The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-09-11
A BOURBON VIEW OF THE RACE
QUESTION.

Senator Morgan of Alabama con-
tributes paper to the arena for Septem-
ber which is good illustration of the
hopeless density and incOmpetancy of
Southern Bourbon craftsmanship. Mr..
Morgan argues that the reason for the
antagOnism to the exercise of the rights
of citizenship by the negro is the repre-
sentative capacity in which a voter acts.
Four-fifths of the people of the United
States are represented at the polls by
the one-fifth who are qualified voters. 1t
is the sacred family relation, Mr.. Nor
gan reasons, which is at the basis of this
theory of representation. "The family
is the real unit of power i'll free govern
ment." But the negro cannot be re-
ceived and incorporated in white fam
lilies, pursues this Bourbon lOgician,
therefore he cannot be allowed to vote
without protest This, it will be OBJ
served, is simply the familiar "do you
want your sister to marry nigger''
argument of ante-bellum days restated
in slightly different form. The Bourbon
reasoning proceeds in q circle and soon
gets back to its starting point. If the
emancipated slaves had been of our own
race, says Mr.. Morgan, 'they would
have been incorporated without dis
turbance into the families of the
country" The practical phase of the
question is whether the white race can
be made to include the negro race in a
free and honest welcome into their
families, as men and brethren" This
being impracticable, there is extreme
danger, under existing conditions, in
cOnfiding to negro voters the representa-
ton of white families at the ballot-bOx" "
But there is no danger at all, it appears,
and no impropriety, in leaving one or
two million negro families, without rep
resentation, or in cOnfiding to white
voters their representation at the ballot
box. Indeed, it is apparent that where
ever Mr.. Morgan speaks of the sacred
institution of the family it is the
institution of the white family that he
has in mind.
As might be expected, reasoning like
this leads to Il conclusion as impotent
as the logic is lame. The only cure that
Mr.. Morgan can discover is ''the separa-
ton of the races under different gov
enments;" the only hope he has for the
future is that the symptoms of unrest
manifest among the negroes may at
some time develop into a movement for
general race migration. The negroes,
he believes, or pretends to believe, ''are
preparing for a general exodous" and he
proceeds: Gas soon as they have deter
mined the way they would go, and have,
in their own free will, concluded to de-
part to some other country, justice to
them and to ourselves, and the behests
of the peace and prosperity of both
races, will call forth freely the financial
aid of our people and government foI
their deliverance. For great deliver.
ance it will be-"
If the solution of the race problem is
to wait for general exodus of the
negro race from America. 1t will wait
forever. The negro did not come here
of his own free will, but he is here tC
stay. He has the same stake in the
country, the same rights in it, the same
attachment to it that the white man has
There is no country which could receive
the millions of American negroes, anG
no country to which they could be per
suaded or forced to migrate. The sooner
the South dismissed wild and impracti
cable notions of this kind, puts perma
nently on the shelf the leaders who
entertain and encourage them, anC
addresses itself seriously to the live
problems of the present, the better i
will be.