Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-03-29
LITTLEFIELD TALKS SENSE.
A Republican Statesman Who I'm
derstands the Negro Question.

A Republican Statesman Who I'm
derstands the Negro Question.
Congressman Littlefield, Of Maine
has the reputation Of being one of the
broadest and ablest statesmen Of the
present day. He is Republican; but
he refuses to be bound even by party
caucuses, when the action of such eau
cuses go contrary to his best Judgment
He has just made a speech in Wash
ington on the Negro question that Is
being roundly applauded, especially by
people who are opposed to the Crum-
packer resolution.
Mr.. Littlefield, in taking up the Ne
gro problem, said that the black slave
was q vital factor in the development
Of the country when cotton became the
staple production Of the south. At the
close Of the war the United States was
left with four millions of blacks on Its
hands. This was the most serious prob
lem left by the war. The Negroes had
been freed from slavery and were oc-
cupying a position Of peril to the gov
ernment. The civilization Of the white
people, said Mr.. Littlefleld. had been
accomplished after years Of struggle
and an association with the greatest
races Of mankind. The Negro had been
brought direct from his home in Afri-
ca and no efforts had been made to-
ward his education or civilization.
"By what right" asked the man
from Maine, the man from Blaine's own
state, docs an act OF congress seek to
place an inferior race on an equal foot
ing with men VINO have lived through
two thousand years Of Christianity?
The nation sought to create in the Ne
gro race the ability not only to govern
ernment Of others. What was the re-
suit? The race was in the midst Of a
people devoted to the highest state OF
civilization known to man. A people
VINO had been overwhelmed by one of
their own kind and whose wounds,
physical and moral, were smarting un-
der the blow Of defeat.
1.-The Kukluk Klan was the outcome,
with it's civilization behind 1t. trying to
suppress the newly-created citizen.
Then came the grandfather clause,
which virtually disfranchises every Ne
gro in the south where 1t Is in existence:
If the elective franchise had been CIV
en- only to those who had the intelli-
gence to use 1t, the tendency iii the
south would have peen to increase its
representation by legitimate means.
Today the tendency is to keep southern
men in ignorance and to keep the Ne
gro out of control. To increase the rep
resentation properly under such condi-
tions requires the utmost intelligence.
Few men today know what Is to be
done. The Negro Is with us. He has
the right of citizenship and we cannot
adopt the measure so often suggested
to deport him. There is no authority
under which we can deport citizen OF
the United States. That namesake of
the Father. of his Country, who is
working down in Alabama, Is doing the
most practical work. We must look to
the practical education of the Negro
as the only solution of the problem.
The fundamental mistake was in en-
franchising the race, placing in the
hands Of those people powers they were
unqualified to exercise, giving them
power over civilized race overpowered
by war. 1t takes more than a genera
tion or two, or three, even, to civilize
any people. Fortunate will be the gen
Grafton that will see true solution of
this problem"
In closing Mr.. Littlefeld touched up
on the Philippine problem as another
one which the country was called upon
to solve. "It is not possible" he said,
'by any legislative act or by educa-
tion to create in any race the power of
self-government. It may be latent
power in some races that only need the
touch Of the higher civilized bodies of
men to develop. I am not prepared to
say 1t is not in the power Of the Negro
to govern himself. as some people have
said. What we know or the Filipino
what General Chaffee says in his re-
ports Inat this race excels in duplic-
ity, treacnery and the arts Of savagery
the American Indian. There are ten
millions Of people dependent upon US.
Only few Of them can read and write.
do not know what will be accomplish
ed. do not think 1t Is giving away a
state secret to say that there Is not a
man in the house Of representatives
on either side who sees the proper So
luton of this problem ahead. believe
that the American people now face a
serious situation; that 1t will require
all the shrewdness and Christianity of
our people to solve this most difficult
question. But I have faith in the fu-
ture Of the republic, despite that in
ternational vermiform appendix known
as the PbinppjTe archipelago"