Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-05-31
A PARTY OF VIOLENCE.
A Stirring, Simple and Truthful Editorial
from the Courier-Jo ournal.

A Stirring, Simple and Truthful Editorial
from the Courier-Journal.
TIC attitude Of the Republican party
on the threshold of another presidential
campaign is conclusive proof Of its obso-
lete character 1t looks backward, not
forward 1t does not see the whole Of its
country, but only half of 1t. 1t is more
concerned to make point upon the In
ternal affairs of Louisiana, and to direct
the whole pressure of the nation to this,
than to consider what is really best to be
done about it. 1t seeks to inhame, not to
allay, the passions and prejudices Of the
people, It is a war party, not peace
party.
The pretext on which It keeps up its
hostility to the south-that the negro
vote is suppressed-is not sincere because
it does not aim to cure the evil Of which
it complains, but to organize the solid
north by every manner of excited appeal
to sectional ignorance and beLigerent feel
ing. That the negroes of the far south
are different species from the negroes Of
the north and the middle and border
states, and wholly unfit to vote and un-
able to protect their vote, and, therefore,
bound inevitably to be the prey of what
ever force is applied to make them vote,
or to prevent their voting. is not allowed
to enter into the account, or accepted as
an argument Nevertheless those are the
simple facts. and until they be recog-
nized we can hope for no electoral reform.
For ten years the repression Of the
whites was tried, amid such scenes of
corruption and carnage as make the
heart sick to recall We have had ten
years of normal conditions; and they
have been years Of development and
order. Intelligence and property hold
their natural ascendancy; barbarism
and brute force are held In subsection;
and, as a consequence, we, have response
BILE government No one claims that the
millennium has been reached. In the
south, as in the north, ignorance Is at o
discount, whereas, during the reconstruc-
tion period which the Republicans seek to
restore, 1t was at premium. There Is In
southern elections. as in northern cleo
tions, the customary amount of fraud;
but there Is no longer the violence which
prevailed whilst the Republicans were
forcing the white people to submit to the
black people by arbitrary acts Of congress
and military power. In word, we have
peace and law where we had bloodshed
and rapine, and If one negro Is no longer
the equal of two white men. he is at least
protected in his rights of person and
property. which is more than the Republi-
cans were able to insure him.
The thorough emancipation of the black
man can be wrought only by time. and,
even by time, only through conditions of
complete repose from race agitations.
The foolish theories of fanaticism urged
in his behalf, and the wicked schemes of
party interest advanced by the Republi-
can leaders for their own benefit, can
work nothing but mischief to him, no
matter what else they may do. The
whites Of the south have no motive to
persecute and every motive to befriend
him individually. He constitutes our
labor system. Nor Is he politically dan
gerous except when organized on race
lines to support bad men in the establish
ment Of corrupt and irresponsible govern.
ment. When the whites divide--as they
will when their lives, properties, laws,
civilization are no further menaced-the
blacks will divide, and not till then will
they become political force save as the
organized occasion and instrument of hos
tile federal power. seeking by martial
law to destroy the whites. ).
This latter is now the policy and pur-
pose of the Republican leaders, who, de.
spairing of a return to power by the
agencies Of peaceful and rational discus.
sion, are preparing to resort to every kind
Of warlike violence Louisville Courier
Journal