Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1903-01-09
usLoApIxG THE NEGRo.

81 Some OF the Republican papers that sim
make pretence OF being negrophi listic.
have beer, set agoE by a disclosure
Senator Hbar's that a fellow Republican
Senator recently declared to him tha 7.
the emancipation of the negro from slay-
cry was mistake. These papers are.
calling upon the venerable Senator from
Massachusetts to give the name Of the.
srepudiator OF the most humane act
Of modern times and are asking the
latter to come out and say whether be
is in favor Of re-ensiaving the man and
the brother Mr. Hoar does not seem dis
posed TO crafty them. and the fellow 70,
publican Senator appears no less indispos-5
ed to accommodate our contsemporics
by answering such g foolish question.
we say foolish question. because no
man of sense. Republican or Democrat,
desires slavery restored. II the propos1-
tlot, were practical one. and were put
to the people OF this country. It would
not meet with less universal and determ-
ined opposition at the South than at the
North Though the emancipation of the
slaves vas unconstitutional and an act
OF wholesale robbery. as the New York
Journal of Commerce once pronounced it.,
while it is the veriest hypocrisy to claim
shat it was perpetuatsd in the interest Of
lie negro, and, notwithstanding Is object
was to forge new weapon with which
to. crush this section and its cause. as
things have turned out It lifted great
Incubus from the South.
Indeed, that slavery was an incubus
upon the Southland was recognized in
Virginia two generations ago, and q move
ment to abolish it Wes started and sup
ported by gone of the most influential
men in the State That movement would
doubtless have succeeded. but for the
interrneddling Of the abolitionists It is
accepted not less here than elsewhere.
that the South could not have developed,
as she has in the past two decades had
she continued to carry the burden Of the
institution Of slavery. Therefore. at the
Last those who brought about emancipa-
ton builded better than they knew.
{ But because no one desires the restora-
ton Of slavery, and albeit our u;ould-be
considered negrophilistic contemporaries
are asking foolish question, It does not.
follow that the declaration. Of. Mr.. .Hoar's.
fellow Republican Senator, however In
cautiously made. is not significant. Com
ing from man In his position, 1t is decid-
eddy symptonatic Of the change OF feel
ing in the Republican party and at the
North generally towards the negro: It
affords striking evidence Of waning en-
thusiasm for the rights Of ''tle man and
the brother" and emphasizes the tests
mony which has developed In various
ways lately that the Republican party
tacitly admits that negro enfranchise-
ment was a blunder.
Several of our independent Republican
contemporaries virtually concede this, and
one of them goes so far as to say that
the Republicans are finding the negro an
embarrassment. where they formerly ac-
cepted him as an aid in their political
enterprises There Isl continues that.
contemporary. something like plague
pronounced on his (the negro's). house,
by those he Is troubling, and the man who;
exclaimed against him to Mr.. Hear. was
probably one OF. that number.
So We discover that, while the ema nc'.s
patton of the negro lifted from the South
a weight that would have retarded I'M
mensely our material-progress.e negro en-
Reimbursement has put weight on the
Republican party that it is. striving siren
uously to throw off-that it is conscious IS
like an old man OF the sea. And in its
struggle for relief it is virtually forced
70 an admission that all of its past pro-
testations respecting its interest In the,
negro and its faith in his. capacity for
citizenship, were the veriest sham