The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-06

constitution and the laws el a.t,s oal Tn lfys not only retained the prop9, siaNes which had escaped oi .''' b,,+ sn- conveyed to their various states, ges -, acted laws which set at deiiahce sle aa 5tilutlon and the laws ol eo,lsi ,9,aianee III several instances did oouiis .,o,.sons To. even to the extent of killing persons ls sahy entitled to protection anu ''e
 1oration of their property. ...a ~
 This policy of contempt Tor the eoh- stitution and for the laws or lns s,,ssls sen, efai government when these S'il.asl5t.1 .a,st.,A with their personal views anu diees. eliminated in the Brown iiiYaslon of Missouri in which one ellizen mas murdered in attempting to uste'u .l-s l..s nome and property and III tiie .''es s.s . formidable attempt at lnsuii ees.oil - u. virginia, both of which moFeiiie.i.s - the inevitable climax of what the seu1h considered as a long list of wrongs her people had suffered The wave or sym pathy and the moral support whleh the actors in these unlawful inVaslohs or the south received from large proportion of the foremost citizens of some of the northern states convinced the southern people that the union was impotent to give them the protection wnleh, unoer the constitution they had flghl lo e&- pect. They believed in the rlsht or se- eession as honestly and earnestly as the people of the north opposed 1t. However impolitic was the movement of secession, the convictions of one was as honest as those of the other. As part of this great struggle the slave property of the entire south was taken away from IL py force and without right, ana the war lell the south prostrate and in poverty
 The republican party added to their hu- initiation the disfranehisement or the oet- ter educated and more prominent citizens of the southern states. proceeded to en- franchise a vast horde of ignorant and irresponsible negroes, and under the im- mediate protection of the federal army garrisoning the country, this mob was placed in complete control of the county and state governments of that unfortu- nate section. There was then witnessed for years throughout the whole south a riot of outrage and misgovernment probably without a parallel in all the pages of history. Let poster1ty, well removed from these unhappy times judge whether or not, in view of all the facts, the south was not justified in it's distrusi Of the republican party and in It's pre9u- dice against the negro, the cause of their discontinue.
 There are today a large number Of the best men in that section who are, first of all, Americans, broad-minded, cour- ageous and progressive men, who deplore the solid south, and who, rising above prejudice, accept the negro as fact and are ready and willing to deal witt him generously and fairly, and to give him that chance for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to which every hu' man being under the charter of our ma tional freedom and under the law oi nature Is entitled. These men are the best friends, not only of the negro, but of the south, believing it their duty tC help him to a higher plane of morality and greater fitness for citizenship, mer who under favorable conditions could ex ercise great influence upon and ulti- mately assume the leadership and con- trol of the more thoughtless and al times violent, element which there, as elsewhere, Is unjust to the negro, ant which breaks out against an alien ract in Illinois and Indiana, as well as 1T Alabama and Mississippi These men dC not believe in the justice or the wisdom of an unqualified disfranchisement of 2 race They believe that to withhold from all the hope of political privilege and preferment would eventually drive to other states the more energetic, in dustrious and useful members of this race, and leave behind as a menace tc society the crowd of sluggards and loaf CTS. These men of the south are look ing beyond a temporary political expe dient to a broad and enlightened policy which will place before the negro pre- mium upon morality, upon education, tht acquisition of property, and the estab lishment and maintenance of hom' among their own kind.
 If now, at this suspicious moment oi victory, of political triumph unparal leled in the annals of our country; wher the Anglo -Saxons of the south, standing steadfast to their colors, are over whelmed at the polls, as their heroic fathers of the Lost Cause were over. whelmed at Appomattox, the powers that be will adopt and carry out a generous policy which recognizes without stint ol qualification the supremacy of the white race, and will intrust the future of the negro to these true men of the south they will never prove faithless to this trust, the negre will be blest, and the south at last wholly the nations.
 JOHN A. WYETH.