Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-01-01
THE NEGROES lN MISSISSIPPI.

i An 1ne0lHS0nt GOEI0SPOAAsA0A.sD - :
the Social Question In . Great Souther
State.
Joaquin Miller, in recent letter +
the New York Independent DESCRIPTIVE
Of journey through the State OF Mis-
sissippi, speaks very pleasantly OF tn
State and its material resources, ant
INDUCES in some hopeful speculation
as to its prosperity when its vast
places shall be occupied and cultivated
and the immigration, which the peopl'
desire and expect, shall have become
an accomplished fact. With respect t
the social question Mr.. Miller says:
Here is q State with tremendous
majority of negroes. And yet this State
insists on remaining tremendously Dem
ocratic. And because it does, the poll
ticians, the political press, the North
almost in a body, insist that the blact
| man is bullied; and ergo there is race
of DULLES here.
This foolish accusation does the black
man greater injustice than it does the
white man. The negro is not bullied
and what is a most important fact he Is
getting to be too much of a man to be
bullied. AS for the white man here.
find them a race of gallant Christian
gentlemen. Let me call your attention
to one fact. l have sat at many men s
tables here. have been at dinner in a
great number of houses here in the
State of Mississippi, that of the Govern
or in the Mansion House included;
and have sat at no mans table where
the head of the house did not offer
thanks. Of course I suppose there are
exceptions to this rule; but grace at the
table is the rule here In the North it
is. the exception.
ssTell me, Senator, how it is that the
negro votes with you, who were his
former MASTER"
..Well, sir, it is because he is an affec-
tionate and well-disposed fellow-man.'
'tHe must be, else he had burned you
out during the war;
'"Irue, sab; fact, sab; great fact,
sab, and we will never forget it. The
Southern men went to war and left
their homes, their wives and their
children all behind them, and at the
mercy of the blacks. This trust was
never betrayed. As for my own slaves,
one of them was wounded fighting at
my side, and there is not one of them
living to-day that will not vote for me.
No; you men of the North do not do the
negro justice. You think him treach-
erous migrate. You think he ought to
turn from us and against us. He will
never do it.
'.And you tell me here at your own
table that the black man votes entirely
as he pleases.'
Entirely. True, we tell them how
we want them to vote. They often ask
us. But we do not persuade them;
because, you see, our majority is so
great we do not need to do so. If they
wanted to outvote us and turn us out
and put in the carpet-bagger again they
could do so any day. No danger of
that. sab. They have had enough of it.
Why, sab, when Governor Ames, the
son-in-law of General Butler, was here
nearly half of the State was deserted.
Enough of this State had lapsed back to
the Government on tax forfetures to
make another Massachusetts; and the
negro was wretched. But now. after
we have driven the carpet-bagger out,
we are all prosperous together"
"And you feel confident that the
negro will always be with youp''
"Confident. He is our friend; and
we are his. His children go to school;
he is industrious; he has little farm,
in many cases, a mule, cow, plenty of
pigs, chickens. turkeys, and is happy"
s'And honest?''
''Stop minute. In the general up
setting of things here he got an exag-
gerated notion of liberty The liberty
to take other peoples property came
within the scope of this and made much
trouble. In our States prison there
are more than thousand convicts.
Eight hundred are blacks.'
give the above as an example of the
many talks have had here in this COM
paratively unknown State ON its social
and political order of things. And were
it not for the awkward dialect of the
uneducated negroes [ would here set
down conversations had with some of
them; for I have broken bread with
them often, and seen much of their
simple and tranquil ways. But it would
be waste of time; for the drift of their
talk is after the same fashion. The
negro is a hero worshiper; he must look
up to some one. Ind that some one
must not be Negro.
think you have the social and polit-
ical problem here in nutshell. A ne
gro likes good white man better than
he does good negro He has more
confidence in him. He thinks him more
honest and better able to help him.
And you may set it down as fact, that
if a negro and a white man, both good,
honest, and of even ability, were can
didates tomorrow, with everything
fair and even and equal, the white
man would come ont long way ahead.
So we of the North had just as well |
stick pin here, and set it down as a
fact to be remembered that the black |
man down here, as long as he is well |
treated, is going to vote for and with
his old master and his old masters |
children for many a year to come. And |
it is wrong to disturb them in their
rustful faith; for it only brings strife |
and trouble, and does no good to any
)ne.
/ talked to some black men about the |
ate Presidential election here in the |
capital of this State. They were well |
informed, and told me, what 1 never |
Knew before, that Blaine and Logan |
lad both lived in this State, one as |
Jerk and the other in some other ca
,acity; but they did not vote for them.
And when / asked why, they gave the
curious reason that the State was Dem |
,cratic, and they thought they would |
70 with the State.
ONE GOOD RESULT.