Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-07-26
REBEL BROADER RULE.
How the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments Are Nuliified.

caused by slavery and period of re-
construction prolonged by crimes
against the freedmen. again seized the
reins of government, and has reward
ed itself for its rebellion by increased
representation in Congress and in the
body of Electors which chooses a
President. The North is supposed to
have conquered. The Union is saved
in form The terms OF peace. reunion
| and reconciliation were the Thirteenth
amendment, abolishing slavery; the
fourteenth, emitting the colOred peo-
pie from the basis of representation
! in States where they are not allowed
to vote; and the Fifteenth. giving the
colored citizen the ballot in all cleo
tions, State or National. The Thir-
teenth amendment alone is in force;
| the Fourteenth and Fifteenth are a
dead letter, openly and flagranty dis
obeyed. Suffrage at the South for
the black man does not exist: for the
white man even it is almost u farce. y
few leaders in each State, combining
with similar coteries in other States.
form an oligarchy which yields the
whole political power of the solid
South. United with the Democratic
party of the North, who expect to con-
troll by corruption or fraud a few
Northern States, their ''plan of cam
paign" is exactly what it was before
1860. Our later Southern masters are
not different from those of former
years. They are able, always alert,
and whenever not opposed are plausi-
BILE, courteous and full of kind and
patriotic professions; resisted, their
gentleness proves like that of tigers;
they become fierce and defiant, some
times brutal.
The North needs 20 undeceive itself.
The South is in the saddle, and it
means to stay there. 1t has the Ex-
ecutive branch of the Government, it
almost controls the legislative, it is
reaching forward to the judicial branch.
1t threatens the manufacturing and all
other industries of the North. 1t
means to hold in Ats hands the decision
of all our National questions, those OF
foreign policy, tariff, finance, internal
improvements and all expenditures,
and to ''get even" with the North on
account of the temporary ascendency
of the latter during the era of rebellion
and reconstruction. The South will
not again make the mistake of seces-
sion. 1t is easier and safer to rule the
Nation from the inside. The power
which the election of 1884 gave will
not be relinquished if murder and
fraud at the South, and unlimited cor
ruption and fraud in New York City,
can retain il. If another Democratic
Administration is elected, the North
ern people will soon realize what the
new Southern control involves. and
will be loaded to the full with the
burdens Of which our Southsrn masters
du ring the last three years have i'm
posed only a small part.
Will the North consent submissively
to perpetual political control and de-
fiance of one of the principal funda-
mental conditions upon which the war
was terminated. and which IS now
part of the Federal constitution? Let
it be borne in mind-it can not be too
often repeated-that ii the constitution
were in force Blaine, instead of Cleve-
land, would now be President, and the
National House would be Republican
and in favor OF protection, instead of
Democratic and in favor of the Mills
bill. If the colored citizens could
vote, and have their votes counted as
east, the election next fall would, with
hardly the form of contest. be Re-
publican: and on the 4th OF March,
1889, Cleveland would surrender the
Executive power to Republican Presi-
dent, who would be sustained by q
Congress Republican in both branches.
Although in the coming contest the
votes of the negro will be unconstitu-
tionally suppressed and the South per-
haps solidly Democratic, our Southern
masters can be defeated If the COM
mercial interests OF the country are
sufficiently aroused. They will do we'll;
to take the alarm The Indifference
of the business men of the North to the
cncrOachments of slavery made the
war possible, and compelled the ex-
penditure of six thousand millions to
preserve the Union. II is better to
protect our industries by a contest now,
when they are yet undestroyed, than
to fight to restore them after they
have been stricken down and chains
are rivetcd upon our limbs.
If victory is achieved, the conditions
Of reconstruction enforced, obedience
to the constitution in all its parts COM
PEELED, and the vote of the Northern
man. white or black, made equal to
that Of the Southern man, white or
black, neither the North nor the South
need fear negro supremacy.
Manhood suffrage was first tried i'm
mediateiy after Il war-made by the
masters to strengthen their hold on
their slaveS-had resulted in the dis
comtiture of the former and the free
dom OF the latter, but had disorganized
society. In its reorganization the late
masters refused to participate; the
freedmen went ahead. and did as well as
they could. The failure, if it be such,
of the first experiment. win not be re-
peated under new conditions and bet
ter auspices. The charge that the two
races can not live side by side in the
Southern States in political equality,
the voters of each race freely partici-