Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1904-04-09
he public school system became an as.
ablished fact. -


the public school system became an es.
tablished fact.
1t can be readily seen from Mr..
PAGES own admissions that the north
ern white school-marms were unwel.
comesvisitors in the Southland and were
as much ostracized as the poor, despised
Negroes. And again:
The next step in the alienation of
the races was the formation of the sec
ret order OF the Union League. The
meetings were held at night, with closed
doors, and With pickets guarding the
approaches, and were generally under
the direction Of the most hostile mem.
bers OF the Freedman's Bureau. The
Whites regarded this movement with
serious misgivings, as well they might,
Tor, having as its basic principle the
consolidation of the Negro race against
the White race, it banded the Negroes
In an organization which, with the ex.
ception OF the Confederate Army, was
the most complete that has ever been
known in the South, and the fruits of
which still survive to-day. Without
going into the question Of the charges
that 1t taught the most inf1ammatory
doctrines, 1t may be asserted without
fear Of question that its teaching was to
ALLEVIATE the Negroes from the whites;to
withdraw them wholly from reliance on
their former masters, and to drill into
their minds the imperative necessity of
adherence to their new leaders, and
those whom they represented. -
He continues his narrative:
6 Then came the worst enemy that
either race had ever had:the post-bellum
politician. The problem was already
sufflclently complicated when politics
were injected into it. Well might Gene
raj Lee say with a wise knowledge of
men: The real war has Just begun.
No sooner had the Southern armies laid
down their guns and the great armies of
the North who had saved the Union dis
banded, than the vultures who had been
waiting In the secure distance, gathered
to the feast. The act of mailman had
removed the wisest, most catholic. most
conservative, and ablest leader. one
whose last thoughts almost had been to
restore the Union by restoring the
government of the Southern States
along constitutional lines; and well the
politicians used the unhappy tragedy
most cowardly In war were brayest in
peace, now that peace had come. Even
IN Mr.. Lincoln s time the radical leaders
In Congress had made a strenuous fight
TO carry out their views, and their hos
tlllty to his plan of pacification and re-
construction was expressed with hardly
less vlndictiveness than they exhibited
later towards his successor. ~
In the above, he recognizes the fact
that JOHN WILKES BooTH, the bastard
ly assassin of President ABRAHAM LIN
coin was the worst enemy the south
ever had.
1t paved the way, not only to fire.
dom Tor the Negro, but to the franchise
as we'll.
He observed:
The Southern people. unhappily,
scted precisely as this element wished
them TO act; for they were sore, unuuell.
cd, and angry, and they met denuncia-
ton with defiance. 4"
He says:
Then came the browning error: the
practical carrying out of the theories
by lnfusing into the body polite n
whole race Just emerging from slavery.
The most Intelligent and conservative
class of the Whites were disfranchised.
the entire adult Negro population were
enfranchised.
1t is useless to discuss the motives
with which this was done. No matter
what the motives, 1t was a national
blunder; IN its way as great blunder
as secession. "
Opinions differ, Mr.. PAGE. We are
not ready to say that it was blunder
and we will argue the question from
any logical standpoint with the conf
dence that we can establish the fact
that it was one of the wisest measures
ever vouchsafed in the freeing of any
people.
The colored peoples progress is ad-
mitted to be phenomenal. When we
say that the suffrage was responsible
for much of 1t, we tell no secret, for it
should be known of all men.
If the enfranchisement Of the Negro
was failure. then popular suffrage is a
failure and the government of WASH
INGToN, JEFFERSON and LINCOLN should
be banished from the earth.
UknA NTHOH