Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-09-03
THE SILENT SOUTH.

article entitled 1.-The Freedman's Case
in Equity which attracted wide at
tention as the utterance of Southern
man, pointing out the disregard shown
in the South for the civil rights of the
colored people, and pleading for more
just and considerate treatment of them.
The article called out many replies
in the Southern press, and an elaborate
one in a subsequent number of The
Century. 1t was generally stigmatized
as demand for social equality for the
negroes, and some of its statements
respecting specific instances of injus-
tice to the colored people were either
denied or represented to be gross
exagerations. In the current number
of the Century, Mr.. Gable replies to
his critics and presents additional
matter in confirmation Of the opinions
expressed in his former article.
In defending his position, Mr. Cable
very clearly defines the distinction
between civil and social rights. "All
the relations of life," he says, 'that
90 by impersonaZ right are civil rela-
lions. All that go by personal choice
are social relations. The one is all Of
right, it makes no difference who we
are; the other is all of choice, and it
makes all the difference who we are
and it is no little fault against our
selves as well as others, to make con-
fusion between the two relations. For
the one, we make laws; for the other,
every one consults his own pleasure !;
and the law that refuses to protect a
civil right, constituting it as social
privilege, deserves no more re-
gard than if it should declare
some social privilege to be a
civil right. Social choice, civil rights;
but civil privilege, in America, is
simply heresy against both our great
national political parties at once. :"
No party, the writer continues, dare
say that in these United States any
one class of citizens shall fasten,
arbitrarily, upon any other class of
citizens a ciUGJ status from which no
merit of intelligence, virtue or posses
sions can earn an extrication Yet
this is the status which in many parts
of the South the whites have attempt
ed to fasten upon the colored people.
1t is against this injustice that Mr..
Cable protests, and which he insists is
detrimental to both classes. Thus, in
some parts of the South, in making
up the railway trains, equally good
cars are provided for the blacks and
the whites. But in car assigned to
the whites no colored person, however
intelligent, cleanly and respectable, is
permitted to have seat. unless such
person is a servant travelling with his
or her employer in mental capacity.
On the other hand, the car assigned to
colored people is open to the whites
also, and drunken, disorderly white
men, if elected from the car Of the
white passengers, are put in it. In it,
also, smoking is allowed. though it
may be against the rules, and vile
language, which would not be tolerated
In the other car. At the stations
there is waiting-room for ladies,
another for gentleman and third for
colored people. At the refreshment
rooms, as rule, colored passenger,
however perfect in dress and behavior
is net permitted to eat in the presence
of white guests, but must take men
ial attitude and get his or her meal in
the kitchen. In some of the states,
colored men are excluded from juries
by law, and in others by practice.
Mr.. Cable avoids touching upon
political subjects. and the manner in
which the colored voters are system.
atically defrauded of their political
rights, but he refers to ''the glittering
temptations of tbs Southern convict.
lease SYSTEM and says: "To put
such system as rod of punishment
into the hands of a powerful race
sitting in judgment upon the mis-
demeanors of feebler and despiseC
caste would warp the verdicts of the
most righteous people under the sun. >
The Southern penitentiary reports, he
says, show sentence, inflicted fol
simple larceny of twelve, fourteen
fourteen, fifteen, twenty, and in one
case forty years of penal service. The
sentences of the colored convicts aver
age nearly twice the duration of The
whites, convicted of the same crimes
for larceny the difference is five times
as great. In Georgia, outside he
prisons, there are eight whites to sever
blacks; in her prisons there are eighty
blacks to eight whites. 1.-The depravity
of the negroes, says Mr.. Cable, ''may
explain away much, but we canno
know much, while there also remain il
force the seductions of our atrociou
eonvict-lease system, and our attitude
of domination over the blacks, 81
subtly, dangerous to our own integrity.
1.-The crimes of larceny and burglary
are just the sort--since they are nei