Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1885-02-14
A Northern Editor's Impressions.

In a letter from New Orleans tt
the Philadelphia Tins, Col. a. X
Mcclure, for manv years leading
PENNSYLVANIA editor and politician
mAlliS The following statement con
corning the relations OF the white
and c)l0red races at the South:
''There is mnchunreaS0uable mis-
conception III the North of the rela-
tive condition Of tile blacks in the
North and in the South. The pref
udice OF caste is iuSteqlalIy Stroag
in both sections Of thecnuntri. Tne
black man can no more sit at the
table Of the most blatant Republic
can in the North than he can sit ut
the table Of his Old master in the
South. The same social laws gov
ern allpeoples, and they are immn-
fable. Politicians tllrorize differ
emily in election campaigns, but
there their theory ends. The pref
udice Of race is tive-fol,l stronger in
the North than III the South. The
northern people have no love for
the black man, and even those who
battled COR his freedom and en-
reimbursement, as Il rule, cherished
Vastly more profound prejudice of
race than do the southern people.
While the North maintains it's
deep prejudice Of race. the people
of the South have u general and
strong sympathy for the negro
Nearly all of them have played with
the negro in childhood. have been
nurscd by tile black mamma and
have grown up with more or less
affection for them. Classify it in
what type Of affection You may, it
is none tile less an affection that
temperS the hard, unyielding pref
uice OF race that prevails in the
North. This distinction between
the northern and southern people
on the race question will prepare
the public mind in the North for
the dissipation Of another untoun.l-
ed sectional prejudice that is deep
~ rooted there.
The educational facilities for the
black ara hntier in -tbe South TO-
day than they Are in the North. in
propoltion,t to the facilities PROTECTED
to all. South Carolina, employs
and pays out Of the State treasury
more black teachers than are en-
pIoycd in all the States Of the
North, and Alabama employs LOO
coloret male teachers and 80 col
ored female teachers. And they
| provide the best menus Tor fitting
tile colere;l people for teaching
The normal schools for white and
blacks in both Alabama and South
Carolina are exactly equal, and the
treasury Of the State is largely
drawn upon to qualify the colored
race for teaching itself. North Car.
DINA, Georgia, Mississippi, and III
deed most Of the old slave States.
each sustain more colleges for the
blacks than do Pennsylvania or
Massachusetts; and inst as educ.-
tional facilities have increased Tor
the whites, whether in common or
normal schools or lii colleges, they
have been equally increased for the
blacks so far as State appropria-
tiols have added them. III Georgia
the colored university ranks with
the white university, and even in
Mississippi, presumably the most
bourbon 5f southern States. the
State does much more for the col
lcyiate education of the black race
than does Pennsylvania. | have
heard southern men complain Of
many features Of their local gov
ernmentS, but L have yet to hear
the first one to complain Of the
equal education OF the two races.
And what is true in the matter
of education is equally true Of the
recognition of the black race in
southern politics. I found four
colOred democratic members in the
South Carolina Legislature, nomi
mated and elected manu-, by white
votes, and in Mobile and New Or
leans tile black policemen, appoint
ed by democratic authority, is met
on every street, and has worn the
insignia Of police power for years
before Il democratic mayor in Phil
;ldelphia first recognized the colcred
voter as entitled to wear the star
and blue. In South Carolina alone
there are more black democrats in
representative office than there are
blacks of all parties in all the
States Of the North. Pennsylvania
and Philadelphia, where the black
voters hold the balance of power
both city and State, could
not elect Il colored man to the
Legislature or any other honorable
or lucrative Office, in the strongest
Republican district; but South Caro-
lima Democrats elect him to office,
with all the lingering prejndices of
the relation Of master and slave
The intelligent and dlspasSionate
nortlerner, who closely observes
the relation Of the two races North
and South, is forced to confess that,
with AL our boosted superior deyo-
ton to tile black race, and with all
our assaults upon the South for
tie oppression of the blacks, the
negro is better treated by the
South than by the Moth. I re
greet to make such il confession, but
it is the plain truth that We theo,
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