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Show Tillman and The Negroes (The Senator's Chicago Address on Problem of the South.) Tlicrolsno reader or curret llirra ture unfamllllar with Senator Till- man's doings in congress and certain phases of his public life, and while most know that he Is a lecturer In greatest deraaud, but few In this country have ever had the pleasure pleas-ure of seeing or hearing South Carolina's Caro-lina's notorious "Pitchfork." The senator from South Carolina delivered .1 lecture In Chicago not long ago, and believing that a reproduction of a Chicago newspaper's report of that lecture will prove of more than passing pass-ing Interest, Tub Rki'uumcan presents pre-sents It here. Senator Tillman was " . billed to speak on "Should the United States Annex Cuba?" but he devoted practically his entire lime to a liery discussion of "The Negro Problem." The speaker talked along in his most engaging manner until ten o'clock, and after vainly trying to quit, he hit Ills usual train with the following result: Appeals First to Reason. After Introducing the negro question ques-tion the senator continued: "Perhaps I can enlighten jou a little as to what tt Is, knowing all the while that you know nothing about It. Let me premise by saying that I regard it as a mostsorlous the most dangerous, the most pregnant Issue before the American people tonight. I propose to deal with It not from the standpoint stand-point of pcjudlco or passion. I am not going to appeal to your feelings. I am going to appeal to j our rcason.and I am going to base my appeal upon facts, not on theories. "What is lt There are In this -country, according to last census,some 8,500,000 or 0,000,000 people with African Afri-can blood in their veins, called negroes. They love to call themselves Afro-American Afro-American to indicate that some of them have studied a little Latin. These 9,000,000 people, we will say, are divided about this way: There are i 1,000,000, or about that, 1 guess there are no statistics with white blood In their veins In greater Or less proportion, ranging all the way from one-eighth o'r possibly one-sixteenth of negro blood, and the balance white, and from that down to one-sixteenth of white and llttecn-slxtccnths black. About "00,000 In that neighborhood they are rapidly Increasing, thank Ood live In the north; 8,000,000 In the former slave states." Auditor Has His Way. i "There alnt a black ono In tho , whole push," shouted a man in the audience. "Where?" Inquired the speaker. "In this audience," was the reply. 1 "There is one over yonder as black j as the ace of spades, "said tho senator. 1 "I am glad I see two, one a genuine negro and tho other a quadroon. I presume pre-sume they have come here to see how successful their efforts at gagging me ' have been. Don't interrupt me so 1 much by applause; let me go on and I will tell my plain, unvarnished story. ' "8,000,000 of them, are pure-blooded I Africans; 700,000 or such a matter as a million with mixed blood, and 8,000,-, 8,000,-, O00,or such a matter, of those live In I the South; seven or eight hundred thousand of them moved up here. , Now, under the Constitution as I amended tho Fourteenth and Flf- ( teenth amendments theso pcoplo have been given every right that tho , general Constitution can confer that a whlto man has. That Is tho legal status.'' "Not In Virginia," an auditor cried. 'i "Yes, sir, everywhere," said tho j senator. "The Fifteenth amendment tho Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments have convc)cd to 'the negroes every right that a white man I has." j "Excepting Intelligence," the audi tor attain Interrupted "That Is not a right," retorted the senator. "Ood gives that. Am 1 not right? And the right to vote Is not conferred, because It Is not a federal right." "How about Kcntuckj?" asked tho same auditor. Anger Shown in Reply. "Oh, shut your mouth," Senator Tillman said angrily. "You don't know the A HCof this thing; I have forgotten forty years ago more than you ever knew. The supreme Court of the United States has declared that the right to vote Is not a federal right; that the states must settle that. Hut, mark you, in settling it we tlnd that tho llftceoth amendmcntdcclarcsthat every person born In tho United States Is a citizen of the United States; and then It goes on to say that no state shall enact any law that shall discriminate discrim-inate against a citizen of tho United States on account of race or color. Therefore, that is why the constitutional constitu-tional amendment has not conferred suffrage on the negro; has not conferred confer-red It on the white, and It has said that no state shall pass a law relating to suffrago or anything else which shall discriminate against any citizen of the United States because of his race or color. Therefore, the negro has every right that the white man has. 'Now, having got that fact into your heads, let m see what tho Constitution Con-stitution Is. Mow many of you know? I guarantee there Is not a man. woman or child in this house not a newspaper news-paper man, and they know as much about these things as any body how many of you know that in the six states of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, a group together around the South Atlantic and tho gulf until you reach Texas how many of you know that thore a're ;t0,000 more negroes ne-groes In those six states than there are whites? How many of you know that in '.the State of South Carolina there arc 230,000 more negroes than there are whites. Majority in Two States. "How many of jou know that In the state of Mississippi there are 205,000 more negroes than there arc whites, and that the negro majorities in these two states counterbalance the white majoritcs in the other four, so that, taKlng the group In the aggregate, the negroes outnumber us? "You have got, we will say, 75,000 In Chicago. You have got 2,000,000 In all the population. From tho racket they kick up and have kicked up one would Imagine that they were the 2,000,000 and you wcro tho 75,000. "I want this fact to settle Into vour minds and take root because it means something. Give the negro the right to vote, and let that voto be counted and recognized In the election, and what becomes of South Carolina and MIssIssIddI? "I can liken our condition to this; Wc have got the white man's burden on our shoulders, and he weighs more than we do. South Carolina and Mississippi Mis-sissippi are swimming for their lives. Georgia and tho other three have got their necks out, but they are wading In deep water. And yet you and men like you (pointing to tho man who had interrupted) undertake to pass upou our future, to do us with your fifteenth amendment, while you know you cannot can-not be harmed. You makeup your minds that equality "before tho law, which tho fifteenth amendment guarantees, guar-antees, Is right and should be enforced, notwithstanding it might result and would result In two states at least being be-ing dominated absolutely by negroes, while four of us will be so near that thero will bo practically an equal division di-vision of ofllcors " "now about the law?" the auditor asked. "The law?" shouted the senator "To hell with such law." Takes Five Other States. "Now, then, let usseosomo more of this perplexing question. Let us take tlvo other states Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Vir-ginia. Those five have whlto majorities major-ities ranging from two to ono of whites to negroes to five or six to one, therefore there Is no danger of absolute abso-lute negro domination In any of them. But let mo tell you Just what has happened and what is likely to happen yet, bocauso what has onco occurred can surely como to pass another time. "In 1802 Populism ran riot in tho South and West. Tho ultra democrats who wero mad about sliver aud the Unanco, end tho ultra republloans.who wero mad about tho samo thing, sloughed off from their respective parties par-ties and the populist party s.jcpt over the country nnd got somo 2,000,000 votes. Kansas went populltr. It had been previously safely republican by 40,000 or more. "Populism In North Carolina carried away fiom the democratic party 32, 000 ultra democrats, who voted for Weaver. Tho democrats carried the statu that year, but these men who had exercised their right to voto as they saw fit were hounded, abused, maligned, scandalized In every way the newspapers could put scandal and abuse on them, so that they grew Intensely In-tensely angry, and Just then North Carolina lost her great statesman, Zcbulon Vance. Her people were like a Hock of sheep without a shepherd. "The result was that 30,000 negroes and mountaineers and .'10,000 ultra cranky populists beat the white people, peo-ple, who owned practically all of the property, piy all of thn taxes, have nearly all of the intelllgci.ee and Integrity In-tegrity of character, and they held the state for four years. Then the banncrof white supremacy was thrown to the brccc. The cry was raised, "Itally to your colors. He a whlto man or be a nigger. You have got to take your choice." And North Carolina Caro-lina went democratic again. But 1 would point out to jou that the possibility possi-bility of a minority of white men, not possessing an equal amount of Intelligence Intelli-gence and wealth with the majority, can use this debased, this Ignorant, this venal vote, and control tho government. gov-ernment. "Now.let us take the States of Kansas, Kan-sas, of Illinois, of Indiana, of Ohio, of Pennsylvania, of New Jersey, and of New York. In each one of those states the number of negro votes Is sufllcient under any normal condition of politics, and has been Bulllclcnt to give the states to the republican party for they have got In there bodily with their votes, and by the negro vote alone, until the silver pace came along and disturbed the programc. Here, jou, In the very near future, If not at this very time, arc face to face with this proposition that your great states will be dominated by these negroes who will be hugged and kissed and cuddled and petted by your dandy politicians to get their votes, Vital in all Sections. "You llnd, then, that this great question, while It is vital and serious for us In South Carolina, is nearly as much so as In the other states I have mentioned, and In a very great degree in the other live 1 have mentioned, all of them aro confronted those excepted ex-cepted which confront around the lakes and over In tho West and on tho shores of iN'cw England all of them are confionted by this question. Wo all are Interested in the settlement of this race problem, and the question of how to settle It justly, fairly and In accord with tl.o dictates of humanity, which is uppermost in tonight's question. ques-tion. Hut I want to speak about the law, because tho law as It has been written and as it Is now In the statue books would doom mo and mine to perpetual bondage to the African. "Now 1 take (ho occasion to say that those who think I hate the negro race arc very far wrong. I was born among them; 1 had a black "mammy" and ray play fellows wero little negroes and I have a negro living with mc who Is about my age, and has been for thirty-five years, and he is as faithful to me and mine as any moital can bo to another. I would divide the last crust I have got with that negro; and what is more, 1 would get my shotgun and go after any man who comes to impose upon him. Ready to bear with Them. "Hut because I recognize the good qualities of the negroes when let alone because I realize that unless they arc misled or mlstaught that they arc a good, easy, happy-go-lucky kind of people, who aro entitled to life, lovo and liberty and tho pursuit of happiness happi-ness It does not follow that they should govern me. I rccognlzo their disabilities, I rccognl.o their failures; 1 recognlzo their weaknesses. I am teady to bear with them, but the younger generation of the white men in tho South aru not half so patient as I Hut to get back to my Illustration of tho situation; "In South Carolina, for Instance, eleven years ago, we held a constitutional constitu-tional convention. Uy It wc disfranchised disfran-chised 120,000 negroes, by simply providing pro-viding that no man shall vote In South Carolina unlesshe could read or write or understand a clause In the constitution. constitu-tion. That law applied to all equally. I will bo honest with you; I haven't anything to conceal. I have told all this In tho Senato many times. Thero h no need for anybody but an Ignoramus Ignoram-us to undertake to say that I have come here with something new. When wo wero makltfg that constitution we looked around and wo saw soma 12,0C0 or 20,000 -I don't know how many Illiterate whlto men; whlto men who could neither read or write; some of them had been In tho confederate army and had helped to defend their home; but had failed to get a little education that would equip him for a vote under the constitution. Do you suppose we would disfranchise them? Wouldjou luvedono It? "No," came a shout from the audience. au-dience. Tells About the Law. "Well, wc didn't," continued Senator Sena-tor Tillman. "How did wc manage It? Easy enongh. Wo provided that a man must cither read or write, or piy taxes on S300 worth of property, or understand a clause of the constitution constitu-tion when read to him for the first registration. Under tho provision, which Is elastic -I am not going to dodge-1 don't belong to the creed that dodges; I will gheyou precisely the whole story: That llrst legislation legisla-tion was merely to get an understanding understand-ing of the constitution when the clause of It was read to the llllleaatc voter. After that It died. And the straight, , plain and unmistakable provision that you should read and write or pay taxes or jou don't vote has obtained sluce 1807, and will alwajs obtain until wc change it again. And what became of the Illiterates? "The registration officers were whlto men. All of our officers are white men, thank God. Wc had to use shotguns shot-guns about It. We did whatever was necessary, but wo have never sunk to tho Infamy of nominating u negro on our state tickets. When that legislation legisla-tion was put in force and a man would come Into the olllce, the officer would say: 'Can jou read and write?' 'No.' 'Ihelawsajsjou must read a clause In the constitution: let mc see It you understand un-derstand It.' If he was a black man tho clause presented by tho election oaiccr would likely I don't know, I didn't sec It, but I Just Imaglno that Is what I would do would be of twenty twen-ty lines, maybe, and that Involved questions of Interpretation of the law that would get half tho lawyers of Chicago by the car, each one ready to go to court and swear he would win the suit' on his understanding of it If jou would pay him enough. He would read this long complex clause to the negro. Do you understand It?' 'I am afraid not.' 'Sorry, cannot register reg-ister you; jou must go on.' Applied to White Men. "A white man comes up. 'Can jou read and write?' 'No.' 'Let us read a clause in the constitution.' Ho would pick out a little, short, simple one, something Ilke.'Mary had a little lamb' and of course he would understand under-stand It, and of course, he would be registered. So jou sec how elastic a clause It was. It would open up to let a white man through, but It would exclude ex-clude a black man. "In ono of tho celebrated battles in tho war the victory was won by companies com-panies of men composed, 1 dare say, nearly all of men who could neither read nor write. When you talk to me about a little smatterlhg of learning, reading and writing being tho basis for a vote, I point jou to the fact that somo of the best read fellows jou know aro tho most Infernal scoundrels and tho worst people on the face of the earth. It Is a question of mind and character and Integrity. "With 230,000 more negroe In the state, with negro boys rapidly getting tho little necessary learning to read and write, how long will it be before there will be an Issue in South Caro lina between the black race and the whlto for mastery? You talk about seriousness, danger, about perplexity. Ah, my countrymen, It Is easy to sit oil in your closets and theorize and discuss other people's live and property prop-erty and rights. It Is especially easy for that largo ratio of our citizens who have crossed the sea and como Into this land of freedom slnco tho war was over; free to como over from abroad, falling heir to tho blessings which my forefathers lived to give us. It is very easy for those fellows to sit off hero and theorize about what the negroes shall have and what hli rights arc In the South. Talked of Foreigners. "Aro you willing to try that physic on yourself? You hau got somo f,-000,000 f,-000,000 people In Illinols-nearly ,-000.000, ,-000.000, 1 bellovo. 1 know a third of them are foreign born. I am not quarreling, but I am merely calling attention to a great fundamental right that wo who helped founded tho American Republic at least have tho right to say what shall bo done with us and our liberties. "I have good Irish, English and German blood In my veins, and the South Carolinians as a whole are tho purest Americans on tho continent. Wc havo somo seed corn down there of old-tlmo religion. You all have forgotten for-gotten nil about that there ever was a God or a Christ or a virtuous woman, It appears to mc. And when you undertake un-dertake to theoretically determine what shall be done with tho negroes hi tho South and what shall bo dono to tho whites In tho South through the negroes, you don't know what you aro doing, In your Ignorance you press along madly, following political greed and ambition. You allow the interests inter-ests of tho great party to which you most bolong to dominate and r ,Urol In all things politically, and that party, In Its own Interest, se u fit to coddle and pot tho negroes, to keep friends with them, to make ojt It loves them, |