The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-11-24

work among the negroes In the way they
so well understand; by November all the
negro Palmer clubs were dissolved, and |,
Ia doubtful whether Palmer got a single
negro vote In the state.
Exactly how this was brought about l.
shown In parallel case In Massachusetts,
where Col. Higginson was candidate 70,
Congress against Gen, Banks, Col. Ii had
commanded a negro regiment In the war
was the Idol OF the boys" had Away,
been republican we believe, and had run
against Banks only 40 tariff reformer
His district included aprecinct In Boston
known as "The HILL" almost entirely In
habited by negroes. A Higginson club OF
800 negroes was organized, including near,
ly the entire vote OF the precinct But on
the night before the election tho republi-
can committee went into the precinct, hired
some twenty Of the leaders at from 81 to
IS day to distribute tickets, and plentl'
fully supplied them with money to place
"whore II would do the most good" On
the morning Of the election the democrats
sent three white men TO the precinct to dis
tribute tickets and ''pasters' for H.gginson
One Of these, In the NeD York Post, related
his experience at length He was astonished
on arriving At the voting place, TO find Il sur
rounded by negroes wearing the Banks
badge, though all were members of the
Higginson club Stepping up TO one-a
leader-he says;
"Why, how Is this? Surely you are not
going back on the Colonel, are you? Is
this square and manlyg"
81 guess got 10 do what I'm paid to do,
SIR get two dollars for wOrkin' for the
General, and mustn't go back on the man
that's a pawn me. Nobody don't
appreciate de Colonel mo- highly as a
man, But this Is mere question Of pol
tiles, and I'm a-workin' where I'm paid TO
work. I'm sorry, sir, that the Colonel
wasn't judicious, as he might easily have
been. Ii ne had given fifty or a hundred
dollars 10 me last night, ii would have been
worth five hundred votes TO him."
The republicans, to the disgust of the
Prohibitionists, had also opened "refresh
ment parlor" near the polls, where the
black men were literally piled with weak
claret punch and cheap cigars.
Tho 'parlor' was literally patronized,
and huge corpslent negro, whose yellow
face 10 almost obliterated with freckles,
becomes boastful, taking out large wsd
OF bills from his vest pocket, which he
displays TO all, saying, Banks money In a
defiant voice"
The Post writer naturally came away
with discouraging views Of the negro as a
voter. ~ found him densely ignorant,
with Ideas Of political morality the very
lowest-you can buy him with song.
Whether he will ever have an intelligent
OF politics, cannot conjecture.
He regards II now as a sort OF delightful
game which affords both amusement and
profit, and which he plays with all the skill
Of veteran, and his influence In politics
cannot help but be wholly bad-offering as
he does an unprincipled and venal vote
which may be secured either by passion or
bribery"
The republicans profess that one of the
leading aims of this restoration to rule will
be to "break up the solid.south, and so far
they may be able TO do so by winning
over the south on financial. economic or
other legitimate governmental questions
wa wish them heartily, "God'speed;" for
there is nothing that so hinders--indeed
efforts to propagate sound
democratic principles in the north as this
SOLID south" bugbear. But If, by breaking
up the solid south, the republicans mean
and everybody knows that is exactly what
they do mean-the complete rehabilitation
If the negro vote, as in the republican re-
days, of ghastly memory, as a
solid republican vote, thereby again turn
ng the south over 70 the merciless domin
,tion of the sort OF "voting cattle" above
described as dominant on the Hill" IN
Boston, then heaven grant the south may
maintain its solidity TO the "crack of
ioom!"