Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1886-10-15
sIlEncED NEGRO VOTE.
FALSE STORIES or TERRORISM. g
Rep s,byicanism Failing A,raV u Eirginia
Becasse Of lfatoae- He Is Eseerated
!. by the People, Character OF ~
the RspadsAfed Debt
Especial to the chicago Daily News

Is 2uElhS o1cctzVu situco tu0Ic - ~.
ways much talk and many editorials
written about the silenced vote Of the
southern negroes, and particularly in
Virginia, which is near enough the
strongholds of Republicanism, to at
tract considerable attention. While
it Is true that the political status Of |
the negro is imperfect, like everything
else on this planet, the stories Of blood
shed and terrorism are mostly moon
shine, although : great many sensible
psople believe M them, just a. DR.
johnson believed in the Cock lane
ghost. The fact about the negro's
condition is simply this: In his per-
sonal and property rights he is as se-
cure as the white man, but as regards
his political rights: he is outwitted
whenever he is not outyoted by the
white men Of the south; nor, if one
looks at the subject calmly, can any
reason be found for overwhel ming the
south under the avalanche of ignora nee
which negro majorities would mean.
Nine-tenths of the morality, wealth,
and intelligence of the population is
among the whites, and the wit of man
has never been able to conceive any
scheme by which the morality, the
wealth, and the intelligence of COM
munity will not rule in the long run.
For time it may be whelmed under,
but sooner or later it must be on top
and that is just the case at the south
to-day. The idea Of the negroes rul-
ing the south is like making water
run up hill. It Is easy enough for the
white people to maintain their supre-
macy. As for the romances of blood
shed, the southern men are too astute
in politics to resort to any such clum-
sy means All they have to do is to
establish complicated system of vo-
ting and levy poll-tax, and the negro
vote neutralized. just observe how
simple it is. The elaborate system
of balloting being fixed upon, weeks
and months before an election, the
Democrats are organizing their vote.
1t means life or death with them and
they work like Trolalls
The negroes, on the contrary, are at
a loss for a motive to vote. Their
lack of education and business quali6-.
cation puts them out Of the question
for Offices requiring brains, and their
inability to give heavy bond cuts
them off from Offices Of trust. There
are, however, plenty of designing
white men after the Offices, and they
are all struggling for the negro vote
and cutting each others throats in the
effort to get it. Their there is poll
tax So to the negro this proposition
is presented: He is required to pay
81 to vote for man who cares moth
ing about him, can give him nothing,
and from whose success no possible
benefit can accrue to him. If he hap
pens to have candidate of his own
color, he is resentlessly driven from
the field by white Republicans.
1t costs the Republicans, therefore,
more effort to get the negroes to the
polls than it does the Democrats to
keep them away. Arrived there,
however, they find depositing their
ballots very difficult thing. All the
intended complications are foreseen by
the Democrats, whose solid phalapx is
perfectly drilled, and comply to the
letter with the requirements of troub-
lesome election law Not a Democrat
ic vote is lost. When the negroes
come to depositing their votes they
[ are challenged at every step. Con-
fused, helpless, with nothing TO gain
or lose, they easily transgress law
cunningly contrived to entrap them,
and majority of the legal votes cast
ara Democratic. The short-sighted
policy Of the white Republicans in
gobbling up all the Offices has brought
about this apathy on the part Of the
negroes. When the state was redis
tricted by the Democrats all the black
maiorities were thrown in two districts
In one of these there was a majority
of 5000 colored Republicans.
II Here, if anywhere, the negroes
thought they could elect their candi
date. Among them was an educatet
and sensible colored man who wa
nominated time and again for congress
iagarnst violent opposition of the whit
: Republicans, but, although the negroe
could nominate their man, they coult
never keep him in the field until cleo
tion time. In vain the Democrat