The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1904-11-08
WHITE OR BLACK RULE.
Communicated.

the day when the voters of th5
entire South should rally with
all haste to the polls and by their
ballots throw out Of the white
house THAT horrible accident
which has been an eye sore t.
the South these three years. II
We fail to dislodge him it will be
because of the ignorant vote-the
negro vote, which has grown to
such great proportions in the
last twenty years.
We believe the greatest injury
ever done the people of the South
was self-infiicted-the introduce
tion of negro slavery. The next
greatest was the act of the Fed
eral government in making the
black man coordinate sovereign
of the State. 1t would have been
a thousand times better for the
Southern people had they adopt
ed paganism or polygamy instead
Of negro slavery thousand
times better for them and the
nation at large had the Federal
government confscaJed every
foot Of soil in the insurgent
States, put the torch TO every
dwelling, destroyed every fac
tory and filled every harbor with
the wreck of railroads and the
debris of business blocks instead
of putting the ballot in the hands
of the blacks. The ruin wrought
by torch and torpedo could have
been quickly repaired; the dam
age done by the XIVth amend
ment is well-nigh irreparable.
Pitifulest blunder of all the ages :
Greatest infamy ever perpetrated
since the dawn of time! Fear
fullest penalty brave men ever
paid for daring death for con-
science sake!
This is a republic. The su-
preme power is, ostensibly at
least, vested in the people. The
voter is the sovereign. Suppose (
that it were an absolute mon-
archy. Would it not be a mis-
take unparalleled, a crime un-
speakable, to take from an ig-
norant, brutal slave his shackles
and place upon his stupid head a
crown? The republican party
did even worse. A sovereign
cannot long oppress a brave ana
spirited people. Let him issue
an edict that meets with general
disapproval, and it is laughed 70
scorn. Should ne attempt 10 en-
force it, he is dragged from the
throne. But the republican par
~ corrupted a sovereign from
whose edict there is no appeal .
1t has debased the great army of
poisoned the political or
ganism by injecting into it vast
mass Of ignorance, destitute of I
even the saving grace of virtue.
Had the negro been naturally
he intellectual peer of the white
nan, it would have been a
grievous blunder to give him the
ballot, to force political RESPONSE +
oiIity upon him until at least a
generation after his emancipa-
ion. He was an untutOred saw
lge in his native land, making
10 appreciable progress. He
vas captured like any other wild
,east, brought to America, and
old into slavery. Here he was
aught, not how to wisely rule.
,ut to sePvibly obey. required
! thousand years of education to
it the thoughtful Saxon and the
quick -witted Celt for the duties
nd responsibilities Of American
overeignty; the stupid Ethiopian
vas fitted for them by the scratch
# pen and partisan vote
from semi savagery
0 super civilization by the power
f a political fiat From slave to
overeign by the magic wand of
.enii Fitted for American
oyereignty He was not fitted
or it. Ten thousand years of
would not qualify him.
rue it is that there are some
with suggestion of in
elect; but they are usually
iegroes only in name-mongrels
n whose veins flows the blood of