The record-union., 1894-10-15
Weather Forecast.
MR.. ESTEE, MIR. BUDD AND THE
NEGRO.

MR.. ESTEE, MIR. BUDD AND THE
NEGRO.
Mr.. Budd is quoting from the files of
the UNION a statement that in the early
history of California, more than thirty
years ago, NJ. NJ. Estee introduced an
amendment to a bill providing that
verdict should not be based upon the un-
corroborated testimony of a negro. Mr..
Estee explains that he was not the author
OF the amendment; that the statement of
the UNION was originally in error.
1t is commentary on the condition of
the thought at the time that Mr.. Estee
did not deem it of importance that the
newspaper error should be corrected, and
Its ghost now rises to plague him. At the
same time the charge itself falls harmless.
The provision was merely a legacy from
slavery. In fact slavery was still in ex-
istence when the amendment was intro
duced, and in condition of slavery it
would be absurd to take the testimony of
slave. A slave was a mere chatteI, de-
MED all autonomy, and plastic in the
hands OF his owner and master.
Untold abuses would necessarily arise
out of admitting testimony of this kind.
A man could commit almost any aUroc-
Ity and prove his innocence by his slaves
not because the slave was predisposed
10 perjury. but because he was not free
man and not at liberty to testify against
his master. He was testifying under the
terrors of the lash or the sale OF his BODY
TO Louisiana planter and consequent
separation from his family. The denial
OF the right of the slave to testify was
merely concomitant of the atrocious
system which, in spite OF the Democratic
party, was abolished.
Mr.. Budd is unfortunate in his selec-
ton OF an argument against his oppo-
nent. 1t will not do for the Democratic
leader to attempt a comparison of record
with the Republican leader on the subject
OF slavery or the treatment of the colored
man by this country. Mr. Estee is the
political successor of the principles which
freed the slaves, while Mr.. Bndd is the
Hneal descendant of the slave-holding
class. In his party may be found to-day
the men who resisted the emancipation
of the slaves, and the men who attempted
to destroy the Union. If there are pray
ers for his election, they are to be found
nf dc
the struggle for the preservation of the
Union prayed for it overthrow. If there
is citizen Of California who in the age
OF slavery was slave-owner and claimed
that the ownership of men was a Divine
right. ruthlessly separated man and wife,
and sold them in separate and distinct
parts of the country, robbed trundle beds.
sold children away from their mothers.
or committed any other of the atrocities
lnseparable from the slave system, ne is
TO be found in the ranks of the Demo-
cratic party, and will vote for Mr. Budd.
Mr.. Budd will do well to keep still as
to the earlier traditions of the Republican
and Democratic parties, or he will have
The Republican campaign orators waving
the bloody shirt to his discontinue.
Moreover. there were many men, who,
believing slavery was wrong, desired its
extirpation, and believed this could be
accomplished only through the emanci-
patton of slaves, and at the same time did
not believe that race of men who had
been embruted by slavery for many gem
erations were fit for citizenship.