Springfield Weekly Republican

THE NEGRO IN POLITICS.

The most interesting feature in southern politics is the treatment of the negro voter. The question is one which arouses discussion in all parts of that section, and its treatment naturally varies in one state and another somewhat as the white or the black race has the numerical preponderance. Thus there is a wide difference in this respect between the adjoining states of Alabama and Mississippi. The presence of two negro delegates in the democratic state convention at Montgomery lately was resented by a large proportion of its members, and their right to seats almost denied. On the other hand, not only did colored delegates sit unquestioned in the Mississippi democratic convention last year, but a negro received quite a number of votes as a candidate for nomination on the state ticket, and later in the campaign more than one negro was nominated and elected to the Legislature on the regular democratic ticket. The great reason for this difference is the fact that in Alabama the white population exceeds the colored by nearly 50,000, and so could elect its ticket on a fair count if the negro vote should be massed solid against it, while in Mississippi there are considerably over 50,000 more negroes than whites and a break in the colored vote is of the first necessity.

The question is attracting considerable attention in South Carolina at present. This state has a much larger negro population than white, and it is obvious that the whites could never carry it if race lines were kept up except by force. In point of fact the democrats carried it in 1876 by a combination of bull-dozing and legitimate conversion of negroes. Hampton would never have had his narrow majority but for the fact that some 15,000 negroes voted the straight democratic ticket. A good many of these supported Hampton from genuine confidence in the man, which he has so well vindicated that no colored man has yet been found who wants to vote against him this year; others were bribed into supporting the democrats; others, and probably a majority, did so under greater or less compulsion. The fairness of democratic rule has won over many of the race, and there is no doubt that a great many negroes will vote the democratic ticket next fall without any compulsion.

In fact, there is already complaint in some sections of the state that there threaten to be too many negro democrats. In a majority of the counties the negroes outnumber the whites, in some cases five or six to one, and if they are admitted into full fellowship in caucuses and conventions, they might easily dictate the nominations, and decide between democrats of rival political schools. There are different notions as to the proper course to pursue. Up in Edgefield county, where there are about 25,000 negroes to 17,000 whites, the colored voters are reported anxious to join the democratic clubs almost in mass, but the whites, who are the worst bourbons to be found in the state,—they have an old story down there that, when Satan offered the Savior the whole world, he made a reservation of Edgefield,—"don't want any nigger in theirs," and at their county convention resolved that the issues between the whites and the negroes are "an antagonism of race, not a difference of political parties." But the "up country" is not all so illiberal. The Spartanburg county paper in discussing this question fully recognizes the right of all negroes who have heretofore voted with the democrats to participate in the primary elections, but apparently does not care to see the number greatly increased.

In the "low country," where the negro preponderance is much greater, the negro voter is more cultivated. At a recent convention in Barnwell county no less than eight of the 34 local clubs represented were composed of colored voters, 17 of the 154 delegates being negroes. The Charleston News and Courier condemns the position of the Edgefield brethren as not in keeping with the platform on which Hampton was elected or consonant with general democratic sentiment. In the "low country" it plainly declares that "the only way we know of to elect democrats is by the aid of a large part of the colored vote." It therefore recommends that as many as possible be brought into the party and given voice in its conventions.

The most encouraging feature of this discussion is the dread of Independent movements which is everywhere manifested. The News and Courier wants a larger negro democratic vote, because "the more colored democrats there are the less colored voters will there be to appeal to the ambition of the Independent and make him hope that, with their help, he can defeat the regular candidates." This fear of Independent action is decidedly the healthiest political sign in the South. Altogether, the negro does not seem likely to be quite so completely out of politics as some of the northern bourbons have been predicting. They have left out of account the salient fact that—a vote is a vote, whether the man who casts it is black or white, and that there are a great many politicians in all parts of this country looking after votes.