The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-12-01
RACE TROUBLES IN THE SOUTH.

When De Tocqueville said over half
a century ago, that the greatest men
ace to the future Of the American Re-
public resided in the presence of so
many blacks in our midst, he may not
have looked beyond the expected con-
1iict that came with the civil war. But
it Is possible that his prescience pene-.
trated to the present race troubles in.
the South, those especially manifest in
the Carolinas.
Concerning them the fact seems to
be that there was no foundation for
the charges of crime laid at the doors
of the expelled people. The expulsion,
rioting and killing was the direct result
OF race hatred, aggravated by a pecu-
liar situation namely, the -desertion by
the Populists and by not a few Repub-
licans, of black men they had induced
TO enlist in recent campaigns against
the Southern Democracy on the color
line. But this was no sufficient cause
for the victors rising up against those
who suffered. Race hatred lay at the
bottom, and the immediate reasons as
signed for the outbreak were fears of
black domination, and insult to white
women in the columns of a paper pub
1lshed in the interest Of the black peo-
pie
But here we have a Southern paper,
the Greenville Is. CO News" declar-
ing now that:
There was no question of maintain
ing white supremacy or of defense Of
homes or persons. The laws in this
State secure and guarantee white SUI
premacy, for the present, at least. The
men who were killed were unarmed and
helpless prisoners. If any of the cap
tured negroes were guilty of killing
Ethredge or the shooting Of the others,
they would have paid the penalty with
their lives or with long years of hard
labor in the penitentiary. All of us
know that But they were given no
chance to have their guilt or innocence
proved. They were butchered in cold
blood.
However, the Charleston News and
Courier frankly says:
We believe that the people of Will
mington are right in the statements
they have made. That a community
that is half white and half black can
not prosper. That the progressive ele-
ment of any community" is the white
element That the white families can
not thrive unless there are opportuni-
ties for the employment of their mem
bers, land that the presence of the
blacks means "stagnation'' in proper
ton to their numbers. It will be an
interesting and a momentous expert
Went If our neighbors of Wilmington
shall undertake in dead earnest to work
out their industrial, social, and polit-
cal destiny henceforth without the aid
or incubus of an alien race element in
their community, and we hope the ex-
pertinent will be made We do not be-
heve, however, that it will be.
On the other hand the Savannah,
Ga, News says:
Approaching fully the feelings which
prompted the action taken by the cit
liens of Wilmington, we can not APP
prove their acts. A strictly law-abid-
ing course is always the wisest course.
The action taken in Wilmington is
precedent which may be productive of
very serious and far-reaching conse-
quences, if not in Wilmington, then in
other parts of the State. The blood
spilled viii accentuate the bad feeling
between the races and keep it alive for
a long time.
The resolutions passed by the meet
ing Of 800 white residents Of Whining
ton tell us that the cause for the out
break there, was solely this: 'The ac-
ton of unscrupulous white men in
afiliating with negroes, so that by
means of their votes they can dominate
the community, thus causing business
to stagnate and making progress i'm
possible" Another resolution reads
That the negro has demonstrated by
antagonizing our interest in every way,
and especially by his ballot, that he is
Incapable of realizing that his inter-
,ests are, and should be, Identical with
those of the community"
This gives US the key to the feeling
among the aggressors in the rioting
which drove out officials, burned me-
groes' houses. and set up a reign of
terror.
- - AdSC AdlSQ 4O1 O1lG lIll1lS ana
color alignment for another. These
two combined and the negroes being de-
serted by those who used them in poll
tics, suffered along with some white
Republicans who Still stood by their
colored partisans.
A race issue in politics is always the
most dangerous of issues. Under it muir
der Is excused and criminals go free.
1t Apologies for violence ON the one
hand, and arrogance, coarse pretension
end criminal prominence on the other.
and becomes the defender Of atrocities.
1t IS bad advice to the Southern negro
to stand upon the color line. He should
take his place upon the citizen line.
and that alone. His citizenship knows
no color. and a political division on the
color line as surely brings disaster to
the country as does the hurricane to
the forest
The safety of the negro in the South
resides in refusal to make the race is
sue, and where it is forced upon him TO
refuse to take to arms until sesf-de-
Tense demands 1t, and then he viii have
the nation in sympathy and support
with him.
There can be no doubt that a divi-
sion on the color line placed in power in
Wilmington influences largely ignorant