Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1908-03-28


ton OF the lilly white doctrine in
the Southern States and denying rec
ognition and representation TO col
cred men, who own property and
who are graduates from Harvard I'm
iyersity, Yale College. Howard Uni
yersity, Lincoln University, Chicago
University The. Va. Union Univers-
ity. the Richmond Normal School and
the college at Ann ArbOr Michigan
and the hundreds of other institu-
lions that ara raising the citizen
in black from the plane of serfdom
10 the table land OF individual indie
pendence.
Secretary Taft has lived in South
ern States and around the festal
board of Southern aristocracy has
drunk deeply Of the racial virus that
has since poisoned his whole system
and caused him to disregard the doc
trine of the fatherhood Of God and
the brotherhood Of man. So be IT,.
He is quoted further:
Il come now to the political phase
OF the Negro problem and the effect
of the Fifteenth Amendment TO the
Constitution. The immediate effect
of the Fifteenth Amendment. with
the exclusion from the franchise OF
those who had been engaged in the
Confederacy, was to throw large po-
litical power into the hands of an
electorate that had not the education
properly 20 conduct a Government.
And this led 10 the abuses which
have been held up 20 execration by
the lurid pictures OF reconstruction
days How far those pictures have
been colored beyond the truth by
partisan and race prejudice Il is net
necessary for us to discuss. because
one of the things which every lover
OF his country ought to refrain
from doing is TO say the things which
are likely to stir mp again the dying
embers OF race and sectional hatred
IL is unnecessary To do SO. Even the
truth under such circumstances is
an offense."
Secretary Taft is unfortunate in his
.utterances. He should know that
Yankee carpet-baggers controlled and
not the Negro. who was but clay in
the hands of the potter" The pic
ture has been admittedly overdrawn.
but he knows as every fair-minded
man will concede that the Southern
ers were paying the penalty and this
retribution was the logical result of
their own actions. They had sold
Negroes from their children. hus-
bands from their wives and wives
from their husbands. The thump Of
the bull whip and the streams OF
blood from bleeding buttocks had
been crying shame TO heaven for a
century and yet they howled about
ten years Of punishment. Secretary
Taft descended from a high level
~hen he declared that in An srgu-
ment OF this kind truth is an Of
tense. We do not know. but Il
seems 20 ms that the deterioration Of
some OF our American statesmanship
is at hand and many disappointments
arc i'm store for Us in high places.
IL may account too for the repre-
sentative of the great Republican
Party. "a party that championed hu-
man rights should come before the
country with a bill championed by
Senator Warner OF Missouri and Sen
ator Henry Cabot Lodge OF Massa-
chusetts enunciating the doctrine that
Negro In this country charged with
crime must be made TO prove his in
nocence Ia contrayention 10 the de-
claration for more than five centu-
ries that white men charged with sim
liar offences cannot be convicted or
punished until the prosecution has
proved their guilt IL may be that
this truth is an offence. AMI even If
II is we are sorry. but we are no
less determined to state 1t.
He continued:
IT is enough to say that follow
ing reconstruction DAYS the votes or
the Negroes which, under State and
national laws they were entitled toI
cast were by fraud and violence made
TO count for nothing. and since lSSO|
the Fifteenth Amendment in a num-
Der or the Southern States has been
treated largely as a dead letter. OIL
recent years, however, the leaders OF
the south have felt deeply the demon
allzauon sure 10 follow the foutine
OF the law and the maintenance of =
government on fraud and violence
ihey nave seen that IL was impos-
loie to confine that lawlessness which
they Justified to rid themselves Of
what they called Negro domination
10 the one purpose and they nave
telt its degrading influence in the
%hoie political atmosphere of the