The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-07
MIR. BEECHER'S OPINIONS
REASON WHY THE SUFFRAGE WAS
GIVEN To NEGROES OF THE SOUTH.
h Letter from the Brooklyn Preacher
Written I'm 1855 Has n Special
P~ertinence Now.

The Outlook this week publishes the fol-
lowing valuable letter from Henry Ward
Beecher to the Louisville Courier-Journal
under date of March 80, 1885:
The interview published this morning in
your paper. while in the main correct, has
mistaken my views on one or two points
which | beg permission to correct. The
statement that 1 said that South Carolina
might almost have been justified in rising
against the voting colored population and
massaering them IS far from my feelings
or opinions. The question before me and
the interviewer was on the counting of
votes. / said that in a case like Carolina /
could well understand why the white peo-
pie refused to count the votes fairly. 1 did
not think that they were to be justified in a
false count, or a suppression Of the vote,
or an Intimidation of the voter. But 1 said
that, considering the evils suffered under
legislation OF colored men, just emanci-
pated, ignorant of government, late the
slaves Of white men. but now put over their
masters by their numbers. taxing without
wisdom, issuing bonds without skill or
prudence, ! did not wonder that the white
population r~esorted to Unfair means to up
press their foolish legislation. Even that
was wrong in morals. and the savage idea
that they were justified In massacre is a
revolving sentiment.
ALLOW me to state explicitly my views
OF the past and present relations Of the
colored people.
al. The state Of slavery in the South be-
fore the war, with all it's softening, was
evil and only evil, both in its effects upon
the blacks and the whites alike, and was
on the whole, both in morals and in polit-
zeal economy. exceedingly bad. A terrible
price was paid for the destruction Of the
slave system; but it was worth to posterity
a hundred times what it cost. y
NECESSARY FOR DEFENSE.
"2. The putting the vote into the hands
Of an ignorant race was an astounding
event in political history. 1t came not from
a belief of their fitness for suffrage, but
from a conviction that it was necessary for
their defense. (The manuscript also con-
tains the following paragraph, crossed out
by pen, and therefore, we presume, crossed
out by himself: No man would have
dreamed of putting the vote into the hands
of emancipated Southern slaves except for
their defense.O
The tentative legislation of some Of the
Southwestern States, which under the form
of vagrancy laws seemed intended to sub
ject the colored people to essential slavery
again. alarmed the North and led to de-
fensOry legislation.
but. audacious as was that faith in lib
erty and suffrage which led the West and
the North to give full citizenship and po-
htical power to the emancipated, the re-
suit has shown that the colored people have
not misused this power. L must say that
colored voting since the war has been fully
as wise as white voting was before the
war. The colored people of the South after
becoming citizens did not seek revenge or
mischief They intended well II Was nOf
their fault that many of the results were
evil II was bad enough for white citizens
10 see their late slaves led by foreign in
fuence. II might be a political necessity
lit was not any the. less a thing grievous
TO be borne by their white fellow-citizens.
But where the emancipated were largely
In excess of the white voters it amounted
in fact to the subsection of the white peo-
pie TO the legislation of the colored. and in
those States where legislatures were in the
power of the late slaves and where North
ern men, not always the wisest, led them
on TO foolish and wasteful legislation, in
suits of it. plunging the State deeply into
debt by an unmerciful issue of bonds, it
is not to be wondered that something like
that self-defense led men to violent resist
ance.
'3. When at a little later period his
tory. no longer under the influence of vio-
lent and heated passions, shall sit in i'm
partai JuuSment upon THIS WnOle move
ment of the past quarter of a century, two
results will stand out prominently:
I'D The admirable conduct of the slave
population during the war, Industrious. or
Derby, humane, and peaceful; their great
bravery when the North made them a part
of the army; their general good conduct
after peace was established, and their
thirst for education as the indispensable
condition OF good citizenship. Their future
may not be what theorists predict, but Ii
will be suspicious.
"l2) The remarkable conduct OF the
white population OF the South. Hurled
from political power, defeated in war,
wasted in all resources. wounded in every
household. i'm the loss of husband. son, or
father; all industries subyerted and to be
refounded on a new basis-and. worse than
all. to see their late slaves changing place
with their masters and holding the reins
OF legislation under foreign leadership-is
II wonderful that at such a revolution, con-
vulsion rather, Southern citizens often
mistook the way OF duty, that some rude
remedies of violence were practiced, that
some counter methods of violence were
attempted.
These things are not TO be justified. But
Is IL not now a matter of transce1dent
wonder that the evils were so few, and hat
the patience and self-conIrul Of Southern
people so soon readjusted the whole indus