The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-05-12
rHE SOUTH AND THE FORGE BILL.

said:
MANY men hold that the white vote OF
the south should divide, the color line
be beaten down, and the southern states
ranged on economic or moral questions
as interests or belief demands. am
compelled to dissent from this view. The
worst thing, In my opinion, that could
happen, is that the white people OF the
sonth should stand in opposing factions,
with the vast mass of ignorant or pur-
chasab.e negro votes between. Consider
such status. If the negroes were skill
fully Leland leaders would not be
lacking-it would give them the balance
of power-a thing not to be considered.
If their vote was not compacted, it would
invite the debauching bid of factions, and
drift surely to that which was the most
corrupt.a1I J cunning. With the shiftless
habit and irresolution of slavery days
still possessing him, the negro voter will
not in this generation, adrift from war
issues, become steadfast partisan,
through conscience or conviction. In
every community there are colored men
who redeem their race from this reproach
and who vote under reason. Perhaps in
time, the bulk Of this race may thus adj
Just itself. But, through what long and
monstrous periods Of political debauch-
cry this status would be reached, no
tongue can tell.
The clear and unmistakable domina-
ton Of the white race, dominating not
through violence, not through party al
lance, but through the integrity Of its
own vote and the largeness OF its sympa-
thy and justice, through which it shall
compel the support of the better classes
Of the colored race-that is the hope and
assurance Of the south. Otherwise, the
negro would be banded from one faction
to another. His credulity would be
played upon, his cupidity tempted, his
impulses nnisdirected, his passions in
famed. He would be forever in alliance
with that faction which was most un-
scrrpulous and desperate. Such state
would be worse than reconstruction, for
then intelligence was banded, and its
speedy triumph assured. But with in
telligence and property divided bidding
and overbidding for place and patron
age-irritation increasing with each con-
ffct-the bitterness of desperation seiz-
ing every heart-political debauchery
deepening as each faction staked its all in
the miserable game-there would be no
end to this-until our suffrage was hope
lessly sullied, our people forever divi-
ded and our most sacred rights snrren-
lered. \
This problem is not only enduring, but
1t is widening. The exclusion OF the
Chinese is the first step in the revolution
ligion to this land, and in peace and or
der, not enforced on the gallows or at the
bayonet's end, but proceeding from the
heart of an harmonious people, shall Sc
cure in the enjoyment Of these rights,
and the control of hisrepublic, the ho-
mogeneouB people that established and
have maintained 1t. The next step will
be taken when some brave statesman,
looking demagogy in the face, shall move
to call to the stranger at our gates, "Who
comes here ?" admitting every man who
seeks home or honoIs our institutions,
and whose habit and blood will run with
the native current, but excluding ali who
seek to plant anarchy or. to establish
alien men or measures on our soil, and
will then demand that the standard OF
our citizenship be lifted and the right
of acquiring our suffrage be abridged.
When that day comes-aud God speed
its coming-the position Of the south will
be fully understood, and everywhere ap-
proved. Until then, let us-giving the
negro every right, civil and political, 1,
measured in that fullness the strong
should always accord to the weak-hold-
ing him in closer friendship and sympa-
thy than he is held by those who would
cruelty us for his sake-realizing that on
his prosperity ours depends-let US re-
solYe that never by external pressure or
internal division shall he establish do
minion, directly or indirectly, over that
race that everywhere has maintained its
supremacy Let this resolution be cast
on the lines Of equity and justice. Let it
be the pledge Of honest, safe and impair
tial administration, and we shall COM
mand the support of the colored race
itself, more dependent than any other
on the bounty and protection Of govern
inent. Let us be wise and patient, and
we shall secure through its acquiescence
what otherwise we should win through
conflict and hold in insecurity.
He did not lose sight of the force bill.
After seriously considering and calmly
forecasting the consequences that would
follow such law, Mr.. Grady said to an
audience in the heart of New England-in
Boston:
You may pass force bills but you will
not avail. You may surrender your
own liberties to federal election law-you
NAV submit, In fear ofa necessity that
does not exist, that the very form Of this
government may be changed--this old
state which holds in its charter the boast
that sit is free and independent COM
monwealth"-it may deliver its election
machinery into the hands of tho govern
ment it helped to create-bnt never, sir,
will single State Of this Union, North
or South, be delivered again to the con-
troll Of an ignorant and inferior race.
We wrested our State government
from negro supremacy when the federal
drumbeat rolled closer to the ballot box
and federal bayonets hedged it deeper
than will ever again be permitted in this
free government. But, sir, though the
cannon of this republic thundered In ey.
cry voting district of the South, we still
should find in the mercy of God the
means and theacourage to prevent its re-
establishment
The conditions of the present time en-
phasize these noble and fearless words,
and they appeal TO the country today
with the same magnetic power that was
theirs when they were first uttered.
The dreamers at home who are tempted
by the Third Party, and the Republicans
Of the North who talk of force bill
should heed these ringing sentences from
the lips of one whose undivided loyalty
embraced the entire union as well as his
native Southi