THE POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE FREEDMEN.
BY REV. M. E. STRIEBY.
Was it wise to give the ballot to the ex-slaves? The answer that came in the hour it was given, from the Congress that gave it, from the Northern people that sustained it, and from the colored people that enjoyed it, was an emphatic and enthusiastic “Yes!” The answer that came at that hour from the Southern white man was in a suppressed voice, and was an execration hissed out between grinding teeth. Since that hour the voice of the Southern white man has grown firmer, and, as it came up from misgoverned South Carolina and Louisiana, has rounded out into a full-toned “No!” Nay, more, it has been re-echoed from the North, and recently with special emphasis from the lips of one of the purest Christian scholars on the heights of Christian learning in New England. What answer do I give? Unhesitatingly, “Yes!” I say nothing about the mere party reason given either then or since, for I do not write as a partisan. I put the wisdom of the ballot on more substantial grounds.
1. It saved the Freedmen from being again reduced to slavery. Vagrant laws were passed, which confined them to the plantations on which they had engaged to work, the end of which would have been a serfdom attaching them to the soil. The ballot saved them from this.
2. It gave the Freedmen and the South a free school system—a greater boon than Southern legislation ever gave them before—a boon without which all else would have been well-nigh in vain. That system was modeled after the best patterns at the North, and although it has been somewhat modified and enfeebled in practical operation, is yet a solid corner-stone in the foundation of the new superstructure which the South is rearing.
3. The ballot gave the Freedman a sense of self-respect, and commanded for him the respect of others. To him it was an education and an inspiration. It gave him the standing of a man among men, and prompted him to become worthy of his position. It was a power to him in the early days of his freedom, when he needed every help to sustain him in that freedom; and to-day, though it is held in check and almost useless, yet it is a slumbering giant, and is watched with respectful caution by the whites. For who can tell what such a slumbering power might do if aroused?
At present the black voter is politically conquered. The “white man’s government” is established, and it is the purpose of the white man that it shall remain so. This has been easily attained in the States where the white majority is undoubted. In the few States where the blacks are in the majority, the white man is determined to rule, peaceably if he can, forcibly if he must. The Chisholm murder and the Hamburg massacre are but samples of the methods that will be resorted to if the effort is pushed persistently to restore the supremacy of the black man in politics. When we remember how that supremacy in those States was abused, how can we ask the restoration if the abuse must again follow? The problem is difficult. It can be solved only by one formula. The black man must be protected in his political rights, and he must be so enlightened as to use and not abuse those rights. There will be no permanent advantage from a mere partisan triumph of the black man. If achieved, as matters now stand, bayonets will again be needed to sustain it, and will become once more a source of angry discussion at the North and of concentrated bitterness at the South. The experiment may again be necessary; but a far better thing should be speedily, steadily and efficiently pushed forward—the training of the colored voter for an intelligent and responsible manhood and citizenship.
If every colored voter could be accompanied to the polls by a file of soldiers armed with muskets, his ballot would represent the musket and not the man. But if he becomes a property owner, with all the interest in the welfare of the community which property gives; if he is educated and can take an intelligent interest in the welfare of the community; and if he acquires a weight of character that challenges respect, he will need no soldiers to guard him to the polls, and his vote will represent the man and not the musket.
When the black man shall reach such a position he conquers caste-prejudice and wipes out the color-line in politics. Color is significant only as it represents condition. Change the condition and the color is of no consequence. With that change the white and black men at the South will divide on politics as white men do at the North, from differing views as to the best measures to promote public weal.
Look on this picture: An armed and organized mob is breaking up a political gathering of the blacks and their friends, and in the background are the overawed Freedmen retiring from the polls. Look, also, on this picture: A company of United States soldiers are keeping guard over a body of legislators, mostly black, who, with reckless rascality, are squandering the public funds, to the ruin of the State and the disgrace of the nation. Turn not from these pictures with indifference, for they are no fancy sketches; nay, face them, for the history of at least two States of this Union is liable to be a perpetual oscillation between the two. But now look on this picture: A colored man is tilling his land, adorning his home, and gathering around him the refinements of life. Near by is the school-house, where his children, with hundreds of others, are receiving the instruction of skilful teachers, and not far off is the church edifice where that man and his neighbors worship God under the ministration of a well educated and pious minister.
Which picture do we choose, not as a matter of artistic preference, but as the practical model for patriotic work? The only safety is to extend that last picture till it shall cover the whole canvas and blot out the other two. In that way only can a life and death struggle between two irreconcilable forces be avoided.