Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1889-05-06
The Race Question.

The Race Question.
Last week while the Governors of several
of the Southern States were in New York
a Herald reporter interviewed them on the
subject of the RAGE question. Governor Lee
said
ut is not my problem. When that Dutch
vessel landed twenty African slaves on the
banks of the James river few years after
the settlement OF Virginia that started the
race question, and 1t has confronted US ever
since. 1t will always be the foremost prob.
lem 10 the South, but 1t s impossible to get
Northern people to look at it from our stand
point Just think of it Suppose million
negroes landed in New York city and be-
came citizens Then the minority-the in.
telligeut whites-in attempting to conduct
the municipal government properly would
precipitate a great New York question:
The Empire State has about seventy-fVe
thousand colored population now, yet none
OF them represents any district In your
Legislature nor sits in the Board OF Alder
men of the metropolis. If they were in the
voting majority would you like to have them
govern you9 Whichever way you contem-
plate the picture 1t is not q pleasant one.
They are equal before the law, nobody dis
putes that, nor attempts to quarrel With the
constitution, but they are not equal in the
scale OF human intelligence, in the race of
natural progress, in the achievement of ma.
terial prosperity. nor in the social attributes
recognized by civilization.
"We have peen trying TO educate them for
twenty FIVE years, but they make little or no
progress. Look at Liberia. The colored
people have simply retrograded there, and
in Africa generally they have made no pro
gress during all these centuries, and they
probably had the same start which our an
cestors had. In Virginia the negroes are
not qualified to govern, and will never rule
over the whites, you may rest assured OF
that, unless they are backed by federal bay
onets enough to overrun the State, and as
between the two give US the rule of the mus
ket in preference to that OF the negro. THIS
is the prompt choice OF nine.tenths of the
white Virginians to day. But ever3 colored
man has a free ballot and fair count incur
Slate. They vote JUST as they please and
have representatives In the Legislature, and
one or two counties have coored sherifis.
Not one 10 thousand is qualified, however,
to hold Office. This is said 10 no captious
spirit of criticism, but is the2plaiD truth con
CeTUlDR AL luISIlOt IoC0. 4oOJg s6io sOV0iy :
where our neighbors and we treat them
well. We have no quarrels with the ne.
proes and there Ia no contest between US for
supremacy. But Ang 10 Saxons eannot al
low them to govern, and wilt not, and the.
colored people understand this. What Is
mystery to the northern mind s perfectly
plain In the South. It is the peaceful and
perpetual supremacy of intelligence.
t.I fhot SOuthQrp MAMMA
are the best friends the negroes have. / am
not hostile to the race L am friendly and
have done much for them In my official ca
pacity. The colored people themselves ad-'
NIT this. But the wise Creator has made
the races distinct-the negro race inferior
to the white raoe-and the latter will ever
denominate. As the negro is at present as
sisting in the true development of the South,
Iaboring peacefully, he is all right and
should not be disturbed when thriving pro.
portionaly with the rest of US. The mo-
ment youfil his head with false and perni-
cious notions of social equality, assimilation
and what not, he is upset and his usefulness
destroyed, So far as negro suffrage is con-
cerned nothing further can be done. We
object to the negro holding any office car.
rying with 1t the government of the whites.
II otherwise, we do not object. know of
positions filled by negroes whose duties are
most creditably discharged. The South
must and will have control over her own
affairs, ust as the North or the West or the
East. If YOU must have sections. All regu-
latiops touching the management of polling
places and the counting of ballots properly
belong to State legislation, provided Uncle
Sans rights at polling places are respected {.
81 have read with interest the statements
made by Gen. Pryor and published In the
Herald, wherein it is alleged that the ten
denoy of the Southern people is toward a
protective tariff, and that the solidity OF
the South may be shattered by this great
question. A man who has been 80 long alb
sent from Virginia as has Gen. Pryor cannot
fully appreciate our situation. Wesupport-
ed the tariff reform plank and the entire
democratic national platform in the last
campaign and carried the State. We will
continue to support the platform consistent
ly. l have been elected the president OF q
new iron company and will engage fully in
the business at the close OF my present term
of Office next January. We can make iron
for s1O.25, and when Mayor Hewitt visited
MS some few months ago he figured that we
could produce it as low as $40. They think
thew are doing very we'll in Pennsylvania,
where they make iron for s13 So you see
we can compete with the country, and we
do not want protection. In point of fact |
do not know that there is any benefit in q
high tariff. We will be able to manufacture
IRON 90 cheaply that am not sure that our
new furnaces would be more surely profit
able if the duty on pig iron were entirely
remoyed. That is the way it looks to US now.
But the race question leads all others in vir.
ginia as we'll IS in the other States Of the South M
Where Si the colored population preponderates The
old republican policy of rrtating the c9lored man
bs S;scon % ntensnced everywhere. His simple mind
ia greatly aroused during election e1citements
under the influence of bsd advisers for party pur'