The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1888-01-25
Al. THERE. HALsTEDs
Judge Dickson Does Up The
Bloody Shirt Editor.


Judge VIM. NJ Dickson, of Gin
Ecinnati,. thus douses Murat Hal
stead's fiery glim:
aYour diction is copious; your i'm
agery effiorescent, grotesque; your
affection for the negro touching,
but you evade the question / must
bring you to it. Shall we continue
sectional agitation until we com
pei the Southern States to submit to
the rule of the ignorant field hands?'
Would Cincinnati vote in the af-
tirmative on this question? This
you dodge. You say that Cincin-
cinnati would vote by an over
whelming majority for the main
tenance of the rights of men, No
doubt of that; but that is not my
question. The Constitution and tho
law of Ohio. gaarsnttetoe tlie eoloyed
children of Oxford, Ohio, admission
to the public schools, but the white
citizens of that village nullify that
constitution, 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 citizens have
banded together to boycott these
poor negro children-not, mark you,
to protect themselves against tho
vote, the rule of these negroes-but
to deny to them the opportunity of
occupation. And you are silent!
The wrongs of the negro of Louisi-
ana 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 inhuman
to deny to the colored children
the school. 1t is also illegal, un-
constitutional, in every way regret
able, to deny the Southern negro
his vote, and it is monstrous injus-
tice to give the whites there the ad-
vantage in representation of this
negro vote. But of what value in
either place to the negro are my
unavailing regrets? If race preju-
dice is cruel and inhuman, how can
L help it? If civilization would
perish to allow the ignorant field
hands Sonth to rule, how dare / to
enforce that rule? And if l dared
to enforce it, how could | succeed?
We're you in power to-day what
would or could you do? Reduce,
you say, reduce representation up-
der the fourteenth amendment?
You can't. That part of the four
teenth amendment is dead-killed
by the fifteenth amendment. What,
thon, do you propose? A vain and
aimless agitation? That is child's
play.
"WiIl you send an army South to
compel submission to the rule OF
the ignorant tield-hand? Grant
tried this; sent soldiers into the
Legislature of Louisiana, unscated
certain members and seated others
You tierccly denounced this and
boltcd Grants nomination. So did
Whitelaw Reid, and franticaIIy cried
for a Brutus to relieve us of ty,
rant, an act that Grant never forgot
nor forgave.
Can you do now what Grant
failed to do then? Would Cincin.
natl aid you in sending an armed
force South? Would it be good fol
the negro to awaken at this time {
fierce race struggle? These are
plain questions; will you answer
them? Flighty anathemas, sky
rocket defamation, droll buffonerS
may amuse the groundlings-they
do not deceive the judicious.
.'3Ir. Editor, the race question is ,
difficult one; it becomes fearfull,
difficult in community where the
intelligent white man is outnumber
ed five to one by the ignorant fielc
hand.
"Thcn arises n conflict of rights
In 1919 John Quincy Adams re
corded in his diary, speaking of til,
race problem as it then presented
itself with slavery, these words
This is question between tn,
rights of human nature and tn,
constitution. The problem of to
day is question between the right
of civilization and the constitution
"Until we can see our way clea
to a proper solution of this problem
is it not the part of wisdom to leav
it to the people directly involved ii
it? AT all events it is clear that
would better things to refer thi
question tc the citizens of Oxford.
At this the raging editor turn
I 4 1.