The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-11-22
the committees report was sustained by
the Convention.
At 12.45 q. m. the Convention adjourn
ed sine die after appointing the executive
committee.
The Pressing Problem of our Politics
What to do with the Negro.
Gresnpills Ne,ua.

:
ofwhat ought to be done with the Negro
as voter and citizen. His presence is
feltin every move made by the leaders of
each party. He is disturbing factor in
every calculation of results. While the
question of what to do with him remains
without an answer the people can not
think intelligently or act efectually on
any issue.
He is menace to the North and a
danger to the South and the strongest
barrier to the uni6cation of the sections.
In several Northern States he holds the
balance of power. He votes by instinct
as dumb animal would. Beyond the
reach of influences of selfinterest and
principle which control other men, he
defeats the will of the majority of his
white neighbors who vote with intelligent
beliefs of what the interest of their
country require. His vote carried New
York and Indiana for the Republicans.
In the South he makes political freedom
of speech and action impossible. His
presence gives the Southern white man
double the strength in the Federal House
of Representatives and the electoral
college the white man at the North has,
while keeping the Southern white man
in condition of political slavery and
holding above every Southern Common
wealth the blighting shadow of possible
return of Negro rule.
The problem is made harder by the
fact that the presence and position of the
Negro is not his fault. He can not be
treated like criminal because the evil
he does is the result of the crimes and
errors of others. Taken against his will
from barbarous ancestry and country
he has been civilized as slave aud chat.
tel. His ignorance and the low develop
ment in intellect and morals which make
him danger and incumbrauce are not
his faults and are miafortunes which he
could not have avoided and has not had
time or opportunity to recover from.
The question has been dealt with here.
tofore, in the States and by the general
government, by series of expedients,
each intended to meet the trouble of the
time, none of them bringing us a step
nearer the final and satisfactory settle.
ment. All this time the trouble has
grown, and it will continue to grow until
it is fairly met. We have two races,
differing in every important feature and
element of character and with amalga
nation between them impossible, placed
together in the same country, each grow.
ing very fast, with the competitf3n
between them becoming keener and the
friction harder every year. Aside from
politics and as matter of social philoso-
ply such conditions must result, if
continued, in disaster, certainly to one
race, probably to both.
Another series of expedients is now
proposed for dealing with this living
present danger, this unceasing irritant,
this powerful obstacle to free thought and
sensible action.
We believe in their present temper the
people ofseveral Southern States would
deliver their Federal representation into
the hands of the Negrote to have and hold
ifpeacefnl possession of their State gov
ernments and conduct of their local
affairs could be secured to them. There
is an. angry feeling against the Northern
De96crats whose greed has cost them a
victory to which this section contributed
SO much, and tendency to allow the
East and West to take the Federal gov.
ernment and manage it among them with
the help of the Southern Negro, leaving
us to take care of our States. But there
is no sense in the suggestion. No assur.
ance could be given that if we surren.
dered all our part in Federal affairs to
the Negro be would keep his hands out
of our State affairs or cease from standing
ready to join With any faction of the
white people to regain his local power.
A solid negro Republican South would
be danger to the Republic like cancer
in mans breast.
Senator Chandler's bill to place all
elections involving representation in
Federal bodies under control of the Fed
eral government might be accepted by
those in the South who are willing to
barter the influence of the South al
Washington for undisturbed control of
Southern States by Southern men, but IL
would not accomplish their purpose be-
cause it would not and could not re.
strict the power of the negro vote in State
affairs, aside from the fact that it would
be the heaviest blow yet struck at the lib
critics Of all the people and the rights oi
all the States and an enormous addition
to the power of the Federal government
to control elections.
The proposition to apportion represen.
tation according to the vote actually cast
might, if it could be put into effect in de
fiance of the Constitution, do justice from
a Northern point of view by giving the
white voters of the two sections equal
power, but it would give no relief to the
South and in practical operation among
shrewd and practical politicians it would
probably result in an enormous increase
of the voting, and nothing else.
The South Carolina election law is the
best and more conservative of all the ex.
pedients suggested. Practically it limits
the franchise to those who have some
education and character, careful habits,
! forethought and intelligence. But it is
only makeshift to avert immediate
calamity and does not touch or meet one
of the real evils of the situation.
Wholesale disfranchisement of the Ne.
gro is the remedy that has been thought
of by many thinking men Of all parties
and sections and few daring spirits have
publicly favored it. But if it could be
possible to secure the practically unani-
nous white vote which would be required
to make the necessary amendment to the
constitution, the social, commercial and
be left worse than they are. We would
be left with the two races expanding in
economic elements of.he problem would
the same country and on the same terrific
ry, one cut off from interest or influence
in the common government and with life,
liberty and property at the mercy of the
other. The Negro would sink lower than
he is, and he would drag the other race
and the country with him. There can be
no health in a body in which one member
is diseased or degraded.
The remedy that will correct all the
evils and the one most in accord with
justice and common sense is the separa-
tion of the races. 1t can be most easily
accomplished by the removal of the Ne
gro population to territory set aside for it's
use. It may be territory organized into
States as part of the Union and repre-.
sented as the other States are, different
from the others only in the requirement