Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-10-29
THE COLOR LINE FADING.
Tho Stock-in-Trade or the Republics
Party Threatening Is Dissolve.

| Tho Stock-in-Trade or the Republican
Party Threatening Is Dissolve.
Republican platforms. orators and
organs. for lack of any more vital and
absorbing issue, catch up John Sher-
mans rallying cry which affirms that
the colored race in the South is prac-
tically disfranchised by fraud and vio-
lence. Of course very few Republicans
lash themselves into so historical con-
dition as to aver with Foraker that the
Ku-klux have assassinated more men
than were slain at Gettysburg. or to
allege with Hoar that lin many of the
States of the South, enough in number
to change the result OF the election OF
the President and to change the major
ity in the House of Representatives, the
Republican majority has been deprived
by the Democratic minority of its right
to vote and its right to free discussion. F"
These wild statements are generally
toned down, diluted. triturated, but the
average Republican is persuaded that
the negro's freedom is still grievously
restrained in the South and that live
ly agitation of the question is the policy
which will restore the Republican party
to power. 1t is fabulous mistake.
Sherman, Hoar, Foraker and those
who echo them proceed altogether on
assumptions. They assert, but they
furnish no proof. They assume that
several of the Southern States should
give Republican ajorities and they as
sumo that every colored man is neces-
sarily a Republican. The last census
shows that only three States of the
Union contain more negroes than white
persons, and every Intelligent man
knows that the charge of wholesale
systematic intimidation is ridiculous
and false. Since carpet-bag and bay
onet rule ceased in the South the races
have been drawing more closely to-
gether. The tradition of forty acres
and mule has been exploded. The
darky is no longer apprehensiye of be-
ing re-enslaved by the wicked Demo-
Gratis, He realizes that he has been
duped in the past by scalawags and
thieves who plundered the State and
dishonored it. The negro is shrewd
enough to perceive that his true inter-
ests are identified with the prosperity
of his white neighbors; he has learned
some things and forgotten others, and
he is rapidly emancipating himself from
the irksome yoke Of adventures who
used him as a political chattel in the
furtherance of disreputable schemes.
That fraud and intimidation have
been practiced in various parts of the
South is undeniable. Ear be it from
the Graphic to Justify such proceedings,
even though it does not ignore the prov
ocation given by the carpet-bag plum
derers to the victims of their greed.
Occurrences, of that sort, however,
have been as rare during the past few
years in the South as in the North
What vexes John Sherman and his
kind is the fact that the color line in
politics is fading away and that the
negro is at length beginning to cast
really free vote instead of merely de-
posting the ticket put into his hands
by a Republican office-holder. The
men who are trying to revive sectional
and race lines commit an infamous
crime against the welfare and happi-
ness of their country.-M Y. Graphic.