Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-12-23

to him of rights. which we are pledged
by every consideration OF honor and of
interest 10 respect. we drove him from
our midst? No, sir. We could not afford
il. There is not a piE-hcadcd, bourbon
fool negro-hater living who, when press
ed. viii not admit these truths.
And if it De true that honor and self
interest make it so that his lot is cast
with US in the name OF reason AM Su-
manity, ask. what have we to lose by ,e-
irg Just and humane to him, or by ac-
ccrding TO him those political rights which
white men deem essential to the protec-
ton and the preservation of their liberty !,
God help the State that falls within
the control OF small souls who cannot see
these great truths through the bloody
niistS Of race prejudice. II NirginianS
are not large enough and broad enough 10
see them then her old race of statesmen
is extinct, and the piglnies and degener-
atcs who guide her dcstinies now will
have TO be CARRIED and led away from po-
litical and economic suicide by the strong
er and broader ana tTuer humanity which
controls the nation. Our people cannot ig-
more the existence of the nation.
BY bitter and bloody experience we
learned we could not dissolve the Union.
Against our Will and in spite Of US, these
black people were made freemen.
SOUTHERN PEOPLE NARROW.
And. once mere, il the Southern pco-
pie are so narrow and behind the ad-
vancement on the age as TO seek to vio-
late their plishted faith. and to remand
this race TO slavery. they may bring
DOWN upon themselves the heavy hand
which has never snlitten them without
Carrying its point.
We hear a great deal Of Inc talk about
the sovereignty OF these communities
nowadays. and about their right to regu-
late their own social and political prob
lens. But Virginia's son. John Marshall,
warmed them. nearly a century ago, that
their sovereignty was subordinate to fed
eral authority. in matters which federal
laws reach and the federal law is SUI
preme on questions of citizenship. They
have paid bitterly in the past for ignoring.
these warnings.
We hear much also of the duty to main
tain white supremacy. This talk springs
from no honest fear that white supremacy
IS inperilIcd. II is intended to enlist race
sympathy from those who will not take
the trouble 10 inform themselves upon
the problem. But l say God help white
supremacy attained by breach of plighted
faith to the nation; by cruel and unjust
race discrimination against the blacks: by
laws ordained without any legal sanction:
lacking in any broad apprehension of the
true relations between the races; dicta ted
by vicious and half civilized race preju
lice. and committed, for their adniinistra-
ton. TO willing tools whose only idea
Of civic duty or loyalty is TO work
TO pe!petuate the rule Of the faction which
installed them.
DO not tell me that government under
any such auspices viii be better. No
government SO conceived or SO executed,
will be better than the bad men who
seize it. or the worse men who administer
it. 1t is not democratic or republican
government 1t IS the domination Of
faction which neither respects the princi-
pies of government it pretends to admin
lister, the rights of the governed. nor its
own pledges. Doing evil that good may
come Of it has been the pretenSe of
usurpers and tyrants from the time that
government began, with the invariable
result that the evil has been done and the
promised good did not come of it. ! feel
a contempt for the expression so often
heard that even If the method resorted to,
to eliminate the negro vote. was bad and
vicious. the results will emancipate
thought In Virginia and build up what
the parties using this argument of con-
venience are pleased to predict, will be
two respectable parties there. In word.
that with the negro vote removed as a
fusing influence upon the whites, the
whites will divide upon public issues, as
they have not done before
Those who talk this way are of two
classes-they are either Democrats. who
do not believe what they say. and say it
as consolinS balm TO their own con-
sciences. or in order to reconcile creduous
opponents; or they are people who hope
always for better things and do not know
the men who devised and are executing
the scheme. Verify. the man is gullible
who, with knowledge of the career Of the
people. who have been plotting the politics
of Virginia for the past thirty years,
thinks that they have done anything or