The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-17
THE SOUTH in CONGRESS
PROTESTS AGAINST THE POLICY OF
sMASTERLY INACTIVITY"
The Crime Against Suffrage Is Adj
mitted, and the Constitutional
Penalty should BE Inflicted.

for a delightful style, but also for words
OF wisdom, his recent contribution TO the
Journal on THE South in Congress" comes
somewhat in the nature of a surprise. The
article seems to have been elected by Rep
resentative Crumpacker's bill TO reduce
the congressional delegation of the old
slave States, according TO the fourteenth
amendment to the United States Constitu-
ton, which provides a remedy for the sup
preston of the negro vote. The contrib
utor thinks that The measure will not be
considered at the present session OF Con-
gress. that it will not pass the next Con-
gress, that 1.-THE entire North has con-
cluded that the fourteenth amendment was
a mistake, and that they do not now even
raise a protest TO its notification" For
this and other reasons he seems opposed to
a reduction of the delegations from those
States which put a restriction upon the
right to vote, and advocates what he de-
scribes as a policy of wise and mastery
inactivity in dealing with what he calls
1.-The Southern question and 1.-The great
race problem" Then he says that ito do
nothing, and do it very WELL" so far as
negro suffrage Is concerned, sis far better
in the present temper of our people than
the passage of Crumpacker's bill" To this
he adds the very wise remark that time.
and a great deal of it, when it comes to the
solution of a great race problem. is far
better than legislation"
II may be true that the North is indiffer-
ent to qualifications; it may be true that
legislation to secure a fair apportionment
in Congress is inexpedient just now. and,
of course, ii is true that it requires time
and a great deal of it to solve a race prob
lem, but it does not follow that other parts
of the country should be called upon to
submit during all this time to unfair
representation in Congress in order
to indulge the South in discriminating
restrictions upon the right of suffrage.
If either the purpose or the result of this
restriction were a contribution to this
much-desired solution there would be less
impatience at the thought of giving time
and a great deal of il 10 the matter. but
every one knows that the purpose of such
legislation is not TO solve the race prob
lem. Everybody knows that the sole pur-
pose is partisan gain, and the fact is so
notorious that even United States sena-
tors from the South are voluntary wit
nesses to it. The Southerners themselves
Hdke no pIGlCISc ~ duN lltilS tiSt. a
they seek is political power, and it is the
history of the case that they Will stop at
nothing in order to obtain it. Disfran-
chisement by law is only one of numerous
methods of securing and p~erpetuating DEM
ocratic supremacy in that region, and it
is, perhaps, the least disreputable of them
all. 1t seems TO be the only one, however,
that may DO reached by national legiSla-
ton in behalf of fairness and justice. IL
this restriction were really an educational
| qualification applied TO every one, without
discrimination, of course there could be
no reasonable protest against IL. for 1t
would doubtless be an Improvement upon
our boosted universal suffrage If such leg
islation were more general, but, as even
the casual reader knows. it is not so APP
piled in the South. The notorious grand
father clause" permits the white to vote,
however ignorant he may be, and it would
be difficult to find a specimen more dense
in his ignorance than the ignorant South
ern white.
by Judge Baldwin for his policy of mas
terly inactivity and one of them appears
IN his suggestion that the fifteenth amend
ment is its own sufficient punishment upon
the Southern people" He says that ito
nullify il they are compelled to resort to
dishonesty and intimidation as a paramount
policy. Nothing could be more undesirable
for young or old men. Every officer con-
nected with the collection and the certi-
fication of votes must resort to fraud and
perjury as necessary features of his pub
lie duty. Now. for men of such high and
sensitive honor (such as our Southern
brothers undoubtedly are) to be compelled
at each election to resort to such methods
TO thus ratify the law of the land must
be extremely humiliating, and by and by
this fact of itself will work the Begin
nings of a revolt against the whole bus
mess" Assuming this to be a factor in
the solution of the race problem it is alto
| gether probable that the discovery belongs
to the Logansport contributor. 1t Is not
likely that such a thing has occurred to
everyone who has considered the question.
1t is possible that the high and sensitive
honor of our Southern brothers may
some time revolt at the tasks which the
fifteenth amendment thus puts upon
them, but it is to be confessed that so far
there is little evidence of a general rebel
lion based upon that alone. And IL we
are to await such a general revolt, the in
dications are that the contributor is right
in assuming that it will require time and
q great deal of it," 1t is true that the
high and sensitive honor" of the South
erner has become a sort of tradition in a
certain class of literature, and there are
those who have been inclined to accept
without investigation the thought that in
some way the Southerner had a sort OF
monopoly of certain virtues, among then
being his boosted conception of 'honah.' -
But at the same time there are others who
are somewhat slow to concede either the
monopoly or even a superiority in that
particular. 1t is true that Judge Baldwin
does not intimate that the same high and
sensitive honor may not characterize the
people of other regions as we'll as the
Southerner, but his suggestion does, new
~ertheless, smack somewhat of the atmos-
phere created by an antebellum literature
in which Southern 'honah' was q much
vaunted quality. On this point, OF course
il is a platitude somewhat irrelevant, but
at the same time it is a temptation to re-
call the fact hat honor IN the best sense
of the word is a Northern attribute al
least as much as q Southern. At any rate
the people In other parts OF the country
are likely to become somewhat FESTIVE ii
they are required to wait till the sensi-
tive conscience of the Southern politician
goes into revolt against either the sup.
preston of negro votes or an undue rep
resentation In Congress.
And IL Is perhaps as well that this rest
| iveness manifest itself at once. If IL is true
that the North has become Indifferent tc
notification and TO the fact that one vote
in the South has more potency as repre-.
sented in Congress than two or three OIL
half q dozen elsewhere, then IL is time fol-
something besides opium in our contribu-
| lions TO the literature of the subject
Among the numerous perils TO which al
governments are subjected perhaps there is
no one greater in a republic than this same
Indifference. 1t always has existed, IL ex.
lists now and always will exist 70 too great
a degree on all subjects. We need much
less of ii rather than more of IL. In this
instance the Southern method affects mo-
only the black in the South, but also tn,
people in all other parts of the country
for the reason that the latter themselve:
are partially disfranchised by IL. IL the
thought of this fails to stir the Northernel
or the Westerner, il would be interesting
to know what would do so.