Year: 1879

AhC DlOoul


The Republican speeches and plat
forms of the summer are notable fO1
their strong statement Of the sectional
question. That this question should
be prominent is greatly to be regret
ted. But however the fact may be
deplored, no fair man will say that
the responsibility rests with the Re
publican party. The Administration
certainly has not fostered the agita-
ton, and if the Democrats had not
made it of such vital Importance, the
Republican friends of the Admins
tration would have prevented it's play
ing the part in 1880 which it did in
1876. The sectional question ought
to be disappearing, and its present
prominence is due to two things, for
which Democrats exclusively are re-
sponsible-the suppression of the col
ored vote, and the tone in which those
who suppress it demand State rights.
The suppression of the colored vote in
the Southern States, of which the
evidence is incontestable, is equivalent
to a forcible seizure of power which
may easily control the government.
That is wrong which the intelligent
''North" " will not tolerate All classes
of voters are here protected in their
Democratic authority agrees that the
national supervision in New York has
secured the most peaceful and honest
elections. The sectional question is
kept alive by the Democratic treat
ment Of equal citizens in the South
ern States, not by the Republican pro-
test against it; and to reproach the
Republicans because Of that protest
with shaking the bloody shirt is to
reproach them for maintaining the
fundamental principle of the govern
ment-free and fair elections. Nor
is it surprising that the cry of State
rights in the mouths Of those who are
responsible for this suppression should
arouse apprehension. In the States
where the colored vote is suppressed
there seems to be no local redress.
One of the most trenchent public pa
pers that we have recently seen is the
address to the colored people Of Texas,
adopted by the Colored Conference at
Houston on the 2d of July of this
year 1t is a very strong but perfectly
temperate statement of the situation
Of the colored population. The crimes
of every kind against them have
never been indicted or punished in any
manner by the judiciary Of the South,
yet we have never attempted to take
the laws into our own hands in order
10 1yIn1,an+n o,ht -
And believing that neither time nor
any sacrifice upon the part of the col
ored people will remove the ill-will
with which they are regarded-in
proof of which the address submits
forcible considerations-the Confer
ence proposes emigration as the only
resort. When those who are response
BILE for this wrong raise the cry of
State rights, their demand means only
greater impunity in criminally Selling
political power.


As we write we receive letter from
"a Southern Union man" who would
give his name except that he docs not
mix with politics." The writer says
that there can never be peace and
prosperity at the South until there is
a different voting population. He
adds that he himself, who ''stuck to
the party until Grant got so many
thieves around him, has put in money
knowing it was to go for paying to
stuff the ballot-boxes, and did right;
it was the easiest and best way to pro-
tect my property, and you would have
done the same thing under the same
circumstances" Here is one citizen
confessing to another that he and his
friends send Representatives to Con-
gress by fraud, and asking the other
to hold his tongue about it. What
the thieves" around Grant stole he
does not say, but he owns that he and
his friends steal seats in Congress and
the control Of the government. Now
if exposing and opposing this fragrant,
forcible, and confessed attempt at
usurpation is shaking the bloody shirt,
the bloody shirt has become again the
banner Of American liberty, and he
who does not wave it is a contempti-
bic coward. The position of such men
as our correspondent i'll the Southern
States is undeniably hard. We have
aullllGteu 1T AWAY .. IHC NIIOlC olbId-
ton there is extremel y difficult CAL
houn. whose instincts upon the subject
of slavery were remarkable, uniformly
said that slavery could be abolished
only by war, and that the same force
which freed the slaves would enfran-
chise them, but that there could be no
social or political fusion Of the races.
However that may be, the course pur-
sued by the whites in those States is
naked revolution. 1t is the complete
overthrow Of all legal rights, and an
overthrow in which the rights Of those
who do not. live in those States are
also involved. When our correspon-
dent pays money to stuff a ballot-box
to protect his property, he commits
our property to the care Of a man who
has no more right to such care than
the next tramp. Do he and his friends
really suppose that we shall submit ?


The difficulties of the Southern
States are great. But the intelligent
whites Of those States must see that
they cannot settle them without a
good understanding with the controll-
ING sentiment of the North, which