The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-12-19


the hum of industry, and contentment
runs with singing plough. 1t Is
claimed that this ignolant labor Is &C.
frauded of its just hire. present the
tax books of Georgia, which show that
the negro, twenty-five yearsagoa slave
has in Georgia alone sl0,OOO,0OD OF the
assessed property worth twice that
much. Does not that record honor him
and vindicate his neighbors? What peo-
pie, penn 5, iliiterate, has done SO
well: For every Afro-American aglta-
tor stirring up strife, in which alone he
prospers, I can show you thousand
negroes, happy in their cabin homes, TILL
ing their own land by day and at night
taking from the lips Of their children
the helpful message their State senos
them from the school house door.
"And the school house itself bears
testimony. The South, since 1879, has
spent Sl22,O0O,UOO in education, and
this year is pledged to S37,0OO,OOo more
for State and city schools, although the
blacks, paying one-thirtieth OF the
taxes, get one-half of the fund. 20 INTO
our fields and see whites and blacks
working side by side, on our buildings
in the same squad, in our shops at tile
same forge. Often blacks crowd whites
from work, or lower wages by their
greater need or simpler habits, and yet
are permitted, because we want to bar
them from no avenue III which their
feet are fitted to tread. They could
not there be elected orators OF white
universities, as they have been here,
but they do enter there hundred
usual trades that are closed against
them here. We hold it better and
wiser to tend weeds in a garden than
to water an exotic in 4 window. In
the South there are negro lawyers,
teachers, editors, dentists, doctors and
preachers, multiplying with the H.
creasing ability of their race to support
them. In villages and towns they
have their military companies, equipped
from the armories Of the State, their
churches and societies, built and sup
ported largely by their neighbors.
"Wbat is the testimony OF the Court?
In penal legislation we have steadily
reduced felonies to misdemeanors, and
have led the world in mitigating pull
ishment for crime, that we might save,
as far dis possible, this dependent race
from its own weakness. In our penl-
tentiary records so per cent Of the pros
ecutors are negroes, and in every Grim
inal court the negro criminal chai-
lenges the colored juror that Il white
man may judge his case. In the North
one negro in every lS5 is in Jail; in the
South only one in 44G. In the North
the percentage of negro prisoners IS slN
times as great as that of natire-whltes
in the South only four times as great.
If prejudice wrongs him in Southern
courts the record shows it to be deeper
in Northern courts. | assert here, and
bar as intelligent and upright as the
bar of Massachusetts will solemnly ell
dorse my assertion, that in Southern
courts, from the highest to the lowest,
pleading for life, liberty or property,
the negro has a distinct advantage, be-
cause he is negro, apt to be over
reached, oppressed, and that this ad-
vantage reaches from the juror in max
ing his verdict to the judge in measur-
ing his sentence.
"Now, Mr.. President, can it be seri-
ouslv maintained that we are terror
izing a people from whose willing
hands comes every year 81 900, 900, 600
of farm crops? or have robbed a people
who twenty-five years from unrc-
warded slavery, have amassed in one
State S2O,O00,000 of property: or that
we intend to oppress people we are
arming every day? or deceiving them,
when we are educating them to the ut
most limit of our ability? or outlaw
them when we work side by side with
then or re-enslave them under legal
forms, when for their benefit we have
imprudently narrowed the limit of
felons and mitigated the severity OF
law?
My fellow-countrynen, as You
Yourself may sometimes have to appeal
at the bar of human judgment for JUS
tice and for right, give to MY people
tonight fair and unanswerable CON
clusion Of these incontestible facts"
Continuing, the speaker said:
"When will the black cast a free
! ballot. When Ignorance anywhere is
not dominated by the will Of the in-
telliyent; when the laborer anywhere
casts a vote unhindered by his boss;
when the vote Of the poor anywhere is
not influenced by the power Of the rich
when the strong and steadfast do not
everywhere control the suffrage of the
weak and shiftless; then, and not till
then, will the.ballot Of the negro be free.
The white people of the South are
banded, Mr. President, not in prejudice
against the blacks, not in sectional
enstrangement, not in the hope OF
political dominion, but in deep and
abiding necessity. The negro vote can
never control in the South, and il
would be we'll if the partiSans at the
North would understand this. have
seen the white people OF Il State sci
about by black hosts until their fate
seemed sealed.
'But, sir, some brave man, banding
! them together, would rise as Elish,