Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-01-01


Southern courts, the record shows it to be
deeper in Northern courts. I assert here,
and bar as intelligent and upright as the
bar of Massachusetts will solemnly indorse
my assertion, that in the Southern courts,
from highest to lowest, pleading for life,
liberty or property. the negro has distinct
advantage because he is negro, apt to be
overreached, oppressed, and that this ad-
vantage reaches from the juror in making
his verdict to the judge in measuring bis
sentence.
| Snow, Mr.. President, can it be seriously
maintained that we are terrOriZing the peo-
pie from whose willing hands comes every
year one billion dollars of farm cropsf Or
have we robbed people who twenty five
years from unrewarded slavery have
amassed in one State $40. 100000 of prop
erty? or that we intend to oppress the peo-
pie we are arming every day? Or deceive
them when we are educating them to the
utmost limit of our ability, Or outlaw
them when we work side by side with
them? Or re enslave them under legal
forms, when for their benefit we have even
imprudently narrowed the limit of felonies
and mitigated the severity of law? My
fellow-countrymen, as you yourselves may
sometimes have to appeal at the bar OF
human Judgment for justice and for right,
give to my people tonight the fair aud un-
answerable conclusion of these incontest.
able facts"
| Continuing, the speaker said: "WheD
will the black cast free ballot? When
ignorance anywhere is not dominated by
the will of the intelligent. When the
laborer anywhere casts vote unhiDdered
by his boss. When the vote of the poor
anywhere is not Influenced by the power of
the rich. When the strong and the stead
fast do not everywhere control the suf-
frage of the weak and shiftless-then, and
not till then, will the ballot of the negro be
free. The white people of the South are
banded, Mr.. President, not in prejudice
against the blacks, not in sectional es-
arrangement, not.in the hope of political
domi ion, bat in deep and abiding ne
cessity
The negro vote can never control in the
South, and it would be we'll if partisans at
the North would understand this. l have
seen the white people Of State set about
By the black hosts until their fate seemed
sealed. But, sir, some brave man, banding
them together. would rise, as Elisha rose
i beleagured Samaria, and touching their
eyes with faith, bid them look abroad to
see the very air "filled with the charots of
Isare and the horsemen thereof" If there
is any human force that cannot be with
stood, it is the power of the banded intelli-
gence and responsibility of free commu
nifty. Against it numbers and corruption
cannot prevail 1t cannot be forbidden in
the law or divorced in force. 1t is the in
alenable right of every free community
the just and righteous safeguard against an
ignorant or corrupt suffrage. 1t is on this,
sir, that we rely in the South. Not the
cowardly menace of mask or shotgun, but
tn, peaceful majesty of intelligence and
responsibility, msssed and unified for the
protection of it's homes aud the preservation
| i's liberty. That, sir, is our reliance and
our hope, and against it all the powers of
earth shall not prevail.
twas Just as certain that Virginia would
come back to the uuchallenged control of
her white race-that before the moral and
material power of her people, once more
unified, opposition would crumbls until it's
last desperate leader was left alone. vsinly
striving to rally his disordered bosts-as
that night should fade in the kindling
glory OF the sun. You may pass torce
bills, but they will not avail. You may
surrender your own liberties to federal
election law, you may snbmit, IN fear of
necessity that may not exist, that the very
form of this government may be changed,
this old ate, which holds in its charter
the boast that it lis free and independent
Commonwealth, it may deliver its election
| machinery into the hands of the govern.
nent it helped to create. but never, sir,
will single State of this Union, North or
South, be delivered again to the control of
| an ignorant and infcriorr race. We wrested
our State governments from negro su-
prernacy when the federal drum beat rolled
c|nse to the ballot box and federal bayonets
| he6ged it deeper abodt than will ever again
be permitted in this free government. But,
air thnugh the cagnOp ~ lhiS republic
shGadsred 10 every voting district Of Lla
Sousb We still shoald Gnd io the mercy OF
! God the rne9us aod she courage a pregsn5
IT'S establishment.
Mr.. Grady's concluding remarks we're as
follows: Such, Mr.. president, is this prob
lem as we see it, such is the temper in
which we approach It, such the progress
made. What do we ask of you? First,
patience; out of this alone can come per-
feet work. Second, confidence; in this
alone can you judge fairly. Third, SYM
pathy; in this you can help us BEST
Fourth, give us your sons as hostages
When you plant your capital in millions
send your sons that they may know how
true are our hearts and may help to swell
the Anglo-Saxon current until it can carry
without danger this black infusion. Fifth,
loyalty to tho republic-fOr there is sec
tionalism in loyalty as in estrangement.-
This hour little needs the loyalty that is
loyal to one section and yet holds the other
in enduring suspicion and estrangement.-
Give US the broad and perfect loyalty that
loves and trusts Georgia alike with Massa-
chusetts-that knows no South, no North,
no Eass, no West but endears with equal
and patriotic love every foot of our soil,
every State OF our Union.
A mighty duty, sir, and mighty inspira-
ton impels every one of US tonight to lose
| in patriotic conservation whatever es-
| trauges, whatever divides. We, sir, are
Americans aud we fight for human liberty !!
| The uplifting force of the American idea
| is under every throne on earth. France,
| Brazil-these are our victories. To re-
deem the earth of kingcraft and oppression
this is our mission. Aud we shall not
fail. God has sown in our soil the seed of
| His milienial harvest, and He will not lay
the sickle to the ripening crop until his
| full and perfect dag has come Our history,
sir, has been constant ard expanding
miracle from Plym Huth Rock and James.
town all the way-aye, from the hour
when, from the voceless aud trackless
ocean, a new world rose to the sight of the
inspired sailor. As we approach the fourth
centennial of that stupendous day, when
the old world will come to marvel and to
learn AMID our gathered tEeasures-let us
resolve to crown Che miracles of our past
with the spectacle of republic, compact,
,upited, indissoluble in the bonds of love
loving from the lakes to the gulf-she
wounds Of war healed in every heart as
on every hill, serene and resplendsnt at the
.summit of human achievement and earthly
glory, blazing out the path, and making
clear the way up which all the nations of
the earth must come in Gods appointed
time"
Mr.. Grady spoke for over an hour with
great force and elOuuence, and his treat