Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-01-30


poned for a generation or Il may be precip-
itated at the next Presidential election, but
1 warn those who are perpetrating these
wrongs upon the suffrage that the North and
the West and the Northwest will not consent
TO have their institutions, th-ir Industries,
their wealth and their civilization changed,
modified or destroyed by government rest
ing upon deliberate and habitual suppression
of the colored voter by force orsby fraud.
Sooner or later there win be armed COLI
sion between the races. The South is stand
ing upon volcano; the South Is sitting on
the safety valve They are breeding in
Vulnerable John Browns and Nat Turner's.
Already mutterings of discomfort by hostile
organizations are heard The use Of the
torch and the dagger is advised. deplore
It; but, as God is my judge, say that no
other people on the face of the earth
have ever submitted to the wrongs and
injustice which have been for twenty i've
years put upon the 0olored men OF the
South without rebellion, revolution and
blcodshed. Applause from the gallery
The conduct of the colored race has been be-
yond ali praise; they have been patient;
they have been loyal; they have been docile
to their masters and to the country. Timon
OF Athens said: 1T is not enough to help
the feeble, but to support him after" Until
1877 the unstable fabric erected by the archi-
tects of reconstruction was upheld by the
when this was withdrawn the incongruOus
edifice tOppled headlong and vanished like
the baseless fabric of vision.
Mr.. Ingalls, warned the South of the
natural consequences of it's course to-
ward the colored people. 'nespotism,"
he said, makes Nihilists. Injustice is
great mandatory of dynamite. A
man who is a thief robs himself. An
adulterer pollutes himself; a murderer
inficts deeper wound on himself than
that which Stays his victim. The South,
in imposing chains on the African race,
lays heavier manacles on itself than
those with which it burdens these help
less people. Those who deny American
citizens the privileges of freedom should
remember that there is nothing so I'M
profitable as injustice and that God is
an unrelenting creditor. Silent it may
be, tardy and slow it may be, but relent-
less and sure to come"
Mr.. Ingalls, then spoke of an outrage
committed in Aberdeen, Miss, on the
day of Jefferson Davis funeral when a
German timer, citizen of Indiana, &C
cidentally, in the course of his work, let
fall from a house roof a cable which
had been stretched across the street by
the citizens bearing the efigy of the
Secretary of War, with the inscription
RED Proctor, Traitor" For this accident
the timer had been brutality whipped by
one man with a whalebone coachwhip of
the largest size, receiving at least 200
lashes and being nearly blinded and ter
ribly lacerated. Mcdonald, the man
who did the whipping, had been arrested
and fined $50. The citizens immediate
ly subscribed twice the amount, dis
charged the fine, paid for the broken
whip, bought railroad ticket for the
victim and sent him out of town. HE
has never" said Mr.. Ingalls,, "been
heard from since" The speaker con-
tinued:
If an outrage like that had been inflicted
on an American citizen in England, in
France, in Spain, any where on the face OF
the earth and if there had not been instan-
taneous disavowal and reparation, million
men in this country would have sprung to
arms to avenge the outrage and wrong.
Applause. The ornaments that thunder
strike the walls of dock built cities, bidding
nations quake and mOnarchists tremble in
their capitals would have gone, swiftly form
ing in the ranks of war. He was a citizen of
Indiana, the outrage was inflicted
in Mississippi and the perpetra-
tors go "unwhipped % Justice"
said that was not in favor of the African
izatiOn of this continent or OF any part of it.
But If the methods of the Chalmers cam
paign and of the Jackson campaign and of
the proceedings at Aberdeen are illustra-
tions of the temper and spirit and purpose
of the people of that State toward the Gov
eminent of the United States and its citizens
would a thousan1fold prefer that every
rood of that State should be occupied by an
African rather than by those who at present
inhabit it.
The speaker said that race antagonism
applied only to the colored man in the
South when he desired to vote the Re-
publican ticket. If the men there were
all Democrats the race question would
be over. Four solutions of the problem
had been suggested emigration, exter-
mination, absorption and disfranchise-
ment-but there was still fifth solution
that had never been tried, and that so
luton was justice. Mr.. Ingalls, ex-
claimed, in closing:
appeal to the South to try the experiment
of justice. Stack your guns, open your ballot
boxes, register your voters black and white,
and if after the experiment has been fairly
and honestly tried, it appears that the
African race is incapable of civiliza-
ton, if it appears that the complexion
burnt upon him by Indian sun is
incompatible with freedom, / will pledge
myself to consult with you about some
measure of solving the race problem. But
until then nothing can be done. The cit zen
ship of the negro must be absolutely recog-
nized. His right to vote must be admitted
and the ballots that he casts must be honest
~ counted. These are the essential prelim-
inaries, the condition precedent to any con-
sideration of the Interior and fundamental
questions of race supremacy or race equal
ity. Those who freed the slaves ask nothing
more; they will be content with nothing less
The experiment must be fairly tried. This
is the starting point and this is the goal
The longer it is deferred the greater will be
the evaporation and the more doubtful the
final rasulf