The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-12-15

self any more than that of a man Of
lighter complexion than myself who
voted against me at the polls?
l am afraid, my dear sir. that your
views are not only archaic but atropfied.
You are either living in the far-away
past or suffering from that strange and
incurable disease known as negrophobia.
So that when you come to base the ultl-
ma thule of your argument against negro
education upon the postUlate that so
equipped he might down the Anglo
Saxon in the battle for supremacy, one
is at once confirmed in his opinion
! / had supposed that only the weak and
uneducated poor white man feared negro
competition, and that as a matter of
| jealousy.
If for our own preservation we must
keep the negro in chains we are worse
| off than the fellow who accidentally got
| his adversary down and burst not let
| him up for fear he would get on his feet
| and overcome him.
| In such a deplorable case. while others
| Of her Sister States were forging ahead
! along the road of progress, poor old Nlr-
| sinia. once the foremost in all this proud
land would be employed all her time IN
clutchinS at the throat of her phantom
! foe her greatest statesmen straining
every nerve. not to grace with their elo-
| quence or help to guide by their wisdom
| the councils of the nation but to puzzle
their fertile brains in devising Jim Grow
laws and kindred statutes and Constitu-
tions to keep the races apart,
| l think no one who has been permitted
to live in full manhood during the period
| that has interviewed between 1850 and
the present will attempt to deny that
the negro was better qualified to cast a
! good ballot Immediately after the war
| than he is to-day. And why?
It is because we have let him get away
from us-beyond our control and infu-
ence. Because in our primaries and con
ventons we have steadily and studiously
refused to deliberate with him.
| We say every time: "All white men.
&C, may vote" thus slamming the door
in his face and then curse him because
| he will not vote our ticket.
Consistency that art a jewell
Early in reconstruction days, in the
county of Northampton, where the ne
groes were in the majority. a delegation
Of their best and Oldest citizens waited
upon a well-known and representative
white man and Democratic, soliciting him
to allow them to elect him County Urea
surer, and he being a gentleman of much
property thought well of the PROPOSE
ton. But upon submitting it to his
family and friends. who We're both num-
| crous. the "bans were forbidden" and
chiefly or political grounds
The negro delegation went away sor-
rowful'' and elected carpet-bagger. who
pocletcd the public funds and went off
with them.
If when the war was over and the
negro FREQ we had taken our good OLD
servants into our confidence and coun-
ellis. shown them we respected their now
| ly-acquired rights drove out the carpet
baEgers and proved to the negro that
good government was as necessary to his
welfare as ours. I have no more doubt
| that we could have managed him than
I have the sun shines in the heavens to-
day. and his children. under the guidance
| OF white teachers. Would have followed
on. But we swore we would never vote
with nigScrs: We gave l..e good. self
sa crificing teachers. whom we refused
entrance to our houses twenty-four
hours to leave the county, and the good
old darkies are dead and their children
and ours arc far. far apart now.
But no. We would not have it. And
still We so on without cause and with