The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-08-08

Northern invasion.
The memory OF this horrible period was
burnt into the souls of these men and OF
their children. They have never forgotten
1t. they never will forget 1t, and a new
generation will have to arise before the
name Republican Will cease to be odious
to the white people of the Solid South. 1t
Is no: TO be denied that there Is a large,
thoughtful and conservative element in
the South which utterly rejects the revo-
lutionary doctrines of the Chicago platform
yer But 1t is almost impossible to ex-
plain to the rank and file of the white
people Of the South that there can be any
justification in voting against the Demo-
cratic party which was their only help
in Time OF extremity during the horrors
of this reconstruction period. THESE men
believe that it was the Republican party
which put the negroes upon them, and re-
membering the efforts to pass force bills,
believe they will put the negro upon them
again If they get the chance. and that no
financial evil could be as great to them
as that would be. AS long, therefore, as
there we're enough ignorant negro voters
left, with the aid of white political adj
venturcrs. to capture a State Government,
the white people never felt safe, and re-
sorted to every means in their power to
avert such q calamity. Nor was this an
idle fear. Fifteen years after the war
General Malone, upon the pretext OF
forcibly scaling the principal and interest
of the debt of Virginia, got together
party of sympathetic white men and, with
the great mass of negroes at his heels,
government in Virginia His rule of the
State became a horror and a terror, and
was the efficient cause of those election
laws whose only justification to save the
the State from absolute infamy and dis
grace was the fact that they kept the
negroes out of power.
The combination of Populists and Repub-
Icans in North Carolina carried that State
a few years ago, and only last year we
saw the results of negro rule In Whining
ton when the city ceased to be safe and
the white people determined that they
would die before they would endure it,
and riots and acres were the order
of the day. It was that horrible condition
of things that caused this constitutional
amendment for the elimination of the
negro vote
It is almost impossible to make those
who are not subject to these distressing
orditions understand what terrible or
deal the Southern people have been
through. We do not doubt that imme-
diately after the war the Republican party
was much pcrplexed, but they adopted an
utterly false hypothesis in supposing that
the white people Of the South were entirely
untrustwor:hy and that the negro was an
oppressed patriot.
1t was urged by Mr.. Greeley. In 1856. if
we remember Alright, that Congress should
require a qualified but impartial suffrage.
and that negroes who had the qualification
should be allowed to vote, and this. we be-
lieve, was Mr.. Lincoln's view which he
expressed to Governor Hahn. Of Louisiana,
after he got into Office. that where negroes
| If there were only a few, who had the
qualifications. they should be allowed to
vote. But the Fundamental idea both of
| Mr.. Lincoln and of President johnson was
that the Southern people Should be trusted
They were not trusted, but were subjected
to the most cruel indiglitieS, and the
North has been obliged to pay for it ever
since.
1t will be a blessing beyond measure
when the negro question Is settled in the
South. whether representation is reduced
or not, and the control Of the State gov
| ernments is put in the hands of those VINO
have something at stake, or intelligence
and integrity enough to qualify them for
suffrage. For ourselves, We are in favor
OF absolutely impartial qualification of
suffrage in Virginia which shall apply to
whites and blacks alike. We do not be-
iieve In the grandfather qualification. and
think 1t is opposed to the genius Of our
institutions. We have a large number Of
! negroes in Virginia who are good citizens,
and are worthy to vote under any qualitica-
tons that have ever yet been applied, and
there is no desire on any ones part. that
We know of, 10 disfranchise them. But
the Virginia negro is far and away ahead
of the jabbering savage on the coast of
South Carolina and Georgia and on the
sugar plantations of Louisiana, and yet Of
the Virginia negroes there are so many
who are ignorant and unfit for suffrage
that they have been a constant menace
to the local governments of portions OF our
State.
Thousands of good Southern men quietly
voted Tor Mckinley in 1896. but would not
be known Republicans and would take
no part In Republican party affairs for the
reasons we have given There will never
be two active and well-balanced parties
in the South until the negro question Is
settled and the ignorant and vicious negro
is eliminated as a. factor In politics, and
since the days of the carpet-bag vultures
nine-tenths of the decent men who have
come from the North to the South have
unreservedly and cordially taken the
Southern view Of the case
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PAUL KRUGER.
a..