The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-07
THE DUTY OF THE SOUTH
HON. JOHN ). WISE, OF VIRGINIA,
DISCUSSES NEGRO QUESTION.
SAYS the Southern states should Sur
render Part of Present Congress
sionaI Delegation.


The following extracts from speeches. re-
Gently made in the Senate of the United
States by Senator Tillman have attracted
much attention and brought the subject to
which they relate prominently before the
country:
South Carolina has disfranchised all of
the colored race that IL could under the
thirteenth. fourteenth and fifteenth amend
ments. We have done our level best; we
have scratched our heads TO find out how
we could eliminate the last one of them
Congressional Record, Feb rs. 1900, Page
1886
I'VE have governing race. just as you
would have in Massachusetts, If you had
10000 negroes and only 100000 white men.
Congressional Record, Page 2263.
I'VE had 125.OO0 negroes of voting age,
and 100000 whites "-Congressional Record,
Page 234S.
I'VE stuffed ballot boxes We shot them.
We are not ashamed of it-"-Congressional
Record, Page 2349
We called constitutional convention,
and we eliminated. as said. all of the col
ored people whom we could. "-Congression-
al Record. Page 23f9.
Under new Constitution we
have n4,000 registered voters. Congress
Eional Record. Page 2261.
II say 81 per cent OF the white vote is
Democratic. '-Congressiona Record, Page
162
However this language may be criticised
there is no denying that 1t Is ineligible.
capture, what he intended to do with the
property of the government and of private
individuals seized by him at Harper's Ferry
he replied that he intended to appropriate
IL. He would consent to no other term
Senator Tillman is equally tenacious of the
word eliminate concerning the suppress
sion of the colored vote. Still, people gen.
orally understand what both meant. This
announcement of what has been done in
South Carolina and elsewhere naturally
suggests the following queries in view of
the conditions announced:
What does the South propose? What do
other sections of the Nation propose. and
what does the Nation at large demand?
The Acknowledgement OF the negro race
al the time and in the manner in which it
was done was the weakest and most I'M
fortunate legislation lie the strong and
statesmanlike record of the Republican
party. The time has come when this is
Substantially admitted. The strongest
ground on which it was placed was that 1t
was essential TO enjoyment and preserva-
ton of the freedom which had just been
bestowed upon the race. The number of
people who then believed the negro worthy
of the franchise and capable of defending
his right to II was larger than Ii is now.
few advocated negro suffrage as re-
faliatory measure against the Southern
whites. But the masses of the people had
al the time no well-defned views upon the
subject, and acqufesced in the legislation
as probably the best, but at the same time
an experimental, solution of a new and diff
ficult problem.
THE SUFFRAGE PROBLEM.
After the lapse of thirty years very few
thoughtful Americans in any part of the
country are without intelligent and pro-
nounced opinions on the subject of negro
suffrage. These have been arrived at from
the actual experiences of a vast number of
Northern people who have gone to live in
the South. and have returned TO report the
conditions existing there. Their testimony
has received consideration which no South
ern views could hope for among the North
ern people Besides, the press and i'm
proved means of INSTRUMENTATION have
much more familiar with the situation in
other sections than was formerly the case.
The North understands fairly well the con-
duct of the Southern whites, the conduct
OF the Southern blacks, the operation of
the laws relating to negro suffrage. the
manner of their enforcement. or, IL you
choose. their evasion, and last, but not
least. the effect which the grant of negro
suffrage has had upon Southern representa-
ton in Congress, upon the constitution
of that body. and, through 1t, upon federal
legislation
No one subject OF disagreement between
North and South in the time of slavery
caused more irritation in the North than
the representation accorded the South on
the basis of its slave nonvoting population
After the North won in its struggle against
the South and readmitted 1t to representa-
ton in Congress, IL is incredible that
Northern leaders intended TO double the
former representation of whites The most
the South had ever been able TO secure was
representation based on the three-ifths of
its slave population. When, after the war,
by the fourteenth amendment, the repre-
sentatiOn was Increased to the full basis of
the black and white population IL
plainly on the theory that all males OF vot-
Ing age would be permitted to vote, and the
Co. foil. .f
representation where such is not the case
NO NEGRO VOTE.
The actual result in South Carolina. upon
the confession of Mr.. Tillman, is that the
blacks there now have no more voice In
elections than they had when they were
slaves, and, I'm effect, the whites have rep
resentation on the basis of all the blacks.
instead of three-hfths of that race. The
North and West must by this time fully
realize the mistake that was made. II, at
the end Of the war. they had made no at
tempt to enfranchise the negro. and had
kept Southern representation down to the
basis of white voters, they would not have
fmperiled their control I'm Congress- nor
would they have alarmed the South so as
10 band the whites there In one party for
thirty years. deaf TO any reason for divi-
sion in the presence of real fancied
danger OF negro domination. If the North
had not done this the Southern people
would themselves. in due time. have clam
ored for negro suffrage in the effort to in
crease their representation. The whites of
the South. divided between the parties on
old lines of antagonism. would i'm all prob
ability have become competitors In de-
handing the franchise for the negro. and
the negroes. thus erfranchised would have
divided between the parties. uncertain TO
which party they We're most indebted for
n when it came Nj the passion and crime
and folly OF The past gone thirty years
might thus have been avoided. But they
were not avoided: and everybody now sees
that federal legislation. while IL failed TO
secure TO the negro his franchise has
doubled white representation In the South
Viewed from the standpoint of protecting
the vote OF the negro his cause seems TO be
about hopeless. We may as well accent
the fact that HIS vote is suppressed in the
South: that past federal legislation on the
subject has failed, and that future federal
legislation on the subject is. II not impos-
sible. at least highly improba BILE: and that
the suppression of the black vote in the
South will continue. in all likelihood, by
fair means or foul The friends of the ne
gro In the Republican party are apparently
thoroughly tired OF carrying his burden
and OF him, except a delegate TO nation
n conventions from Southern States. The
testimony OF ninety-nine out of a hundred
Northern Republicans who have gone
South and been thrown with him is that
he IL unit TO control or administer the To-
cal governments of the South that he has