Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-03-06
sTAUNToN, VA, FRIDAY. MARCH s, 1903.

bauchiDg to both himself and bis chill
dren. He hoped and he prayed that,
as time went on, his continued efforts
to educate and improve the negro. aid
| to implant in him those principles Of
Industry, thrift and self control, SO es-
sential to safe citizenship in free
his persistent kindness to the negro in
private life would win his confidence
in public matters. But vain and futile
hope was this, for, after 81 years of
constant effort to reform him. Ephraim
was found still Joined to his idols. and
the Ethiopian with his skin unchanged. i.
Several times, Southern white men
chafing under political restraint, di-
vided among themselves, hoping, by
their example OF independent action,
to disunite the negro forces and break
down racial lines in politics. But the
swift and terrible inundatiOn of cor
ruptioD, vice, riot and crime, brought
by the unbroken negro hordes, sweep
ing through the breach thus momenta-
rily formed in the dikes, soon showed
white men the folly and hopelessness
of the experiment, and left them more
firmly united than before.
But. Mr.. Chairman, that night is
long that never finds the day; and. dark
and long as this terrible night has been
to us, thanks be to God, the sun is
shining once again in our dear old
Southland. The hopeless futility of
former methods having been fully
demonstrated by earnest experiment
for more than a ageneration, the South
ern people, full Of resource, turned
them to other means of self protection.
When God, in his wrath, saw fit 10
Danish US into the wilderness with the
18th amendment, be still, in his mercy,
left difficult, narrow but safe path,
by which we might, after much striv-
ing and tribulatiOn, once more achieve
salvation and regain the Promised
Land. Mr.. Chairman the Southern
people have struck the trail. They
have reached Mount Pisgah, and are
now with rejoicing and gratitude 10
God, gazing into the happy land of
Canaan
One by one the Southern States,
compelled at last to relinquish the
principals of free manhood suffrage,
SO dear to them (but which they, like
the citizens of Washington. gladly ex
changed for Immunity from negro
have availed themselves
of the expedients which have been
found, and authOritatiyely declared,
to be permissible under the fifteenth
amendment, and placed such restric
lions upon suffrage, irrespective of
race or color, that the vast sea of ignO-
rant, venal and vicious negroes is now
safely and perpetually shut out.
We have legislated as far as we could
against the negro's defects and bad
qualities, rather than against his color
or his race. The details of the method
adopted, vary with the several States;
but, in substance, the remedy is every
ing something more OF a voter than
In most of the Southern States, the
man who desires to participate as
voter IN the control of government,
must no " show himself entitled to it,
not only by age, but also by intelli
gence, by military service, or by the
payment of taxes, Thus again has an
overruling Providence brought good
out of evil, for, by this exclusion of the
most undesirable elements of both
races, there is established in the South
To-Day, tno puresC. most lntelllgenG
and conservative electorate in the
Union.
The negro vote has not been entire
lY eliminated in the South, but, by
permitting only those to vote who can
be entrusted with the ballot without
too great peril to the State, that vote
has been reduced far below the dang
er point; and thus .one-third OF the
fairest and richest domain of this
great nation has been saved from the
threatened possibility of becoming,
like another Hayti, the permanent
home of anarchy and barbarism.
The present condition having been
brought about by our new suffrage
laws, peace and good will between
the races are rapidly increasing, and
the white men of the South may now
Continued on Second