The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-20
CARPETBAG
DAYS RECALLED BY PRESENT
 NEGRO ROW.
south's Reign of Terror-Secretary Roots Speech an Admission of Failure to Fit the Negro For
 Citizenship.

Citizenship.
 0. O. Stealy in Louisville Courier-Journal. The Republicans who are making such row over the disfranchisement of the negro In the South, and who are assert ing that the negro should have the right to vote. and if he did it would be better Tor the South, either have short memories or else are dishonest in their opinions. The negroes of the South were given the unrestricted right to vote from 1867 to lSH, ten years. This suffrage was grant ed them by a military power and against the will of the people. The constitutional amendment favoring this suffrage to the negro was never regularly adopted by three-fourths of the States, as the Consti- luton requires. When these negroes in the South, backed by the United States Army. got the ballot in their hands. how oid they use their DO wer for self-govern- ment! Most shamefully and outrageous ly! Rank and rotten corruption was seen 1 on every side. The whites of the South | were virtually disfranchised, and the ne groes had undisputed sway From the
 last two years of the administration of
 Andrew Johnson, through the two terms
 or General Grant, the South from the
 border to the Gulf, was a perfect hell l on earth. In speaking of this reign of ne-
 gro domination and terror in the South
 for decade. The Baltimore Sun says: Reign of Terror.
 | F1Sures may give some little idea Of | some of the results of unrestricted negro
 suffrage during that terrible time. But | neither words nor figures can make an
 adequate description of the saturnalia of | grand and petty larceny, of violence, of plunder, of fraud, of lust and of every I n1a In hn Not
 the most law-abiding nor the quietest cit
 izen was safe from violence. Thousands
 and tens of thousands of citizens, upon l the himsiest charges and without a par | ticle of evidence, were torn from their | homes and families and cast into prison.
 In North Carolina the Legislature author
 ized the Governor to proclaim martial law
 in every county. to arrest and try by | courtmartial, and the soldiers were ne-
 groes. In South Carolina alone, accord
 ing to the declaration of Governor Cham | berlain, a Republican Governor of that | State. when he succeeded Moses he found | that 200 trial justices were holding office
 by executive appointment who could
 neither read nor write. Negro majorities | had complete control of the State Gov | ernments. taxes were multiplied and the l money gathered from the unfortunate | whites was stolen by the negroes and
 their white leaders from the North, who l had hocked to the South as vultures gath | CT on a carcass.
 l Looted Treasuries.
 l "At the close of the war the debts of | the seeded States aggregated $S7, 900, 900. | During the ten years of negro rule $300- l 900 was added. In North Carolina the
 State debt increased $3S, 900 and the as- | sessed value of property sank from $292,-
 900 In 1860 to $13O,OOO, 900 in 1870. The
 taxation for State purposes in 1860 had | been $54S 900 year. The negroes increas- 1 ed 1t to a, 900. The negroes issued $l4,-
 100000 of bonds to aid railroad construc- | ton. It was all spent and not one mile
 of railroad was built School fund se-
 curttes were sold to carpet -baggers at | one-third their value and the money di- | vided among the negro legislators. In 1 two years there was not a public school
 house open in the whole State. The same | story might be told of every State in
 which the so-called disfranchisement has | taken place. In Mississippi 6,400O00 acres | of land were confscated because the own | CTS were unable to pay the heavy taxes | levied upon them, and wholesale confis- | cation took place in all the States. Tho land so confscated was largely given to
 the negroes. In short, there was reign
 of terror in the South, and the miscre-
 ants were supported in every town and
 village by United States troops many | Of whom were negroes themselves and | lent willing aid in humiliating, robbing
 and insulting their former masters. The
 local governments of cities towns and counties were as corrupt under negro | rule as the State governments. Plunder and barbarian were everywhere"
 Natural Contrariness.
 Nor has the negro improved from that
 time to this In the thirty years which have passed. he has learned nothing but
 is as ignorant and incapable of self-gov-
 ernment now as then. He is governed
 exclusively by race prejudice. What the
 white people of the South want he is sure
 to oppose, and the negro always votes in | a solid mass No better proof of this is
 needed than in the statement of Booker | Washington in his Madison. Wis, speech | Washington said: The teachings of the
 negro in various ways for the past twen- l ty years have tended too much to array l him against his white brother rather than to put the races in cooperation | with each other. More than once I have
 noticed that when the whites were In
 favor of prohibition, the blacks. led by
 even sober and upright ministers, voted
 against prohibition simply because the
 whites were in favor of 1t. If the whites I
 1t Is a signal for the blacks to oppose
 the measure simply because the whites
 favor it."
 Still Unfit for Ballot.
 | Thus, upon the testimony of the wisest | of their own race the negro is still unfit | for the ballot. Secretary Root admits it,
 according to the reports of his speech:
 So the country has to face the failure of
 the plan adopted by conferring upon them | the suffra ge-the failure to teach them
 the competency to enjoy it." Negroes in
 the South are still what Thaddeus Ste Vens designated them-"voting cattle" It | is necessary for the Southern States to
 disfranchise them in order to preserve
 their property from plunder and their civ | iliZation from destruction. And as some
 of the property in the South is owned by l Northerners. there Is strong sentiment in
 that quarter for the so-called grandfath-
 CT clauses. At any rate, whatever may
 be said of disfranchisement of negroes 1 by State constitutional devices it is far
 more decent and honest than the disfran-
 chisement of white people in Pennsyl-
 vania by ballot-box stuffing and perjury. | There is abundant testimony that the | Democratic Party starts out in an cleo
 ton by concedIng Its opponents at least