The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-25


 por<icipation-in the affairs of our 8fate. or will we allow 8 reasonable number of them-the better element ok them-to go to the polls and vote? m . people SO large a minority of the p0pulafion as thsy are--eight hundred Thousand. and whites ten hundred Thousand. eight hundred thousand out Sz eighteen hundred thousand-did you ever in all your reading know of q people. and so large a minority as that. who were not allowed any voice at all in the affairs of government who remained contented under that government? Have you aver heard or 50 large a minority who have been ad- nitted into the participation of the af- 2 fairs of government for thirty years, who were afterwards silenced? VIII not there be disturbances? Why, some of these people are becoming very in- teiligent and acquiring property, and gcntlemen it may not occur next year, < or. the year after, or five years hence. but. if you go along with this and practically none of them having any voice in our affairs, you may live to s..e the time of outbreaks and troubles not now contemplated, such as every man who participates in making IL thus will live to regret. Let them oc- cupy a subordinate position, but do
 
 ment of them, though of an inferior race. who have won the confidence or their neighbors, won responsibility and acquired property-allow all Of that class a fair showing, and let them go to the polls and vote. There Is no danger in that. Exclude the densely Ignorant and corrupt. I do not stop at the exclusion of the negro, but ex- clude the whites of this class and deny -s-~t-N xyofn a privilege of voting is not natural right. Those ladies up there are citi- xens. and naturally have as much right to vote as I or you or any or us, but the voter is one who is selected on account of his supposed capacity for handling the ballot wisely and well. He handles it as trustee. He votes for his wife and children, and for his neighbors who are denied the prlvl- leee. Take it on the basis of all males 21 years of age and upwards, It IS about five to one, and he is voting for four others as well as himself on that broad basis. I would not allow the ballot. if had 1t in my power, to go into the hands of a vicious and noto- riously corrupt white man any more than I wouldsa negro. in fact, would not trust him as quickly as would a negro of intelligence and good char acter You want that matter handled wisely and well for the best interest Of the community. It is not a racial question. If you propose to make 1t a racial question. what would be the end? As some say, the exterminatfon of the negro. Prepare him and then send him back to his native Africa? That is a doctrine that Is advocated now, not only by some men, but by some statesmen. Gentlemen. 1t Is an utterly impracticable thing. In the aggregate. there are ten millions of these people in this country. They are citizens not only by our State laws and our State Constitution but they are citizens by the Constitution of the United States and it is so declared in that instrument. They have the right to go when and where they please as other citizens. The power don't rest in the government to rob them of this right or to colonize them in any other country. Then there Is the labor question. Why. as I sit in my door and look out. who is it that fixes ali these telegraph and telephone poles on the street? I have. never seen a white man on one of these poles. The negro performs nearly all of the labor down here in this country, and isn't he better as a contented man than dis contented one? Wouldn't it pay us to treat him right. and give him full pro- lection under the law and give him a voice in the affairs of State. and re- tain him here. rather than to engage in this impracticable theme Of race con flict and his expulsion? We do not own any lands in Africa to which we can send them. Such land mostly be- longs to Europea't nations, and even if we had that power, and he were not a citizen, where are the vast sums of k,Ir1 1.fw there and settle him? You would not take him over there to starve. You would have to support the whole col ony for time. Then what would you do for labor in the South? The cli- mate invites them, and the occupation of our people invites them here, where we raise cotton the great staple pro- duct of this country. Here where we have been raised up among the ne groes, nine-tenths of these delegates know that there is an attachment be- tween them and the white people which say ought not to be disturbed. My friend, the delegate from Greene, on yesterday told us how he was shot down on the battlefield of Chickamau- ga, how his faithful slave and serving man attended him, stopping to serve him when he could have gone off to the other side and have been free. The negroes kHeW WHdI that war was lOl . They knew that their freed )m- as involved. Yet. look at their conduct, in the main, all through the south. They remained at home and made corn and supplies to support our armies in the field, and throughout the length and breadth of the Confederacy there was not single outrage perpetr lted upon any mans family, or any wcTGan or child, or helpless person, Dy these people, although they were slaves. President Lincoln called for 75,eOO troops to serve for ninety lays to Put down the rebellion, and he expected these negro slaves here would Ilsc in ansurrection and apply torches 10 the homes of their masters. Sadly mis- taken was he. There never was such an instance in the history of the world as of this devotion Of the slaves to their masters, presented during that remarkable conflict. Gentlemen, my memory is good, do not forget such things, where they have shown deyC- tion to us. It may be exceptional in Individual instances, but can We blame them for showing gratitude 70 these whom. they believed had freed them, and those they believed had enfran- chised them? Another case, cn, all- 1ours with that stated by the delegate from Greene. I will draw 2 compar;- son. A negro whose name was Willis Hill, the servant of Captain Hill of Company D, in the 9th Alabama that on the morning of the 9th of May, at the Wilderness, when Longs rect s