The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-11-07

Southern statesmen. saying: AT the time
! of your Kansas crusade / was a pro-
slavery fire-eater and wanted TO see Kan
sas slave State. Now am thankful that
you made it free State. Your free
Kansas has made free South
Then Mr.. Thayer says:
my contest for the freedom Of our
country was not for any benefit that
would come TO the masses Of negroes
thereby but 1t was for the highest in
terest OF the white man. / saw that the
Southern States were becoming African
lied by the protection OF the negro which
ownership secured. Negroes Increased
much more rapidly than the whites. The
poor whites of the South were In
worse plight than the slaves. Slavery
prevented any white emigration, In the
ordinary way, into the slave States. SO
slavery, like protection and Socialism,
promotes the survival of the most unit.
Now the case is entirely changed. BY the
census Of 1880 there were 100 white people
In the old slave States to Is negroes.
In 1890 there were 100 white people TO IL
negroes. The negro increase at present
is only one half that OF the whites. The
seven or eight millions OF negroes in the
country to-day owe their very existence
to the slave trade and to slavery.
Slavery I'm this country was a great i'm
provement on their condition in Africa
whether captives or free.
when the New England slave-traders
began to bring over their cargoes OF
slaves our clergymen were accustomed to
give thanks that God had brought to the
influence Of religion and education so
many cargoes of heather. Even Jona-
than Edwards bought a slave for the pur-
pose of making a heather into Chris
tian. In Africa to-day we are told that
the negroes number at least l00,DOOW
less than they did two hundred years
ago. There is no reason for supposing
that the descendants of the negroes who
were brought here and sustained by
slavery would have been a thousandth
part of their present number but for
slavery and the slave trade. In Africa
the slave ships were supplied from cap
tves taken in the tribal fights when the
king Of one hundred huts either killed or
captured the subjects OF king Of fifty
huts. As captives they were kept for
slaughter upon some grand occasions. as
the death Of their captor, when few
hundred would be butchered upon his
grave so that he might have their SER
vices as slaves in another world. In their
free state in Africa they were more
beasts than human. SO slavery was
vast Improvement on their African con-
ditiOn whatever IL was.
but the loss of the white people here
on account of slavery has been hum
dred times as great az the beneht TO the
negroes. We have had a very hard bar
gain.
"Dr. Claiming in 1928 wrote TO Daniel
Webster in the United States Senate: I
wish you would make the Southern peo-
pie understand that we consider slavery
their misfortune and not their crime. ana
that I. for one. would readily apply
portion OF the public revenue to hasten
emancipation.
1.-THE father Of William r. Gladstone
thought he was doing Gods SERVED
when he brought heather negroes from
Africa in his own ships to stock his six
West Indian plantations. Garrison ana
bis circus used to say that II God had the
mower to abolish slavery and did not 90
Il then God was very scoundreL As
far as the well being Of the negro Is con-
cerned. IL Is becoming more ana more
evident that God saw further tnan Car
rison or even Phillips
These letters-that from Mr.. Carruth
and this from Mr. Thayer-show that
there Is strong and healthy sentiment
! I'm the North that condemns negro suf-
fraee and that Is. presumably, prepared TO
absndor It. II the fifteenth amendment
10 the Constitution OF the United States
were repealed. so that each state could
regulate its suffrage for itself. the South
ern States would provide for individual
negroes acquiring the right 10 vote as
they qualified themselves for IL. but they
would he relieved Of the dreadful shadow
that universal suffrage keeps always
suspended ove- them.
This universal negro suffrage has de-
stroyed the freedom Of elections in the
South. and the fraudulent practices that
II has produced are eating into the vitals
of our society.
But bad as negro suffrage is its great
est evil is the Generalization Of our
white people No injury can exceed that,
and whether suffrage can be qualified
more than it is or not. the character OF
the Anglo-saxon race in Virginia must
be preserved and honest elections must
be secured.