The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-10-22
SENATOR HOAR'S ISSUE.

An Independent Newspapers Opinion Of
the Southern Negroes Right of Suffrage.
The burden of Senator Hoar's speech
in the Massachusetts Republican Con-
vention and of the platform adopted by
that Convention was that in certain
Southern States where it is asserted that
the blacks are all Republicans and the
whites all Democrats the Republicans
are not permitted to vote-or that if
they are their votes are suppressed in
the count. In this way it is claimed
that the Democratic party has been
able to elect President, to keep a ma
jOrity of the House of Representatives
and to maintain an undue represep-
tation in the Senate.
If these allegations were literally true
the situation would be bad one. 1t is
deplorable enough in whatever light it
may be viewed. But the assumption of
Senator Hoar and of Republican plat
form builders in general, while not
entirely false, is in many re-
spects unwarranted. The situation
at the South as regards the
franchise is entirely logical. and
it is easily explained. Similar conditions
would produce similar results in the
North or anywhere else. A race hardly
emerged from barbarism, suffering from
the degrading effects of three centuries
of bondage, was unwisely made the po-
litical equal of race which had one
thousand years the start of it in every
thing pertaining to the science of gov
ernment- Ignorant superstitious, bru-
tai, easily led and more easily duped,
these people were for time controlled
by Adventures from the North. whose
dominion in the South was the most
scandalous era ever known in modern
history. The negro voted, but he did
not rule. The plunderers who robbed
and impoverished the whites deprived
the negro also of the means of gaining
a livelihood, and were. in fact. his
worst enemies. A state of society which
paralyzed industry, inundated capital,
filled millions of semi-savage minds
with an idea that freedom meant license
and that toll was unnecessary, confis-
Gated property and saddled the State
with debts which could never be paid,
though grievous in its effects on the
whites, was even worse in its influence on
the blacks. In the disorders which pre-
ceded the overthrow of this vicious rule
all fair men saw the inevitable conSe-
quences of misgOvernment and it can
be said to the credit of the party which
is now deploring the absence of these
conditions that one of its Presi-
nnf low ms
mental in relieving the South from that
accursed rule which no Northern State
would have tolerated for Il month.
From the fall of the carpet-bag gov
ernments two great facts have been
constantly in view. One of these is the
extraordinary progress of the Southern
people, both whites and blacks, in every
thing pertaining to material wealth and
prosperity. The other is that the ne
groes, abandoned by the self-seeking
adventures from the North, have been
left entirely to their own resources by
the great Northern party which claims
their allegiance. 1t has never sent an
orator to address them, barrel to
organize them or political literature
for them to read. For ten years they
have had no knowledge of the existence
of Republican party, save where an
occasional Chalmers might seek to gain
their votes by appealing to their fears
or their prejudiceS. They have become
docile, industrious, progressive and
prosperous. They are gradually OBJ
tanning II clearer insight into the re-
sponsibiIity of citizenship. They will
not all vote the Republican ticket. but
they will vote more and more numer-
ouSly, if undisturbed, until at no very
distant day the ratio of stay-at-hOmeS
will not be larger at the South than it
is at the North. The non-voting males
of Rhode Island are proportlOnately
more numerous to-day than they are in
any Southern State save one.
As to the claim that Mr.. Cleveland
owes his election to the suppression of
the col0red vote it may be said that
there is no basis for the assertion what
ever. In only two States do the negro
males of voting age Outnumber the
whites; and, assuming that every black
vote had been thrown for Blaine and
every white vote for Cleveland, thus
giving Blaine the electoral votes of
South Carolina and Mississippi, the re-
suit of the election would not have been
changed. The South is making rapid
progress and the negroes are sharing
in it fully. The question of suffrage is
solving itself. Any step backward
would be fatal not only to the South
but to the North. Chicago Herald.