Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-05-25
rHE RAoE ISsUE.

were unconnecteu Win state OF
National elections.
OF the Louisiana difficulties we
have spoken briefly that in Arkansas
was more serious in that it involved
greater loss Of life. 1t occurred in a
populous negro county over the
election of two school trustees Govt
Of six) for the county The whites
pay SO per cent. of the taxes and
the negroes and white fusionists
declared their intention to capture
the School Board and run things to
suit themselves. Bad blood was
between the Democrats and Fusion
lists resulting from the State election
of last year. The fight was pre-
cipitated by the whites of each
side, resulting in the death Of the
Sheriff and County Clerk fusionists
and that of the Town Marshal,
Democrat, who killed the two former
after he had been shot down. Later
the leading negro, who seems to have
been the publisher of a newspaper,
was found under the floor of his
hous and killed The whites anti
cipated further attack in the town
but it was not made. 4he Governor
of the State thinking it unnecessary
to send militia to the scene OF the
disturbance, went himself and
matters quoted down.
In all of these difficulties the
cause was the same, insolent and
overbearing conduct Of the negroes
resulting from great preponderance
Of numbers, in some instances aggra-
waited by incompetent negro officials.
1t was the inevitable conflict of
races, to which every community is
liable where the blacks preponderate,
until the status of the white man
and the colored man as legislators
and executives is fixed Enthusiastically.
The absence Of politics emphasizes
the real cause of these widely sepa-
rated conflicts, which otherwise
would be obscured to the Northern
mind at least And we repeat that
it is fortunate circumstance.
The Southern people for twenty odd
years have steadily and as quietly as
might be followed the straight path
and the only one by which their
civilization could be preserved The
rule of intelligence over ignorance,
of progress over decadence or bar
barism, of the Caucasian over the
Negro, regardless Of numbers.
In spite Of the great influence
which the great Northern Republican
journals WELD in forming and direct
ing public opinion in their section it
is fact that the mind of the country
outside the South begins to recog-
niZe the real issue and to appreciate
the difficulties of our situation. As
a naked proposition we believe there
are now few people in the country
who would favor negro rule in any
Southern community, and it should
be remembered that once it was
otherwise. Time is required to
demonstrate an abstract proposition
convincingly to people not directly
affected. 10 a large portion of the
Northern people the negro as
laborer, voter and member of society
is not matter of personal interest
or experience-they do not know
him, because it in contact at all it is
not in numbers negro rule and its
consequences, to them have been far
away matters viewed theoretically
except as the political result
affected them.
Forcing duly elected colored Off
ciais to resign for the good of the
community; banishing and some
times killing overbearing, turbulent
negroes; fighting them at the polls if
necessary rather than hand over to
them the money put into the treasury
from taxation of the whites, are
simple phases Of the same question
honest government, intelligent
government, the rule of the white
man-which Northern men not con-
fronted with like conditions failed to
understand at first and yet do not
fully comprehend However, the
occurrence of race troubles unmixed
with politics places the question
clearly upon its own merits. 1t has
been the thing most unfortunate to
us so far as public opinion goes
that political conflicts have been so
blended with the race issue that
outsiders could not well under
stand where either began or ended.
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