The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-11-26


of more than six million American
citizens and has transferred it by vi
olence to others. Forty-two Presi
Dental electors are assigned to tn
South on account of the colaret
population, and yet the colored pop
nlation, with more than eleven hun
dred thousand legal votes, has beel
unable to choose a single electoi
Even in those States where the,
have majority of more than a hun
dred thousand they are deprived o
free suffrage, and their rights as cit
liens are scornfully trodden unde
foot. The eleven States that com
prised
THE REBEL coNFEDERACY
had by the census of 1880 7,500,00'
white population and 100000 col
ored population. The colored pop
ulation almost to a man desire t,
support the Republican party, bn
bv a system of cruel intimidation
and by violence and murder, where
ever violence and murder ar,
thought necessary, they are abso
lutely deprived of all political pow,
er. If the outrage stopped there il
would be bad enough. But it doe.
not stop there, for not only is the
negro population disfranchised, bur
the power which rightfully and con-
stitutionally belongs to them j;
transferred to 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.
To illustrate just how it works tc
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 o.
electoral votes. In the South the
States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Al.
ALBANIA, Georgia and South Carolina
have an aggregate of As electoral
votes. They have 100000 white
people, and over 100000 colored
people. In the North the States oi
Wisconsin, Minnesota. Iowa, Kansas
and California have likewise in tie
aggregate As electoral votes. and
they have o white population ol
100000, Just double the five South
ern States which | have named.
These Northern States have practi-
cally 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 Nor
thern States. / submit, my friends,
that such condition of affairs is
extraordinary, unjust and derogato-
~ to the manhood of the North.
Even those who are vindicatively
to negro suffrage will not
deny that if Presidential electors are
assigned to the South by reason of
the negro population, that popula-
ton ought to be permitted free
suffrage in the election.
To deny that clear proposition is
to affirm that a Southern white man
in the Gulf States is entitled to
double the political power of a
Northern white man in the Lake
is to affirm that the Con-
federate soldier shall WELD twice the
influence in the nation that Union
soldier can, and that a perpetual
and constantly increasing superiori-
ty shall be conceded to the South
ern white man in the Government
Of the Union. If that be quietly
conceded in this generation it will
harden into custom, until the badge
Of inferiority will attach to the Nor
,hern white man as odiously as ever
Norman noble stamped it upon
Saxon churl. The subject is ofdeep
interest to the laboring men of the
North. With the Southern Democ-
racy triumphant in their States and
in the nation, the negro will be COM
PEELED to work for just such wages
as the whites may decree-wages
which will amount, as did the sup
plies of the slaves, TO a bare sub
sistence, equal in cash perhaps to
THIRTY FIVE CENTS PER DAY
If averaged over the entire South,
the white laborer in the North will
soon feel the distinctive effect of
this upon his own wages. The Re-
pubIicans haye clearly seen from
their earliest days of reconstruction
that wages in the South must be
raised to a just recompense of the
labor, or wages in the North ruinous-
" lowered, and the party have
steadily worked for the former re-
suit.
The reverse influence will now be
set ia motion, and that condition of
affairs produced which years ago
Mr.. Lincoln warned the free labor
ing men of the North would prove
hostile to their independence, and
will inevitably lead to ruinous re-
duction of wages. A mere difference
in the color OF the skin will not sut-
fee TO maintain an entirely different
of wages in contiguous ard
adjacent States, and the voluntary
will be compelled to yield to the in
So completely have the
colored men in the South been al
ready deprived by the Democratic
party of their constitutional and le-
gal rights as citizens of the United
States that they regard the
advent ofthat party to national pow
er as
THE SIGNAL OF THEIR RE-ESsLAyE-
NEWT,
and are affrighted because they
think all legal protection for them
Is gone. Few persons in the North
realize how completely the chiefs of
the rebellion welded the political
power which has triumphed in the
late election. 1t is portentious
fact that the Democratic Senators
who come from the States of the
late Ccnfederacy, all-and l mean
all without a single exception-per-