The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-02-02
All, THERE, HALsTEAD!
Judge Dickson Does Up the Bloody Shirt
Hditor

Judge VIM. M. Dickson, of Cincin-
natl, thus douses Murat Halstead's
fiery glim: ----. ---
"Your diction is copious; your mag
cry etflorescent, grotesque; your elO-
quence sublime; your affection for the
negro touching, butyou eYade the ques-
tion. must bring you to it. Shall
we continue sectional agitation until
we compel the Southern States to sub
nit to the rule of the ignorant field
hands?' Would Cincinnati vote in the
affirmative on this question? This you
dodge. You say that Cincinnati would
vote by an overwhelming majority for
the maintenance of the rights of men.
No doubt of that; but that is not my
question. The constitution and law of
Ohio guarantee to the colored chill
dren of Oxford, Ohio, admission to
the public schools, but the white
citizens of that village nullify that con
stitution, and deny the colored children
their school rights, and this not in
Mississippi, but in the shadow of
Paddy's Run, the town honored by your
birth. Seventy-five of the leading citi-
zens have banded together to boycott
you, to protect themselves against the
vote, the rule of these negros-but to
deny to them the opportunity of occu-
patton. And you are silent! The
wrongs of the negro of Louisiana touch
you but not those at your own door.
And yet the people of Oxford would
vote to enforce negro rule in Louisiana.
Now, in my opinion it is cruel-it is in
human-tO deny to the colored children
the school. 1t is also illegal, unconsti-
tutional, in every way regrettable, to
deny to the southern negro his vote,
and it is monstrous injustice to give
the whites there the advantage in rep
resentation of this negro vote. But of
what value in either place to the negro
are my unavailing regrets? 1t race
prejudice is cruel and inhuman, how
can | help it? If civilization
would perish to allow the ignorant
field-hands South to rule, how
dare 1 to enforce that rule? And
if I dared to enforce it, how could |
succeed? Were you in power today
what would or could you do? Reduce,
you say, representation under the four
teenth amendment? You can't. That
part of the fourteenth amendment is
dead-killed by the fifteenth amend
ment. What, then, do you propose? A
vain and aimless agitation? That is
child's play.
"Will you send an army South to COM
pei submission to the rule of the ignOr-
ant field hand? Grant tried this; sent
soldiers into the Legislature of Louisi-
ana, unseated certain members and
seated others. You fiercely denounced
this and bolted Grants nomination.
So did Whitelaw Reid, and frantically
cried for Brutus to relieve us of a
tyrant, an act that Grant never forgot
nor forgave.
"Can you do now what Grant failed
to do then? Would Cincinnati aid you
in sending an armed force South ?
Would it be good for the negro to
awaken at this time fierce race strug-
gle? These are plain questions; will
you answer them2 Flighty anathemas,
skyrocket defamation, drOll buttoOnery
may amuse the groundlings-they do
not deceive the judicious.
"Mr. Editor, the race question is a
difficult one; it becomes fearfully diff
cult in community where the intelli-
SeuC WllG6 HAL 10 OuIuuLnUeICu uNO W
one by the ignorant field hand.
Then rises conflict Of rights In
1919 John Quincy Adams recorded in
his diary, speaking of the race problem
as it then presented itself with slavery,
these words: This is question be-
tween the rights of human nature and
the constitution. The problem of to-
day is question between the rights of
civilization and the constitution.
"Until we can see our way clear to
proper solution of this problem, is i
not the part of wisdom to leave ito the
people directly involved in it? At all
events it is clear that it would better
things to refer this question to the cit
liens of Oxford"
At this the raging editor turns red
eyed and blindly hits out in the dark,
replying that "the Judge is as ignorant
as any field hand, and the matter is so
far impertinent that it is not worth fol-
lowing In fact, the Judge is about the
most ignorant man about the actuali-
ties of politics that we know" But
this is not meeting the great issue set
forth by Judge Dickson and illumi-
mated by an Ohio example. The Judge
has the editor on the hip and he can do
nothing but howl.-[LOuisville Times.