The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-14
NEGRO PROBLEM FROM A
 NEW ENGLAND VIEWPOINT

Springfield Republican Ind)
 The Republican party as a national or
 ganization has existed about forty-six
 years It spent five of those years in ad-
 vancing the idea that the negro should
 be considered man instead Of property.
 It spent four other years in conducting
 a great war for the Union and the aboll-
 ton of slavery. It spent eleven years
 thereafter in embodying the results of
 the war in three great constitutional
 amendments and reconstructing the re-
 bellious section on that basis. It spent
 twenty years thereafter in boosting of
 what 1t had thus achieved for human
 rights
 Forty out of forty-six years of its life
 has the grand old party devoted to one great work. whose story is told in the
 last three amendments to the national constitution. And now the representative of republican administration rises In public place and declares that this great
 work has largely proved failure, ana must be so recognized. MT. Hoar has said that in all the Republican party 8 magnificent career 1t has made but one mistake. Secretary Root now informs him and the country in effect that pretty much of It's whole career up to within
 four or five years has been mistake; And what mistake in cost Of life ana treasure.
 The thirteenth or first of the three
 amendments covering the chief life-work of the Republican party abonshed slaV- cry. It Is not stated by Secretary Root that this was a mistake. But the four teenth amendment recognized the neces- sity of giving the ballot to the. negro, if he was to be protected in his rights as a freedman and a citizen of the United States It provided that when the fran chse was restricted against the negro by any State the representation of that State in Congress and the electoral college should be cut down proportionately. The l fifteenth amendment only recognized the | same necessity but, instead of leaving | the Southern States free to deny the bal | their power in the national government, | 1t prohibited any infringement Of the sui | frage on account of race or color. If the | ballot Is necessary to insure the negro in | his rights as a freedman, as was con- | tended by the Republican party thirty | i've years ago. then the taking away oi | the ballot will leave all the negro's rights f as a freedman in jeopardy. It leaves him l in grave danger of being reduced practi- | cally to a condition of servitude. Accord l ingly when Secretary Root says the fir | teenth amendment is mistake. It fol | lows that the fourteenth amendment was
 a mistake almost to an equal degree, and
 that the thirteenth amendment IS no no, | worth insisting on beyond assuring to th'
 negro the forms. while denying to hln | the substance of freedom.
 All mistakel And voices of approVa | coming up from the South are not few Colonel Edwin T. TaNaferro. Southern
 CT doing business in New York. expresses | what seems to be the general view: | T agree most heartily with Secretar!
 Root when he says that the negro sui
 frage plan has beon a failure. They hay | done nothing to better themselves. l | was a great mistake ever to give them tn right to vote or to hold ofice.{ nd
 think the sentiment of the entirS @Aputl