The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-03-14
TO RESIST OPPRESSION.
Why the Negro Was Armed With the
Right of Suffrage.

niSut OF SuIfFdSSs
WASHINGTON, March 13-In the Senate
today Mr.. Eustis denied statements made by
Mr.. Hoar yesterday that in Louisiana and
some other Southern States there were laws
which made it penal offense, punishable by
Imprisonment. for white man to associate
on terms of equality with black man, and
that another law in Louisiana provided for
the sale of any colOred man found for a GER
tain time out OF work, his former master to
have the preference in the purchase. There
was no such law, nor any pretence that there
was. The statement only illustrated with
what recklessness and what destitution of a
sense of responsibility Republican Senators
spoke of Southern affairs.
Mr.. Hoar read from volume of the laws
OF Mississippi, passed in 1866, an act provid-
ing that the freedmen, negroes and mullat-
toes, found with no lawful employment and
all white men assembling with freedmen,
negroes and mullattOes, or usually as
sociating with them on terms of equality,
should be deemed to be vagrants and subject
to punishment by fine and Imprisonment.
That law, he said, contained the two provi-
sions to which he referred. and he thought
substantially the same law was enacted in
Louisiana.
The educational bill was taken up, and
Mr.. Blail addressed the Senate, in reply to
certain structures on the bill. Mr.. Blair
yielded the floor to Mr.. Hoar, who had OBJ
tained another volume of the laws of Missis-
sippi, and read from it provisions in refer
ence to the colored people as Justification of
his statement. He admitted that so far as
his statement concerned Louisiana he was in
error.
Mr.. Chandler read from the police jury
rules of st. Laudry's parish, La, as bearing
upon the oppression of the blacks.
Mr.. Eustis replied that that had nothing to
do with the question as to whether Mr..
Hoar'S statement was correct
Mr.. Sherman asked Mr.. Eustis whether he
did not know that the 18th amendment would
never have been proposed but for the fact of
the laws of Southern states depriving the
negro of his rights of citizenship.
Mr.. Eustis replied that 1t was his honest
conviction that all the Feeonstruction meas
we're adopted by the Republican party with
the single object of Africanizing the South
and maintaining political supremacy
Mr.. Sherman took part in the discussion,
which soon became heated political con-
lation enacted after the civil
war having for its object
the reconstruction of the Southern States
and said it was not contemplated, at that
time, to arm the negro with suffrage, but
the laws passed by some of the Southern
States, were so unjust to the colored people
and the white Republicans in the South that
the people of the North became convinced
that the object was to overthrow the results
OF the war and deprive the freedmen of all
their rights of citizenship. There was seen
no way to protect the emancipated people,
except by arming them with suffrage and
Congress, reluctantly, slowly and deliber
ately, adopted that remedy There was no
feeling OF passion or hate about it. He
sometimes thought it might possibly have
been better not to have adopted the fifteenth
amendment because the right of the negro
to suffrage had been nullified and uprooted.
The result of the fifteenth amendment was
practically TO give the Southern
States increased representation in
the House OF Representatives and increased
was wrong in the situation of southern az
fairs the people of the South had brought it
on themselves. No feeling of hate existed
IN the North against the South. If the equal
rights OF all the people in the South were Sc
cured the people of the North would be sat
lsneu: he referred to the Ku Klux clans
and all the savage machinery by which the
exclusion OF the negro from the right of suf-
frage In the South, had been effected.
:, MT. Butter suggested that the reconstruc-
tion measures and the adoption of the 18th
amendment We're not so much owing to the
Objectionable legislation in some of the
Southern States as to the conflict between
Andrew johnson and the Republican Con-
gress.
nl:Os MT: Sherman replied that the selection Of
Democrat, for the vice presidency,
was another proof of the gen.
erous treatment the North had shown
to the South Mr.. Sherman said to the Sena-
tors on the other side that there was feel
ing IN the North that injustice had grown
OUT Oh tne 10Th amendment. Not only had
negroes in the South been deprived of their
votes. but the people of the South now en-
Joyed larger political power than the same
number of people in the North. Until that
was remedied, either through the negro vot-
ing or through the negro being excluded
Io from Inc pasls OF representation, never would
there be feeling Of content and equality
among the people Of the Northern States
Beyond and above this education bill or any
other pending measure, was the act of Con-
gress that would secure to every man in the
United states entitled to vote. his right to
cast MS vote and have it counted, an act af-
fectlng Massachusetts and Ohio. as well as
South Carolina and Mississippi. 1--WE in
sist," said Mr.. Sherman, upon a law that
will protect the right of suffrage, and that
tnat law snail De executed with such power
that no man dare expose himself to its PEN
alties."
Mr.. Butler, referring to the administration
OF President johnson, said that one of the
most unfortunate days that ever came over
the country, was the day that brought about
the conflict between the Chief Executive
and the legislative department of the United
States. Between executive policy on the
one side and legislative policy on the other,
the South was ground to powder Mr.. But
Ter referred to the exclusion of colored men
in the Northern States from all political Of
fees, and said that there was no discrimipa-
tion in the laws Of South Carolina, Mississip-
pi, Louisiana and Georgia against man on
account of race, color or previous condition
of servitude. A number of colored people
in those states were holding offices. If the
Northern States did right to the colored peo-
pie, good deal of friction would disappear.
For the last week, the newspapers had
teemed with accounts of white men In Okla
homa, Republicans being among them. an
nouncing that if the cOlored people dared to
assert their rights to control that territory by
reason of their superiority of numbers. they
would drive them out at the point of the
bayonet. He had seen within the last month
an account Of outrages .upon the colored
people of Ohio and Indiana and of their be-
ing pursued to death by white mobs. He
had not heard one syllable of protest. He
believed the great body Of the people of the
North were kindly disposed toward the peo-
pie OF the South. The Senator would find
that whenever he attempted to re- establish
IN tne South those reconstruction govern
ments which left in their train black mark
OF spoliatiOn, disgrace and humiliation there
would be protest In the Senator's own state
ana MS own country that would cause him
70 hesitate before he carried it out to the
IulieSt extent. He appealed to the Senators
ana the people of the North to believe that
southern men were far more interested in
an orderly, humane and honest settlement
& VI t1e question than the people ( the North
could possibly be.
rms closed the discussion, and the Senate
went into executive session and at SIS ad.
Journed until tomorrow.