The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-21

recently on the Presidents southern pol
 Icy, as indicated in the appointment of
 Dr. William D. Crum as collector of the
 port at Charleston. against the protests
 of the people of Charleston. Governor
 Heyward is conservative southern busi-
 ness man. He employs many negroes, many on his plantations being the de- scendanis of his fathers and grandfath-
 ier's slaves. He said:
 q think President Roosevelt has made Ia mlsta2te that will shake the faith of imany people. north and south, in his twisdom and judgment Misguided, and viewing the situation from but one side, he has doue much to disturb that good
 feeling andf faith in justice that President
 McKinley caused to spring up Tn southern lhearts. Was not the southern policy of bthe martyned President good enough to
 continue?
 MT. Roosevelt thinks we are prejudiced lagainst the negro, and to cure us he obnoxious. To heal antagonism between lmen, parties or races he would increase the irritation. ,To encourage the negro to tattain scholarship and wealth he would
 raise him to responsible places above the 'whites-the whites of the south who
 have in their poverty taxed themselves
 to give the negro some education; who, 'other things being equal, give employ
 ment to the negroain preference to whites.
 "We of the south do not hate negroes. We have, as a people infinitely kindlier ,fo ttertained by the whites in the northern and western states for the negro who lives among them. But we are opposed,
 strenuously opposeG to our wards, but
 one generation removed from bondage,
 and with the masses g little, if at all im- proved in morals, ret ,eiving the same rat ing with us in the ational government s books.
 Because one negrp or ten negroes in this state may have Hhe capacity to fill certain offices of the government, we | cannot realize that thea President has the moral right to choose orN, of those negroes as our business repre- sentative; to put him in an office the avenues of which are derived entirely fire un the whites; to appoint him over the protests of five | sixths of the qualified vpt CTS of the state and the solid delegation,in congress We may be 'prejutff,ed' against the
 negro prejudiced against aais holding of I flee in the south when all the business
 must be transacted withkwhites, but have
 we not just cause for that lprejudice-far better cause than have tha northerners who support the Presidents policy for | their prejudice against the whites of the south? We bought the negnosin legal sale
 and we paid for him. That the purchass 3
 price went north of Mason and Dixon's S
 line does not now offset our ga SC. In our battle for states rights we l4eet and our
 slaves were turned loose, igndiapt and de- pendent but friendly.
 By an act, which now carries many
 northern men to blush the tslllot was put into the hands of these simple people, utterly ignorant of their respoma Utilities. | and carpetbaggers came down nosmanipu- | late them and breed hatred in their
 hearts for their best friends. Thesscarpet- baggers were successful and a reign of political debauchery succeeded Theawhites
 in time regained supremacy, but the negro | had been effectually turned against his | neighbors of the other race, and flor po- litical purposes his antagonism hass been | nourished from the north by those pceju- | diced against the south.
 | 'In view of all the circumstances where | such an appointment is made as tn at Of | pr. Crum, we are forced to ask ourselves whether the President is sincere in Ia de | sire to uplift the negro by this method. or | Is, perhaps unconsciously, infuencedsbS a prevailing northern antagonism to the l south, an antagonism unmodified even when the conquered south, devastated was preyed upon by the thieying alion and the benighted black.
 Are our wishes opposed, our feelings | disregarded. our prejudices ignored be- | cause we fought and were fought by the | Presidents party forty years ago?
 "when will our opponents let the war end? We will never accept their view of | the negro from distance; nor can we be | so hard upon the negro as Is the man | from Massachusetts Ohio or Maine when he comes to live In the south. We are not opposed to the negro holding office l in communities where he represents the | people, the people who vote, who do busi- l ness who pay taxes. If 1t Is good to | encourage the negro, to give him ambi- tion by putting him in high official places, let those who think so make room for
 him.. Give him a chance in Indianapolis, | Boston and Pittsburg.
 we of the south know that a negro
 would not be appointed to such an office
 in a northern state against the protests
 of the people. We know that, despite the
 large negro population in Cuba, with ne-
 groes of a higher degree of intelligence
 and higher standing than the negroes of this country. negro consul general would not be sent there. Why? The