Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-10-15
rnE NEGRO YorE.



Col. I. W. Higginson writes TO the
Roaton 1dpeytiser: ''Surprise is SOME
times exnreesed that old Abolitionista like |
Jan,es Freeman Clnrke. and Francis W.
BIRD. and myself, shonld now be luke
wnrIn or incredulods stout the elegep
.srnureesion of sa,tfa at the SOUTH when
he onuse OF the suffering negro is being
boslv argued by many who were not quite
ro sensiiive TO Il in the days when it cost
something TO take ihpt side. The eX-
plnnntion seemA to uia yely simple, Inc
yerv fnct that wa ar nh Ahoitionists has
lcd ma AZ lcast ,li4 il tue in my own
cnn-ta study TN southern question
anart from tlip him OF politics, and to
81 our lSnowlrl.r from the very best
eourecs-our farnsr clients themselves.
n happened o. command during the
cisil wnr n lhrge regiment OF men VINO
had been slavcs III Sonth Carolina,
Georgia, and Florida. Ever since the war
unve kept up n CONTINUOUS, though
struggling and irregular correspondence
with ii ESQ mon, mostly in regard TO claims
Of pen sion. | have seen some OF them al
fbe north since the wnr, and have seen
others in their own homes and places OF
l,nsipess at the south, those whom / have
thus met being usually tie more capable
and tile more prominent. The information
received from all these men goes 10 IN,
aamo point - namely, 10 show thai
although force and fraud have ul
doubtedly been brought in, and some
times outrageously, in the past, TO Intiini
date the ne,,ro vote in certain benighte'
localities-this kind of interference
now altogether n subordinate factor II
,.an1 s4ata which lnnnl
the southern Republican vote liein who'll
other influences, most of which woul
have much the same result in any othe
locality. p,
suThese more direct causes are q
The ipnorance and poverty of the blacks
which has made il impossible that the
should organize and bring ont their vot'
as against the better educated an
Weather whites; (2) their disputes an
subdivisions among themselves, tel
dency which is illustrated by half the s.
called AFRICAN churches ut the nortl
and largely the result of the same ign
rance .S(3) their dependence, throue
poverty, upon white employers, general
democrats, and having q tendency
discharge those who have vot'
AGAINST them-a tendency also n
confined to the south, as maj
northern Mugwumps have found
their cost az their disgust at I
memory of the carpet-bag government
under which, as they found too late, til
themselves were only singed in the I'll
while their northern leaders got I
chestnuts; (5) the absence Of all yisil
attempt by Republicans to hold meetin
or furnish political guidance to tn
southern allies (6) the failure OF
Republican party, when i'll power,
fulfil its promises; (7) the death of L
coin and now of Grant, the only northt
public men whose names were ren
known in the southern cabins.
- San these points of explanation hi
come to me. not from my own spect
tons, hut from the very men concern
Compared with these influences, so fal
can form IN opinion, violence and tbs
ballots and complicated ballot boxes
wholly secondary. These causes
had the effect, not so much to transfer
negro vote to the Democratic side as
impair and diminish it altogether.
politicians admit that it is hard to bl
out the votes of the very poor and u
rant unless they have direct mo
interest in voting. Now. the bulk of
negro vote at the south is still, and
will be, of Just this class. All polite
know how hard it is TO bring out n ]
vote in an of year. 70 the mass of I
sluggish voters among the soutl
voters, it is always an oil year. must
that all the accumulated speeches
resolutions of my Republican friend
not seem to me to manifest SC much {
mon sense as the brief remark of Serg
Harry Williams in my own parlor
have made up our minds to quit pol
until We have got education and prop
then, perhaps, We will try politics ag
or the still pithier saying Of the old
ored man in Atlanta to Edward Atkir
You can't put ignorance on TO
knowledge and make it stay there.