San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-12-08
The Daily Eight.
SATURDAY. DECEMBER. 8, 1888.
a Plea for the Negro.
Editor LIGHT:

i beg space in the columns OF your
good messenger, to enter plea for
the Southern negro. OF all questions
before the public, none invites consld-
Grafton and beggars solution more
than this. 1t is one of those questions
which will not likely settle itself.
The intelligent people of America
must settle this question according 10
moral ethics, justice, mercy and truth:
The war is over, but the effects and
constitutional questions have..not been
adjusted as fast as the growth ana
VARYING circumstances demanded.
This may be accounted for possibly in
two ways:
lst. The states have been recon-
structed, but the entire population
has not.
End. The unwillingness to concede
to the emancipated slave. the GOO
given right to exercise the functions
of his free moral agency, according TO
individual election. These subjects
are paramount to any political ques-
tions, and can only be rightfully and
finally adjusted by a noble and an en-
lightened population inhabiting the
land. would lay special emphasis
on the phrase nhabiting the land"
for we are beginning to see, or imagine
we see that many wealthy, Tor used
to be). are willing to have the negro
exist, but not inhabit or live in the
land. Illustrations of above declara-
tions NAV be seen in the sad
havoc of property, and waste of hu-
man life mainly because the possessors
of life and owners of the property
l. i,,tn,,SifinI hU the
fact, that you once belong
ed to my father. We believe
the enacted laws Of the south,
if faithfully enforced, and righteously
administered are sutficientto restrain,
or fully punish all tresspassers OF its
sanctity, whether the violator be
black or white, whether they form
community of their own nationality
or be scattered prOmiscously among
other settled communities. There is
little community somewhere in Ala
bama without single negro. We III
fer that the reporter of that news
item rejoiced in that fact. We VEN
ture the assertion that that commune
ty is not held in suspicious survei-
lance by its negro surroundance,
whether distant or contiguous. But
how different when negroes found a
community Of their own! But untOr-
tunately enough no such colony or
community is allowed in most sec
tiOns of our south, our native south.
Who can adjust these questions, or
redress the existing evi3 Answer.
All the people inhabiJing all these
mischievOus sections. Not President
Grover Cleveland and his cabinet,
nor Gen. Ben Harrison and his cabi-
net; but the people occupying the
lands. If they will or can not, then
it becomes the duty Of the chief eXecu-
tive to protect the lives and property
of all law abiding citizens, regardless
of race or political creed. Parties
composed of American citizens, are
not less American because of race or
party. Parties, like other institutions,
must win men to its standard by its
great utility; and men must 60 into,
or rally around them of their own
free vol ton, and election. Coercion
spends it's force along these lines.
What then?
Mr.. Editor, firmly believe man is
an epitOme of the universe; and is
plant, or animal that blooms, or
fiourishes in all climates, more or less.
Violence, and midnight raiders, have
disturbed or broken up almost every
colony founded by negroes in the
south. This has been done under one
form, or pretext or other. The terrible
facts are almost without exception,
the aggressors were white men. If
negroes were the friends of confed-
crate soldiers families, while they
were at the front killing Yankees, or
being killed by Yankees; they are
just as true, and friendly now as then.
Why don't these fathers, and sons,
pay in gratitude the just debt in this
hour of need? The constitution says
slavery shall not exist in any state or
territory, and you say you want no
slaves Why not help us, your old
friends? 1t is not recorded anywhere
that negroes ever broke up or dis
turbed colonies or communities
formed, or built upon the vacant
lands, by other natiOnalities. 1t
should be the pride Of The former
slave master, to aid his old slave to be
the best citizen; if you cannot, like
Daniel Hand, give million dollars
for his intellectual and moral inn
provement, aid him by protecting him
from mob violence, virulent midnight
raiders, and note fOrgers, to leave his
family, and his hard earned home, his
crops standing in the fields ungather-
ed to rot. Jno. F. Slater, also, OfCOnn.,
gave a million, to be applied to same
purpose. n. B. These immortal
philanrhropists added these two mil
lions, TO 80 millions by churches, not
to help the negro out of the south, nor
aid the affected dread of NEGRO