Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1880 — THE NEGROES AND THE SOLID SOUTH. [ARTICLE]

THE NEGROES AND THE SOLID SOUTH.

A Candid Statement by an Alabama Conservative Democrat. [From the New York Sun.] The recent election in Alabama, in which the Democracy won so signal a victory, has again called the attention of the pt*lio to the solid South. The comments of the Republican press on the Alabama election, in the main, are bitter, violent, revolutionary and absurdly false. It has been suggested to me that a plain, unvarnished statement of the “true inwardness” of the matter would not prove unacceptable to the readers of the Sun, and might do some good. At least, as I humbly conceive, it can do no harm. It is true I am a Southern man and a Democrat. This is unfortunate, to begin with; for is not every Southern Democrat a bulldozer and an outlaw ? Can any credence be given his statements by the “loyal” Republican mind ? We shall see. While I am a Southern man and a Democrat, I am not a Bourbon, so called, and never was. In 1860 I was a Douglas Democrat; in 1861 I was for compromise - and conciliation; in 1862 and until the close of the war, like hundreds of thousands of others who had opposed secession, I was a soldier of the lost cause, and shrank from no sacrifice in its defense. Since the surrender of Lee I have known no flag but the flag of the Union, and have honestly labored for a restoration of constitutional liberty and the Union of Our fathers. While opposed to the reconstruction acts and the methods ot' their enforcement, I have never been regarded as an ultra man, and have always advocated moderate measures. In 1875, when the people of Alabama determined to call a convention to enable them to rid themselves of the odious constitution forced upon them by Congress, and to form a new constitution more acceptable to the masses, I advocated the election of a non-partisan delegation to the convention, believing that a Constitutional Convention should | know no party, and .that partisan | politics ought not to enter into the can- ! vass. I offered myself to the people as ! a candidate upon that platform, and had ! opposed to me, as the regular Democratic nominee, the Hon. W. M. Lowe, tho present Greenback Congressman from this district. I was defeated, simply because tho Republicans r< fused to | support me. At that time they were nn wit ling to vote for a Democrat under any circumstances. They have grown more liberal since, and are very eager now to vote for independent Democrats under any and all circumstances. In | 1875 they had not realized to its full exI tent how damning was the record they had made in this State, and that the scepter of power had departed from i their hands forever.

During the eight yean they held control of our State Government, they succeeded in nearly bankrupting our State and people, adding to our State debt nearly thirty millions of dollars. For this they had little or nothing to show. In 1874, thanks to the Civil Rights bill, the taxpayers of the State succeeded in electing a Democratic Governor and Legislature. At that time our State bonds were utterly worthless, and our State money was selling at sixty cents on the dollar. Now our bonds are at a premium, our State money has been redeemed at par, our people are prosperous in a remarkable degree, both white and colored, and the latter have at last realised that the Democrats are the best conservators of the peace, the best promoters of the interests of all classes, and the safest guardians of the public credit. Do not understand me to say that all the colored people have realized this truth ; what I mean to say is that multitudes of the more intelligent ones among them have done so. Consequently, they vote with the Democrats, freely, intelligently, and oftentimes in despite of shameful bulldozing on the part of the ignorant masses of their own race. It is no “ shotgun policy ” which has effected this revolution. The simple truth is, the negro has proved himself to be more of a man than his heretofore ! would-be Republican masters believed ! him to be. Let me furnish the readers of the Sun j a little of the evidence I have at hand I to support this statement. There are now published in the State i of Alabama several papers edited and j owned by colored men. Two of these, i and by far the two ablest, are edited in I the interest of the Democratic party, j The Herald, of Huntsville, is one of the two. It is edited by W. H. Councill, who is also the principal of the State Colored Normal School at Huntsville. Councill is not yet 30 years of age. He was bom a slave, and has educated himself since the war. During the days of carpet-bag rule he was a violent Republican. He is a man of rare gifts, however, and is, besides, possessed of great force and independence of character. It took but a few years of Democratic rule to convince him of his early political blunders. He not only had the good sense to see that the State had been benefited by the downfall of his party, but he also had the manliness to confess as much. When he first .began to give public expression of his change of sentiments his life was repeatedly threatened by his colored opponents. I have myself seen him, on the stand, face a howling mob of ignorant blacks with the dauntless courage of a Roman gladiator. This brave colored man is a bom orator, and but few white men of his own age can surpass him as a stump speaker. During our late canvass he was on the stump constantly for the Democratic ticket. Among the counties visited by him was Lowndes—a county reported to be controlled by the “shotgun policy.” The following is taken from his paper of Aug. 6, giving an account of what he did and saw in Lowndes. Let the Republicans of the North who are declaiming so furiously about the solid South read and ponder it well: * We went to Lowndes county week before last to assist in the canvass. On the night of our arrival we spoke to a small audience in the

Court House. We never met kinder people than we found in Lowndes. The white people of the county are laboring earnestly by acts of kindness to convince the colored people that the tales circulated by their vicious leaders are untrue. On Wednesday of last week a barbecue was given, to which all were invited, irrespective of party or race. It was the nicest affair we ever saw. The first people of the comity were out, and the olive branch of peace was offered the. colored people, and we are proud to say that the better class of the colored people at Lowndes were willing to forget the past and “clasp hands over ttie bloody chasm.” Up until last month colored men never voted their sentiments, because of the bulldozing carried on by the Radicals. If a colored man voted the Democratic ticket he was afraid to confess it or let it be known. Dozens of colored men in Lowndes will testify to this. There may be places where the Democrats bulldoze, but we have yet to visit a place that comes np to this. This iso ring to the wicked teachers in politics that these poor people have had among them. A young man, Frank Hamilton, said in our face, at Burtisville, last Saturday, that any man who would vote a Democratic ticket “is a * ,” evidently endeavoring to provoke a fuss. Austin Chappcl, at the same time and place, said that if the other colored men were of his mind ihey would take the traitors (meaning colored Democrats) into the wools and liang them. It is a prominent fact that colored men in that county have been bulldozed and frightened into sticking to ttie Radical machine, and until recently dared not vote their sentiments and make it known. Let Mr. Hayes send soldiers down there to protect these honest citizens in the exercise of ttie elective franchise. But, thank God, the sun of liberty has arisen in Lowndes, and more than a thousand colored men voted ttie Democratic ticket there last Monday, and will hereafter be protected from the assaults of the bulldozer. I might furnish the readers of the Sun column after column of tho same sort, but I deem the above sufficient. Yes, the South is solid to-day for honest money, honest the constitution as it is, and the Union as it was ; and *.olid it will be on next November for Hancock.

D. R. HUNDLEY.

Moobesville, Ala., Aug. 13, 1880.