The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-01-31
THURSDAY, JANUARY 81, 1901.
REMARKABLE CONFESSION.

Ono of The most remarkable articles of
the day. when its source is considered,
Is an editorial which appeared in the
Chicago. Chronicle of Monday last on the
Fifteenth Amendment 1t declares that
there was no call for this measure; that
it did not spring from the people; that it
grew of spirit of vengeance; that il
was advocated for the purpose of punish
ing the people of the South and perpet
uating the tule of the Republican party.
These same expressions have often been
used in The Times and other Southern
papers in characteriZing this Infamous
measure but we We're not prepared to
read them in the columns OF a conserva-
tive journal published in the State Of
Abraham Lincoln But what the Chran-
icle says is true, and those who have any
doubt on the subject should read The re-
mort of the Reconstruction Committee.
from which we have several times quoted
in these columns
Passing on To speak of the effect Of the
Fifteenth Amendment, the Chronicle
says:
The history of the world may be search
ed in vain for parallel to the spirit OF
ssyagery which inflicted upon defeated
and impoverished people the unspeakabiT
barbarous rule OF "a servile race just lib
Grated from bondage. Negro suffrage
was a crime against the white people Of
the South. Ii was a crime against the
blacks of the South 1t was Z. crime
against the whole citizenship of the re-
public. Political power never was con-
1erred upon race SO poorly eduipped to
exercise it.
Negro suffrage, accompanied as it was
by the scoundrelly leadership OF carpet
baggers and supported as it was by mill
1ary rule. subjected the States lately in
rebellion to an experience mere dreadful!
than the paralysis of war and defeat
Tpon an already impoverished society it
brought the SOURCE of rule that was in
some respects worse than barharic, for it
had all the elements of savagery under
The leadership of men who had learned
from civilization the arts of corruption
and misrule.
Tho eight or ten years of negro doInina
ton in various Southern States inflicted
greater material injury upon those States
than the war had done. 1t prostrated in
dustry, it DESTROYED public and private
credit. and il threatened for time to re-
solve society into its original factors and
to re-establish conditions which Were
thought TO obtain only in the wilderness.
The effect of this hideous debauch upon
the blacks was quite as demoraliZing as it
was upon the whites At time when
they should have been impressed with the
responsibilities which freedom had PIT
upon them they We're melted to orgies of
injustice and piilage by characterless
leaders bent only on plumber At a time
when they should have been instructed in
self-restraint and made ready for a grad
ual acknowledgements they We're taught
only by an example OF license.
It has required q generation 10 remove
from the minds of even the best informed
among the negroes of the South the eff
feels of the evil influences under. which
the race hogan lis career of freedom
Many generations Will have come and
gone before all of the consequences of
this stupendous Republican mistake shall
have been removed.
This is plain talk, but is the plain truth,
and the Chronicle man writes as one who
would refresh his soul by making an hon
est confession. But our candid conten-
porary docs not go far enough, The Eff
teentb Amendment is as much as an in
fanny now as Il ever was. il is no longer
an active force. because the people of the
South have devitatized il, but it Is none
the less an infafny. and it is a menace to
day TO every Southern State. II the Fed
eral Government should enforce it. there
would be another period of corruption
and misruIe'' with .prostrated industry
and the destruction of public and private
credit" Even in those States where the
negroes have in the main been disfran-
chised. the whites are afraid TO divide on
politics because of the ever present threat
of the Fifteenth Amendment. Is the
Chicago Chronicle willing that this In
fanny, this crime against civilization
shal, stands II not, why does 1t not COM
n,cnt boldly and logically in advocacy of
III rspeall Il