Year: 1876

l


The Alternatives Of the Situation


Boston, July 10. 1876.


There are thousands OF earnest men


South. as we'll ss North, whose vote at the


polls ia determined by conviction, by con


science and by duty. The great majority


of the people do not live in office or tor


Office. This is true of the South, as OF the


North. The great majority of those who


fill the civil offices of the government, are


not thieves or corruptiOnists, and this Is
| true of both parties, indeed, of all parties.


The world is also better than some people
would have Us believe 1t is very fair


world. 1t is progressing and progressing
in the right direction (of this we may be


sure)-it is progressing toward the light.
All men are more intelligent than they
were fifty years ago. They are freer than


they were fifty years ago. They are happier
| than they were fifty years ago. They are


better than they we're fifty years ago This
| is true of China and Japan, and Russia, as
of the United States. Friendship is not q
mere name. Happiness is not mars
dream Love is not an illusion. God is not
| a myth. Lite is not a curse. Here, even on
this earth duty and faith and courage, con-
auer all things. Beyond, in the land where
sin shall never come, where tears shall
never flow. here doubt and darkness and
wrong shall be no more forever. is the GER
tain life the Creator has decreed for all
;c< vuha ao1l ho
children OF tha one common living Father
shall meet at last in peace and love and
happiness. The misery with us all is that
we will not take the world and life as they
are. We insist in being gods unto our.
selves, and We will insist in making this
life the true life and the only life. The
cultured Englishman of to-day, in his race
prejudice, forgets that it took 800 years of
the slavery and social degradation of his
ancestors to lay the foundation of the civil
ization which now makes the British isles
blossom as the rose. The Southern negro,
in his new found liberty, forgets that his
ancestors, on the other hand, emerged from
barbarism within the shortest space of time
known in the history of any people, of any
race, and that he himself b As come as it
were by one bound into all the rights and
dignities of American citizenship. The
Southern whites forget whose labor has
cleared the Southern forests and civilized
the land. The North forgets the debt it
owes the freedman. And all mankind, in
the same spirit of selfshness, forget from
whom cometh every good and perfect gift.
Hence We are, all of US, of whatever race
or position or condition in life, given to
complaining if things are not as we would
have them. or if some one else possesses
something which We do not


These reflections are not out of place, be-
cause they apply to a very large class Of
people at the South and North alike who
are now making up their vote" for the
presidential election. To all such the negro
question ia of cnnrsa the main nnastion.
To these it ought to be enough to say, that
the continuation of the Republican party
in power will carry with it many blessings
for the colOred people, and it ought not to
carry with it many evils or burdens tor
the Southern whites. The idea of reduc-
ing the negro citizen to eerfdom on the one
hand, and the expulsion of Northern men
from political life at the South on the
other, is an idea which can not be carried
out without civil war Confederate Po-
litical leaders may apply the term "free mig
gers" to the colored citizen; they may call
the Northern man who has settled at the
South q pet.bagger; they0may denounce
the war of the Union as a war of conquest,
but all this will not alter the facts. The
negro is citizen and his peaceful educated
labor lies at the bottom of all Southern
prosperity. The Northern settler at the
South is generally the political friend OF
the negro-the negro knows it and acts
accordingly. The Northern settler in the
South also represents capital, labor, enter
prise and progress. In proportion as the
citizenship rights Of the negro are re-
spected and in proportion as the rights OF
the Northern settler are respected, just in
proportion will the negro become peace
full and valuable member of society and
lust in proportion will thousands Of other
Northern men ''invade' the South, bring
ing their capital and money with them to
abide at the South, to make it their homes,
to be buried in its soil, leaving their
children to be rooted to the land. This
peaceful solution of the Southern problem
under Republican auspices presents one
alternative of the political situation. For
Louisiana in particular it presents most
important side OF the question.


But there is another side of the queet ton,
the one which involves the future OF the
emancipated race. In dealing with this
side of the question we are confronted on
the threshold with political purpose
which, if successful, will change the whole
character of the United States government
and finally revolutionize the New World.
That purpose presents four distinct aspects:
One-Negro sertdom.


Another-Expulsion of obnoxious North
ern men from the South.


Another-The sectionaliz alton OF the
South in Confederate sentiment and tradi,
tions.


Another-A white mans government for
the United States.


Do the leaders Of this party believe that
this project can be carried forward without
| war; If they should elect Tilden and
Hendricks in 1876 on these issues, is it not
plain that the Republican Senate will still


hold the ship of State as with an immov
able anchor, until the Republican party has


time to rally for another contest IN 1881
| And in such case, can any one doubt as to