Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-08-12
DEMOCRATIC TICKET.
EIeCtion--=1uesday. Nov. s. 1904.
the NEGRO PLANK.

THE NEGRO PLANK.
There is no doubt as to the intention
of the Republican party as led by Mr..
Roosevelt to enforce the NEGRO plank"
in their platform should they win in
the approaching election. The fact
that negro girls were brought in. side
by side, with white girls at Chicago to
wave banners when Mr.. Roosevelt
was nominated, tells palmer than words
til at the negro is to be an issue. With
the determination which characterizes
Mr.. Roosevelt in all be does, he has set
abont what he and his sympathisers
call negro elevation" and if the
chance be given him, he will perform
it in all Its modes. 1t ia not worth
while to tell him that what he is at
tempting, and will further attempt
will not elevate the negro; he brooks
no argument and receives no advice on
matters which he undertakes. His
negro phobia is not negro phobia, it is
Southern hatred. He cares nothing
for the negro per Sc, no more indeed
than be cares for any other class or
kind of people, but he hates the South.
He would be a bloody shirt waver of
the worst kind had he participated in
the civil war. Thad. Stevens, nor
Secretary Stanton, nor Charles Sum
ner, ever possessed all of the elements
of vindictlveness more fully than he.
His lientenants are now beginning to
sound his views to see whether the
people of the North will rally to tn is
issue as party measure, and uphold
him in what is the real, the dearest
object of his soul.
Recently Senator Hopkins of Illinois
expressed himself ON the subject of the
"Negro plank and he is very close
to the administration. In part be said:
THAT plank is one to which no right
thinking citizen, North or South. can
honestly object. The question sug-
gested by that plank is one that lies at
the very foundation of representative
government, and upon it's right and
righteous settlement depends in no
small measure the liberty and prosper.
ity of the American people.
while I've been talking with you
here have had in mind the first great
leader of the Republican party, and |
have wondered what would be his view
of this question if he We're alive and
could speak to us. | cannot believe
that the great and good man who freed
the bOndman would now consent to
enslave the white man as we'll as the
black, and yet that is precisely what
our Democratic friends advise us to do. |
I'm Illinois we have 100, 900 negroes.
In proportion to their number thew
bold as many Offices in the Federal, |
State, county and municipal govern
ments in Illinois as do the whites In
Chicago negro has been nominated |
for the Legislature.
The Republican party believes that |
the nation cannot survive in undi-
vigor, one half politically an
oligarchy and one-half politically a |
republic"
These are pointers to what is to
come later and more numerously in
the campaign. Orators ever the North
and West will press this issue as far
as possible. Already Mr. Roosevelt is
pictured by cartOonists as walking
hand in hand with Abraham Lincoln,
Lincoln being the first great leader.
Roosevelt the last. Mr.. McKinley'sj
footsteps are not seen, but the great
is the fit companion for
he present candidate, and once more
slavery is depicted and the story of
emancipation is told and
made an issue. If it was not certain
hat the negro voted unifOrmally the
Republican ticket, this gush would
cease, but knowing that be does and
the Republican party of the nation .
desiring in their party the worst and
most vicious element in the South
father than the best, have informally
lone everything toward obtaining it,
and OF consolidating the negroes and
certain class of whites into it. The
whites who have gotten into that party
n the South have usually gone there
or spoils. LII decent, good men were
carried there by their views on impor-
,ant economic questions, they generally
became disgnsted and returned either
10 the Democratic party or renowned
politics entirely. |,
The Republicans of West Virginia
nave SO used the negro vote as to dis.
gust many old and tried men of their
party, and that together with several
,utrages by negroes on white women
II very recent date, have changed SEN
.iment to wonderful degree ont
there, so much SO, that a white
mans" party in that State is likely to
De a thing of the near future, but Just
yet the State is not quite ripe for it.
Certainly Mr.. Roosevelt has gained
40 friends in that commonwealth by
lis self injected Negro plank.n Let
as hope that it will not be necessary in
his campaign to do more than point
20 this danger from Roosevelt to put
good men everywhere on their guard.