The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-09-23
HE pISCRIMlNATeS.

The COlored Man Knows When He Is
Justly Treated and When He Is Being
Used as a TOOl-Another Proposed "Ex-
Odus."
Leaders of the Republican partynev
er forget the negro, wherever his vote
is to be had. The individual choice of
the colored voter passes for nothing if
he does not vote the Republican ticket
In Southern States he is either Re-
publican voter or he is nothing. If he
chooses to vote the other ticket he gets
no credit. II, in the South, he feels
that he can best serve his local govern
ment bv voting the Democratic ticket,
he does it, wakes fat, and enjoys the
profit of his right to labor and earn.
The negro with his local habitation has
the right of all americans to say Just
what he will do politically for his own
benefit.
But Mr.. Blaine, in his speeches in
Maine, where a negro is rarely seen,
declares that the colOred man shall not
only vote the Republican ticket by Writ
ue of his Inheritance of freedom, but
that he shall vote it under any and all
circumstances - local considerations
and influences to the contrary notwith-
standing. And if he does not choose to
do that he must be colonized into other
territory.
The plan Of the Republican Congress
sional Committee, as announced, is too
absurd to be authentic, but if it be true
that negroes are to be sent, at the COM
70 l.afa
territories in the hope that their votes
will be felt in Presidential and Con-
gressional elections to follow, it reflects
but little credit upon the men who
have projected the scheme. We have
had one negro exodus from the South
1t invaded Kansas a few years ago.
Every colored man believed that he
was to get forty acres. He came with
his family and landed at the railway
depot without cent He seemed to
care nothing about how he was to fare
His idea was that Kansas, acting
through its Plumbs and its ether patri-
OTIS, was to give him a farm. For five
years or more those negro eXodusterS
have fought fate. Kansas cities have
more walters, bootblacks, calcimmers,
BARRIERS, shoe repairers and clothes
busters than any State in the Union,
and their votes have only gone TO swell
a majority already large.
The nome of the Southern negro is
in the South. There he was born and
reared; there are the local traditions
and family instincts that root him to
the soil. The Northern politician of
the Blaine stamp who seeks his vote
may talk OF colonization and all that,
bat the Southern cOlored man knows
where he lives. He knows he is no
longer a slave; he knows that the see
ond generation, of which both he and
his employer are types. have long ago
forgotten aSpcrities. The man and his
employer work together in the field
and at the pollS-thcy work for COM
mon interest. If that interest does not
quite meet the views of Mr.. Blaine and
his friends, it is not the fault of the col
ored man. Mr.. Blaine and his friends
can gain nothing by colonizing ne
grOcS anywhere. Sooner or later the
colOniZationiStS absorb the political
ideas and views of their surroundings;
and it is the highest proof of the col
ored mans intelligence that he can and
does discriminate. When he finds he
is being used for political purposes
without corresponding benefit or credit
to himself, he quickly draws the line
Chicago Herald.