276 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 



ocrats vote in a primary election? The politician says to himself: 

 " That would never do ; for then we would soon have the negro vote 

 divided, and the bugaboo of negro supremacy would vanish like the 

 mist before the sunshine, and my occupation, like Othello's, would be 

 forever gone." 



Judging from the signs of the times, the professional partisan 

 politicians, both South and North, have had their day, and honest, 

 good men will soon rise up and administer the affairs of this nation 

 in the interest of right and justice. Henry W. Grady uttered the true 

 sentiments of the great mass of the Southern people, especially the 

 farmers, when, in his speech before the New England Society of New 

 York, he gave utterance to the following eloquent extract taken from 

 that speech : 



" But what of the negro? Have we solved the problem he presents, or progressed 

 in honor and equity toward solution? Let the record speak to the point. No section 

 shows a more prosperous laboring population than the negroes of the South; none 

 in fuller sympathy with the employing and landowning class.. He shares our school 

 fund, has the fullest protection of our laws and the friendship of our people. Self- 

 interest, as well as honor, demands that he should have this. Our future, our very 

 existence, depends upon our working out this problem in full and exact justice. We 

 understand that, when Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation, your victory 

 was assured, for he then committed you to the cause of human liberty, against which 

 the arms of man cannot prevail [applause] while those of our statesmen who 

 trusted to make slavery the corner-stone of the Confederacy doomed us to defeat as 

 far as they could, committing us to a cause that reason could not defend or the sword 

 maintain in the sight of advancing civilization. [Renewed applause.] 



" Had Mr. Toombs said, which he did not say, ' that he would call the roll of his 

 slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill,' he would have been foolish, for he might have 

 known that whenever slavery became entangled in war it must perish, and that the 

 chattel in human flesh ended "forever in New England when your fathers not to be 

 blamed for parting with what didn't pay sold their slaves to our fathers not to 

 be praised for knowing a paying thing when they saw it. [Laughter.] The rela- 

 tions of the Southern people with the negro are close and cordial. We remember 

 with what fidelity for four years he guarded our defenceless women and children, 

 whose husbands and fathers were fighting against his freedom. To his eternal credit 

 be it said that, whenever he struck a blow for his own liberty he fought in open battle, 

 and when at last he raised his black and humble hands that the shackles might be 

 struck off, those hands were innocent of wrong against his helpless charges, and 

 worthy to be taken in loving grasp by every man who honors loyalty and devotion. 

 [Applause.] Ruffians have maltreated him, rascals have misled him, philanthropists 

 established a bank for him, but the South, with the North, protests against injustice 

 to this simple and sincere people. To liberty and enfranchisement is as far as law 

 can carry the negro. The rest must be left to conscience and common sense. It 

 must be left to those among whom his lot is cast, with whom he is indissolubly con- 

 nected, and whose prosperity depends upon their possessing his intelligent sympathy 

 and confidence. Faith has been kept with him in spite of calumnious assertions to 



