Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1890 — ONLY USED THE NEGRO. [ARTICLE]

ONLY USED THE NEGRO.

SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN’S FRANK ADMISSION. The Ohio Senator Practically Owns Up that Black Men Were Enfranchised Not us a Matter of Hight but for Political Reasons. Icy old John Sherman thawed out in the Senate the other day, during a hot political debate, and he and Senator Butler had a set-to which provoked cheers and shouts in the galleries. Mr. Eustis started the rumpus by referring to statements made by Mr. Hoar in reference to the Southern States, one being that in Louisiana and in some other States there were laws which made it a penal offense for a white man to associate on terms of equdity with a black, and that there Was another law in Louisiana which provided for the sale of colored men for a certain time out of work, and that the former master should have the preference in the Ciurchase. He said there were no such aws, and any pretense that there was only illustrated with what recklessness and destitution of the sense of responsibility Republican Senators spoke of Southern affairs. Mr. Hoar admitted that he had erred about Louisiana, but said a law of this chararter existed in Mississippi. Mr. Eustis asserted that all reconstruction measures and amendments were adopted by the Republican party with the object of Africanizing the South and maint lining political supremacy, and this he characterized as the “greatest crime ever committed against civilized communities.” Mr. Sherman then made a long speech in defense of reconstruction measures, saying the laws passed by some of the Southern States had been so unjust to the colored people and white Republicans that the people North became convinced that the object was to overthrow the results of the war and deprive the freedmen of the rights of citizenship, and Congress had therefore reluctantly armed the negro with suffrage as the only remedy fitted for the case. Negro suffrage had not turned out as had been expected on account of the measures adopted to deprive the negro of his rights. Congress could not exercise any control in the local affairs of the South, but there should be a law that would protect the right of suffrage, and that it be executed with such power that no man would dare expose himself to its penalties. Mr. Butler said the debate had shown that suffrage had been conferred upon the negro of the South not because he was entitled to it or qualified to exercise it, but because of certain laws passed by some of the Southern States. The admission would throw light on future discussions as to the rights of the negro to vote in the South. Mr. Butler spoke of the exclusion of the colored men in the Northern States from all political office. He believed the great body of the people North were kindly disposed toward the South, and warned the Senator from Ohio that whenever he attempted to carry out his threat of another crusade upon the South through supervisors and United States marshals, for the purpose of dominating elections there, he would have a fire in his rear from the men who had carried their money and their industry into the South. In conclusion, he insisted that the people of the South were far mere interested in an orderly, humane, honest settlement of the question than the people of the N orth.