The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-10-23
DEMOCRATS AND THE NEGRO
VOTE.

Hon. James X. Jones, chairman OF the
National Democratic Committee. prints
Stoned statement in the New York Herald
Of Sunday, in the course of which ne says:
The negroes. who have long held the
balance of rover in Sucl States as Lii
nois, Indiana and Ohio, are breaking
away from the Republican party The
colored men fear Imperialism and can see
no hope for ,tile.r future in a government
by trusts. The colored men of Illinois,
Ohio and Indiana have made Republican
PRESIDENTS, but Northern colored man are
never rewarded with Office when the Re
publicans are in power in Washington
The offices are given to Southern negroes
in payment for work in conventions. while
the colored men in the doubtful or Repub-
| lican States are ignored During the DEM
ocratic administrations Northern colored
J men received the offices. The drift of the
colored vote in the North to Bryan is
much larger than is generally supposed
When Mr.. Bryan addressed negro club
at st. Paul, Mimi, he used much the same
language. He told the members. of the
club that the Republicans had been utiliz-
ing the negro vote and giving the voter
building And he added: You may rest
assured that if by the suffrage of my
countrymen I become President Of the
United States the rights of a citizen of this
dition, VIII be protected as far as the
executive has power to protect them"
Chairman Jones and Mr.. Bryan are
treading on dangerous ground. 1t will not
do for the Democrat tic party to hold out
nduc ements of this character to the negro
voters of the country. If the negroes want
to vote the Democratic ticket-and the
wisest thing in the world that they could
do, politically speaking, would be to split
up and divide their vote between the two
parties-there is no objection to their doing
so. But the Democratic party must not
hold ouo to the negro the hope that if he
votes the Democratic ticket he will get
more Offices under a Democratic admins
tration than he has enjoyed under a Re-
publican administration. II the negro vote
is to come to the Democratic party it must
De without COnS.QtIdllOtl ne ltIiic Ids
not come for the, negro to hold Office in the
South. Whenever he is put into an office
that places him over white men there is
going to be tl,ouble. We are not arguing
the why's and wherefore. We are stating
fact. It Will not do and the representa-
tiyes of the National Democratic party
should not even intimate to the negroes
that if they help to elect a Democratic
President they viii get their share of the
Offices.
We think that Mr.. Bryan was also I'M
fortunate in going out OF his way to give
assurance to his colored friends that if he
to it that the negro got his rights. We
do not know what Mr.. Bryan meant by
that. We cannot believe that he meant
that he would interfere with the suffrage
laws of the Southern States where the
negro is largely excluded from the polls.
But the negro might fairly interpret his
language to mean this, for the negro holds
that he has constitutional right to vote
and that an North Carolina, South Caro-
lima. Louisiana and Mississippi he has been
deprived of that right by constitutional
amendment We say that this Is a dam
serous question for the Democratic party
10 NEEDLE with, and Mr.. Bryan and Mr.
Jones and all the rest of them viii be wise
to let It severely alone. The Democratic
party WIN never strengthen itself by
catering to the negro vote