Year: 1870




CORRESPONDENCE OF THE HISToRIA OF THE


LOST CAUSE AND A KENTUCKY NEGRo-E. A.


PeLLARD THROWS DOWN THE GLOVE To THE


NEGRO.


We received the following letter from
E. A. Pollard, Esq, well known as the
historian of The Lost Cause" on Sat
urday. We have no doubt that it will
attract considerable comment though
out the country:


BALTIMORE, April 8, 1870.
Editors Of the Baltimore american:


The letter that is subjoined, from a
cDIored citizen. of Kentucky, | think
merits publication. 1t is ingenious, and
it offers timely and profitable refiec-
ton. As an illustration of the capacity
and intelligence of the colored man, and
of his power to estimate the conditions
of his new citizenship, it is a welcome
evidence to me, and so l imagine 10 all
thoughtful and generous white persons
in the South. however certain persons
of low class among the whites North,
as well as South, may be wounded by
mean envy at every display of intelli-
gence by the negro, and virtue under
the increase of esteem he is acquiring.


We admit freely and fully wha. Mr..
Morris says below of the want of nu-
nIerous championship for his race
among the native whites of the South,
and we readily understand how this diff
ficulty has invariably driven the negro
to the countenance and shelter of the
Radical party. The force of this admis-
sion is yet to be understood. To my
mind it means what l have long held


Il I.al,n i,fr
ciple of the negro problem-that the ell
ucation to adjust the negro in the South
and to render q conservative solution OF
the Fifteenth Amendment is to com
nlence uith the UhiteS of the South rather
than auith the blacks. On the whole, the
negro has done his part; he has given
proofs of ascapacity and disposition to
undertake his new career in an inoffen-
sive and promising manner. and be
holds out a standing offer to the South
of peaceful relations. 1t is rather the
aUhite persons who are to be schooled and
educated up to the necessities Of the
question before the negro problem can
be satisfactorily determined and put on
a conservative basis.


And this education 1 admit is to be
tedious and difficult (yet not impossible.)
Just now there are particular difficulties
in the way. The South at this time is
sore under the great disappointment in
fiictod upon it in the general aversion
of the negro vote, after it had been bus
lily, and even insolently, proclaimed
that the black men would assuredly
vote Just as their "old mas ters" chose to
have them vote. This soreness is almost
universal and quite fresh now in the
South. When the enfranchisement of
the negro was first proposed the COM
mon thought in the South was that his
vote might be easily commanded; few
cheap words, the least ceZening might
procure it for his "old masters" But to
the utter surprise and dismay of the
South the black voter was not so easily
persuaded or purchased, and nothing is
more remarkable in the short career he
has exhibited to the world, nothing
could have been more unexpected, moth
ing is more significant of the true worth
of the negro, than the independence and
discretion he has shown at the polls,
land this we say although his choice has
generally been avowed against our own
political opinions.) The negro who Was
yet as humble and deferential as in the
days of slavery, who once said "Mass'r,"
and who yet uncovered his head in the
presence of white persons, must have
possessed dconsiderablestreng 9Th of ofcharac-
ter, the true substance of man, to have
gone out from the homes in which he
served ahjectly, and cast his vote in the
very face of persons whom otherwise he
was accustomed, on every day OF the
year, to accOst with every token of sub
mission and humility! Such a display
of the independence of the negro voter,
though cast against my party, [ honor
from the bottom of my heart; it has been
truly dramatic and in some sense sub
lime.


But the resentment of the South at
the disappointment in the negro voter
is now notably taking the form of sud-
den and angry declaration of the Demo-
cratic party that it does not desire the
vote of the negro, and that to solicit his
'besotted and discriminating ballot"
would stultify and degrade the party.
This declaration will inevitable call to
mind the fable of the Fox and the
Grapes" But in the real seriousness of
the subject we waive the fable, we are
unwilling to afford anything for levity
or for 1ippancy, but in the most pro-
found concern we would ask all thought
ful and conservative personsin the South
to reconsider this declaration, and to ac-
cept and ponder the real lesson conveyed
in what has hitherto been the dsap.
pointment of the Conservative party in
the South to conciliate and secure the
negro. This lesson is, that former ap-
peals of this party to the negro have
failed through their paltriness and in
sufliciency; that the black man is to be
addressed hereafter by arguments more
sensible and more substantial than the
cheap coZeningS which were at first
thought sufficient to blind and seduce
him at the polls, and if we are to COM
pete with the Radicals for the negro
vote we must do it on such broad and
deep grounds as willrecognize our "rew
citizen" as fully such, quite as much
citizen in his estate and intelligence,
and as likely to understand his true in
terests as any other class ofvoters whom
we are accustomed to solicit This is
emphatically the lesson of the times for
the South, and it is just to this point
that that education of the aUhite people
of the South, which we have indicated
as the one present, supreme necessity of
the safe discharge of the negro question,
must come. The necessary change is to
oe on the side of the white man, the
is at that end of the line the work of ed
ucation is to be done necessary to secure
the Fifteenth Amendment, and to OBJ
tain for it the best possible results.


This view should be plain enough.
And yet, L doubt not, | will find some
critics who will distort it as they have
already distorted my article in Lippin-
colts, as something very offensive to
the nice and aristocratic sensbilities of
the South. Such criticisms have no
power over me; and probably not over
any one outside the paradise of fools.
Tl.ey generally emanate from absurd
and ill-cOndi.ioned newspapers in the
South, which produce nothing but silly
and wearisome sentimentalsms from
the first, and whose habituaI tone on