Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24


no cause to fear that the negroes will gain
the upper hand, it is very easy to say that
the majority must rule. But in the South
where the voting majority consists OF mass
of ignorance-a majority Of people as be-
nighted as any on Greenland icy mount
aims, or India's coral strand, the matter be-
comes very different.
To secure parallel case in Pennsylvania
that could be appreciated, the 80, 600 Re-
publican majority in the Keystone State
would have to be colored ,men-7O per cent
of whom could neither read nor write; who
live mainly in cabins that would hardly
serve Tor stables in the North; who are con-
tent, as would appear, to wake and sleep, to
eat hog and hominy to live so unfettered BY
care, or thought for the morrow, as the
beasts of the ield to he satisfied and happy
with a bare animal existence for which they
strive with as little thought beyond as the
OK harnessed to the plow-alive only to
hunger and the goad.
SLOW PROGRESS.
Twenty-Five years of freedom have done
little for the negroes in the mass, so far as
we can see. A lew, comparatively speak
ing, have been developed by education--py
the struggle for maintenance-by for
tunate surroundings, but the great mass are
no more fitted for intelligent use of the fran
chise thrust upon them by unscrupulous
politicians than the denizens of Congo or
Soudan.
The few have shown a capacity in the
race for improvement, for progress and civil
ization, but the vast majority know as little
of the rights OF man, the interests of moral
fho nd Of oiu fha
gress of the world outside of their little
sphere as their ancestors in Africa.
1t is hardly possible for the people of the
North to comprehend that such mass of
dark Ignorance, dense superstition, want of
civilized comprehension still exists, notwith-
standing the money they have poured out
like water to the Freedmen's Aid Societies,
and the contributions that every sewing
society has sent, and the missionaries and
teachers that have been toiling all these
years for their enlightenment. But if they
could see the farms and the houses that some
of these latter are buying tor themselves. 1
and how solidly they are establishing them
selves here in body and estate in the sunny
South on their beggary missionary salaries
a little breath of suspicion as to where some
of the money goes might perchance arise in
the inner recesses of their Christian minds.
But with all the wealth of the North that
has been lavished in their behalf, with
freedmen's aid schools, Tree schools estab-
lished by the State, Sunday schools, well
endowed universities with tree scholarships
for their benefit, the fact remains that the
away-back districts OF Pennsylvania, off in
the forests, up on the mountains miles away
from railroad, can present no such set of
UNLETTERED ABoRIGINEs
as the great mass of the negroes in the
South. With all the forces of enlighten-
ment at work in their behalf, the great mass
of the colored people are found in the ranks
of illiteracy. Upon such material the |
work, the politicians play,
and the missionaries of Mormondom find an
easy prey. In the hands of such voters, the |
interest of the State ana the progress of the |
people rest, according to the letter.ot the law |
if the white people recognized their right to |
rule, as a majority.
II, for instance, the city Of Pittsburg were |
dominated by its black citizens-through |
sheer force of numbers, regardless of.intelli- |
could control its offices from |
highest to lowest, which could administer
its affairs financially and execute its laws |
in accordance with race interests and
prejudices regardless of all else, some idea
Of the state of affairs South NAV be OBJ
tained, with due. allowance for the fact that
the colored race in PENNSYLVANIA is ages
ahead of the. blacks of South Carolina.
Would the white people OF Pennsylvania
endure such domination? Would the con-
science of the Quaker State induce its in
telligent classes to give such illiterate class
full swing? Would the sense of Justice,
he deerence Of majorities, the human
nature of the white men of Pennsylvania
submit 10 the rule of race led on by men
intent only on self-aggrandizement and per-
'onal ends, aud inspired by race antagon-
sms and prejudices. We trow not. Much
Is the brethren of the North love liberty
and prate of equality, they would no more,
IS human nature goes, stand such domina-
ion of ignorance, superstition and heathen-
sm than their brothers down in Dixie. So
when they loudly talk of the suppression of
he Republican votes of the South-it would
De well to put themselves in the place OF
he white citizens of the cotton country,
ind give play to charity.
A MAJORITY RULE.
This race problem which is in every-
1ody's mouth down here-which furnishes
In occasional text for every pulpit and O
heme for every political stump-is GER
ainlv a most difficult one, and one, too,
which the South should be left to solve as
BEST it may. 1t is very easy in the North
o flippantly affirm that the majority must
ule, but when one comes South and takes
he measure of that majority, and contem-
,lates its makeup, the question assumes
'ery different aspect. When the sovereigns
# the country, as made so by the Constitu-
ion come under consideration as living in
hanties that in the North would hardly be
onsidered fit to shelter mule-in a condi-
ion of dirt, shittlessness and immortality
hat seem to mark an Incapacity for decent
j ivilization. and when il is Considered that |