The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-29
In Twenty Years Crime Has Increased
in Almost Same Proportion as IL
literacy Decreased.
CITIZENSHIP WAS A CRIME
THRUST ON NEGROES WHO HAVE
NEVER LEARNED ITS MEANING.
Letters Written by Thousands of
Foolish Sympathixers melting
Blacks Against Whites.

"A,
dler. since the cambridge series Of lynch
ings has occurred, has been asked by news
papers in various parts of the country to
give his opinion Of the race question 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 be-
lieves the present day cause of the upris-
ings is the intermeddling with the relations
of the whites and blacks in the South by
fools and fanatics" who know nothing
about the situation. but think this whole
trouble dates from the day Of emancipa-
tion." Governor Gambler believes a re-
stricted suffrage will remedy the evils. that
the ballot be given only the intelligent ne
gro. AS to the disposition to be made OF the
large percentage of illiterate negroes. the
Governor makes no suggestion. The Gov
ernor begins his paper by referring to the
emancipation, contrasting the treatment of
negroes by the white people Of the South
before the war with that Of the carpet
baggers'' Immediately after:
He says: Before the ballot was thrust
into the hands of the negro. unprepared for
it and utterly ignorant Of its sanctity. OF
the responsibilities of citizenship, notwith-
standing he was slave. he was happy and
we'll contented to occupy that subordinate
place in society to which his nature and his
condition assigned him. But after his eman-
cipation came his enfranchisement, and
with his Acknowledgement came horde OF
carpet-baggers. penniless Adventures, with
out principles or patriotism, who took
charge Of him, when his former master and
protector, with whom he had lived for gen.
erations on the most friendly and often
even on affectionate terms. was decitizen-
lied by the partisan reconstruction laws.
THE CARPET-BAGGERS.
1.-THE carpet-baggers calling themselves
Republicans, but really only abandoned
marauders. held together by the cohesive
power of public plumber, swarmed all over
the South like the locusts t.. 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. and that therefore 1t was
their duty and their interest to vote against
them and their party and oppose every
thing they were in favor of, favor every
thing they were opposed TON a word, to
hate them. They taught them that freedom
meant immunity from toll. that liberty
meant license. and they were the wards Of
the Nation and would be protected by the
general government, whose bayonets glis-
tened in every hamlet, whether they were
right or wrong. The evil teachings had but
little permanent effect upon the grown up
negroes, but upon the children. the genera
tion which has grown to manhood since that
time, that effect has been most baleful
These were the prime causes of the aliena-
ton of the negro.
"A more immediate cause is the perpetual
with the relation of the races
in the South by fanatics and fools who
know nothing about the situation. They
call meetings and discuss imaginary wrongs
of the Southern negro which do not exist
and denounce the Southern white people for
crimes they have not committed. They
publish in the newspapers grossly exag-
gerated accounts Of such crimes as are
committed against the negro In the South
and omit any notice of the crime against
the white woman which provoked the re-
taliation. They write incendiary letters to
turbulent negroes all the South, ad-
vising them to arm themselves with Win
chester rifles, and for every guilty rapist
who pays the penalty to shoot down the
first two white men he meets. Thousands
of such letters have been written to Georgia
in the last three months"
Governor Gambler says the Intermediates
of the North do not represent respectable
minority. and that the lawless and criminal
negroes Of the South constitute less. He
continues: "A few abandoned, reckless.
criminal negroes are responsible for all the
rapes and lynchings that have occurred, and
their influence on those around them is de-
plorably bad. Still. 1t is true that rape, the
r;v Oh
cause OF immediate or remote lynching, is as
much deplored by the better class of ne
groes as by the better class of white men.
But as. because some negroes commit rape
the whole race suffers. so. because some
white men lynch ravishers, all the whites
of the South are abused.
NORTHERN FANATICS.
1T is a singular fact, too, that the phar-
isaical fanatics who have most to say about
.Apaches.' Southern barbarians,' etc., al
ways stretch 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 denouncing the crime, they
have assailed the character of the victim
of the brute's lust. This not only encour-
ages bad negroes, but exasperates the
friends of Southern womanhood.
Another and a continually present cause
which contributes to race friction is cor
rupt politics. AS IL admitted by all candid
men, the ballot was put In the hands of the
Southern negro when he was utterly un-
prepared for 1t. He regarded 1t as only an
article of merchandise to be bartered away
to the man who would pay him the most
for it. whether for drink of whisky or a
dollar or fuo In MANY placas htc vota a. !,
balance OF power. Unscrupulous men of all