the tissue ballots, nor for the
fact that neither State nor federal courts care
| to-, or dare to- enforce the provisions of the
national government for the protection of the
freedom and purity of the ballot. The Re
publican party is responsible for none of these
/ fbir,or- nj
remembrance of which, and with their faculty
to reason from cause to effect, create the
present uneasiness among the colored people
of the Southern States.
There is such a state of affairs in the South
as to cause the most serious apprehensions
The very papers in the North which helped
the solid South into power are dubious of the
result, and are taking hold of the lashing tail
of the Democratic tiger with the greatest APP
prehension. The New York Times says:
Southern men will inevitably have very
great, and may, if they will. have a most
wholesome influence over the policy of the
| party which is to take charge of the executive
mansion next March. The Democratic
party unless it is to make disastrous wreck
| of its opportunities, will have. to cast behind
it many of its old traditions. 1t will have to
come fully up to the progressive demands of
| the time. Whether it is to do so or not de-
ponds largely upon the attitude and the efforts
of the conservative Southern men, and the
I sympathy and support they receive from the
section which they represent. 1t rests with
them to disappoint the fears and Justify the
hopes of those who await the results Of the
change that has beens so long delayed, and
which is to be fraught with important conse-
quences to the country The opportunity to
display the wisdom and patriotism which they
profess will be all that they could wish"
There is nothing very hopeful in the tone of
this editorial. In almost the same spirit of
doubt and fear, Colonel W. L. Trenholm, of
Charleston, s. c., son of the former Secretary
of the confederate treasury, and representa-
tive Southerner, says:
'In my Judgment, the effect of Cleve-
lands election on the South will depend en-
tirely upon the manner in which the white
people of the South act in reference to the ne
gro population. If they are iudicious in their
demeanor, their conversation and their deal
ings with the negroes, / believe the South will
have new era of assured tranquility which
will greatly facilitate the development of its
resources and the lucrative employment Of the
industrial energies of the people. But if the
present state of unrest, apprehension and dis
| trust among the negroes is contin ued, we may
have over many large areas of the South local
troubles that will go very far to neutralize any
good effects that may possibly flow from the
installation of Democratic administration at
Washington. In my Judgment, the wisest
and best thing to do at the present time in
order to fix beyond peradventure whatever
may come out of such an administration is for
the conservative and influential citizens all
over the South to concentrate their intelli-
gence and their endeavors upon the practical
solution of this problem. The importance of
this fully appears when it is considered that
the value of all property and the profitable
ness of all industries in the Southern States
rest upon the foundation of agricultural pros
perity, and that in turn rests upon negro la
Dor"
This is not very reassuring, certainly. We
are forced back to the consideration of how
the Southern people accept their victory the
spirit they show, the purpose they indicate,
and in making up this Judgment we must seek
the evidence from Southern sources, and the
best and most representative We can have &C
cess to. For instance Ex-Governor Brown Of
Tennessee, a representative Southern man
surely, in speech at st. Louis said;
'The flag of the South went down in war,
but, thank God, it did not go down in dis
honor Tonight we rejoice that the men who
bore it have asserted their supremacy"
Says the Atlanta Constitution, one of the
most conservative papers in the South:
"The Saxon blood and brain of the South
rose superior to the emergency, however, and
the Acknowledgement of the negroes has Sim
ply added thirty-seven electoral votes to the
Democratic half of the college. Had the
negroes never been enfranchised Blaine