The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-08-01
NOT A SOUTHERN QUESTION ALONE.

NOT a SOUTHERN QUESTION ALONE
We have received a copy of the Sea Island
News, published at Beaufort, g.. c. This is
the district where Hon. Robert Smalls, the
~well-known colored Republican, after being
elected to Congress by about eight thousand
majority, was counted out, and the present
House of Representatives ratified the outrage.
The Sea Island News is an outspoken Repub-
lican paper. In an editorial relative to South
ern politics, it says:
'In most of the South there are no cleo
tions-the ballot-box no longer controls the
destiny of the people; dishonest candidates.
managers and other election officers control
the ballot-box, and it records no longer the
peoples will, but is used for the advancement
of dishonest men and to secure from the right
full possessors the spells of public Office. What
is theft in the word of God and in the laws of
man has been transposed in South Carolina
and most of the South into a cardinal virtue,
and to those who stoop to the mire Of dishon-
esty or to the acceptance of its fruits are ac-
corded the emoluments mot the honor Of
politics.
ITO the negro the question of his rights ia
greater than the question of tariff. The Re-
publican party has a record on the question,
and its platform promises something; while
the Democratic platform in relation to the
rights of the people is the boldest falsehood
ever attempted to be imposed upon a nation
of intelligent people. The colored people OF
the North need look no further than the or.
gan of Democracy of this State for reasons
to shun the Democratic party. There has not
been an election fraud that it has not defend
ed, not an outrage that it has not excused,
and the last steal that drove the last repre-
sentative of the race from national legislation,
it has defended even when more worthy Dem
ocrats were appalled, at the boldness of the
scheme, and denounced it. To say nothing
of lynching. which is practically as much a
part of the law as those on the statutes, hun
dreds of colored men have been murdered by
white Democrats, and there is yet to be filed
an instance of a conviction"
The writer, of course, speaks from personal
knowledge of the condition of affairs in his
own State and district, but what he says is
true of several States and many districts of
the South. The republican form of govern
ment supposed to be guaranteed by the Con-
stitution does not exist. The situation is one
of great gravity, and the danger is not less
ened by the fact that the Democracy, North
as well as South, admit the facts, defend the
frauds, and coolly ask "What are you going
to do about it7" Perhaps the difficulty of
answering the question makes them more de-
FAINT in asking it. For the situation is sur
rounded with difficulties, and just what ought
to be done and how to do it is a problem that
will tax the best intelligence Of the Repub-
lican party when it comes into power again.
The Sea Island News says ''to the negro the
question of his rights is greater than the
questions of tariff" Most undoubtedly, and
so it is to the whites. In real political signif-
canoe and far-reaching consequence there
is no question before the country to-day
at all approaching in Importance the question
of securing the rights Of citizenship to all
classes and the fairness and equality of the
ballot in all parts of the country. Circum-
stances have given unexpected prominence to
the tariff question, and the present campaign
is likely to turn mainly on that question; but
the Chicago platform takes high ground on
the other question, and the Republican party,
when it resumes power, will do so under
pledges to protect the rights of citizens and
the purity Of the ballot, as well as the mate
rial industries of the country. The question
Of the rights of the negro in the South does
not concern him alone. In the form it has
taken it concerns the entire white voting
population of the North, and involves the
very essence of republican government.
The party which has destroyed a free ballot
and representative government in the South
very ftly proposes to follow up its work by
destroying home industries. The party that
protects American labor will also protect
American citizenship.