Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1885 — THE COLORED TOTE. [ARTICLE]

THE COLORED TOTE.

Reasons Wliy the Negroes Should Support the Republican Party, [lndianapolis Colored World.] Upon what issue shall they divide ? Why should the negro ignore all principles of justice and honor, andsupport parties and measures whose tenets and leaders have ever been, are now, and from the outlook ever will be opposed to our enjoyment of equal civil and political rights? It has been under the guidance and fostering care of the Eepublican party that the transformation in the status of the negro during the past twenty-five years has taken place, with no small part of the credit accruing to the negro himsfelf. It may not be all that we desired, but from what party could we have gained more ? All opposition to our citizenship, to the amendments guaranteeing our rights, came from without the Republican party, notably from the Democratic party, and to-day this same organization with whom some of our people, with more advanced ideas, are anxious “to divide,” are as bitterly opposed to the negro as ever. Is it because we are no longer slaves of any political party, and are freemen, that it is necessary in order that we should establish or promulgate the fact that we are free to the world, and to satisfy ourselves of the truth of the same, that we should sacrifice our principles, vote against what we honestly believe to be right; sacrifice our political ally, and try a cold experiment which has not one single virtue to recommend it, or promise that it has ever made to encourage our people to lend it their aid and support. There are a few individual instances of reward bestowed upon colored men for services Tendered in their efforts at “division,” but, like all contracts of the kind, obligation ceased when the goods were delivered. “The Democratic party never has and never will court the negro as an ally,” has been truly said by a prominent member of that party. “If we can use him we will do it: but his place is in the Republican ranks, and he can be trusted nowhere else.” It is our duty to*, support that party whose principles are nearest in accord with oqr own. Or, if we desire to support the party that gives us the “largest recognition,” certainly it is the Republican party. Shall we divide just for the sake of experimenting? Is there any issue npon which we may differ among ourselves, honestly, that our race may be benefited by the division? Until a better party than the Republican presents itself for our suffrages, we had better bear the ill of which we complain than ! to fly to another known to be far worse. ! The balm of Gilead, administered by j Hon. John Sherman, is a nauseous dose to those superfine and sensitive souls who cannot bear to be told that there was any principle involved in the late war, and who rush with eager haste, hat in hand, to welcome to power the men who sing the praises of Jefferson Davis in the United States Senate. We feared this would be the case. One of our esteemed contemporaries is puzzled in its little heart to know whether Mr., Sherman or the Republican party is going to seed, while still another mournfully remarks that “those who looked for a statesmanlike utterance from Senator Sherman will have to turn away from his Mount Gilead speech with the reflection that there is no balm for the people, no physician for the party.” This is intensely sad; yet the fact is that Mr. Sherman made his speech for full-grown men toread—men who have back-bone,and are not afraid to say that the spirit that eulogizes Jefferson Davis in the United States Senate, and which lowers the national flag to half-mast over public buildings at the death of a despicable traitor and scoun drel like Jacob Thompson, is not one to be encouraged if the future of free government is to be conserved. Mr. Sherman appeals .to the men of the country, not to the' manikins. —lndianapolis Journal'