The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1885-05-14


he lives than that of the tyrant and traitor who
had robbed him, and, to the language of
| Mr.. Clark, sunk him 'to condition but little
| above that of the brutes like which he had been
bought and sold at auction"
| Mr. Clark purposely exaggerates the ignorance
| nf the Southern neerces. They had not been
sehooled. but neither had majority of the
| pnor white men among whom they lived. II
respect of education they were not one whit
| inferior to what was known as the ''poor whit
trash" around them. They were loyal. Their
| white nighbors were not. Which, then, at tn.
| time of reconstruction could be the more ately
| trusted? II the purpose of the Republican par
| ty had been 10 perpetuate itself in power, 1t
| would not have limited its action to what Mr.
| Clark complains Of On the contrary 1t would
have provided by a constitutional amendment
| that no man who had borne arms against the
government, or sustained the rebellion. should
ever be permitted to vote or hold office This
| policy would have been founded in justice; the
wisdom of it would have been approved by the
cOnsciences of all honest men and the verdict
| of impartial history. 1t would have kept thc
Democratic party from power to all eternity l.
would have rendered it impossible for Mr..
Cleveland to occupy the White House; for
Confederate brigadier TO drape the interior de-
| partment in mourning for the death of rebel.
| sneak and scnund, ell; for men like Lamar and
Vest to eulogize J. fl Davis in the United States
Senate. In short it would, for the next hundred
years, have kept the government in loyal
hands.
Mr.. Clark denounces the Republican party
for comforting suffrage upon the negro. He re-
iterates the old cry that the freedman is "scarce
ly better fitted to WELD suffrage than the beasts
of the field" Henri Watterson has said substan-
| TALLY the same thing; ten thousand Democratic
| leaders have repe ated it over and over aeaI
and insisted that the enfranchisement of the
freedman was villainous wrong; q deliberate
insult to the proud spirit of the South, an effort
TO crush and humiliate its people, to imperil
their lives and destrsy their property. But stop;
the men who say this, Mr.. Clark included
deliberate liars, and they know it. The Republ-
can party left this matter of suffraga for tn.
States to regulate to suit themselves They
may. under the fourteenth amendment to the
federal constitution, disfranchfse their lIiteratt
population at will. There has not been year
since reconstruction took place when Kentucky
could not, by change of law. have Excluded
her ignorant voters from the polls. There has
been no time within the last ten years when the
other Democrrtic States of the South could not
have done the same The matter is .ntirely and
wholly within their own control. If, therefore,
the Southern States have population unfit to
be intrusted with. the allot, too ignorant for
the intelligent discharge of the du ties of citizen
ship and hence dangerous to the common
wealth., why 40 Ihey not at once proceed TO ap-
ply the remedy by imposing educational
qualification upon their voters? Ifthere be any
existing wrong in this regard simple change
of State law will right 1t and so end the trouble
the injustice, of which they complain.
Gentlemen of the South, be good enough TO
cease lying and bulldozipg; abandon the cast
ing of tissue ballots the making of false counts
and false returns; disfranchise your iliterate
population by law, and then fair minded men
will hsve some respect for you. They will at
least be convinced tina you were sincere when
denpuncing universal suffrage evil which
ought not to be perpetuated. But no, it is not
the ignorance of the negro to which you
really object. You found him intelligent
enough in the old time to discharge all ordinary
duties well. You found him honest enough to
be trusted. You found him faithful enough to
take care of your wives, children and pro, erty
while you were bearing srms against the gov
eminent. The objection you make to him is
not the one which moves you. George W. Ca
BILE, Southern man by birth and an honest
man by instinct, discloses the secret of your op
position. 1t is founded in your own selfshness,
and not in q desire for the common good. You
like the negro we'll enough a menial.
man to wait upon you and work for you for
nothing, but if he possessed the wisdom of SOL
omon. the learning of Bacon and the grac" of
Chesterfield, You would not accord to him the
would Kick him out of hrst-class coach, ex-
clude him from theaters, deny him admission
to places of Lublic enterta nment and require
him to stand with uncovered head while you
passed by. My Southern friend, you are fraud
of the first water, ignorant, unprincipled and
pretentious, loud mnuthed brawter and mer
ciless t,raut. When you are made 10 under
stand that you have no more rights in this
country than "nigger," the republic will wipe
from its escufcheoun bistering stain and you
will take your true position among men.
The Democratic party of the South has had
many opportunities to win the vote of t. e
freedmen. little liberality, kindness, cordial
ity, good will and hearty announcement at first
would have won them; would have broken
them all to pieces; the could have been made
more devoted to the whites freemen than
they had ever been slaves; a soft word and a
generous recognition of the freedman s rights
would have filled his heart with joy. and he
would have been proud to march t. the polls as
fr+ eman, side by side with his Old master and
his old masters sons, who may have been and
may not have been allied to him by blood. But
no. the narrow minded and selfish -x-master,
often not much superior to his former slave in
point of Intelligence, couldn't condescend to
vote with a damned Niger; he was altogether
too good for that. and the white mAn around
him who had no more property and no more
education than the freedman himself could not
condescend to do what the ex-slaveholder
would not, and so they began to abuse the ne
gro for voting. Persecution in this instance as
in every other, consolidated those subjected to
it. and thus made the colored men of the South
Republicans. II is this unapimity of he negro
vote of which MIR Clark and the Democratic
party complain; they seek to account for it in
every conceivable way except the true one
They think this black mass Of Republican
ters should break up The colored men have
certainly just as much right to vote together
the white If divisions on the color line un-
WISE and If by possibility the white men of the
South superior in intelligence, liherality,
and tact to the black, why don't they lay down
their prejudices, abandon their prosecutions
divide up and like Chisholm, Matthews and
other white men of the South who have been
killed by Democratic assassfns, propose aIli-
ance with the colored men on terms Of perfect
political equality. The negro has never assum-
ed TO be too proud to associate with the white
man, to vote with him or hold office
with him; he has questioned
the white man s right to vote. his fitness to
hold office; he is therefore ready to accede to
any opostion made him; to meet his white
skinned brother on platform which recogniz-
rs the equality of all men. But he is not will
ing, and no se1f-respecting man could be- to
surrend-r Internationally to those who have
scourged him like dog and who decline to
hold out to him promise of better treatment in
the future.
The carpet-baggers, against whom Mr.. Clark
is especially bitter, have long been maligned
and vilif1ed by the. Southern rebel and his
Nor, hern ally. When the war closed, and long
fore the Sout"ern States were reconstructed.
and while the negroes were non-voters. and
hence powerless t. bestow office either on
friend or foe, thousands upon thousands of ex-
soldiers of the Union army and enterprising
Northern men went South to invest their mon-
ey in lands, factories and mercha ndse. They
went there to build homes rear families, to
live, die and be buried. They went for the same
reason that young men now go from the East
ern to the Western States. They went with
tn ir wives and children and without thought
| of office. That they hoped TO make money was
natural; that they hoped to make it honestly