The Seattle Republican. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1???-1915, 1900-09-14
THE NEGRO
AS A VOTER
In the North and the South
in This Republic.
Mr.. TILLMAN'S TALK
About Negro Suffrage in South Caro-
lima and Its Elimination.
Nc KINLEY is LOYAL
Though DiSfranchiSed He Still Appoints
Them to High Official Circles
There Is Long List.
About Negro Suffrage in South Caro-
lima and Its Elimination.
Nc KINLEY is LOYAL

For the political edifcation OF
those cOOlred men who are thinking
OF voting the Democratic ticket the
following extract from a speech
made by Senator Ben Tillman IN the
United States senate February goth
1900, will be OF much service to then
IN that direction:
l have exhumed the bloody shirt
for brief moment and am waving
# like a red flag to bull and the
latter will not tight or bulge, and |
VIII call the attention of my friends
1rOm the NORTH have a great
many on that side, | am proud to
say-to the tact that they do not
know yet, and never will know until
they come South and live with us.
just what we have had to contend
against and just what we have to con-
tend against even now. They do not
realize it; they cannot realize it; and
1t IS for the purpose Of trying to have
them study this question OF race a
little more and analyze it that | have
attempted, in my feeble way, to in
trude on this body for the brief re-
marks have made on this subject.
will tell you, while | am talking
about Negro suffrage, why they are
so dangerous as voters. In any state
where the whites divide-and they
have divided in every Southern state
except mine and Mississippi-into
Popullsts and Democrats, the Negro
has been the balance Of power
through which one side or the other
has controlled the elections by means
OF bribery, for the Negro voter was
a purchasable one.
Therefore we have been confront
ed by the condition Of a large, igno-
rant, debased vote, thrust upon us
by the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments. Other states, not SO
peculiarly situated as mine, have re-
tanned that Negro vote. They have
taken no steps looking to its elimin-
alton by educational qualification OF
any otner system. 1hat vote today
stands as menace to the freedom, to
the purity Of the ballot box, to the
punty and honesty Of elections, to
me decency of government, and it is
there forever until there is a consti-
tutlonal provision made here which
Will relieve us from it.
Let me tell you how we were stu
ated IN our state. We had 125.OOU
Negroes OF voting age and we had
hundred thousand Writes. Now,
can you lift yourself over the fence
by your bootstraps and beat that by
honest methods? Yet you stood up
mere and insisted that we must give
these people free vote and a fair
count. They had it for eight years,
as long as the bayonets stood there,
and IN 1876 they sent more bayonets
because we had got the devil in us
Dy tnat time and we did not care
whether we had any government.
We preferred to have a United
States army officer rather than a gov
ernment by carpet-baggers and
thieves and scallywags and scoun-
drels, who had stolen everything III
sight and had mortgaged posterity;
who had run their felonious paws
into the pockets Of posterity by is
suing bonds.
When that happened, we took the
government away. We stuffed bal
lot boxes. We shot them. We are
not ashamed Of it.
With that system-force, tissue
ballots, etc.-we got tired ourselves.
So we called a constitutional conven-
ton, and we eliminated, as | said, all
OF the colored people whom we could
under the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments.