Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-29
GAMBLER FIXES THE BLAME
Lawlessness In South Due to Fools and
Politicians.
Georgia's Governer's Ideas on Cause
and Remedy for Present De-
piorable Condition..
A dispatch from Atlanta, Ga, yesterday

to give his opinions on the race question IL
the SOUTH and in reply to one of them tn,
governor has fully and freely expressed hi:
views as to the cause of the conflicts ant
the remedy therefor. He says:
Before the ballot was thrust into tn,
hands of the negro. unprepared for it and
utterly ignorant of it's sanctity and of tn,
responsibilities of citizenship notwithstand
ing he was slave, he was happy and wei
contented to occupy that subordinate plac,
IN society to which his nature and his con
dition assigned him.
But after his emancipation came his en-
announcement, and with his enfranchise.
ment came a horde of carpetbaxyers pen.
niiess adventurers, without principles OF
patriotism, who took charge OF him wheu
nIs Iermer master and protector, with
whom ne mad lived for generations on the
most friendly and often even on affection.
ate terms, was de-citizenized by the ma ri.
san reconstruction laws.
Inese carpetbaggers, calling themselves
republicans, but really only a band of ma.
rauders held together by the cohesive
power OF public plumber, swarmed all over
the south like the locusts in Egypt OF old
ama laiseiy taught the negroes that the
sou.nern white men were solely RESPONSIBLE
Tor their enslafement and were their wors,
anu only enemies, and that therefore n mas
tneir duty and their interest to vote apains,
thtlL ana their party. and oppose every
|
everything they were opposed TO 4, =
word. to hate them M
BAD Effect on the Youuu
These evil teachings had hut little rsr
lhaheht effect upon the grown-up negroes
out upon the children, the generation which
mas grown to manhood since that time the
erect has been most baneful These were
the prime causes of the alienation of tn.
negro.
:. more immediate cause is the perpetual
lntermeddling with the relations of the
races IN the south by fanatics and fools
VINO Know nothing about the situation
Iney call town meetings and discuss i'm.
aSlnary wrongs of the southern negro which
90 not exist, and denounce the southern
Wnlte peopie Tor crimes they have not COM
mitted They publish in the newspapers
grossly exaggerated accounts of such crimes
as are committed against the negro in the
south ana omit any notice of the crime
against the white woman which provoked
the retaliation. They write incendfary let
tiers to turbulent negroes all over the south
advising them to arm themselves with Win
chester rifles, and for every guilty rap.st
VINO pays the penalty for his crime to shoot
down the first two white men he meets
Thousands of such letters have been
written to Georgia in the last three months
BY such methods they call into existence
the very state of things they pretend to de-
plore, a condition of affairs that did not ex-
ist and never would have existed but for
them and their senseless, unjust and incen-
diary conduct
Governor Gambler says the Intermediates
or the north do not represent a reSpecta-
bic minority, and that the lawless and Grim
inal negroes of the south constitute less.
He continues: "A few abandoned, reckless
criminal negroes are responsible for all the
rapeS and lynchlngS that have occurred
and their influence on those around them is
deplorably bad and far-reaching.
Good Suffer for the Bad.
Still, it is true that rape, the crime
which, nine times out of ten, is the cause,
immediate or remote of lynching, is as
much deplored by the better class of ne
groes as by the better class of white men
but since, because some negroes commit
rape, the whole race suffers, so because
some white men lynch ravishers all the
white people of the south are abused.
1T is a singular fact, too, that the phari-
sacal fanatics who have most to say about
'Apaches, southern barbarians,' etc, al
ways stress the atrocity of the lynching,
but / have never yet heard of one of them
saying or doing anything to discourage the
crime which provoked it.
Indeed, in some cases, instead of de-
nouncing his crime, they have assailed the
character of the victim of the brutes lust,
which not only encourages bad negroes, but
exasperates the friends of southern woman
hood.
Another and a continually present
cause which contributes to race friction is
corrupt politics. As is admitted by all can
did men, the ballot was put in the hands of
the southern negro when he was utterly
unprepared for II. He regarded II only
an article of merchandise, to be bartered
away to the man who would pay him the
most for IT, whether drink Of whisky or a
dollar or two.
I'm many places his vote, while not a ma
jority, is a balance of power. Hence, I'M
scrupulous men of all parties contend for
this vote, and hug the negro around the
md drgn yxhi Inv with inn No &c
forgotten after election, and, Ike spoiled
child becomes resentful and vindictive.
This brings clashes with the whites
Education and Crime.
In speaking of the remedy, Governor
Gambler says:
I'm Georgia for generation there has
been scarcely negro between six and
eighteen years of age who has not had ac-
cess to free school. As a consequence
illiteracy has decreased among them from
So per cent in 1870 to 40 per cent in 1899
and yet 1t is a startling fact that crime
among them has increased in about the
same proportion that flliteracy has de-
creased.
There is. however, another sort of edu-
cation 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 and even
for generations.
THE greatest crime ever perpetrated not
only against American ideals and institu-
lions and human liberty, but against the
southern negro,w was when without prepara-
ton, he was clothed with all the rights and
privileges and responsibilities of citizen
ship.
I'VE need remedy immediate in its eff
fects, and this remedy can only be found in
a qualified suffrage. The ballot must ONLY
be Entrusted to the virtuous and intelligent
NOW, many men vote who are intelligent
but are not virtuous, and many more vote
VINO are yirtuous, but not intelligent Re-
strict the suffrage to those having both
tnese quallncations and one of the greatest
causes of irritation will be removed race
prejudice, at least in politics, will be elimi
mated, and the happiness and the material
and moral condition of the southern negro
will be greatly enhanced"
THE COURTS.