The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-03-22
AN IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.

million slaves. Since that time the number
of blacks has been more than doubled. The
great bulk of this negro population is still
in the south, and in some sections of that
part Of the country the white population
find it difficult to maintain political control
and Tor them to submit quietly to negro po-
litical domination is one of the things
which may not be hoped for. 1t viii not be
looked for by those who know anything of
the race preiudices existing in the south.
The planters of the southern states have
not yet forgotten that the negroes were
once their slaves. The remembrance of
that very fact still gives life to the
sentiment that the whites are the
superior race, to say nothing of
the palpable evidence of it
which everybody-the blacks excepted, of
course acknowledges. And so long as
these sentiments exist in the hearts of the
whites in the south, those who expect to
see them work in political harmony are
doomed to disappointment; and doubly
doomed to disappointment are those who
look for the whites to peacefully submit to
negro rule, because the blacks outnumber
them.
Commenting incidently on the remarks
made by President HARRISON relative to
electoral reforms, in which it is pretty
broadly limited that in certain case the
| United States might take immediate charge
of elections, the Alexandria (Va) Gazette
says: IF her the south'sl dilemma be the
rule of negro majority supported by
soldiers or the rule of soldiers without that
of a negro majority she will choose the latter
every time" That means, if it means any
thing at all, and if it reflects the sentiment
of the south, which we believe it does-it
means that the south will take such a
course as will compel the government to
rule there by martial law.
The negro question is not yet settled. 1t
remains still to be provenwhether those who
did well in abolishing slavery, did equally
well in Immediately comforting upon the
negro equal political privileges with the
white man. To express doubt as to the
wisdom of the latter proceeding may be
heresy in the estimation of politicians,
especially in the opinion of those who af-
filiate with the political party which has
championed the cause of the negro as
against the whites of the south: but we
question it nevertheless. Even up to the
present it cannot be claimed that all has
gone as merry as a marriage bell in that
matter of enforced political equality between
whites and blacks. Many abuses and much
violence have grown out of it; and while
these facts are deplorable, they ought not
to be wholly unexpected. They are but the
of +r1,.o
conditions. 1t was too much to expect that
a high-spirited people would submit to the
political domination of an inferior race that
were once their slaves. The reason that no
more disturbance followed the immediate
acknowledgment of the negroes arose from
the fact that they were then in the minor
ity. and Furthermore were not yet free
from the influence of their former masters,
nor had they assumed the insolent airs
VII ch characterize the generation of negroes
born since the war. Now, however, they
have wonderfully increased. They have
increased at much greater ratio than the
whites; and in many localities out
vote them. The southern states are
the natural home of the negro
and there the great body of the black race
will stay; and if they continue to increase
at the ratio of increase in the past few
years. it is only question of time when
the south. in political affairs, will be under
their control Now, the question is: Will
the whites submit to thisl There comes
the tug Of war. There is the issue that will
test the wisdom of the action of those who
made the negro politically equal with the
whites: and that, too, not by gradual means
which would have enabled the parties to
adjust themselves to the new condition by
which they were environed, but done at
once. by one stroke of the pen, thus hui
initiating the whites, and by that course
creating in them and intensifying an abhor-
ence for the negro which is ripening into
positive hatred, as they see the prospects
increasing for their section of the country
passing under negro control.
1t is an easy matter to say off-hand in an
swer to the question, "Will the whites sub
nit to negro rule!" that they will be obliged
to submit. But that does not do away with
the fact that the race question in the south
is still serious issue. And though the
general government may still possess the
power to coerce the south, there seems to be
a sentiment with the people in the south
that even military rule would be preferable
to negro rule; and military rule in a repub-
lie would be sad spectacle.
The COurier-JOurfldI louisville, Ky.,) ap-
proaches the same question in another way.
Under the caption, 'Barbarism Under Ne
gro Rule, that journal gives an epitome Of
the history of Hayti, formerly called by the
Spaniards Hispanola. The article relates
how under Castilian rule the native Indian
disappeared, and how negroes
were imported to cultivate the plantations
and work the mines; how the island passed
from the Spanish rule to that Of the
French, and how under the control of
the latter it became the worst
densely populated portion of America:
Toward the close of the last century came
the period of its greatest prosperity says
the Journal: ''The annual export Of sugar
was fifty million dollars, and the product of
coffee was almost as valuable. Great
quantities of the magnificent timbers,
found only in tropical regions, were sent
from the island and converted into costly |
furniture for the great houses of Europe. |
A steady stream of precious metals came
from the mines which were immensely |
profitable, even with the primitive mechani- !
cal methods then in use''
Oppression at last brought on a rebellion |
Of the slaves and under one LoUssAINr |