Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-05-06
THE RACE ISSUE.
The White and Black Republican Par.
Ties of Texas.

The following extract from Texas
Siftings, written previous to the Fort
| Worth convention, will be read with
renewed interest In the light shed by
the action of that convention: The
movement on foot among the colored
Republicans of Texas to send only col.
ored delegates 10 the national conyen.
ton, and to demand official patronage
upon basis of voting represent.
ation, Is apparently ill.advised,
although perfectly natural with q
people whose political notions are of
that feverlsh character which goes tc
the brain. Nothing could be more
disastrous to the colored people than
their organization into race party.
Dstinclvely rs such, they provoke a
contest In which all the odds are
against them, and all the advantages
on the other side. AS such, they as.
sert the dangerous policy that they
are entitled to benefits which should
not accrue to the people rs a whole,
with regard TO race, color,
or previous condition. And this actu.
ally Is the extent Of their assertion.
The colored Southern voter thinks
that no white man should hold office,
except through his favor, which he Is
willing to grant In consideration OF
the white mans diplomatic services.
Shake his belief in this right, and his
confidence in the Republican party,
from which the belief was derived,
becomes shaken. But was not this
to be expected? Could the federal
office-holder, who, in the school OF
reconstruction, assured the negroes In
their right, as one of the results of the
war; to rule over and Cypress their late
masters, hope that these negroes
would not turn on the federal Office.
holders, and destroy them when.
ever the freedman's interest In the state
politics ceased to be profitable ? Such,
| at all events, seems to he the realza-
ton. 1t is q strange irony of late, in
the interest of justice, to find
those white Republicans, who blew
| hot and cold during reconstruction, In
advocacy Of the fitness of colored Off
Gals to administer affairs of state gov,
eminent, now alleging their Ignorance
as reason for not treating them t.
federal patronage. If Immediately
after the war those negroes possessed
in an eminen degree qualifications Il
| fill state Offices, they certainly should
y
TO fill federal offices with distinction
The Republicans were wrong when
they assumed the aggressive; they
are now right when they are
forced to take the defensive. The co.
ored people of Texas, under the equa
opportunities presented by the civil
service standard of capacity would find
their rejection compelled, and under
one practice observed In
the North and South o
giving the preference of appoint
ment, all other things being equal, Il
a military record, it would Oe tn,
height of ingratitude for those freed
men to insist on trampling under foo
| the men who risled their lives to fre,
them. Here, too, the chickens com,
home to roost with our Republican
friends. Should the negroes not sue
coed in securing representation to tn
Republican convention, and SHOULD
Mr.. Arthur, whom they detest, re
ceive the nomination, a pretty genera
desertion of colored voters to the Dem
ocratic camp might be expected.