The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-07-29
RACE PROBLEM SOUTH
.T..s....s. ss.e'-
Discussed by Governor Gambler Of
Georgia. /
URGES RESTRICTED SUFFRAGE.

no OcClaT0S AuAt tuo nAAtOV SuOulu
Be Entrusted Only to the virtuous
and Intelligent-'Fools and Fanat-
ics' Encourage Negro in Outlawry.
Atlanta, July Ex-Governor Allen D.
Gambler. since the cambridge series of
lynchings, has been asked by news
papers in various parts Of the country
to give his opinions on the race Ques-
tion In the south. and in reply to one
Of them the governor has fully and
freely expressed his views as to the
cause Of the conflicts and the remedy
therefor. The governor believes the
present day cause Of the uprisings is
the intermeddling with the relations OF
the whites and blacks in the south by
fools and fanatics" who know moth
Ing about the situation, but think the
whole trouble dates from the day of
emancipation. Governor Gambler be-
lieves restricted suffrage will remedy
the evil; that the ballot be given only
the intelligent negro. As to the dis
position to be made Of the large per-
centage Of illiterate negroes the gov
ernor makes no suggestion.
The governor begins his paper by
referring to the emancipation con-
trasting the treatment Of negroes by
the white people Of the south before
the war to that of the carpet bag
gers" Immediately after. He says:
Before the ballot was thrust into
the hands Of the negro. unprepared for
1t and utterly ignorant of its sanctity
and of the responsibilities of citizen
ship. notwithstanding he was slave,
he was happy and well contented to
occupy that subordinate place in So
ciety to which his nature and his con-
dition assigned him.
"But after his emancipation came his
enfranchisement, and with his enfran-
chisement came horde of carpet bag
gers, penniless adventures, without
principles or patriotism. who took
charge of him when his former master
and protector, with whom he had lived
for generations on the most friendly
and often even on affectiOnate terms,
was decitizenized.
"These carpet baggers, calling them
selves Republicans. but really only
band of marauders. held together by the
cohesive power of public plumber,
locusts in Egypt of old, and falsely
taught the negroes that the southern
white men were solely responsible for
their enslavement and were their
worst and only enemies.
These evil teachings had but little
permanent effect upon the grown up
negroes, but upon the children, the
generation which has grown to man
hood since that time, the effect has
been most baneful. These we're tho
prime causes of the alienation of the
negroes.
"A more immediate cause is the per-
petual intermeddling with the rela-
lions of the race in the south by fanat-
les and fools who know nothing about
the situation. They write incendiary
letters to turbulent negroes all over
the south, advising them to arm them
selves with Winchester rifles, and for
every guilty rapist who pays the pen
atty Of his crime to shoot down the
first two white men they meet"
Governor Gambler says the 'rtermed-
oilers of the north do not represent a
respectable minority, and that the law
less and criminal negroes In the south
constitute less. He continues:
"a few abandoned, reckless, Grim
inal negroes are responsible for all the
rapes and lynchings that have occur
red, and their influence on those
around them Is deplorably bad and far
reaching.
"Still, 1t is true that rape, the crime
which nine times out of ten is the
cause, immediate or remote, of lynch
ing, Is as much deplored by the better
class Of negroes as by the better class
of white men. But as because some
negroes commit rape the whole race
suffers, 80 because some white men
lynch rapists all the white people Of
the south are abused.
at is singular fact, too that the
pharisalcal fanatics who have most to
say about 'Apaches,' southern bar
barians,' etc, always stress the atrocity
of the lynching. and I have never yet
heard Of one of them saying or doing
anything to discourage the crime
which provoked 1t.
Indeed, in some cases, instead of
denouncing the crime, they have as
sailed the character of the victim Of
the brute's lust which not only en-
courages bad negroes, but exasperates
the friends of southern womanhood.
1.-THE ballot was put in the hand of
the southern negro when he was ut
terly unprepared for it. He regarded
it as only an article Of merchandise
to be bartered away to the man who
would pay him the most for it, whether
q drink of whisky or dollar or two.
men of all parties con-
tend for this vote and hug the negro
around the polls and drink whisky
with him. He is forgotten after cleo
ton, and like spoiled child becomes
resentful and vindictfte."
In speaking of the remedy Governor
Gambler says:
"In Georgia for generation there
has been scarcely negro between 6
and l8 years of age who has not had
access to free school. As conse-
GuenCe illiteracy has decreased among
them from s. per cent in 1870 to 40
per cent In 1899. and yet it is start
ling fact that crime among them has
increased in about the same proper
ton that illiteracy has decreased
There is, however, another sort Of
education which can in time greatly
relieve the situation. This Is moral
education, which must be acquired at
the family hearthstone and in the
churches and Sunday schools, and by
the daily contact of the inferior race
with the superior for years.
I'VE need remedy immediate in its
effects and this remedy can only be
found in qualified suffrage The
BALLOT must only be entrusted to the
virtuous and intelligent Now many
mon vote who are intelligent, but are
not virtuous and many more vote who
are virtuous, but not intelligent. Re-
strict the suffrage to those having both
these qualifications, and one of the
greatest causes of irritation will be re-
mOVad -