The Opelousas courier., 1889-09-28
The Race Issue.
Y. .. States. Sent. l6.

N. y. States, sept. ib.
Yesterday wo reproduced from our esteem
ed contemporary the German Gazette a clear,
vigorous and courageous article advocating
the abrogatiou Of the Fourteenth and Fif.
teenth Amendments of the Federal Constitu-
tion. The Gazette is an Independent German
newspaper with very pronounced Republican
tendencies. But it has clearly seen the evils
which negro suffrage has entailed upon the
South, and it has also seen that negro suffrage
50 long as it exists must absolutely debar tho
party, to which the Gazette so strongly leans,
from any participation in political power in
the Southern States.
Below we now print large part of an arti-
Gle on the same line from another journal in
this city, the Weekly Louisiana Review. The
Review discusses the subject in a straight
forward, unequiyocal manner, and boldly pur-
sues its reasoning to its logical conclusion, i.
g. that "the right Of the States to regulate
suffrage, untettered by the restrictions rela-
tive to race or color, should be restored to
them and, like the States, our contempt
rary is willing to make any necessary sacri-
flee of representation in the lower House of
Congress, provided Southern politics and Son.
thern civilization may be relieved from the
horrible and crushing incubus of negro sui-
irage The Review says
The Republican party. unfortunately for
the South. the country at large and the negro
himself, thus far, has been unable to arrive
at a true appreciation of the situation, and it
has viewed the long struggle of the Southern
people to uphold their civilization and to de-
fend their vital interests as a desplcable Ell
fort to gain political power in the national
government.
Hence, to this late day. the voice of some
of it's leaders can still be heard urging re-
turn to the brutal power of the bayonet to
compel the white people of the South to sub.
NIT to tho odious rnle of the negro and to the
spolation and the general decentralization that
would again ensue.
''We believe that the time has come for the
Southern people to define clearly their posi-
tion before the country. The white man and
the negro cannot live quietly together on
first from the days of the rude and unlettered
pioneers, the creators OF this Republic, have
been trained in the morality and higher in
s,incts of civilization, aud to an intelligent
and patriotic exercise of the duties of the
citizen.
''The negro, with comparatively few excep-
tions, has been found utterly deficient in
these attributes, and education seldom makes
anything else of him than an intense hater of
the white man and professional politician
of the worst type.
"UDder these circumstances it is folly to
advocate restrictions upon suffrage based
npon indscriminate educational qualifca-
tions for the principle of the equality of the
races is still maintained in that proposition,
which would place the unlettered white man
on the same level as the unlettered negro.
"The loss of representation in Congress or
in the electoral college sinks into insignii-
cance when compared to the necessity of res
cning our Southern States from the danger
ous situation that negro suffrage has made.
''The right of the States to regulate suf
frage, unfettered by the restriction relative
to race and color, should be restored to them,
and, in our opinion, our representatives in
Congress should be instructed to formu-
late this request before the body, and to
prove that it is not prompted by pitiful
thirst for political power, it should be coupled
with the proposition that the representation
of the States shall hereafter be based NOT upon
population, bmt mpon The number of qualified
roterS in the various States.
1--WE believe that the Southern question can
be settled in that way, which is in thorough
accord with the true spirit and true prineii.