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

and when I should see the solid mat
ter of the illumination. Suddenly, be- |
fore the light expired and we were left |
in darkness, he nced that the So
luton was justice, which, however
sententious it might be, was about as
definite and rea. as the twinklings
which remain under the closed eyelids |
after the withdrawal of fierce light. |
Justice, as he explains it, means
our submission to negro rule. Having
submitted to this for so long a time as
he thinks would be fair, should it
prove failure he graciously promises
that he will then consult with US
about some other solution of the prob
lem!
What are the facts which support
this grandiose slander of an entire
people? What wrongs and injustice
have been done by the Southern peo-
pie to these negroes that call for the
''use of the torch and the dagger?"
They have been given the right of
suffrage, not by the free action of the
Southern whites, l admit. but at least
by their reluctant consent. Since their
admission to citizenship they have
been elected t. both branches of Con-
gress and have occupied almost ev-
cry position under State authority.
They have controlled entire States,
counties and municipalities, and in
every instance their rule was marked
by failure and ruin. 1t was a war
against property, intelligence and re-
spectability. The few years of their
misrule in the South will be forever
remembered in our history for their
corruption and retrogression, and will
constitute a damnable blot on the
memory of those who authorized it,
and who looked IN with complacency
so long as the thieves were Republi-
cans and the victims were Democrats.
Whilst ever they could hold the
throttled State in the Republican
ranks, and send mongrels to the Sen
ate and House of Representatives to
strengthen Republican hands against
"the cowardly and degraded element
in the North that sympathized with
treason" and not a word of protest
was heard from that entire party of
justice and modest righteousness. But
as soon as this corrupt and incompe-
tent rule had wrought its inevitable
results and had been o7erthrown by
the union of all the best elements in
the South, aided by the superior
knowledge Of the superior race, then
began the complaints of Southern out
RACES and injustice. 1t is all very we'll
to deny now that the whole object of
reconstruction was partisan advan-
tage, and to claim that the motive was
patriotic. 1t is but the natural verifi-
cation of the saying of old Samuel
johnson that "patriotism is the last
refuge of a scoundrel." All the world
knows why citizenship was given to
the negro and the reason of the utter
disappointment which is everywhere
confessed as its results.
There is surely no outrage against
the negro and that calls for revolu-
ton and blood. The wrong was
against the white man, and was re-
! dressed by him without revolution. In
obedience TO the Constitution the
Southern States admitted the colored
citizen in>a full participation in all
the legal rights enjoyed by white citi.
zens. They were placed in the jury
box, commissioned as magistrates,per-
mitted to form companies in the vol.
unteer militia, duly commissioned and
armed. School houses have been built
| all ! normal sc ools established for the
education of their teachers, whilst the
school fund of the State was appor-
toned to their schools, in proportion
to their numbers, with all possible
fairness. Asylums were built for the
care Of their insane, deaf, dumb and
blind, wherein they receive the
same treatment as the whites. The
taxes for all this were levied by white
legislators on their white constituents
who paid at least 50 per cent. of the
total out of the little which the negroes
and carpetbaggers had left them. Il
there be any wrong or injustice in all
this it can surely be seen only by that
intellectual vision which, '"reachine
far as angels ken," .beholds no motives
for the preservation of Republican
supremacy in reconstruction, but only
patriotic benevolence.
Since the restoration of the South
to. the control of its own people the
progress and prosperity of the negroes
have been as great as, if not greater
than, in any other country where his
race exists. His increase in number,
has been phenomenal, and furnishes
ample proof that he is fed, clothed
and sheltered. The decrease of tn,
death rate, of criminal conviction
and of illiteracy, taken with the grad
ual and unfailing increase of hi
wealth, which is abundantly proven
by the statistics, all give the lie hatl,
to the oft repeated story of oppression
and wrong under which he suffered o.
is said to suffer. The truth is he be
gan to prosper when the whites tool
control. Progress for him would hav
: been as impossible under his own rul
! as it was for the whites. Ten year
more Of such government as recon
struction fixed upon the South woul'
J have made that fairest portion of tn
American continent a bowling wilder
! ness. In short, it would have bee
Africanized, a fate which even tn
, Senator from Kansas says is mot de
, sirable, which, taken in connection
with his opening remarks on the dar
ger of "blood poisoning by the adu
teration of races, means more than il
! appearance on the surface. The be-
: thing, then, that could. have been don