The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-11-19

issippi, Alabama, Georgia and South
| Carolina, have an aggregate of forty
eight electoral votes. They have 2, $780,
900 people and over 300 900 colored peO-
pie; In the north the States of Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Califor-
MIA, have likewise an aggregate OffOrty-
eight electoral votes, and they have a
white population of $780, 600, or Just
double the five southern States which l
have named. These northern States
have practically no coiored population
1t Is. therefore. evident that the white
men in those southern States, by usurp-
ing and absorbing the rights of colored
men, are exerting just double the poll
tlcal power of the white men in the
northern States. l submit, my
friends, that such condition of affairs
Is extraordinary. unjust and derOgatOry
to the manhood of the north. Even
those who are vindictively opposed to
negro suffrage will not deny that if the
Presidential electors are so assigned to
the south by reason of the negro popula-
ton, that population ought to be per-
mitted free suffrage in the election. To
deny that clear proposition is to affirm
that the southern white man in the Gulf
States is entitled to double the
political power of the northern
white man in the Lake States. 1t
is to affirm that the Confederate
soldiers shall WELD twice the influence
in the nation that the Union soldier
can, and that perpetual and constantly
increasing superiority shall be conceded
TO the southern white man in the
government election. If that is to be
quietly conceded in this generation, it
will harden into a custom until the
badge of inferiOrity will attach to the
northern white man as odiOusly as
ever Norman noble stamped it upon
Saxon churl. This subject is of deep
interest to the laboring men of the
north. With southern 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, equal in cash. perhaps,
| TO Soc. per day. If this average
reaches over the entire south, the
white laborer in the north will
soon feel the distinctive effect of this
upon his own wages. The Republicans
have clearly seen from the earliest days
of reconstruction that wages in the
south must be raised to Just recon-
pense of the laborer, or the wages in the
north ruinously lowered, and the party
have steadily worked for the former re-
suit. 4 reverse influence will now be
set in motion. and that condition of
affairs produced which, years ago, Mr..
Lincoln warned the free labOring men
of the north, will prove hostile to
their independence and will newt
ably lead TO a ruinOus reduction
of wages. The mere difference of color
of skin will not suffice to maintain an
entirely different standard in the wages
of contiguous and adjacent States, and
voluntary will be compelled TO yield to
the involuntary. So completely have
the colored men in the south been al
ready deprived by the Democratic 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 sig
, nal of their enSlavement. and are
affrighted because they think all legal
protection for them is gone Few per-
SONS in the north realize how completely
the chiefs OF the rebellion WELD the
political power that has triumphed i'll
the late election. 1t is q pOrtentOus
fact that the Democratic Senators who
come from the States of the late Confed-
eracy, all-and l mean all, without a
single exception personally partici-
pated in the rebellion against the ma
tiOnal government: 1t is still more
significant fact that In those States
no man who was loyal to the
Union, no matter how strong
Democrat he may be to-day, has the
slightest chance of political promotion.
One of the greatest claims to honor in
that section is the record of jealous
inf Tho 1-ar tho
ment. 1t is certainly an astounding
fact that the section in which friend
ship for the Union in the day of its trial
and agony is still political
disqualification, should be called
now to rule over the Union. All this
takes place during the lifetime of the
generation that fought In the war, and
elevates into practical command OF the
American government the identical
men who organized for its destruction
and plunged US into the bloodiest con-
test OF modern times. I have spoken of
the south as placed by the late election
in possession of the government, and /
mean all that my words imply. The
south furnished nearly three-fourths of
the electoral votes that defeated the Re-
publican party, and they will step to
the command of the Democrats as IN
challenged and as unrestrained as when
they held the same position for thirty
years before the war Gentlemen.
there cannot be political inequality
among citizens of a free republic. There
cannot be a minority of white men
in the south ruling majority of white
men III the north. Patriotism.
self-respect, pride, protection for per-
son as safely for the country, all cry
out against ii. The very thought of It
stirs the blood of men who inherit
equality from the Pilgrims who first
stood on Plymouth Rock, and from
the iberty-loying patriots who came
to Delaware with William Penn. 1t
becomes the primal question of Ameri
can manhood. 1t demands 2 hearing
and settlement, and that settlement
viii vindicate the equality of American
citizens in all personal and civil
rights. 1t will, at least. estab-
liSh the equality of white men
under the national government,
and VIII give TO the northern man who
fought to preserve the Union as large a
voice in its government as may be ex-
ercised by the southern man who fought
TO destroy the Union. The contest Just
closed utterly dwaris the fortunes and
fate of the candidates whether success
ful or unsuccessful. purposely, may
saw, instinctiyeiy. have discussed the
issues and consequences of that