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Show 1 THE COLOR LIHE IN POLITICS. Mississippi had, according to the ! census of 1870, a white population of 1382,8, and a free colored population of 4 1-1,201. At the election in 1873 Governor Ames, republican, received a majority of 21,403, and the legislature legisla-ture chosen at that time bad a republican repub-lican majoiity of 30 on joint ballot. Yet with these great odds Governor Ames demands the interference of 1 federal troops to protect the black voterB from the murderouB injustice of tho whites. If the Africo-Ameri-cans in Mississippi, comprising an absolute majority of the voters, with the whole machinery of the state in their bands, cannot protect themselves them-selves without the aid of federal troops, the prospect for maintaining a republican form of government is a very poor one. The real trouble in Mississippi probably arises from tbo danger of a forthcoming republican defeat. Of all tho southern states with their once magnificent republican republi-can majorities, only Mississippi and South Carolina are now considered politically reliable, and the piteous appeal of Governor Ames for troops to aid him in his contest for the Uuited States senato, shows that even in Mississippi, there is danger that the democratic party may capture tho state. Tho loss of the entire south to the republican party is a legitimate result of the policy of that party in forcing a division on the color-line, and judging from the president's pre-sident's sensible reply to Governor Ames' demand, he has at last dissevered dis-severed tho mistaken policy which he has so persistently preserved in regard re-gard to tho south. But his sensible ideas havo como too late to help himself or his parly much. |
