Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-28

to our Debt lhUeresIs.
 THE NEGRO IN POLITICS.
 Now, there are those in Alabama and elsewhere who have been a long time look ing forward hopefully to that period when the negro family in this state might become sufficiently enlightened and sufficiently free and independent in their limos of thought and political action to distribute themselves between the great national par ties upon at least the simpler forms of those great questions which divide us in the United States and always will divide us. But after an experience of quarter of a century with the ballot in their hands, and with tue full observation of friendship be- slowed by the white race upon them, and in full view of the fact, to which l was @ witness when last here to address you, that the very best men in Alabama were assem- bled here in military ranks, under the or- ders of the governor of the state of Ala bama, armed and equipped, not merely for the purpose of maintaining peace, law aud order, but also for the purpose of proteot- ing disastrous raids and destruc- tion upon that family-notwith- standing all these things, we fiud, feIlow-citizens, that the negro family in Alabama today, with a few exceptions, are solid mass of voters under the control of a few white men, some protesting to be populists and some protesting to be repub- l1cans, who intend to cast their vote al- most solidly for what? Against the inter-
 
 your interests; not for the preservation of your rights and your liberties; not for maintaining peace and law and order in Alabama; not for good government in the hands of good responsible men, but for the purpose of drawing the power of the state, both In her internal affairs and In her fed- eral relations, into hostility to the best in- terests of this wise, splendid and great body of men who sit before me, and whose brethren are scattered throughout the linn it's of this beautiful state.
 Now, under such circumstances and un- der such conditions, think reasonable man might be pardoned, at least, for ex- pressing in the strongest terms the appre- hension that this power is about to be used nay, will be used-aud dangerously used, for the destruction in the state of Ala bama of this splendid development that see around us, that has resulted only from the application of those principles to the government of our state. So, do not regard this campaign or this occasion, or the attitude of parties in Alabama, with light concern. cannot permit myself to overlook the serious consequences which may result from our divergence from each other, and from those sacred ties and bonds which ought to unite every honorable man in this country, at least. who has ever pro- fessed to be democrat, to that ancient creed that has done so much for us, and of our acting out of harmony with that body or democrats, not one of whom is n en- emy of the society in which he dwells. Applause. If by their fruits men are to be known, if by their conduct they are to be rightly judged, no man who is reflect. ing man in this community can get his consent to go back into political alliance with that party which ruled in the state of Alabama after 1866 and until1S74. Time would not suffice, fellow citizens; my strength would not hold out, and my memory, thank God, would fail me to recall all of the troubles and trials through which our people passed during that period of time, when injury and wrong and injustice, and tyranny aud cru city of every describabIe sort entered every household in this land and robbed and pill laged and plundered and insulted and out ragged and treated with contumely and spat upon ourselves, our wives and our chil- dren, and this whole savage demon stration against the white family of Ala bama was directed and controlled by the leaders of the republican party of this state. fApplause.] Twill touch upon just few of the prominent points of the polit- icaI career of these men.
 RETROSPECTIVE.
 When you had closed the war with an honorable surrender, stacked the arms of the last remnant of Confederate troops upon the fields of AppoD'attox, and in North Carolina and in Texas, and we had given our paroles and received an assurance from General Grant, who never abused it, and never departed from it so far as he was con- cerned, that on returning to our homes and resuming our avocations we should have the full protection of the law and the full participation on our part in all the rights and privileges of government that we had ever enjoyed, we came home to find deso- late hearths, our houses burned, our fami- lies driven into punishment, to find every evil that could attend upon war as our in. heritance. We did not complains we did not go whimpering about like whipped children lamenting these disasters, but We buckled to nanfuliy, and every human be- ing in the south. man and woman, that belonged to the Confederate army, or was kin to them, went to work in civil duties and in civil life, and did all that could be req uired of virtuous, honest, patriotic people. But that did not satisfy the re. publican party. They had waged this war against us in order that they might secure the grasp of unlimited and ,,.a; nn; condition of the country that gave impulse to that war. These men, whose fathers had imported the savage slaves from Africa, had not grown so virtuously splen- did and broad in their moral conceptions that they could not bear to look upon the slave in the hands of the men to whom they had sold him for money without their pure consciences revolting at the pie ture. It was not that which they saw in the condition of this country at that time, nor the condition of the public sentiment of Great Britain, which government has always entertained evil against the people of the southern states and is doing the same today. Applause It was that they saw in the condition of this country at that time an opportunity to grasp political power, and when they put their determine tions into material form-as they are doing today-by assailiDg our rights under the constitution, which they themselves had sworn to support, we fought; we fought long and well-5long and well; we did our horf ynovx xJovrx, 0 Tad hnit m 1or ad we surrendered our arms, but not our lib- critics. Then the politician took hold of the business; then they sent the carpet baggers here; then they reared up, through