Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-12-03
A COMPETENT WITNESS.

Hon. Rufus y. Bullock, some time car
pet-bag Governor Of Georgia, and sull
a resident OF that state. and Republi-
can. and who was elected to the Georgia
governorship by negro votes, is out In
letter in the New York Press in which
he SAYS that at one time he thought
that the enfranchlsed blacks were capa-
bic Of administering government with
reasonable honesty and efficiency. and
considered that the efforts Of the whites
10 deprive them of any large influence
in public affairs was due entirely to race
prejudice, but now he has come TO the
conclusion that the best interests or the
South require the restriction Of the negro
vote by constitutional methods. after the
plan adopted in Mississippi. Ex-Governor
Bullock's letter has caused the Provi-
dence Or. H. Journal to resume its think
ing cap. Our Providence contemporary
holds up the Ex-Governor as very COM
petent witness, and then goes on TO say
that his present views are precisely those
OF every northern man who has acquired
property or business interests In the
South. and has lived there for any con-
siderable length of time, provided, Oh
course, the purpose Of such residence has
been a legitimate business one, and not
that of a political adventurer, looking
for the offices or other rewards that may
be secured from controlling delegates to
political conventions.
Well said. truly. Residence in the South
and Identification with It's business inte-
rests are all that are necessary TO make
most any northern man conservative on
the negro question, be he never so staunch
Republican as regards national issues.
And Just here II may be remarked that
the Journal tells the whole story of the
object of the Republican politicians in
the South in keeping the negroes organ
tied and arrayed against the whites. That
object is to control delegates to the ma
tional conventions of the party, ana
thereby establish claims to the spohs OF
office. Nowhere has this been made more
manifest than in Virginia.
That aside, however. We agree with the
Providence Journal that Ex-Governor Bull
lock is a very competent witness. Yet we
would suggest to our contemporary that
il would have given him higher stand
ing in the court TO which it has present.
ed him-would have accentuated the value
Of his testimony-had it gone a little
more into the details Of his political ca
reer. and his work in the cause OF tine
rights of the man and brother" Than
Ex-Governor Bullock, reconstruction days
produced no more ardent champion of
the negro. After he was inaugurated the
Georgia Legislature expelled the negro
members and seated I'm their places the
candidates that had received the next
highest number of votes in their respec-
I tive districts, the ground for this action
being that by the laws existing at the
abortion Of the reconstruction Constitu-
| ton, and which were continued In force by
| one of its provisions, negroes were IN
| eligible to office. Bullock raised ire
mendous howl over this; prosecuted the
cause of the newly enfranchised before
! Congress. and by that body was empow-
cred 10 reassemble the old Legislature,
including the negro members.
Yes. in its appeal from Bullock, the
politician of reconstruction days, to Bull
lock. the citizen of Georgia, having large
private interests in that State, the Jour
nal. had it gone little deeper into the
record. would have fortified its witness
greatly. BY the same token 1t would
have added materially to the able argu-
ment the general tenor of its article ad-
vances in Justification of the South's de-
| termination not to submit to negro domi-
| nation.