The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1884-11-28
One Good Effected by Blaine,


Mr. Blaine has effected one excep.
tionally good result by his reckless
charge made in his Augusta speech,
that the colored voters of the South
"are deprived of free suffrage and their
rights as citizens are scornfully tram
pied under foot" 1t is not creditable
to Mr.. Blaine that he has made the
truth clear to the country by reck-
less false accusation against the South,
but that is his misfortune, and the
good he has effected will measurably
balance his strange and frantic error.
Evidently Mr.. Blaine had forgotten
for the time that there are many very
intelligent colored Republicans in the
South who are honest and truthful, and
his wild attempt to disturb the tran
guilty of the business at the North
aud the harmony of the races of the
South because lie has been defeated Tor
President, has called ont some of the
most Intelligent aud influential colored
Republicans to assert the truth and
put Mr.. Blaine TO shame. They not
only know whereof they speak, but
they have the honesty and the courage
to speak the truth.
The most eminent and trusted color
ed Republican leader of the South is
Ex-senator Bruce, of Mississippi, now
Register of the Treasury. He served
six years in the United States Senate,
where he commanded the respect of
all parties and sections by his ability
and his fidelity to his race. He is pro
voked to plainness of speech by Mr..
Blaine's false accusations against the
South, and he declares that "such ut
tersnces are demagogical in the ex-
treme and wholly unwarranted.' He
adds, also, that "Blaines charges of in
timidation and violence at tho polls are
absolute and unqualified falsehoods."
Mr.. w. A. Pledger, the colored
chairman of the Georgia Republican
State Committee, answers Mr.. Blaine
by published interview in which he
states that the colored vote of that
State will be largely divided, and that
he can give no further support to tie
Repubicanism that Mr.. Blaine repre-
sen,s. Instead of complaining It hin
drance to culored voters, he confesses
the honesty of the Southern vote and
he deserts the party that seeks to grind
the colored people between the upper
and neither mllstones of sectional
strife, by such inhammatory and false
appeals as Mr. Blaine has made to the
country to excuse his defeat.
Another colored Republican leader
well known and highly respected by
all who know him in this city, is Will
liam Still, and he confronts Mr.. Blaines
frantic tanning of the dying embers of
sectional hatred with the declaration
that Democratic victory will be likely
to remove some of the present obstruc
lions to the elevation of the colored
race in the South. No complaint of
hindered colored voters comes from
the representative and trusted men of
the colored race who worked and vo-
ted for Mr.. Blaine but as with one
voice the intelligent and unbiased col
ored men of the South stamp Mr..
Blaine's accusations rs demagoyical
and false.
Hitherto the colored Republican
leaders have had no occasion to speak
out with emphasis on the subject of
the ballot in the South but when a
defeated Presidential candidate at.
tempted to disturb the peace of both
sections by atrociously false charges
against the South he has effected the
one good result of calling out the rep
resentative oolored Republicans to put
the country at rest by proving. as Mr..
Bruce has said, that Mr.. Blaiues Mt
terances "were demagogical and who'll
ly unwarranted," aud that "Blaine's
charges of intimidation and violence
at the polls are absolute and unquali
fed falsehoods." 1t is at much cost tc
Mr.. Blaine's reputation for truthfulnes:
that he has effected this good but the
country will profit by it, and Mr.
Blaine may be forgiven. - Phila