Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-01-26
THE SOUTHERN NEGROES.
4 Cutting Rebui<e of Malignant Partfsans
and Office Sc eSers.

and Office Sc elzers.
It seems strange to find the New
York Times taking n prominent stand
in defense of the South against the
charge of suppression of the colored
vote, and yet this able journal, at one
time foremost among those whose
abuse and Pronunciation of the election
methods of the South was character
lied by partisan hatred and sectional
malignity, contains in a recent issue
the most striking protest which has
yet appeared in any Northern paper
against the bloody shirt policy of the
Republicans for 1888.
The Times is a Republican paper,
but is generally very fair one. Its
criticisms are open and frank, and its
course is not controlled by the lash of
its party. 1t believed Mr.. Blaine to
be corrupt man and Mr.. Cleveland
an honest one. and it supported the
latter for the Presidency. 1t did not
sever its party alliance, but has since
stood with the organization of which
it was for many years the chief organ.
In outlining its policy for the next
campaign, the Republican party has
clearly determined to make the al
legged suppression of the colored vote
in the South one of its leading issues.
On this the Times has a column ed
itorial, which is an admirable produc-
ton, and should commend itself to
the fair-minded voters of all parties. 1t
says:
Those Republican politicians who still think
there is capital for Their party in keeping up
sectional agitation and firing the Northern
heart with Southern outrageS are trying des-
perately to make issue of the alleged sup
preston OF the Republican vote in Southern
States. The difficulty which confronts them
lies in the fact that the Northern people want
no more sectional agitation, and entirely
willing to leave the elections in Southern States
! to the control of the people of those States.
Speaking of the outrages of the Re-
publican carpet-baggers who overran
the South after the war, and of the
causes which prompted the necessity
| of counteracting the evils of their das-
tardly regime, in which they ran
rough shod over the people by their
control over the negro vote, the Times
| saws:
| Unprepared to exercise intelligently or con-
| scientiously their newly acquired rights, the
| negroes fell under the leadership of unscrupu-
| lous men and were arrayed against the people
| who had the largest interest in the good order
| and good government of the reconstructed
States. The result was incapacity, extrava-
| gance and fraud public affairs, and bur-
| lesque on popular government. The native
| Southern people, who felt that they had the
right to control affairs in their own States, saw
| no salvation for their public or private inter-
pS cnyaf in limo fa
was thrust upon them.
The North soon admitted that Federal inter-
| ference to sustain State Governments which
| rested on the ignorant negro vote and were
| managed mainly by greedy and INSCRIPTIONS
Adventures could not be maintained. Public
| opinion withdrew all support and nearly a
| dozen years ago the whole fabric went to
| pieces.
AS to the so-called suppression OF
the colored vote in the South at this
time, the Times dismisses the question,
as being an appeal to sectional pas
sion, which can not deceive the intelli-
gent people of the North, saying:
Outrage, violence and election frauds dimin-
ish in proportion as the necessity for them
| ceased. For the last two years little has been
| heard of them, but election returns show that
| many votes are withheld from the ballot box
for one reason another. Colored voters may
| nave become dlLST InuiuB THAT the
ills which they were taught to expect from
| Democratic ascendency did not befal them,
and easily induced not to vote. More or less,
Also they have begun to divide their votes be-
| tween the parties. In not voting in voting
for Democratic candidates, they are probably
| influenced by worse inducements than are
used in Northern States to sway the action OF
| voters whose intelligence and honesty are not
sufficient to guide their political action.
Such words, from such source, can
not fail to have effect with the people
of the North, who have already re-
buked the sectional luminosity which a
few party bosses have sought to at
tribute to the Republican party as a
whole. Mr.. Blaine went to pieces on
this rock, and if its present policy is
pursued. the Republican party will re-
ceive its ultimate defeat in clinging to
it.-Atlanta Consultation.