Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-02-14

gar, etc, to the value of six hundred |
million dollars per annum. The statis-
tics of the country. Mr.. Secretary, will
bear out the contention.
Has the experiment failed? II it has
!, failed then the Declaration of Independ-
ence, giving the right of suffrage and
, the boon of political equality to the
poverty stricken, illiterate white man
i has also failed, for the rich plutocratic
trusts are now confronted with the
same problem in dealing with him as is
, announced by the South and some of
| the Republican leaders in dealing with
/ the Negro
When you argue the Negro out of the
equation, you argue universal suffrage
for the white man out by the same line of
reasoning. 1t may be that some white
men at the North presumed that after
, the ballot had been placed In the hands
of the Negro that he would maintain
himself in the possession Of it by force.
The idea is as nonsensical as it was
/, foolish. The defense of those kind of
rights, sir, are vested in the national
government. We give it the courts
and the armed forces of the United
States for its defense and preservation.
/ When you expect or hope to delegate
that power to the individual, be he
black or white, you create a condi-
ton of anarchy, from which all law
abiding citizens shrink 1t is true that
the cowardice in not forcing respect
for the law was begun at Washington
and Hon. RUTHERFORD b. HAYES, now
dead and gone to heaven, we trust, to-
gether with his supporters are directly
responsible for the untoward conditions
which are being charged up to the Ne
gro.
Colored men have never yet failed to
obey orders, whether they came from a
southern master or from q northern
one and if it hal been the wish or de-
sire of the national government as rep
resented by its President that the Negro
should retain political control and con-
tinue to vote, he would have done so or
would have reported to God the rea-
son why"
The Republican Party lost this politi-
lcal power, but SIR it was the result of
its own folly. 1t allowed us to be shot
down, dashed, butchered, burned at the
stake, robbed at the ballot-box and in
the midst of it all, advised us to sub
NIT In recent years, it has tolerated a
BEN. TILLMAN in the United States Sem
ate, who boasted that his hands were
stained with human blood, not of white
men, but of black men,
If this distinguished Secretary means
to state that in the perpetuation of the
Republican Party in the Southland,
without further effort on the part of
that party to protect its allies and sup
, porters in the Southland then, we grant
} the contention and discontinue the dis
cussion
!; But Mr.. Roof made a somewhat
startling announcement when he said
that President ROOSEVELT hal appoint.
, ed less colored men to office than any
of his predecessors. Does he mean to
state that while he was vouch. safing us
social recognition at the White House
) that he was taking away from us offic-
} ial recognition in the Southland? If
J this is not the me aiming Of the state
} ments, will some one be kind enough
TO make it palmer?
Is it possible that the Negotiating
; southerners in their blind fury have at
r tackled the most liberal Republican
: President, who ever sat in the White
House at Washington? If so truly at
, is Gods way. His will be done, not
: ours"
But possibly Mr.. Roof was not sol
der. He is not aware of the impelling
: forces which secured for the Negro of
this country the rights which he should
now enjoy. He purchased his political
/, rights with his suffering and paid for
eternal freedom with his blood.
Gen. B. F. BUTLER tells why the Ne
gro secured his freedom and guaran-
tee of his political rights. In speaking
of the magnificent charge of the Negro
Brigade at Fort Harrison in 1864, he
said
cit became my painful duty. sir. to
follow in the track of that charging col
!, umn, and there, in a space not wider
than the Clerks desk and three hundred
yards long, lay the dead bodies of five
hundred and forty three of my colored
comrades, fallen in defence of their coun-
| try, who had offered up their lives to
, uphold its flag and its honor, as n will
ling sacrifice; and as / rode along among
item, guiding my horse this way and
that way lest he should profane with his
, hoof what seemed to me the sacred dead,
, and as / looked on their bronzed faces
upturned in the shining sun to Heaven.
as If in mute appeal against the wrongs
of the country for which they had given
their lives, and whose flag had only
been to them flag of stripes ON which
no star of glory had ever shown for
I II IL