The National tribune., 1906-12-06
SENATOR r,,s.MAx.s SPEECH.

I The first thought is that of deep re-
gret and shame that United States
| Senator should make such an exhibi-
ton of himself as Senator Tillman did
in his speech at Chicago. 1t might be
said that having seen one United States
Senator sent to County Jail and an
other only escaping a similar fate by
| his death, we ought to be prepared for
almost anything. Sill. vastly better
things have been expected of Senator
Tillman. Every little while he gives
and character as makes one hope he is
| being educated by life and experience
into valuable public servant. He has
undeniably qualities of brain and char
/ acter which if they were properly
rounded out and modified would make
him trusted popular leader. But he
is and always will be a monomaniac on
the negro question. No matter where
he starts out he is -tolerably certain to
SWlHS over to the Tdte uutStloI,
then he goes stark, raving mad. In
Chicago he absolutely raved about muir
der, shot-guns and other infamies as
proper fclonies to be employed against
the poor negroes. and actually shouted
''To hell with the law" He talked
about real war and said that South
Carolina would be painted red with
blood. This allusion was historically
unfortunate. 1t is within the painful
memory of too many of us that South
Carolina, some years ago. ,alked war
and bloodshed very earnestly until she
precipitated a National tragedy, in
which South Carolina however, did
only minimum share OF the fighting,
| and the burden of the bloodshed fell
upon other States. 1t would seem very
decent for South Carolinians to care
fully avoid talking about blood and
fighting while the present generation is
| alive.
The peculiar wickedness of Senator
Tillman's harangues is that they are
cruelty destructive and not construc-
| tive. The presence Of the negro
in this country brings about a problem
which requires the best thought ana
effort of every patriotic man and wo-
man. 1t is one of our great National
questions, if not the greatest of Ma
| tional questions. 1t is one which will
test our whole theory of human life
and human government. We have
| heretofore welcomed the poor and op
pressed of all the nations of the earth,
firmly believing that liberty. education
and exact justice will develop them to
the highest plane of manhood and
womanhood. We still cling fondly to
this cherished ideal. We have opened
our gates freely TO millions of Slavs.
Bohemians, Servians Hungarians,
Poles, and Russians; to tens of thou
sands of Jews; to hundreds of thou
sands of Italians all of whom are of
approximately the same intellectual and
social grades as the negroes. Possibly
majority of them are not SO well
trained in the decencies of life as the
average negro. They certainly are at
disadvantage to him in their lack of
familiarity with our language, customs
and principles. Yet we bring them all
in, expecting that the free air of this
land, with the example that they have
before them of our citizenship, with the
education that we freely give them in
the schools, will speedily raise them TO
the level of desirable citizens. This
| being the general policy of our Govern
ment, which has been proudly main
| tanned ever since it was a Government,
what excuse or justification is there for
any other treatment of the poor
| negroes, whom we brought to this
| country by fraud and violence, and who
are here with us to do as well as they
can the work that we have for them? =?
Does it not seem revolving to every
| idea which Americans cherish that
| there should be proposed such dis
graceful and inhuman raids upon them
in other countries?
| How can we demonstrate with the
Turks for their outrages upon the
| Christians; how can we criticise the
Russians for their terrible massacres of
the Jews; how can we justify our inter
| ference with the Spanards for their
massacres and starvation of the Gu
| bans, when United States Senator
| proposes exactly the same thing with
reference to the negroes?
The shameful, cowardly feature of
the thing Is developed when the Sena-
| tor in one breath denounces these
negroes as poor, ignorant, dumb brutes,
and in the next urges murder and mas
sacre as the only methods of dealing
with and controlling them. Could
there be q more humiliating impeach-
ment of our system of civilization and
Government? Sane men, patriotic men,
men of real popular spirit in the South
painfully realize that Senator Tillman's
harangues are vicious and criminal, and
| seriously disturb all their plans for the
solution of the negro question. They
know very well that they have plenty
of laws to meet all the evils of which he
| complains, and that if these laws are
properly administered the vicious negro
in the South is as readily controlled as
the vicious man of any color is in any
Il other part of the country Every State