Year: 1873

and fired the hearts of Stonewall Jackson
Stewart, and thousands of the bravest G


the brave to the struggle against the armie


of the Union"


Passing over almost daily articles in tn
same strain, on the 23d of April, it super
added the idea of social ostracism to tina
of race appeal in an article containin,
this paragraph:


"Let the lines be drawn and the roll b
cilled that we may see whether it be true
as is charged by the adversary, that Treason
has left our ranks deserted. In this con
test there can be no halfway house nt
neutrals. 1t is not Grant or Greeley,
funder or anti-funder, high or low interest,
this or that railroad it is Virginia agains
her enemies, the phites contending for ht
supremacy of their race, and he soho no,t
prores recream to his state, his honor, his
kindred and color, and enters the camp o,
the enemy should be made to understand thai
he has left all hope hehind him." -.


The Richmond Enquirer was all the
time singing in chorus to this music oi
The Wing. On the 7th of May, The En-.
quirer said:


That is the real issue; white or black.
1t should be the only one, and must be
with all men who are not blinded by pre-
judice, passion or interest,""


On the 9th ofJune The Enquirer said:


"The question is whether the white pee.
pie of Virginia shall control our state
government, or the negroes and their
allies"


On the 18th of June The Euquirer had
not abated in this appeal, saying:


"lt will be incumbent upon the white
men who want white men to control our
councils, to consider the question of white
or black superior to all other questions" !"


On the I'd of July The Enquirer was still
not weary of the song of three whole
months, but said:


'The true and patriotic people of the
state must and will insist that it shall be
determined which race is to rule before
they can consent to turn away for mo-
ment from the vital the italics theirsl to
discuss any question of secondary con-
sequence"


On the next day, the Sd of July, The
Enquirer repeated:


''The great issue of white and blac ok
will be distinctly presented. There will be
no middle ground. All men who have
votes must be on one side or the other. =


The great question is the
ascendancy of this race or that in our state
government; and there can be no neutral
ground for any man to occupy when the
day Of election arrives. He who votes the
Conservative ticket can be on the side of
the white man; he who votes the Radical
ticket, or refuses to vote for either, will
be on the side of the negro"


And as late as the 9th Of July, that
paper continued its appeal to race prejudice
as follows:


We have spared no effort to lay before
our readers the true issue involved in the
approaching contest; and even at the risk { f
wearisome repetition, we venture to bring
it again prominently before them. For in
this alone do we conceive the certainty of
our success. We repeat-and wish that
the sentiment could be impressed as deeply
upon the mind of every reader, as, in her
bitter fancies, the dying English Queen
thought the word "Calais'' was craven
upon her heart-we repeat, that the true
issue is the supremacy of the white race or
the black.





"We must realize that dishonor and
degradation of race, wait. ultimately, upon
the defeat of the Conservative party in this
state 4; and we must not be defeated we
must recognize for the present no other d-
vision in state politics than the color
line : and must never permit that line TO
grow blurred or lndistinct. In this alone
is our safety; in this sign alone shall we
conquer"


While the two leading organs of the
Conservative party were saying these i'm
passIoned things, the interior papers of
that party were echoing the same ideas,
and parroting their language with fearful
volubility and vociferation. Meantime the
Republican party had said nothing on the
subject, except to deprecate the unworthy
course Of their adversaries.


1t was after three months unceasing
agitation of this subject in this manner, that
my


SPEECH AT LYNCHBURG
was delivered. Let any honest man read
it and say, if he can with truth, that it is
anything else, from beginning to end, but an
appeal to the magnanimity of the noble
white people of Virginia against these
bitter, passionate and unprovoked utter
ances of the Conservative press. | defy
any man to show by reading complete sem
tences from that speech that it was anything
else but an appeal to the white peo-
pile against the party which was renegading
from their platform of 1869 and 1872. and
returning to its platform of 1868, which
was trying to conduct canvass. and
win an election, on the single issue of
race. These extracts taken from their
papers avowed that purpose, and gloried
in that purpose. Now, the very papers
which made the avowal are indulging in
the complaint that l raised the issue of
race in my Lynchburg speech. My object,
on the contrary, was, to recall the white
people from that issue, and to base the
canvass on important questions of state
policy. That speech was delivered the
31st of July. My charge against the
leaders Of the Conservative party, based
upon long series of newspaper articles,
such as those from which | have made
brief extracts, was as follows, and it was
true:
THE CONSERVATIVE PLAN OF CAM
is that of antagoniziDg the two races which
have lived so long in peace together on the
same soil, and which have greater reason
now for mutual respect, kindness, and