Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-02
WHITE VS.. BLACK.
The Men to Whom General Harrison
Applied for Information.
Writes a Letter Explaining Affairs and Showing
the Need of Wise LeglslatiOn-The
Situation in the South

A. B Williams, an editor of Green
vile, s. c., was asked by General Har-
rison for advice as to the best policy to be
pursued in the Southern states. The
tenor of Mr.. williams's reply may be
inferred from the following communica-
ton, which recently appeared in Har-
per's Weekly:
You recently printed letter had the
honor to receive from President-elect
Harrison, and spoke briefly of the indi-
cations that letter gave of the policy
! likely to be used in the Southern states
by the next administration. 1 ask of
you the opportunity TO put before the
thoughtful and conservative people,
among whom your journal goes some
facts which are generally unknown or
forgotten.
There is ''Southern situation, - an
abnormal, unusual political condition,
demanding from wise craftsmanship po-
litical methods different from those used
in other parts OF the country where the
conditions are natural and wholesome.
The South was the scene of one of the
most sudden and violent revolutions in
history. Within five years q rich and
arrogant people was made poor and
beaten, and millions of men who had
been held by those people as slaves were
made freemen and voters and the politi-
cal rulers of their former masters
The statement Of the event must
carry with it conviction that it left dis
tortions on the surface and dangers
beneath it, as surely as a volcanic ex-
plosion must leave earth cracks above
and heat below. More by the teachings
of instinct and guidance of nature than
by definite plan or with purpose, the
Southern people have TO a degree restored
the conditions so violently reversed. The
whites, owners of the soil and property,
descendants of generations of freedom
and civilization, again rule, and the
negroes, newly freed slaves, representing
only muscular labor, and descendants of
generations of barbarism and slavery are
again ruled. Heredity has asserted its
power.
The two races are on the same terrific
ry, nOminally the same people, with legal
rights and positions in all respects equal
with the color line dividing. them politi-
cally and socially The mass of the ne
gro race in the South is composed of farm
and day laborers, whose intelligence va
ries over a scale from that of the average
white mechanic to a barely perceptible
remove from actual barbarism. They
are all Republicans. They believe the
Republican party made them free; they
know the little lease of political power
that they had was under the pat
ronage of the Republican party,
and that in that party is their
only hope of return to power. They also
know that the white men who fought
to keep them in slavery and who have
taken their power from them, are called
Democrats. They know nothing of poll
litical creeds, principles and platforms,
or Of the characters or purposes of candi-
dates, and care nothing for them. They
reason by what they see and know within
their own observation, and from their
point of view they reason properly and
wisely. Much more wisdom and intellec-
tnal training than they have is required
to induce men to accept the belief that
power is sometimes a curse TO its pos
SCISSOR. The more intelligent, educated
and weli-tO-dO negroes are naturally in
sympathy with their race. Aside from
that, the more highly developed
the colored man is, the more
bitterly he must chafe under
the restrictions put upon them by the en-
veloping conditions. Every hour in the
thought of as an inferior by the poorest
white man he meets. Merchandise, in
dependent manufacture, law and medi-
cine are closed against him, because the
patronage of his own race is rarely
enough to support him III any of them.
His social life is confined to those he feels
to be beneath him, or to the very small
circle of his race equal to him in acquire
ments. His resentment against the race
holding itself above him, and keeping
him down while he feels the power and
the impulse to rise, intensifies the ten
dency created by instinct and interest to
stand with his color, to look to it and to
the Republican party for the fulfilment
of his hopes and ambitions.
How is it with the white man? He may
be descendant of old Wing or Federalist
stock, all mis- impulses and opinions may
be with the Republican party and its
principles; yet if he votes the Republican
ticket and becomes a member of the Re
publican party in the South, he is part of
and helping an organization the local
bulk and strength of which is the unreal
soning, ignorant, irresponsible negro
vote. He cannot know who viii direct
that vote or receive its power in munich
pal state or district politics, but he
knows the chances will always favor the
most INSCRIPTIONS, cunning and reckless
leader. the man VINO viii promise
most to people unable to meas
ure promises, and pander most dill
gently to prejudices where they are
most easily aroused If violent dema-
gogue can sometimes carry with him
hosts of your reading, thinking, self
respecting Northern working people,
what can he not do with such material rs
he will have to work with here? Let it
be remembered that this is not theory
In some states of the South the govern
ments resting on the solid negro vote in
short time piled up bonded debts, for
which there was no occasion or actual re-
turn, which we will not finish paving in
twenty years; in some the militia COM
pauies, fully armed and equipped, were
composed entirely OF negroes, sub
ject to be iniamed to any
atrocity by accident or design, in
capable of understanding the results of
their own acts, no more fit to be trusted
with weapons than so many children.