Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-11-17
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Negro labOrers In Illinois.

IllinOis, between negro laborers, imported
by mine operators on the one hand, and
white employees, backed by the Republi-
can Governor Tanner and the State
militia on the other, prose,,ts q surpris
ing object lesson as to the t:eatmont of
tho negro by those who have heretofore
been accustomed to express such high
AoRard and respect for the negro and his
rights as an American citizon. 1t is
plain that the loud professions of friend
ship and esteem, of which 80 much has
been said and writtcn within tho last
It is another case of "distanco lending
enchantnemt TO the eiew," end that dis
tance must still be preserved. The facts
developed in these conflicts arc thus sot
forth in tho Now York Evening Post
'The negroes were brought into tho
State. Whom tho train bearing thom
reached Virden, the place whore they
were to work, it was fired upon by the
mob, and tho engineer had to pull tho
train out of town at once in order to pre-
Won't wholesale slaughter. Tho blacks
were taken to Springfield, where stands
monument to the author Of tho emanci-
patton proclamation, but no body wanted
them thore. A suggestion was made that
they be taken to Pana, another mining
town where some Southern negroes have
already found employment, but Gov. Tan
dor no circumstances should any negro
from another State be allowed to ontor
Pana,' and the commander of q body of
State troops, stationed there, announced
that, If lose every man under my COM
mand, no negro shall land in Pana.' The
railroad company shipped the negroes to
st. Louis, and tho mino operators made
another proposition to send them to Vir-
don, but it was announced yesterday by
tho military officers who represent tho
Governor, that tho Governor will not
charge his policy, and that they arc under
orders to prevent the landing of any
moro negroes here from Alabama or
other points, Meanwhile tho negroes,
for lack of better quarters, lie in Jail at
St. Louis, imprisoned for the crimo of
leaving Alabama, in the pursuit of hap
pines',' to accept tho employment in Illi-
nois to which they are entitled as citizens
of the United States. 1t is obvious that
tho Governor of Illinois is defying and
annulling the Constitution of tho United
States. Under his orders citizens Of Ala
bama are denied tho privileges and i'm
to which they are entitled under the
fourth article of that instrument. Under
his orders the State of Illinois violates
tho fourteenth article, which provides
that no State shall deprive any'person of
life, liberty or property, without due pro-
,cess of law, nor deny to any person within
its Jurisdiction the equal protection of
tho laws
1t can be easily discerned why the
striking miners are bitterly opposed to
tho bringing of negroes from Alabama
or elsewhere to supply their places in the
mines. But how can the action of Gov.
Tanner and the law officers of Illinois be
explained and justified They resort
to the use of armed force to prevent the
negroes stopping in the State and COM
peii them to ''move on.' This is a
officer to occupy, and nothing like it has
ever occurred in tho South, However
much we may have been deridcd by
Northern critics for the treatment of the
negro.i The fact romans that tho best
friend the negro ever had is tho South
ern white man, and he is fast finding ii
out, despite the poison which designing
demagOgues from time to time attempt
to instill into his mind.
Our sister State of North Carolina has
been afflicted with the reign of renegade
white men who have fattcned by leading
tho negro astray in the political field
There ho has been foisted into office fol
which he had no fitness, and tho result
has proved disastrous to both races. In
such conflicts the negro always gets "the
worst of it'' in the end, and he is only sci
up for to-day to be cast down tomorrow
and utterly crushed beneath the superiO,
weight of Anglo-Saxon supremacy. In
snch times the negro is made the mere
"football' of designing politicians, such
az Russell and Pritchard, and he is sorely
buffoted for season.
1t has long since gone forth that the
white mon of tho South arc going tt
control 1t, but it will not be by treating
the negro after the fashion of Governor
Tanner of Illinois. We will give hin
work, pay him living wages and SEQ thai
he gets equal protection of tho laws
both State and Federal. The negro is &
good workman in his place, and who1
let alOne by corrupt political wire pullors
he 10 generally tractable and well-bc
haved: But whom given power ant
official position he becomes his owr
worst enemy as well as the enemy of the
community, knowing noithor legal o.
moral restraints.
Tho South will be governed by thu
white people. The negro will mover b,
permitted to rule, and any political part,
which seeks TO uphold tho negro ai
agatnst the control of the Anglo Saxon
is doing the negro great injustice, ant
always gotting him into trouble. Th,
white people OF the South will not pat
tern aftor the example of Governor Tan
ner OF Illinois, but they arc determined
to render impossible the continuance O.
extension OF the evils which have bee,
the curse Of North Carolina for tho pasj
two years.
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Epnp, Naxu Xoolnnd