Huntsville gazette., 1888-01-14
The Jackson UsapatiOn.

the recent municipal election there,
by theats of vislence warned the
colcred voters not to attempt to vote
and to keep away from the polls. 1t
was most fagrantly unlawful and
unconditional act. Speaking Of the
affair the Chattanooga Times says.
The Memphis Appeal thinks the
democrats of Jackson, Miss, made a
mistake in notifying the negroes they
must not attempt to vote at the late
municipal election. The Appeal is
right from any point Of view the
the matter may be looked at. 1t was
grossly bad policy because it put a
club in the hands Of republican lead
ers which they are already using on
democratic heads. 1t was morally
wrong, of course, and as stroke OF
local tactics it was idiocy inspired by
cowardice. The sole excuse offered
for disfrauding the republican
panty of the town was that a
negro criminal attempted to murder
white boy, and was himself killed
by the boy, acting in self defense,
and that negro policeman misbe-
haved in connection with the affair.
That was all. No grave charges Of
malfeasance or misfeasance were
brought against the republicans in
their management of their towns
affairs, which they have controlled
several years. 1t was apparently
the culmiuation ola fright, in which
petty prejudice played large part.
We need not say that such ridicul-
Gus and exceptional conduct as this
is the food on which Senator Chan
dler and the other political perssecu>
tors of the South live. The occasional
outbreaks of folly furnishedChandler
a pretext for bringing in his bill to
place congressional elections in sew
eral Southern states In the control OF
Federal officials; and they are the
web and woOf of more than half the
violent anti South editorials and
speeches Of the radical editors and
politicians.
Not only are such courses polit-
ically and morally mistaken, but
they are.wholly unnecessary, foolish,
foster the very evils their promoters
seem to think they will suppress. In
any town or city where the negro is
given fair play, where he has equal
chance for education and is encour-
aged to help himselfupwards in the
moral, social and intellectual scale,
he makes no serious trouble. I he
more enlightened and thrifty colored
men in Tennessee cities are as amen
able to reason where good local
government is at stake as any other
class. We have more than once de
monstrated this to be true Of the col
ored voters Of Chattanooga. They
have time and again helped the bet
ter element Of whites to defeat un-
worthy republican candidates and tt
circumvent dangerous schemes Of re-
publican tricksters, whom the bes
men of their party do not trust Ne
groes here have done fair to goo(
service in our public boards. and the
intelligent among them-a consider
able number and growing larger
are by no means led about by the
ward workers of their own color.
| lfthe white people OF jackson vii
take more pains to instruct their Ne
gro fellow citizens in their duties tt
themselves and to society, as voter
and Office holders, they will, in tn,
long run, gain thereby, whereas ths
policy of suppression by threats anC
violence can lead only to the bad
The progress the Negro has made il
culture, political knowledge and a
an acquirer of property, points to hi
inevitable recognition as a politica
power to the full extent of his mum
bers in the not far future. Is it no
then madness to drive him in upol
himself, to make him more and NOR,
clannish, to foster in him total dis
trust and rank hatred of the grea
majority Of white citizens? Their,
can be but one answer to this quest
ion. The conservative far sighte(