Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-11-19
a}listellaneous Reading.
TILLMAN ON THE RIOT.
The Senator Expresses Himself Without
Reserve.

August Kohn to News and Courier.
TRENTON, November Ex-senator
Tillman has decided views about the
race question. Since he openly de-
clared that the main purpose of the
constitutional convention was to insure
white supremacy, and his plain talks
in North Carolina, he is looked upon
as a spokesman of the anti-Negro
domination sentiment. Today The
News and Courier correspondent spent
the day with him at Trenton and OBJ
tanned a pretty free expression of his
views on the race situation, with direct
bearing on the recent Phoenix troubles.
He has no patience with the whites
who lead Negroes into politics and
trouble.
Senator Tillman said:
The Phoenix riot is an outbreak such
as is liable to occur in any community
thickly populated by Negroes in any
southern state. Race antagonism,
which has existed since the dawn of
history and will continue to exist while
the world lasts, is at the bottom of it.
This sentiment or prejudice, or what
ever you may term it, is stronger than
either law or religion, and is ineradica-
BILE. In this particular case it grew
out of greed for Office on the part of
a white Republican-one of large
family in Greenwood Countrywide
merely wished to get the money which
is provided by law in cases of congress
sional contest, with the barest possibil-
ity of getting the seat in congress itself.
Whether the Tolberts were acting
under instructions from the Republican
national committee, or whether they
were active politically because of the
desire to maintain their influence with
the Negroes, is, Of course, mere con-
lecture. In either case there was no
possible hope of Tolbert being elected.
Under the new constitution in this
state, which is in every respect similar
to that of Mississippi, with minor
differences, which are improvements,
and which has been sustained by the
United States supreme court, the white
registered vote compared to that OF
the blacks in that congressional district
is at least ten to one. Of course, all
others are unlawful. 1 do not believe
Tolbert would have been interfered
with, and that his farcical proceeding
of having box, in which to put the
certificates of the unregistered Negro
voters, whom he had told to 60 to the
polls, knowing that they were not legal
voters, would have excited only deri-
sion under ordinary circumstances.
The fact that the race issue in North
Carolina had become so prominent OF
late, that there was widespread interest
and sympathy for the condition of the
white men in that commonwealth, and
the white men at Phoenix, remembering
our own troubles in 1876, were angered
by so bare-faced and outrageous ira
vesty on legal voting, and thus the
conflict between the races was brought
about. The murder of Etheridge was
like a match to a magazine, and the
subsequent shooting of three white men
from ambush provoked degree Of
rage and unreasoning anger that alone
explains the subsequent proceedings.
The Tolberts are solely to blame for
all the blood that has been shed, be.
cause elsewhere throughout the state
there was not the slightest conflict
between the races, and the race issue,
so far as politics are concerned, is alb
solutely dormant. Of course, the
recent lynching of the three Negroes
in this county for the assassination Of
an intelligent and refined white woman,
returning to her home under the pro-
lection of her husband, has no connec-
ton whatever with the Phoenix riot,
and was merely retributive justice act
ing outside of the law.
The thoughtful student of govern
ment in the southern states, since the
experiment of Negro suffrage was
forced on us in 1868, has long since
realized that one of two results must
follow active participation therein by
the Negroes. There must be absolute
control of the Negroes by the whites
in matters political, or there will be
decentralization and rottenness by the
use of the debased and purchasable
colored vote. My observation and
experience showed me long ago that
where there is white leadership and a
chance with the Negroes to control at
the ballot box, the colored vote is not
purchasable. 1t is only when contend
ing white factions use the Negro as an
instrument against each other that this
corrupting element enters, and then
the race issue is dormant, as it is a
case of white rascal against white ras-
cal seeking to control the Offices. In
the one case the politics of given
community or state will become more
and more corrupt, and in the other
the irrepressible conflict between the
races produce bloodshed and the sup
preston of the Negro race. The An
glo-Saxon has never been dominated
by the colored race anywhere in all its
history. England has more to do with
colored races than any other nation
ality-than all the other nations COM
bined-and the Englishman goes about
the conquest and governing of Chinese,
Hindoos, Malays and Africans on the
sole principle of inherent superiority
and right to rule. 1t is his birthright
to govern, and he governs by law,
wbora 10 w will do and by force where