The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1908-05-23
Mr.. PhafF aad the Republican paBty.

The Chief gave Henry n. Pharr
jealous and loyal support in his re-
cent candidacy for governor as the
nominee of the Republican party OF
/ Louisiana, aud we have nothing to re-
greet or recant in that regard, for we
still look upon him as an able. honest
| and sterling young man, who would
| make an excellent chief executive; but
we feel under no sort of obligation to
subscribe to everything he chose to say
in his campaign speeches.
Particularly are we absolved from
such.an obligation with respect to ut
ter ances which were not only out OF
accord with his letter of acceptance
and the address of his campaign COM
mittee, but Numerically opposed
to at least one of the fundamental
principles of the national Republican
party.
It has been the lifelong contention
of this party that the civil and polit-
icaI rights of a citizen should not be
determined or circumscribed by his
race or color, and so fully is this
| declaration identified and interviewer
with the origin and entire existence of
the party, that to repudiate the doc
trine is wholly inconsistent with the
affirmation of belief in and adherence
to Republican principles.
When, therefore, Mr.. Pharr in
jected into his campaign speeches the
declaration that no negro should
| be sent to the Lational Republican
+, c invention from this state nor be per
mItted to participate or have voice
in Republican councils within the
state, he made an unauthorized and
unrepublican assertion that received
merited discredit and rebuke in the
subsequent action of the state conVen-
ton and several of the congressional
| district conventions. Not only have
three colored delegates and four col
ored alternates been accredited to the
Chicago convention by the Republican
party OF Louisiana, but a vacancy in
the Republican state committee re-
suting from the death of former
member has been filed by the selec-
| ton of colored man. Had the con-
| tention been that the colored voters
of the stase were so few in number
that they were not entitled to repre-
sentation in the national convention
or the local party organization, the
position might have been defended as
reasonable and equitable, especially
! in view of The fact that number OF
| states-Republican states at that
with great many more negro voters
| than Louisiana has, send no negroes
to national conventions. 1t is doubt
full II there are as many as one thous-
aud negroes registered and qualified
| as voters in Louisiana today. States
with five, ten, fifteen, twenty and more
times this number Of negro voters will
Lave no negro delegates at Chicago.
| But the distinction is that none OF
these states have excluded the negro
because he is a negro, and in no in
stance save that furnished by Mr..
Pharr has it been proposed to go to a
Republican convention seeking admis-
sion in the face of an emphatic repu-
diation OF a basic Republican princi-
pie as embraced in the declar asion
that citizens were excluded from The
delegati IN because of their lace and
| color.
Il is doubtful if the Democratic ma.
tional convention would openly SUBJ
scribe to such declaration by admit.
ting delegates chosen unuer it; and il
is a matter of political record that nc
Denocr attic national convention has
yet been willing to adopt the shibbo-
leth of many southern Democrats that
theirs is exclusively "a white man S
party The Democrats OF the north
don't drive away votes because they
may be cast by negroes. On the con
trary, such votes are desired and
sought, and not few are secured by
northern Democratic candidates.
There is no real negro issue in Lou.
isiana politics. This state does moi
and never will stand in danger of me.
gro domin ation,n even if the negro
! vote increases a hundred fold. The
i white man will always dominate the
state and the country and every state
in the country, as he does now, and
nobody appreciates the fact better
than the sensible and intelligent col
! ored man. No sensible and intelligent
man, white or colored, desires re-
turn of the abnormal conditions that
| prev allied in the southern states dur
| ing the unsettled and troublous re-
construction period following the
| civil war, nor can such man believe
a recurrence of those conditions pos
sible. There is a general acceptance,
by Republicans as we'll as Democrats,
Of the suffrage qualifications as now
prescribed by the constitution and
laws of Louisiana, based on eduea-
tfonal and property holding require
ments, supplemented by payment of
poll taxes. The platform upon which
Mr.. Pharr entered his campaign
pledged the Republican party to the
maintenance of these rentaireu1ants