The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-15
THE DANGER FOE TIE SOUTH.

the South-bu from itself As from the
foundation of the American Republic the
South is the Souths greatest enemy. Retain
ing slavery generations after it had been
abandoned by the North, it set it up as god
dess to be worshiped and sworn by. The
''sacred institution" was the concrete object
about which the doctrine of State rights was
built, as thick walls about treasure house.
To perpetuate that institution the Southern
Confederacy was set up with human slavery as
its cornerstone. But the sin of generations
was slowly but surely moving on
toward the inevitable retrihution that never
fails to overtake the sins of people the same
as those Of individuals. The South was con
founded. The madness that made slavery pos
sible was the madness of suicide. Retarded
from healthy development by the very fetish
it worshiped, the South was constitution
ally enervated. But, while physically weak,
the pugnacious pride of the South was abnor
mally developed. Lord of the lash, cutting
black flesh at VIII, the South had long fiat
tered itself it could slash as well
the backs Of the friends of the
African Arrogant, boastful, needless,
the South recklessly entered into civil war,
with no more provocation and not as much ex
cuse as would have the loyal, law-abiding
North to-day. The logic of events was rap
idly unfolding in spite of all the clearer minds
of the South could do to avert the conse-
quences. The iniquity peculiar to the South
was about to be expiated, and in a manner
that carried an awful punishment and fearful
warning. No people can systematically and
doggedly defy human rights without the GER
tainty of having eventually to make good the
debt.
For half a century after the North had
washed its hands of the revolving crime
of human slavery the South continued
in it, trafficking in flesh and blood Buy
ing and selling in utter defiance of family
ties and kinship among the blacks, parents
were torn from children, and children
from parents, Did any OF them exhibit the
spirit of manhood in even feebly crying out
against the outrage, cut of the lash was his
sole reply and if this were not enough, fog
ging was administered. The very bodies
of dusky mothers were at the mer-
cy of lustful overseers The crime
of ravishlnent was no crime at all.
D.,
morality could not go on forever The
drunkenness of power over the souls and bod
les of 100000 bondmen drove the slave
dealer to his own destruction. The rebellion
was the dreadful penalty laid upon the South
for its continued inhumanity to man. AL
though not apparent on that bright April day
in 1861, the firing on Sumter was but the
knell of slavery Let the sentiment of the
North have been what it may, the grip of war
compelled emancipation. The Providence
that overrules the destinies of nations saw
that in the bloody vintage before the grapes
of war were gathered.
Again the South is in DANGER but this
time the North will have no hand directly in
what is about to overtake the South Vaguely
realizing that the negro is free, and that his
reinstatement is impossible, even though
deemed desirable-whch it is not-the South
is too blind to see the folly of again standing
in the way of the logic Of events by denying
palpable political rights to the colored man.
1t is useless to say that the negro is not de-
MED his political rights by his late
masters-the South itself knows that he
is, and that it will not consent to
his influencing politics in opposition to the
wishes of Southern Democracy which is but
another name for the ex-slave holding aristoc-
racy. The Charleston News and Courier, one
of the leading Democratic papers of the South,
says: "The whites are determined that, what
ever the cost they will not be the political
slaves of their former slaves" In the same
spirit of rule or ruin, the Atlanta Constitu-
ton says: "There is no hope for the prosper
ity Of this Nation, no peace for either race,
save in the clear, unmstakable domi-
nation Of the white race" If these
papers are sincere-and they doubtless
are-what becomes of negro suffrage unro-
strainedY If sat any cost" the white race
must rule how absurd it is to protest that
such things as fair elections are known in the
South, with every man-black as well as
white-free to vote as he pleases and have
that vote counted. Nobody North believes
that colored men are allowed to vote as they
please in not less than balf-dozen Southern
Statos nor does anybody South believe it, for
they know that such thing is not to be