The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1890-02-06


natural and competent rulers of the
and.
Where, then, l ask again, does the
outrage on the colored man come in?
The Senator makes no.complaint of
the causes which led to the overthrow
Of reconstruction. He says:
"Until 1877 the unstable fabric
erected by the architects of recon-
was upheld by the military
Of the United States, and when this
was withdrawn the incongruous edifce
toppled headlong and vanished away
as the baseless fabric of vision. 1t
in cruel anu ferocious
which form one of the
most shameful and shocking of all
bloody tragedies of history. The at
tempt to reorganize society upon the
basis of numbers failed"
Perhaps the Senator alludes to the
stealing Of the Presidency by his par
ty, which happended in that year, and
which, though both shameful and
shocking, and in which the attempt to
reorganize society on the basis of
numbers did to certain extent fail,
1 did not know was properly charac-
terized as bloody tragedy.
1t is, however, an unequivocal ad-
mission that'the reconstruction edifce
was unstable and incongruous-mild
terms indeed for this most internal ep-
isode in our history-that it was up
held alone by military power, and
disappeared when that power was
withdrawn. No wrong upon the ne
gro appears there. It seems that
these into!erable outrages, to which
no other people on earth have sub
mitted so long, are supposed somehow
to exist in the fact that the over
throw of this incongruous structure
the creature of military force-has
been followed by the maintaining on
the pnrt of the whites of the advant-
age which they gained by its down
fall. "In that struggle" he says that
education, wealth, political expert
ence, land ownership in the South, all
conspired against the Constitution
and laws of the United States, and
that they emerged from that dreadful
conflict in full possession of all the
powers Of the States, and Eo serious
effort has been made to deprive them
of their guilty requisition." 1 beg to
remind the Senator, however, that
many guilty efforts have been made
to deprive them of their serious acqui-
sition.
But, inasmuch as the powers of the
States are recognized by the Consti-
tuition, it is strange that the possession
of them by their citizens should be
held to be violation of the Constitu-
ton.
But the taking and keeping posses
sion of the powers of the States seem
to be the wrong inflicted upon the
colored man. The gravamen of tha,
wrong is that the negro can no longer
send here Republican Senators and
Representative from the South and
the votes of Republican electoral col
leges to aid in the manufacture OF
Republican Presidents. There are
many errors of assumption required tc
make up this supposed wrong In
the first place, it is assumed that the
vote is suppressed on the ground that
every colored man is Republican
Next, it is assumed that every colorec
Republican is necessarily incapable O
being influenced or beguiled by the
arts of the electioneerer, and will
always cast his ballot for the Repub
lican nominees. They who reason
thus go to the census tables and as
certain the number of negro voters o
qualified age, the number Of white
voters likewise, and then estimate
what their majorities ought to be.
The discovery of a colored Demo
cratic vote in the ballot-box is accept
ed as prima facic evidence Of fraud
| If those majorities are not Forthcoming
they conclude that the vote of thei
friends has been suppressed. The,
forget what influences even one por
tion Of our own people can exert owe
another; much less do they remembe
how much more easily the united
superior race, with all its intelligence
wealth and power, can influence tn
action of a race 80 far inferior an,
still in the shadow of the bondag
from which they have been able t
withdraw.
Neither has it entered into the con
sideration Of the people of the Nortl
to place any stress upon the fact tina
there did exist, and still exists betwee
the former owner and the present free
man many of those kindly and COZ
trolling relations which existed be
tween master and slave. It must b
remembered that in addition to hi
ignorance and inexperience of affairs
the colored man still leans upon an
looks to his former master for dire,
ton and advice-universally SO in a
matters except politics; that he is a.
most always either the tenant or th
employe of the white man, and ths
white man belongs to a race whic
the Senator from Kansas says
the
"Most arrogant and rapacious, th
most exclusive an indomitable in hi
tory. 1t is tho conqueering and VI
conquerable race, through which alor
man has taken possession cf the PHI
sical, and moral world. To our rat
humanity is iddebted for religion, fl
literature, for civilization. It has
4 genius for conquest, tor politics, fl
Jurisprudence, and for administrator
- ALI. other races ha,
been its enemies or its victims"
Concluded nezt sUeek.]