The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1890-02-13
VANCE'S GREAT SPEECH.
THE ABLEST DISCUSSION OF THE NE
GRO PROBLEM YET PRINTED.

GRO PROBLEM YET PRINTED.
He Scores Spit6re ingalls, and Defends
the Honor and Integrity of the South
in Mastery Manner.-Every South
erner Should Read It.
GConcluded from last aOeek.]
Is it possible that such a race Of
men as this can not without brutal
violence or detestable fraud maintain
its supremacy over such race as the
negro? Is it statesman-like to as.
sumo that it can legitimately have no
influence, exert no force over the
weaker and more ignorant? Are
there not undisputed facts sufficient
to justify reasoning men everywhere in
doubling the truth of these stories of
outrage and wrong? For example,
I am glad to say that North Carolina
is one of the States in the South where
there is at least no complaint of in
fringements of the colored mans rights
either at the ballot-box or in the
courts of justice.
The State of Mississippi is one of
the States of the South where the
complaints on behalf of the colored
man are loudest and most vehement.
yet for six months past the negroes in
eastern North Carolina have been
voluntarily moving at the rate per-
haps of three or four thousand per
month to this very State of Mississippi.
They are not going to Kansas or to
any other Northern State, but to
Mississippi, presumably for the pur.
pose Of having their votes suppressed
and of being slaughtered-to Arkan-
sas and to Texas. The fact is, they
are Influenced like other people, by
the great economic law of supply and
demand. For two or three years past
eastern North Carolina has suffered
from failure of the crops, and the
planters of Mississippi are offering the
negroes better wages than the Caroli-
ma planters can afford to pay, and the
chief agents employed by the Missis-
sippians for efecting their contracts
are intelligent educated negro men,
many of them preachers.
Evidently they do not believe these
stories that are served up for cam
paign political purposes here. do
not wish to be misunderstood in this
matter. That there are instances of
mistreatment and occasionally of
cruelty to the negroes now and then
occurring in the South candidly ad
init and regret. The millennium has
not yet arrived in the land of recon-
struction; the reign of perfect right
eousness, of absolute justice. has not
yet been established south Of Mason
and Dixon's line, though of course it
is in full operation just north of that
imaginary division. There is no sup
preston Of the popular vole by gerry
manuer or otherwise; there is no pur-
chase Of the floating vote i'll blocks Of
five, no ejectment of colored children
from white schools or colOred men
from theaters and barber chairs, and
where We may nope that, in the pro-
cess of time and in the spread OF in
telligence and increased appreciation
of the virtues of the negroes, one black
man may soen be sent to Congress
from the North; that some railroad St
torney or millionaire will make room
in the Senate of the United States for
the colored brother; that one colOred
postmaster for while town may be
appointed in the North; that in the
State of Kansas, the soil SO prolific in
friendships for the colored man, q
respectable negro, duly nominated on
the Republican ticket, may receive
the full vote Of his party, and not be
scratched almost to the point of defeat
by those who love him, as he was il
Topeka; that one .ccomplished color
ed man may be sent abroad to repre-
sent his country in some other land
than Hayti or Liberia
Let us hope even that the great Re
publican party Of the North may fino
the colored man fit to serve bis country
in some other region than the South ane
this great dumpiDg-ground of politica
dead beats, the District of Columbia
upon whose helpless people has here
tofore been billeted, in all the Office
from the judiciary down, every worn
out partisan for whom his people a
home had no more use. Nay, unde
the appeals against the injustice o
suppressing the colored vote which ",
daily hear, it would be a rapture .
hope to express the belief that thes
great apostles of justice would restor
the right Of suffrage to the 225, ,0O(
people of this District, from whom i
was taken ON the well known groun,
that the negro vote was about to prov
here an Inconvenience. It might b
; replied, technically, that the injustic
of suppressing votes depended upol
the color Of the voter, and that it wa
not an outrage to suppress white votes
Or, again, that it was no injustice t
,, the franchise to suppress the vote b.
.. law on ACCOUNT OF iguorance, nativity
or poverty, AZ SO long prevailed j
Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Blu
/ positively deny that there is an,
system tic, authorized, Or o6cial IN
terference with the guaranteed right
Of the colored in the South!
| positively aver that these consti
tutional obligations concerning th
coloreo people are observed in quo
faith aud that all individual infrins
ments upon them are " much deprs
Gated by the majority Of our prople !
similar violations Of law are depr,
!, cated in the North, and their pei
g petsators are punished by our courl
with much more good faith an
pr0mbtitude than the vi0lators Of q