Year: 1876

| families social ostraclsm and destruction


to their business. And thus a large body


of white people have been kept out o


the Republican party, and, at the same


time, their absence from that party has


been charged upon it as a crime. 1t ha:
been said that the party is composed


almost entirely of colored people with an


additional few thousand only OF whites


in each State.


Political power has thus been thrown


into the hands of the colored people to a
much larger extent than it otherwise
would have been, and a large and inteli.
gent body of white people who would
have acted with the Republican party
and who would undoubtedly have had
the control of its affairs to great extent
have not only been excluded from the
party, but compelled to act with the
Democratic party. To this condition of
things the members of the Republican
party can never consent, having due re-
gard to their rights as citizens of the
United States, and to their personal
honor and manhood. They cannot con.
sent in silence,to be excluded from nearly
one-half of the States of the Union. All
they ask in the South-not as a favor but
as a rights that they shall be permit
ted to enjoy equal rights and privileges
upon like terms with other people. They
do not ask that those entertaining Dem
ocratic sentiments shall vote for Repub-
lican candidates or indorse Republican
doctrines. No such thing. Members Of
the Democratic party have perfect right
to vote for whom they please-to vote
for Confederate instead Of Union soldiers,
but what we ask is that il any portion Of
the Southern people, whether they are
rpet-baggers, so-called. or were born in
the South, entertain Republican senti-
ments they shall be allowed.to vote and
act with that party without being sub
jected to these unusual and terrible pun
ishment


LET MEN AND woMES BE TREATED ACCORDING


TO MERIT.


They ask that every man in the COM
munity shall be received and treated ac-
cording to his merits as a man. If he is
bad man, be he Republican or Demo
crat, let him be treated as a bad man !;
if he is a good man, be he Republican or
Democrat, let him be treated as a good
man. Let not his rights in society or in
business be determined by his political
opinions, but by his conduct and charac-
ter as a man. That is all we ask, that he
shall not be punished socially or in busi-
ness; that there shall be no dread or
fear of personal violence on account of
the assertion of his opinions. When that
takes place, so far as | am concerned, my
warfare is ended When the amend
ments to the Constitution guaranteeing
equal rights shall be accepted by
all and enjoyed by all, and
when colored men in the South and
white Republicans shall be treated ae-
cording to their merits as men, then re-
construction will have taken place. Re
construction cannot take place at
Northern junkatings or gushings, but it
must take place in every town, village.
and neighborhood in the South, by giving
to men of all political parties their equal
rights, and letting them enjoy the priv
ileges Of society according to their merits
as men and women.


This exclusion of men from society and
from business because of their political
opinions is intimidation of the worst
character. 1t does not differ in principle
from actual personal violence. 1t is even
more dreaded than personal violence by
brave men, who often defy it and assert
their opinions in spite of it; but when il
comes to punishment not only falling
upon themselves but their families, when
they are to be isolated and their means
of livelihood taken away, many shrink
back and surrender.


POLICY OF STARVING NEGROES INTO THE DEM


oCRATIC PARTY.


The leagues which have been formed
in the South not to lease land to colored
men, and thus to turn them out of their
homes and refuse to employ them be-
cause they voted the Republican ticket
may not be in violation of any law for
which any legal punishment can be in
fiicted but it is wicked in principle, in
famous in practice, and strikes at the
very foundation of Republican govern
ment. 1t destroys all freedom of elec-
tion, and is q form of violence not inferi-
or in its effects to any other that may be
employed. 1t presents to the colored
man the alternative of starvation or the
support of the Democratic party, and is
no less cowardly than wicked That
many of the most distinguished officers
of the Confederate army after the war
was over were disposed to accept the sit
uation, to accept the amendments, and
to act with the Republican party, is be-
yond dispute; but when any one of them
came out and announced his purpose, he
was in almost every instance met with a
storm of indignation and abuse and
threatend with social punishment from
which many of them shrank back. Men
who never flinched upon the field of bat
tie have quailed and turned back from
the pitiless storm with which they were
threatened. The case of Gen. Longstreet
may be referred to He was one of the
most distinguished officers in the Con
federate army. He was regarded by
many as not even second to Gen. Lee;
and, when he declared his intention in
Louisiana to act with the Republican
party, was denounced as a traitor in
crate, coldly passed by in the streets by
many of his companions in arms, and
the doors Of lifelong friends shut rudely
against him and his family. At that
time he was engaged in a prosperous in
surance business, and had not asked and
did not desire any appointment from the
Government. But his business was de-
stroyed in a single day, and this caused
the President, unasked, to tender him
the position OF surveyor of the port of
New Orleans.


General Longstreet, in giving the his
tory OF the affair, as / am informed
states that before he announced his Pur
pose to act with the Republican party he
consulted with Generals Hood, Beaure-
gard and many other Confederate officers,
and they had agreed with him that it
was their duty to accept the situation, to
sustain the constitutional amendments,
and give their support to the Govern
ment; but after he had taken the step,
and the Estorm of persecution and cal
umny had burst upon him, the others
retracted their purpose, and some of
them refused to speak to him.


The question now seems to be pre-
sented whether the Republican party,
who, while constituting a majority OF
the armies of the Republic during the
war. could not be driven from the South
ern States, shall now be expelled from
them in time of peace. That the Repub-
lIcan party has committed blunders do
not deny and very MANY people have