Birmingham state herald., 1896-05-24

the summit of Mount Victory Good | wyn, Kolb ct al. assisted nobly in gain | ing our freedom from many grieYous in- | dignities that had been imposed upon us 1 under republican government and gross | manipulation of our constitutional rights | Those days in which we suffered evils | of republicaniSm are past now, and still | we can but review their hideous incidents
 with emotions of sickening, contemptu- | ous horror. Now, however, the situation | in Alabama bids fair not only to rival, | but exceed, to terrible extent the dis | gusting, infamous position to which our | sovereign state was once reduced by | means of power recklessly abused in the | hands of bitterly animated republicans. l We had to blush sometimes in those | cruel, shameful days, when we saw first | one, then another of our yoretime loyal | southern men bow their proud neckS to accept the ignominious collar of subserv- l fence to the base policy of republican | jugglers with southern politics We had l sadly consented to bid those former l friends adieu in sense political, but our | gallant band of faithful democracy still | remained to bear aloft the standard of | our just cause. On various fields were 1 republicanism and democracy pitted l against each other, democracy being suS- | tained by the heroic effort of fearless | men, in whose bosoms beat lofty aims, | and through whose white-skinned frames | coursed pure southern blood. Only the | fewest number of negroes on that date | had embraced democratic belief, but that | was not singular, as the black race was { utterly ignorant concerning all political l theories, save as it was represented to | newly freed SlaVes-by scheming republ1- cans-that former masters were demo- | crats, therefore the negro must shun and 1 always oppose democracy. Such thing as absolute honesty in election matters l was at once rendered an impossibility | gO1ltharn soil after the de 1 etat of republican statesmanship had | been effected by enfra nchising, and turn ing loose at southern polls, a horde of un- l educated, semi-barbarious negroes. | Neither the tenets of elevated repub- l licanism or of genne democracy could | have been comprehended by those recent | slaves; still there were blindly led to cast | votes in accordance with the dictates | of new masters-republican politicians. | How could sane white men expect south | ern democrats to yield that observance | of honest methods, under such degrad- l ing, unjust circumstances, which would l have assuredly influenced those proud
 souls had the contest for supremacy | been waged between two parties each | composed of thinking and instructed | white men, whose ideas only differed as
 to the points of policy in conducting af- fairs of state?
 Issues at stake between that type of | political parties could have been fought
 with thorough honesty upon both sides;
 but to attempt fighting that host of igno- l rant, viciously taught negroes, whose
 leaders were ambitious officeseekers,
 gleaned partly from the north, and occa-
 sionally augmented by some southern
 man, who had decided to renounce his
 native section so far as going over to the
 enemy was concernedi Ye godSi who
 could have used honesty as weapon
 against those whose only aim was to win | success by every dishonest method found | practicable? The simple idea of the term
 honest elections" when rolled beneath | the tongue of a republican prater, con-
 vuses me with mirth. "Honesty"-why,
 those righteous republicans, who used to | manipulate elections by running in trains | loaded with negroes to one town after | another, and voting the negroes in each | town, would only have laughed in their
 sleeve at poor democrats, who hoped TO | maintain a strict standard of honor while
 dealing with such political bandits as
 were always the rigid, righteous republi- | cans. Good old Captain Kolb could pos | sibly reveal some deeds of his own-com-
 mitted in those dark days while democ- | racy dropped and republicanism rioted In 1 it's filthy orgies-said deeds of the genial r. captain not being in sternly correct ac-
 cord with some of his recent professions | of rectitude. But the honest captain has
 possibly undergone that transformation
 which negroes designate as Changing
 from natur to grace" and the captain l
 repentance of ancient sins. Goodwin
 also might have repented CD with good
 result We don't know just how genuine
 such mode of repentance is; but we find
 numbers of our one time democratic
 brethren now performing convolutions
 politically, under the effect of "con-
 science qualms" regarding "honesty of
 elections" Strange, aye, passing
 strange. that such qualms always assail
 offceseekers, whose ambitions have fail l a1 tn ranOpntti0p within lines of
 the democratic party!
 | I am sure that no amount of pressure
 could ever have induced Captain Kolb
 and the Hon. Goodwin to perpetrate cer-
 tain tricks of sharp practice"-directed
 against the usurpaton of white rule by
 ignorant "woolly-pates' who knew less
 of political doctrine than a humming | bird knows the use of a hand saw, had
 those now honestly inclined converts
 imagined that 1t would be their some day
 fate to be so closely allied with the "hon-
 estly" defrauded black brother as Is at
 present the striking case If you kiss,
 then do not tell" friends Kolb and Good
 wyn. You should not so readily have
 joined in the dishonest sport current | with our old democratic party had you
 meditated turning Judas and betraying
 sins which you aided by every energy
 of your impulsiVe southern natures. Few
 men acquire the respect of any political
 party with which they would ally them- | serves aItef 'DldDplnS upon that party | from which they are induced to rene
 gade through interested motives. It
 would have been better to fight within
 the old familiar democratic party for
 your legitimate rights than to eat humble
 pie in your effort to obtain some foot
 ing amidst that throng of scornful, office-
 hungry republicans, who only admitted
 your claims under compulsion, and who
 bestowed a contemptuous kick upon your
 professedly populistic body, while you
 crept humbly into the charmed circle
 of Simon-pure republicanism. Scorn of
 us. when evlnced by those once regarded
 as equals Is difficult to bear; but, oh, the
 scorn of such men as we have consid-
 sidered far below us in the scale of
 honor-how 1t must sting our wretched
 soults! Have democrats indeed fallen so
 low as to willingly be supplicants for the
 scornful toleration and aid of their
 former bitter enemies the republicans?
 Does any present follower of Kolb and
 Goodwin pretend to deude himself with
 the fatuous idea that aught else than