Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/36

 28 Southern Historical Society Papers,

take tips ; voters who would feel the disgrace of a conviction for crime ; voters so self-respecting^ that they would not take the pau - per*s oath in a court of justice, for the mere purpose of evading^ the payment of the costs of litigation. By this limitation on suffrage the colored race will be relieved of the incubus of a power which, at present, it has not the ability to exercise. This limitation will furnish the race with a rallying point for instruction, with prizes for merit ; with object-lessons for its elevation ; with goals to be won by honest endeavor, scattered in profusion all along the humble pathway of its evolution.

It took centuries of freedom and culture to fit the small fraction of the white race that can now safely exercise the right of self-gov- ernment. It required the inspiration of a new country, a land where the seal of despotism was unknown. It required an atmosphere that was untainted by the breath of kings. The ex-slave was not fitted for the exercise of political power so soon as his shackles fell oflf. Moreover, the two races can never mix and become one ; one or the other must rule. Under the enforced conditions of slavery, the black race was constantly becoming whiter. Under free conditions, the black race continually becomes blacker, and race prejudice deepens with the color of his skin. It expands with the development of his intellect, and strengthens with the increments of his political power. The man is color-blind who can see no race controversy.

THE CRIME OF THE AGE.

There is an irrepressible conflict between white suffrage and negro suffrage. All dreams of dividing the colored vote are Utopian. This vote is now, and always will be, a race vote. The negro never can attain to that position of superiority and self-abnegation that will permit his vote to ever become anything but a race vote. The en- actment of negro suffrage was the great crime of the age. The guardian angel of our unfortunate country was sleeping when that foul deed was done. Any Republican who sincerely favors negro suffrage is the misguided victim of a maudlin philanthropy. Any Democrat who favors it, favors also the stealing of the ballot when it is deposited.

When the white race was conquering the Indian, and driving him out from his possessions and the land of his forefathers, this conduct of the white man was justified and defended on the ground that the Indian was not making the best use of his God-given advantages, and that his lands should be turned over to a superior progressive