Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1879 — Encouraging the Exodus. [ARTICLE]

Encouraging the Exodus.

The Mississippi Democrats, having docided to suppress lndependcntism in that State, are proceeding .to use against it tho methods that proved so eueotive in overcoming Republican majorities. Tho Democratic papers in Yazoo rCqunty defend the mob that compelled the withdrawal of Captain Dixon from tho Independent ticket, and papers outside the county excuse the acts of the bull-dozing party. The party that in Congress last winter made so much noise about free elections stands pledged, in Mississippi, to the defenso of a plan that allows only Democrats to vote. This illustrates the difference between Democratic profession and Democratic practice, and shows at a glance the logical results of their system. Much has been said about the wrongs of Captain Dixon and the Independents associated with him, but litUe is said even by Mr. Dixon himself about the colored men who have been for several years practically disfranchised. R. A. Flanagan, Dixon’s friend, sifter declaring that fifty ppr cent, of the white people in the county are Independents, says, artlessly: “It is true that the negroes are almost unanimous for the Independents, and why? Becauso it is the only chance they have had, since 1875, to vote.” What a confession this is for an old Democrat to make. But it lets in a flood of light on the situation.

The Independents would have us believe that they are really no more friendly to the colored people than are the Democrats, but that the votes of the negroes come naturally to them, as in such an alliance is the colored man’s only chance to vote. No sooner is this alliance (unfavorable as it is to the colored people) formed than' the while men who invite, ever so gingerly, such an alliance are subjected to the treatment meted out to Republicans some years ago. This is the spirit manifested all over the South. The party that espouses the cause of the colored man, or that invites or accepts his support in opposition to the Democratic ticket, is marked for persecution. The Democrats decline to consider the colored men as free agents in politics. They must submit to be driven like slaves, and vote as directed, or not vote at all. When the Republican party stood by the colored men, they voted, as was their simple right, under the Constitution. But finally the Republican leaders in the South were thinned out by murder and banishment, until they could no longer resist the current of outrage and persecution. Then the negroes were informed that the Democrats were their natural allies, and their best friends, and it was proclaimed that the South, having rid itself of carpet-baggers and agitators, would be peaceful and prosperous. The new system was tried, and the colored people, seeing in it no hope for themselves, resolved to emigrate to States where their rights would be respected. They were told that their fears were groundless; that the South was not hostile to them, but to the men who had advised and directed them, and that in the new division of parties that must come eventually they would be allowed to vote as they pleased. There was a new division on local issues in Mississippi. Leading Democrats headed an Independent movement and accepted the support of the colored voters. No sooner was this done than the Independent leaders were threatened, ambushed, and finally captured by the rifle clubs, and compelled to withdraw from the movement in opposition to the Democrats. The old threadbare Stories were told against them, and they were asked to answer the same cooked-up charges made for effect against the Republicans in 1875. The end is that in Yazoo County there is only one party, and that one which the colored people cannot support. To put it in another way, their only possible ally, the Independent party, has been Jbulldozed out of existence, and they are at the mercy of the Democrats, with no voice in elections, and no power to secure reforms. If this state of affairs continues there is but one course open to the colored people of Mississippi. They must emigrate. If every party that befriends them, or tolerates their existence as voters, is to be suppressed, and they are not allowed to act for themselves, they can never hope to better their situation, and the quicker they leave such a State the better. The Mississippians have done their utmost to give new impetus to the negro exodus, and if the colored people come Northward by thousands, the Mississippians have themselves to blame. Their rifle clubs may bulldoze Independents, and patrol the banks of the Mississippi, but they cannot prevent free men from leaving the State.— Chicago Inter-Ocean.