These facts are of interest now only in throwing light upon the view point of the South, when a new political party triumphed, the leading principle of which was interference with slavery. Aside from pecuniary considerations as to the value of the slaves, the effect upon the slaves themselves of these agitations was a matter of the deepest concern and the South sought safety and repose in withdrawing from the Union as a last resort. Its people were divided on the subject and the ordinances of secession passed by narrow majorities, thus showing that under normal conditions, the South was strongly attached to the Union.
It is painful to utter views not in accordance with a well founded hope for the final uplifting of all men, but naught shall be set down in malice or ill-will to an inferior and weaker race. The white man of the South has a duty and a burden; and if he has, as has been often charged, suppressed negro votes and elected legislatures, he has, at the same time, in ten Southern states, impoverished and ruined by war, appropriated for negro schools over one hundred millions of dollars. While the South has encouraged the negro in industrial, educational, and moral training, and produced some fine specimens of the negro race, still there are millions who are just as they were, and many good observers see evidences of retrogression in the generation since emancipation.
No prophetic vision can see, no intellect can foretell, what the final result will be. All sorts of speculations have been indulged, extinction by absorption, by a gradual dispersion over the states, or, remaining in the South, a co-equal parallel development of the two races.
A race problem of course implies race antagonisms, and the chief factor in bringing about race antagonism is not in the bare fact that the negro vote is Republican, but in the fact that the race, vote as a race, solidly, en masse, and naturally, in view of the manner of its emancipation. It is not that white men see in mere party allegiance a menace to good order, or are intolerant of Republican politics, especially the national and economic politics of the party, for many are at heart protectionists; but it is the perpetual solidarity of the vote of the negro race, voting as a race that sharply accentuates race attrition. Much has been spoken and written about the solidarity of the Southern states in voting, and little notice taken of the cause, which is the solidarity of the negro vote. Thus one solidarity begets another solidarity, and the South has not been in a normal condition, politically, since emancipation.
Is there not a problem in this?
It is submitted to all fair minded men whether it is not true—that if any race whatever vote solidly and habitually, as a race, be they German, Irish, Jew, Negro or Chinese, that it would inevitably produce race antagonism, in any state in the union. The South had at the close of the Civil War, its share of the Whig party, who on account of negro solidarity were driven into white solidarity—the Democratic party, and they and their descendants have remained solidly there, voting solidly against the solid negro vote. In many parts of the South the negroes outnumber the whites, and could elect, if their solid vote was counted as cast, judges, clerks and sheriffs, and in at least three states, state officials, a state of affairs as much to be desired as a Chinaman mayor of San Francisco, or governor of California. The negro vote has been in some way neutralized, or he has not voted the full numerical strength of the race, else such results must have followed.
The fact is, the negro has been practically disfranchised for thirty-five years, and the South has grown tired of dishonesty in elections. Thus, by restricting suffrage, the causa causans is removed.
Under these constitutions a new star of hope for civic virtue and fair elections has just arisen upon the Southern horizon. Throughout this long midnight of political darkness hope has been cherished of a brighter day. The political wanton, or fanatic, only, could seek to disturb, or obstruct it. The best element of the citizens of Alabama are not unlike, and are morally and intellectually the equals of citizens of other states, and they may be trusted to do equal justice to both races. With the right to vote restricted, and the removal of the fear of negro majorities, white men can afford to divide and sternly call each other to account at the ballot box. Two parties are essential in the American political system, and the best results cannot be obtained without them. When these new constitutions shall be acquiesced in, or judicially tested and sustained, solidarity in the South will disappear; and the republic will rest upon surer foundations. The constitutional guarantees of life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness, with the facilities afforded him for education, moral and industrial training, are of far more value to the negro than the political right to vote; which in the present stage of his progress has served only to make friction between the races. After a time it may be the part of wisdom to remove present restrictions, and time alone can point the way.
Intelligent and patriotic negroes will not fail to discern, that when vast masses of the race no longer vote solidly against their white neighbors, Southern white men will be more and more disposed to enforce, in his favor, the rights enumerated. In other words, the race is restricted in a purely political function, but it is enlarged in every other direction by that very restriction.