St. Paul daily globe., 1890-07-12

nished to each family. Garden orchards,
vines and flowers surround those cosy
homes. Here live happy and con-
tented people, with well-clad wives and
children, plenty of fuel and provisions,
cougenial work. good wages, and many
holidays and amusements. The man
who thinks these people are d0wn-trod-
den is fool. The man who thinks they
entertain all ineradlcable prejudice
against the whites is little better.
There are many things which
the Southern negroes do not know
that they ought to know: but they do
know that the Southern whites have
been and are their best friends. and be-
lieye in their heart of hearts they are
more grateful. as they ought to be, to
the people who gave them Christianity
and civilization than to those who gave
them freedom. We may, therefore, dis
miss the demand for deportation as un-
necessary and not justified either by the
sentiments of the whites or by the char
acter of the negro.
In my Judgment the race trouble in
the South springs from the unqualified
right of the negro to vote. The appre
hension of negro rule and the total in
capacity of the negroes to exercise the
power which the right of suffrage gives
them for their own good or the good of
the community where they live are the
sole causes of whatever race conflict and
race bitterness that have existed in the
South since the war. o
The chief difficulty has arisen from
the ignorance of the North of the true
situation in the South, much of which is
due Mrs. Stowe for having made Uncle
Tom an epitome Ofthe Sermon on the
Mount He showed. that the atfec-
tion of the negroes for the South
ern whites was the strongest argu-
ment against charges of oppression.
He argued that the final verdict
of impartial history will declare that
American slavery was an unmixed
blessing to the African race. for by no
other conceivable means could that
race have been prepared for freedom.
By no other means this side the domain
of miracle could they have acquired the
knowledge, the discipline, the charac-
ters which they possessed when eman-
cipated.
The attempt of the negro to guide the
ship OF state was as disastrous as
Phaeton's ride. The fact that he was
checked in his mad course, the fact
and forever abolished in the South, the
from destruction, and enabled the
South to become what she is to-day. 1t
was not race prejudice, but self-pre-
servation, that caused this overthrow.
But the apprehension, the menace, of
negro rule remains and poisons the
political relations of the races, Like
sleeping volcano, it causes distrust and
alarm, and generates a spirit of hostile
WatchfulneSS that is inimical to peace
and harmony. To remedy this evil is
the true race problem. He showed
how England would have dis
franchised the negro twenty years ago.
But England is always unjust, no
matter how wise she may be. The re-
peal of the fifteenth amendment would
be unfair and unjust, and Americans
cannot afford to base their policy on in
justice. 1t is also vain and idle to talk
about the negroes voluntarily relin-
quis hing the right to vote. AS long as
the negro has the right Of suffrage he he
will be deludedOr forced into using it by
one party OF the other. He has been.
and will continue to be, politically, tue
alternate victim of fraud and force.
Nor can the question be settled by fed
elal election laws. There is nothing
stateSman-like about such measures.
Every such law can have but one pur-
pose, one tendency, and, if enforced,
but one result-the restoration of negro
rule. This would not settle the
question, but aggravate it and null
tiply evils that would fall with
terrible emphasis on2 white and black
alike, and -oni the peace, business and
prosperity of the whole country in the
end. There is but one remedy left, and
that is restriction of negro suffrage;
and there is but one restriction con-
sonant with justice-the restriction of
an educational qualification for the
right of suffrage. to be adopted and en-
forced by the general government.
This idea was elaborated at interest,