Omaha daily bee., 1890-03-13
SHALL NEGRO VOTES COUNT?
This is the Only Question in the
South Today.
SOMETHING MUST SOON BE DONE
A Fearful UpheavaI Predicted if
the Political Rights OF the
Coiured Man are Not
Protected.


impressions which the people and the cities
south had made upon him, and for frank
statement of the true political conditions
which prevail in the land of Dixie
''My trip to the south was an interesting
one to me-" began Mr.. Webster ut gave
me an insight into southern life and southern
politics that could not be gathered from
newspaper reading.
"The cities of Nashville, Chattanooga and
Atlanta have about them an air of growth
and prosperity that compares very
favorably with the northern cities OF
like size Chattanooga is destined to be-
come a very large city. In the
opinion Of many southern gentlemen, in will
become the most important of the inl and
commercial and manufacturing towns in the
south. Many northern people have invested
capital in Chattanooga and Atlanta. Inc
percentage of increase in population and in
wealth in these cities since the war has been
more than in any other southern city, with
possibly the exception of birmingham, Ala.
Northern people have created and are carry
ing on a real estate boom about Chattanooga,
and have laid out new town sites and built
iron furnaces as nucleus for towns to such
an extent that the valley between
Lookout mountain and Mission Ridge IS
practically covered over by one city. The
landscape views from Cameron hill and
=, Lookout mountain are the finest that have
ever seen. About two hundred delegates to
the Republican League convention took the
trip from Nashville to Chattanooga, The
citizens of Chattanooga gave us a reception
that was in every way commendable
public meeting was held in the opera house
in the afternoon, and addresses OF welcome
were made to us. The house was filled with
ladies, as well as gentlemen. The Nebraska
delegation alone went to Atlanta We were
there received by a committee of citizens,
who drove us about the city, to show
us all points of interest, and tho
sights of the battle fields around there. In
the afternoon we were taken to the resi-
dence of Colonel Buck, VINO invited in Il
large number of ladies and gentlemen TO re-
celve US, and we were hospitality entertained
with an elegant luncheon Atlanta compares
very favorahy with Denver. The business
houses are comparatively new and the
streets are solidly built up with brick struct-
ures. o.
"The country between Chattanooga and
Atlanta is uninviting. the line of railway
between the two cities runs through an al
most continuous line of battle fields, where
were waged the fierce contests OF General
Sherman upon the federal side and General
Joseph f.. johnson upon the confederate side.
1t s an historic country, but the soil is poor
and the habitations are very few
THE POLITICAL QUESTION.
"The political condition of affairs In
Georgia is startling to northern man.
There is only one question considered, and
that is: Shall the negro be permitted to vote
and have his vote counted In the one sense
it is purely race question. The colored
people are all republicans and want to vote
the republican ticket. Nearly all of the
whites vote the democratic ticket, In a
measure it is social question. / can no
better describe it than by saying in sub
stance, what few leading men said TO me-
general Lewis, who is a retired army
officer, living at Atlanta, SAID that where a
republican meeting was called that it was
nV,sNtty hn IN q
colored people would elect their chairman;
the colored people would do the talking, and
would serve on the committees. This was
not because the colored people had any anti
cause they were in the majority
in such meetings. They did no
more than the white people do in the north,
where the white people are in the majority
and the colored people in the minority. The
tendency of this thing was to drive the
white people away from the republican
ranks. The democrats use this as a means
of disgusting the white people with the
colored supremacy. If u white man partici-
pated in any such meetings, the democrats
would seek to ostracise him. and his wife
and daughters, from society. This bitter
feeling is carried to such an extent that
many white republicans are AFRAID to take
an active part in politics for fear their wives
and daughters shall be excluded from social
life. The result of this Is that there are
many white men in the south, who are re.
publlcans at heart and in sentiment, who do
not dare give public expression to their opin-
ions.
upon the other hand, the democrats do not
want any of the colored people TO vote the
democratic ticket. They give a reason
that il q portion OF the colored people should
vote the democratic ticket, or meet in the
democratic assemblies, that then the demo-
cratic party would be subject to the same
criticisms which are hurled at the republi-
cans. The aim of the democratic party is to
array the whites, as mass. against the COL
ored voters. 1t is the opinion of General
Lewis that If the colored vote could be di-
vided, then the difficulty would be solved,
He is in favor of having republican organi-
cations, composed entirely of white men, and
thereby seek to divide the colored vote, and
that thereby public meetings may be held,
IN which the white people of the republican
party might have the whole control, and thus
force the democrats, likewise, TO associate
with the colored people in the democratic
meetings, and thus destroy or neutrallZe the
race discrimination.
Colonel Buck, who is the United States
Marshal for Georgia ana a man of high re-
pute and unquestionable reputation, IS or
the opinion that unless some steps shall soon
be actively taken to secure the right to the
colored people to vote and TO have their vote
counted, as cast, that their will ne an up
heaval in Georgia, Alabama and the Caro-
linas that will be fearful TO contemplate.
The reason for this is the fact that the DEM
ocratc party has the control of the party
machinery, the polls and the ballot boxes,
and either intimidate the blacks so that they
are afraid to vote-or If they do vote-that
their votes are either thrown out or not
counted. The colored people know tins fact.
When they shall become a little further ad-
vanced in property, wealth and education,
so as to have higher appreciation OF their
constitutional right TO exercise The elective
franchise, in the same manner that the
white people exercise it, they will rise up
and assert that right, by physical force.
"Colonel Buck went so far as to say that
he would not recommend republican from
the north TO come into that locality to live,
if he had daughters to raise and educate, for
fear that they might meet with this destruct
i've social and political force, before their
life should be ended. He further stated
that Notwithstanding the fact that he had
the personal respect of the democratic party
that, nevertheless, If the democrats came to
feel that his presence necessarily interfered
with their power TO control the elections,
that they would put him out OF the way.
He said that his life had been threatened on
more than one occasion, and that IL required
more courage to go through the political
contests that he had gone through in The
state OF Georgia, than was required OF him
TO go through u battle as colonel, command
ing his regiment.
"Tnere are other republicans in the south
who 20 along AS leaders OF the republican