The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-02-25
TILLMAN ON THE NEGRO.
He Can BE Faithful. But He Is Not
Fit to Vote.

Montclair. n. J., Feb. 2i.-United States
Carolina, and Rev A. H. Bradford. ID. D..
of the Montciair First Congregational
Church, debated before the Outlook Cub
here this evening on both sides Of the race
question in the South. Senator Tiiman,
after laying the cause of the problem to
the war and drawing a graphic picture OF
the ruin and desolation CAUSED in his lani
by the civil conflict went on TO say:
The white man is superior to the co..
ored race, and, so help us God, We viii
maintain our superiority. Your great SOL
der, Grant, sent to my country in-,lS76 a
regiment of ten companies TO maintain
carpet-bag government. Those troops had
orders to compel a free vote ana fair
count, They did their duty as ihsy saw
it. They maintained law and order. al
though there were $500 blacks to $500
whites What do you reckon our majority
was? Thirty-nine hundred, [Laughter.I
Can Tammany beat that? Can Pliiiadel-
phia beat it? We beat these people by
out-Voting and out-counting them, and ad-
init it. We cannot repeal the Fourteenth
and Fifteenth amendments except by force
and fraud. and | told the Senators this in
Washington. and thenI said: What are
you going TO do about it?' In the North
1t is a question of white rascals against
white rascals. In the South with Us it is
contest between Anglo Saxon superiority
and civilization and degraded, corrupt, and
corruptibe people. The co.ored people
are happy go-lucky, immoral. untruth-
full, unreliable race. There are exc, p ions,
and bright ones, but | speak of the great
mass. They were unfit for tue bal OF. and
are now. because they are lacking in that
moral fibre which gives them sound judg-
ment. and they can be led away by any
shrewd and sharp rascal. Issimply recog-
nize my superiority to him and am willing
to consent to him life. liberty. and happi-
ness so long as he does not stap en- my
feet. Laughter Take a pilgrimage TO
the South; settle in any part you may
please, and if you don't come North con-
WINGED that my view is the right one, why,
then, I'll stand treat. | have a negro on
my plantation twenty-seyen years cd. /
would trust him with my wife and child,
and he would die protecting them, but he
amt fit to vote. You can't alter what God
has made and though this or that negro
may be a decent man or an honest man,
yet the tiger is loosened in white mans
bosom without regard to consequences
when the two races come in contact
Speaking of the negro from the industrial
standpoint. Senator TiIlman said: "He is by
nature and by every instinct, of his soul a
loafer. His one purpose in life is to get
something to eat for today with no thought
for the future. In consequence the South
ern States lag behind the North because OF
the lack of thrift in its laboring class. But
don't think that the negro does all the
work. The South produced II, 00o0. 900 bales
Of cotton last year and half of il was raised
by white men. II any Commonwealth Will
give us one good. Industrious white man
for three niggers we'll swap as long as they
will keep up the exchange We've got the
white mans burden down there" Laugh
ter and applause.l
In closing the speaker said: I'VE are
educating them, but even if they can learn
we don't propose to have them govern us.
Well use the shotgun if necessary"
Dr. Bradford denied that I'VE can't alter
what God has made That's what we are
doing all the time" he said.