Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-02-29

c4des following the war. To this also
must be charged a large measure the
Aardships inflicted ulon the BeRraes o.
the South. The war had wrought sa
ayoc in the South, and it was scarcely
Iasr to attribute to the sentiment Of on
people, excesses committed by an organ
zed lawlesS element that were incideat
%, ard had largely grown out Of the con
itions Of the conflict think the peopil
# the North did not always attach sufh
;ient force to the fact hat. aside from
gettysburg, nearly all the great battles Of
the Rebellion were fought on Southern
soil. All the desolation they oocssioned
Only those of us who have lived through
such an experince can know how bitter
are the dregs Of defeat, under such condi
tioss -
II made firm resolve when can
south I said, Ito say nothing cunees n
ing the Rebellion or the race problem.
thought that you people were peculiarly
sensitive upon those questions.
q" Well for many years following the
war that was the case he said. II
was perhaps not unnatural for people il
our position. 1t was impossible to dis
1ipate in one or two decades the bitterness
engendered by the war. Time alone could
do that. l have no doubt that the sue
cess of the Democratic party in national
affairs had much to do with bringing this
about. The great majority of the South
ern white people we're Democrats They
felt they were in the saddle again, and
developed at once the tolerance that is al
ways born of good nature. Out of Demo
cratic victory also came the disintegra-
ton of the party in the South.
But to return to the negro problem, ;"
| said. . You say that you think the Re
publican party made the greatest mistake
in its history when 1t gave the right of
Suffrage to the colored race. What would
you do, disfranchise them"
No. | am not as radical as that My
idea would have been to have given them
the right of suffrage after a lapse say of
twentyone years, conditioned upon rea-
sDnable educational ana property qualifi-
cations. No man. white or black, in IN,
Judgment, has any right to the suffrage,
who can not read or write, and who has
absolutely no conception Of the character
of our institutions, and no sense of the
dignity of citizenship.
But suppose your colored man were
educated, but without property, would
you still disfranchse him.
Certainly. ] do not concede his right
to vote away other peoples property. You
must understand that in saying this, |
have IN mind the South and the negro
There are u number of places in the
Southern states where the white people
own all the property, and the negroes
outyote them. DO you suppose that the
Intelligent white people Of those COM
munities are going to permit ignorant
negroes to coaduct their local affairs and
vote away ,heir propertys Certainly not
the idea is absurd, and, in the very nature
OF things, impossible. The white people
will rule the South, and if IN order to do
SO, it becomes necessary to adopt irregular
means to that end the responsibility Is
not with them. l tell you frankly that
negro suffrage is responsible for anv
dehauchery of the ballot that may have
occurred in the South since the Close OF
the Civil war Such things are demoraliz
ing. They must, Of necessity, deaden tfe
public conscience, but they are preferable
to negro rule.
But | said, you have ignorant
whites at the SoUrh rs Will as negroes.
There are ignorant and illiterate people
10 the Northern states but they are not
deprived Of the suffrage. Is not this buga