The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-07-19
Negro Voters.

from lDe cOlulilllS VI tHo Dhhs
States of the 18th inst. it is an ar
ticle that should be read carefully
by every negro voter. We COM
mend it to their consideration.
Negroes antagonize some party OF
whites whenever they vote. The men
they help 10 defeat will always resent
the negroes agency in contributing to
that result. Whether the successful par
" is wholly OF chiefly black or only par
italy black their white opponents will
charge the result. as the direct cOnse-
Guence Of black voting. There may be
but little animOsity where white voters
are overcome by a majority OF their own
race, and whatever bad feeling there
NAV be, commonly subsidies by the time
the votes are counted. This has been
especially noticeable in elections entire
" fair where no fraud or violence have
been employed. Where whites men on
~ settle political questions at the polls
they meet on a common level as niegh-
bors and friends and after the voting is
over their respective political prefer
rencps are forgotten in their social and
business relations. They will talk, drink,
Joke and traffic together while around
tie polls making the election welcome
holiday, burying their partisan enmities
before they have ridden out Of sight OF
the courthouse.
But where negroes constitute a large
element in either party the effect is very
different. The black mans interference
in the white mans election is always re-
voting. The instructive white feeling
is that the negro has no business with
elections. Time and custom make no
change in this sentiment, and the last
spectacle Of negro suffrage il as disgust
ing as il was from the first.
II the idea that voting is an act OF in
termeddling antagonism on his part
could be conveyed to the negro, he would
lie inclined to cease from voting OF his
own free will. If he could be made to
feel that his power to vote is the fruit OF
hostility towards his white neighbOrs,
granted by authority altogether inimlcal
to them. entirely without their consent
or cooperation. wholly against their in
tprests and their wishes. he would aban-
don politics at once and forever. II he
could be brought to understand that his
voting is an act of hostility and aggres-
sion. that it is an act that turns the
white mans feelings into hatred, that
voting negro is looked upon as All enemy
and nuisance, that all negro voting is
an attempt at negro rule, that the ballot
i'm his hands is not defense to himself
hut always an offense to white men and
damage to himself, il he could only
consider in rational way the cOnsequ-
ences OF his interference in the business
of the government he wOuld shun poll
ties and politicians as he would pestil
cnce.
Ii can't he long before those negroes
who are capable of reasoning at all vii
solution of the race problem, and wheI
they do. they will conclude that the frs
thug to he done is to cease from anita
gonism from social rivalry and equal
" they have ceased already with happ
result. and it ought not to be long befOr
they learn to look on political equalit
as another and worse delusiOn. The da
is not distant when the more thoughtful
negroes will begin to renounce the ballO
and pledge themselves to have nOthin
To do with candidates and elections. A
soon as they do this it will at once b
taken as treaty of lasting peace.
When an Anti voting association
formed, its members will be held a
friends and treated with just discrimiI
alton by the whites of the cOmmunit
where they live. Theye cannot give
more welcome pledge Of amity and gOOt
will. When they repudiate and abandO
that to which they have no real rigi
they will be accorded the peaceful exeI
else OF all privileges necessary to the
welfare all the more cordially, Whe
the black man ceases voting. strife b
tween him and the white man will con
TO an end. When this voluntary renul
citation becomes general and permaneI
the threatening race problem will
ASOlyed for century or until the blaC
. race begin to return to their natur
homes between the tropics.
All who care far I1p nee II hpiU