The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-13

| of Washington. ex-ConkIessnn | Colonel E. s. Pierce, Congressmen \. T. | Bishop and William Alden smith os | Michigan and others.
 I In a highly eulogistic manner Baron I von sternberg was introduced to respond to inc toast ''The German Emperor. 1 Senator Deliver responded to the toast I .aTba Principles of Lincoln ana Ane i Twentieth Century Republicans. The last speaker of the evening was ex- | Representative John s. Wise. formerly Of Virginia, but now of New forK. lie responded to the toast: 'The south ana the Colored man." MT. Wise saio' l When Lincoln was assasinated ne hau | said but little and done nothing to war rant any confident statement of the posi- ton he would have taken, if he had Ived' upon the question of negro suffrage l He was pre-eminently fitted, by famii- iarity with the condition Of the piacS Trace. by his knowledge of the relations De- tween the races in the South ana oy the Iconstitution of his heart and mind, to deai with the great problem.
 The loss of his guidance upon this ques- tion was irreparable to the whole coun- try, North as well as South.
 After his death the Republican party under other leaders decided to bestow un- restricted suffrage upon the negro, ana to guarantee federal protection of>that right.
 1 Thirty-seven years have passed since | this condition of reconstruction was fn- posed and the XIV and XIV amendments were adopted to make the pledge ef- l fectual
 Few, now deny that unrestricted suf- frage as and when 1t was bestowed upon | the negro, was unfortunate, If not unwise. l Many dispassionate students of the politi- cal history of that time even doubt whetn- CT that legislation was enacted in the exercises of a calm judgment upon what was best for the future welfare of the negro, and incline to think 1t was largely influenced by the passions and resent ments arising out of the Civil War. Even if war passions did influence these enactments 1t is certain that they have subsided now, and are no longer infiu- ential to sustain them. But race pre- judices still exist While sectional feel ing has declined to a minimum, race pre- judice seems to have increased to a maximum.
 The white man in the North today is more in sympathy with the white man in the South than with any black man North or South. The whites of Maine, of Mass achusetts, of Ohio, of Iowa, regard their white Southern brother as a friendly fel- low citizen. Their nature, consciously or unconsciously. revolts against any con- dition of suffrage making 1t possible that | men of their own race may be dominated | politically by the negro race, in any sister State.
 Conditions do not display this prejudice as prominently in the North as an the South, but it is just as apparent there. even if not as violent.
 When the right of suffrage was granted | ta ha af and Louisiana, that suffrage. if 1t had been exercised as freely as it was bestowed, would have resulted in black rule in those States, for the negro voters were in the | majority. l The law was made possible then, be- | cause the whites of the Southern States were armed foes who had been conquered, | but yesterday, after a long and bloody | struggle.
 | Community of race creates afinities be- {, tween white men, which bind them | together everywhere and are not weaken ed by any arguments of humanity or philanthropy. Under the surface of all academic arguments about the equality of men. it is just as impossible to convince the majority of the white men of the North that laws, which logically lead to a negro supremacy in any State, are right, as to convince majority of South ern whites that such laws are just.
 We must deal with the question as we find t.
 We cannot eliminate from 1t the domi- nant factor of race prejudice. We may even treat the prejudice in the South as a negligible quantity. If the South had
 no voice, either in the making or admin.
 istration of Federal laws, 1t is my delib.
 crate judgment, after careful study anC long residence in the North, that any
 party which should advocate 8 basis oi suffrage the logical outcome of which
 would be the political domination of the
 negro in any State of the Union would
 be overwhelmingly defeated in the North
 The thing which would defeat it would
 be the racial sympathy of whites fol
 whites-a sympathy now undisturbed by
 any counter prejudice of conflict between
 the whites themselves
 l speak as the student of a social prob
 lem. In the light of that study I canno
 but recognize this inherent, indestructi
 ble, controlling pride of race in the whit,
 man from the genesis of his history.
 We can no more change his heart thar
 we can change the skin of the Ethiopi
 an., On any proposition to surrender, O.
 even to divide his dominion with an,
 other race, his heart grows as black al
 the skin of the Ethiopian; his nature be
 comes brutal, obdurate and desperate. fl
 opposition.
 The minority of whites in South Caro-
 lima, Louisiana, Mississippi and every
 where else where white men are in tho
 minority, stands ready to maintain tha
 supremacy and to die rather than to yielC
 to it, and counts. with absolute conf.
 dence, upon the support of it's own rae,
 elsewhere, even If those elsewhere are
 not in the same personal peril with which
 1t is threatened.
 They know that the negro, even if he
 be in the majority, cannot compel them .tC
 submit.
 They have faith that their own race will
 not attempt to do so.
 And in my opinion that faith Is not nis
 placed
 Republican leaders dare not make tho
 test They do not fear Southern race ore
 judices; it is Northern race prejudice,
 which disturb them.
 The Republican party is responsible fol
 these measures; 1t has seen enough {,
 know that there is but one way of at
 tempting to enforce them, and that is b,
 resort to force. It knows that the Soutl
 Is not strong enough to triumph over z
 united North. but it knows equally wei that on this issue the North would be di vlded; and that the party which attempt
 ca to enforce existing laws on negro suff rage to their logical results, would h, hNrrl