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yet other inducements to it whose force I think has not been suffi¬
ciently estimated. As the negroes are said to attach very great value
to schools, if they cannot get them here they will have a strong mo¬
tive to go to other States which provide them; and this may
help us to a separation which cannot be commenced too soon, and
which should be forwarded by any and all, even the smallest, means.
For until they go we are not free. The true motive power of a well
ordered Commonwealth, without which every thing is apt to go
awry, is public opinion—"the opinion of the great middle classes,"
as expressed by their votes—that opinion, which, since its restoration
by Martin Luther, has become the admitted guide of all govern¬
ments but despotisms and fraud-governed republics. We are
deprived of that; for public opinion can only be formed by discus¬
sion and ascertained by votes. But with us nothing can be dis¬
cussed or voted upon without danger of negro intervention.
No one doubts that there are two sides to the tariff- question: but
our differences over it would start the monopolists to purchase the
negro vote; so we cannot debate it. Clearly our railroads need to
be controlled and regulated by the State ; but to prevent reform they
will bribe negroes to their support by money and by office, Federal,
State, and municipal. For the same reason we dare not divide upon
the great liquorquestion; and so in any matter of local or muni¬
cipal concern ; as Richmond knows to her cost. For notwithstand¬
ing the fact that over and above what she receives from the State,
she has paid upwards of $722,000, white man's money, to negro
schools,* she has to stand to her guns at every municipal elec¬
tion to protect her property and rights against the attacks of
black ingrates in league with white men meaner and more
degraded than themselves. No matter what the question, whether
Federal, State, or municipal, religious or temporal, we are. now
as effectually barred from forming or expressing an influential
public opinion upon it as if we were forbidden by a despotism. As
far as deliberate, practical legislation is concerned, we are remitted
to the condition of things which existed in the middle ages. In
this way negroes rule us—negatively, it is true, but absolutely—as
their Republican and scalawag leaders mean they shall. And these
are now preparing to rule us positively through the money of North¬
ern Plutocrats, disbursed to gangs which are to be organized and
marched to the polls in clubs next Fall. "Two hundred thousand
dollars," said Gen. Mahone, "will carry this State either way;" and
as we know what he means to do if he gets the power, we must drop
all except the debt and the negro issue. We are not free to discuss
anything else.
* See annual reports of Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1872 to
1889, inclusive.
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