The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-01-09
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
The Grace Problem.-

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
just now much is being said about the
Southern question: the new South, - and
1.-THE Race Problem" Along with it, from
below the ''line," come statements showing
not little brag, buster and you had bet
ter 20 Slow spirit. The Atlanta Constitu-
tion-a representative Southern paper,
says: Every attempt to secure negro
domination in the South. whether by leg
islation or the bayonet, has been failure
History will show that no such attempt
was ever made, but, on the other hand, the
Grant and Hayes regimes have been. by
answering Republicans, quite severely
criticised for not using the powers at their
disposal in securing full and free use of
the political rights of all parties in, the
solid South. Why is there Southern ques-
TONI In many parts of the country the
Irish or Germans predominant; yet they are
not terroriZed; neither do they make any
attempt to defraud their native-bOrn Amer
lean brother American citizenship GER
tainly means something. 1t is not an empty
expression. Yet the same paper attacks the
civil-rights bill, and is even SO ridiculously
jrritably that it speaks of George w.
Cables magazine articles as an 'irritant."
To such straits of sOphistry are they driven
IN order to defend and apologize for their
national crime,
The plain. unvarnished, automatic fact is
that great wrong Is perpetrated upon a
large number of American citizens; that
TINS same wrong affects not only the Sc
same citizens, but the entire country; that
we have yet a country part slave and part
Free" that the South boasts of this wrong,
and the Democracy of the North as yet. fails
to condemn 1T. The outside pressure" 1T
ny exists, is based neither on ignorance
u IT partisanship;" but there does exist an
outside PRESSURE" which is but another
term for loyalty, and it will have vastly
different result from that limited at by the
Constitution. The primal question settled
IN the late campaig On was, that all American
citizens are free and equal; that the pOlitl-
cal rights of all citizens must and shall be
maintained, and the hurting from power of
the Democratic party, with their aesthetic
annex, after only three and a half years of
control, says, in unmistakable language,
that the injury TO one is the injury to all,
and that we are not men, should we suffer
this dishonOr to longer go nncorrected.
drawn, and yet it asks not that the negro
dominate" The loyalty of the cOun-
try demands that all men, everywhere.
that is, all American citizens, have equal
rights, let the result be what it may. The
Constitution says: Leave the South to deal
with the situation as it exists" For the
honor of the American name and in behalf
of the cause of humanity and fairness, let
four years of unobstructed opportunity to
simply do right. and the result is one con-
tinued rape of the ballot-bOx, by murder,
theft and forgery. Six national Democratic
conventions have met, and many more
State conventions, and in all their deliver
ances not one condemnatOry word Is found
uttered against this national fraud. Men
of the South, do You expecttO always main
tain supremacy by high-handed crimes
This question must pass out of politics as
one that is fixedly settled. Men must take
a broader view than mere moss-cOvered
Prejudices; Look at the question as 1T is.
The race problem" settles itself, if men
will be Americans. and not partisans, on
questions of loyalty, and. with that set
tied, the new South will be not merely
an expression, but a splendid reality. The
incoming administration will have poll
cy as broad as the whole country; as firm
and pure as are the eternal principles of
right and justice, in all of which it will
command the hearty Endorsement and
earnest cooperation of loyal men every
where. ISAAC I'll. PHARES.