The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-26
a PERNIcIoUs ASSUMPTION.

PERNICIOUS ASSUMPTION.
Several speakers have given the impress
sion that the President has the right to in
terfere in the race troubles or other out
breaks in States and that President McKin-
ley does not do so because he is not the
friend Of the colored people. One speaker
said, on Thanksgiving day, that this atti-
tude is a revival Of the state rights heresy
Others who should know better have taken
the same position.
There is no provision of the federal Con-
stitution more explicit than is that defining
the powers Of the United States and the
States regarding such matters. 1t declares
that 1.-THE United States shall guaranty to
every State in the Union republican form
of government and shall protect each of
them against invasion, and on application of
the Legislature or the executive (when the
Legislature cannot be convened) against do
nestle violence" The Constitution further
declares that "the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved
TO the States respectively or to the people,
The federal government has power to SUI
pervise or hold elections of representatives
and to protect the people in voting for such
officers, but all laws of that character have
been repealed by a Democratic Congress.
In the troubles in North Carolina no such
election was pending, and the Governor had
not requested the President to protect the
people of the State against domestic vio-
lence; consequently, if the President had
desired he could not have interfered Such
is the knowledge of every man who has ex-
amined this subject.
There are doubtless cases where it would
seem that the welfare of the citizen de-
mands federal interference, but the more
one considers the matter the more he will
be inclined to believe that the limitation of
the federal Constitution in regard to affairs
in the States is WISE When the federal
government should once interfere with mat
tiers pertaining to the police of the States
there could be no limit to the exercise of
federal authority, and there would be con-
slant clash between federal and state au-
thorities. 1t Is probable, as Mr. Curtis, of
the Chicago Record says, that the political
troubles in Wilmington were melted by a
lot of poverty-stricken, idle politicians who
control the Democratic party, in order to
prevent whites from joining the Republican
party in that section. There is one wise
colored leader, Booker T. Washington. He
stands in a position to speak plainly In an
address 20 the colored men in Brooklyn,
after the disgraceful proceedings instituted
tn
N c., referring to the first impression given
the colored voter in the South by those to
whom they looked as leaders, Mr.. Wash
ington said:
In my mind there is no doubt but that we
made the mistake at the beginning of our
freedom of putting the emphasis on the
wrong end. Politics and the holding Of Of
flee were emphasized almost to the eXclu-
sion of almost every other interest and we
accepted responsibilities which our expert
ence and education had not fitted us to per-
form with success and credit. To my mind
the past and present teach but one lesson
to the negro's friends and to the negro him
Self-that there is but one way out, that
there is but one hope of salvation. and that
is for the negro in every part of America
to resolve hencefOrth that he will throw
aside every nonessential and cling only to
essentialS-that this pillar of fire by night
and this pillar of cloud by day shall be prop
erty, skill economy, education and Chris
tan character.
The remark will apply to whites as well
as blacks-too many people are led to take
an interest in politics, not for the indirect
advantage which will come from good gov
eminent, but in the expectation that they
can get public position.
The point, however, which the Journal
seeks to emphasize here is that the Presi-
dent has no warrant in the Constitution to
interfere in behalf of negroes or white men
who may be the victims of local mobs, and
the man who asserts otherwise is either ig-
norant or wicked. There can be no hope in
that direction. The two races must live to-
gether in this country. The prosperity of
the negro is better for the whites than his
degradation. He is better man to employ
when he has intelligence and lives COM
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