People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-09-16
A GREAT PROBLEM.
THE NEGRO QUESTION IN THE
SOUTH.
The Solution Proposed by the Party
Of the PeOple-Equal Rights to
All, Special FavOrS to None.


All, Special FavOrS to None.
From advance sheets of an article in
the Arena for October, from the pen of
Hon. Thomas E. Watson
The Negro Question in the South
has been for nearly thirty years a
source of danger, discord and blood
shed. 1t is an ever-present irritant
and menace.
Several millions of slaves were
told that they were the prime cause
of the civil war. That their eman-
cipatIon was the result of the triumph
of the North over the South. That
the ballot was placed in their hands
Rs weapon of defence against their
former masters. That the war-won
political equality of the black man
with the white, must be asserted
promptly and aggressively, under the
leadership of adventurers who had
swooped down upon the conquered
section in the wake of the Union
armies.
No one, who wishes to be fair, can
fail to see that, in such condition of
things, strife between the freedman
and his former owner was inevitable.
In the olashing of interests and of
feelings, bitterness was born. The
black man was kept in continual
fever of suspicion that we meant to
put him back into slavery. In the
assertion of his recently acquired
privileges, he was led to believe that
the best proof of his being on the
right side of any issue was that his
old master was on the other. When
this was the case, he felt easy in his
mind. But if by chance, he found
that he was voting the same ticket
with his former owner, he at once
became reflective and suspicious, IN
the irritable temper of the times, a
whispered warning from a Northern
"carpet- Dagger" having no justifca-
ton in rhyme or reason, outweighed
with him carload of sound argument
and earnest expostulation from the
man whom he had known all his
life; who had hunted with him
through every swamp and wooded up
land for miles around; who had wres-
tied and run foot-races with him in
the 'negro quarters" on many Sat
urday afternoon who had fished with
him at every "hole" in the creek !;
and who had played a thousand
games of "marbles'' with him under
the cool shade of the giant oaks
which, in those days, sheltered a
home they had both loved.
In brief, the end of the war brought
changed relations and changed feel
ings. Heated antagonisms produced
mutual distrust and dislike-ready
at any accident of unusual provoca
hon on either side, to break out into
passionate and bloody conflict.
Quick to take advantage of this
deplorable situation, the politicians
have based the fortunes of the old
parties upon it. Northern leaders
have felt that the cry of Southern
outrage" they could not only ''fre
the Northern heart" but also win a
unanimous vote from the cOlored
people. Southern politicians have
felt that at the cry of 'Negro domin-
alton" they could drive into solid
phalanx every white man in all the
Southern states.
Both the old parties have done
this thing until they have constructed
as perfect "slot machine" as the
world ever saw. Drop the old, worn
nickle of the ''party slogan into the
slot, and the machine does the rest.
You might beseech aSouthern white
tenant to listen to you upon questions
of finance, taxation and transporta-
ton; you might demonstrate with
mathematical precision that herein
lay his way out of poverty into COM
fort; you might have him ''almost
persuaded" to the truth, but if the
merchant who furnished his farm
supplies Cat tremendous usury) or
the town politician (whO never spoke
to him excepting at election times),
came along and cried "Negro rule"
the entire fabric of reason and COM
mon sense which you had patiently
CONSTRUCTED would fall, and the poor
tenant would Nyously hug the chains
Of an actual wretchedness rather
fhqn 3o any nvnnrimentin0 on~a cues