Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-03-03
THgRsDAY MARCH 3, 1898.
THE RESPONSIBILITY.

on Tuesday the President and his Cabi-
net discussed earnestly we are told, the
outrages on negro postmasters in the
South" With what view we are not IN
formed. but If the object was TO get at
the first cause of these "outrages' and
fix the primary responsibility for them,
we see no reason why the President ana
his Cabinet should not have had very
plain sailing. when we go back TO the
starting point we find that the response
bility rests upon the Republican party,
and that the treatment negro Federal
officials have received at the hands of the
southern people is the fruit Of the labors
of the Republicans during the last presi-
Dental campaign. Not in years had the
Grand Old Party employed as many
different agencies to secure a triumph as
II employed in that fight. Not since the
days of Reconstruction had it made
more INSCRIPTIONS fight. Not in years
had it essayed more kinds Of bribery.
Not in years had it made more desperate
attempts to consolidate the southern ne
groeq. and reharness them to the party
chariot.
one Of the chief agencies in CONSOLE
dating the negroes and whooping them
up consisted in promising their colored
leaders offices. pie" pronissory notes
were scattered among the negroes with
a profusion that had not been known in
two decades As to this there can be no
question. Washington correspondents of
both Republican and Democratic papers
agree that not since Grants last ad-
ministration has there been such horde
of negro office-seekers knocking at the
doors of the White House as that which
has pestered President Mckinley. Fur
Their. some of these correspondents have
written that not few of the negro Of
fce-seekers came TO Washington armed
with promises made at the st. Louis
convention and repeated during the
presidential campaign.
Yielding to the opportunities OF the
hungry brothers in black, and to pressure
from local white politicians who whetted
the negro's appetite for office and pur-
pose to make capital out Of his gratitude
IN local elections. the President redeemed
some of these promises. And this he did
i'm the face of the protest Of several of
the most influential of the organs OF his
own party, the grounds of protest being
that die could not be held obligated for
the promises OF others; that even if he
could be, two wrongs never made right,
and that such a course would be hurtful
TO the Republican cause.
None OF these contentious found favor
with the President and his close adj
visers and we know the consequence OF
his disregardng them. Race prejudice
was again set afame in the communities
where negro officials were appointed, and
burned more intensely than it had done
since the immediate post-bellum period.
when President McKinley's party put the
entire South under the heel of the negro
and his despicable and revengeful white
allies.
So we say President Mckinley and his
Cabinet may discuss the question Of "out
RACES upon negro postmasters in the
South" until doomsday, and they cannot
get away from the fact that their party
cannot cast the first stone. They cannot
get away from the fact that had their
party profited by experience, had regard
for an instinct which is common TO the
white man the world over, and shown
true consideration for the welfare of the
negro there would have been no outrages
10 discuss. This is recognized as well by
The fair-minded press of the North as by
the southern press.