The national leader., 1889-04-27

Iullllm6nC OF contract, or De SnOt
down like dog in his tracks. When
southern senators tell you that they
want to be rid Of the negro. and would
be glad to have them all clear out, you
know, and l know. and they know
that they are speaking falsely, and
simply with a view to mislead the
north. Only a few days ago armed
resistance was made in North Caro-
lima to colored emigration from that
state, and the first exodus to Kansas
was arrested by the old master class
with shotguns and Winchester rifles.
The desire to get rid of the negro is a
hollow sham. His labor is wanted to-
day In the south just as 1t was wanted
in the old times when he was hunted
by two-legged and four-legged blood
hounds.
Now, when a man is in one place,
and held there by the force of many or
few, and cannot get out of it, he Is not
far from a condition of slavery. But
these old shareholders have their al
lies, and one is strong drink. Whisky
makes the negro drunk. and drunken
ness makes him a criminal as well as a
pauper, and when he is made both a
pauper and criminal the law steps In
for satisfaction. 1t does not send him
to prison to work for the state. but, as
in the old times, puts him on the auc-
tion block and sells him to the highest
bidder to work for planter, where all
the manhood he ever had is worked or
whipped out of him. What is all this
but slavery in another form?
know that it will be said that am
here exaggerating the danger that Inn
pends over the negro. 1t will be said
chat slavery can never exist by law in
the south, and that without legislation
slavery cannot be revived at the
SOUTH
My answer to this argument is. that
slavery can as really exist without law
as with IT., and in some instances more
securely, because less likely to be inter
fered with in the absence of law than
with It. No man can point to any law
In the United States by which slavery
was originally established. The fact of
slavery always precedes enactments
making it legal. Men first make slaves
and then make laws affirming the right
OF slavery.
What they have done in the past
they may also do in the future. We
must not forget that there is nothing
in southern morals. manners, or relig-
ion against the re-establishment OF
slavery. A genuine southern man
looks at a negro simply as an article of
property, capable of being exchanged
for rice, cotton, sugar, and tobacco.
Now, with such cOnsc ience, armed
with whisky, armed with ignorance,
and the payment of labor with orders
on stores, the old master class has the
landless colored laborer literally by the
throat, and is naturally dragging him
back to the house of bondage.
Another and still more important
step already taken in the direction of
slavery is the precaution to deprive the
negro of all means of defense and pro-
lection. In the exercise Of their
power, acquired by long mastery over
the negro, they have forced him to sur
render all arms and ammunition found
in his log cabin. No lamb was ever
more completely within the power OF
the wolf than the plantation negro of
to-day is in the hands of the old master
class. The old masters know it, and
the negroes know it, and the fact
makes the one naughty, domineerlng.
and defiant, and the other spiritless,
servile, and submissive. One is armed
and the other defenseless. 1t is moth
ing against the courage of the negro
that he does not fight his way to the
ballot box, instead of waiting for the
government to protect him, as it is its
duty to do, for even a brave man,
unarmed, will stand and deliver at the
mouth of a Winchester rifle or
THE BLADE OF A BOWIE KNIFE.
To the mass of mankind life is more
than liberty, for with it there ever re-
mains the hope of liberty.
Now, when you remember that the
negro is taught to believe that the gov
ernment may be against him; when ii
is remembered that he is denied the
power to keep and bear arms; that he
has not recovered from his enforced
ignorance of two hundred years; that
no adequate means of education has
yet been provided for him; that his
vote avalIs him nothing; that emigra-
ton is impossible; that there is neither
religion nor conscience in the south to
take his part, that he, of all men, is
easiest convicted of crime; that he does
not see or receive a dollar in payment
of wages; that, labor as he will, he Is
brought in debt to the landed proprle-
tor at the end of the year; that he can
lay up nothing for rainy day; that by
the opinion of the Supreme Court OF
the United States the fourteenth
amendment affords him no protection
against individuals of a state-1 say.
when you remember all this, you may
realize something of the perllous con-