The Negro Question in the South
by Thomas E. Watson
I
The Negro Question
in the South has been for nearly thirty years a source of danger, discord,
and bloodshed. It is an ever-present irritant and menace.
Several millions of
slaves were told that they were the prime cause of the civil war; that their
emancipation was the result of the triumph of the North over the South; that
the ballot was placed in their hands as a weapon of defense against their
former masters; that the war won political equality of the black man with
the white, must be asserted promptly and aggressively, under the leadership
of adventures who had swooped down upon the conquered section in the wake of
the Union armies.
No one, who wishes
to be fair, can fail to see that, in such a condition of things, strife
between the freedman and his former owner was inevitable. In the clashing of
interests and of feelings, bitterness was born. The black man was kept in a
continual fever of suspicion that we meant to put him back into slavery. In
the assertion of his recently acquired privileges, he was led to believe
that that best proof of his being on the right side of any issue was that
his old master was on the other. When this was the case, he felt easy in his
mind. But if, by any chance, he found that he was voting the same ticket
with his former owner, he at once became reflective and suspicious. In the
irritable temper of the times, a whispered warning from a Northern
“carpet-bagger,” having no justification in rhyme or reason, outweighed with
him a carload of sound argument and earnest expostulation from the man whom
he had known all his life; who had hunted with him through every swamp and
wooded upland for miles around; who had wrestled and run foot-races with him
in the “Negro quarters” on many a Saturday afternoon; who has fished with
him at every “hole” in the creek; and who had played a thousand games of
“marble” with him under the cool shade of the giant oaks which, in those
days, sheltered a home they had both loved.
In brief, the end
of the war brought changed relations and changed feelings. Heated
antagonisms produced mutual distrust and dislike—ready, at any accident of
unusual provocation on either side, to break out into passionate and bloody
conflict.
Quick to take
advantage of this deplorable situation, the politicians have based the
fortunes of the old parties upon it. Northern leaders have felt that at the
cry of “Southern outrage” they could not only “fire the Northern heart,” but
also win a unanimous vote from the colored people. Southern politicians have
felt that at the cry of “Negro domination” they could drive into solid
phalanx every white man in all the Southern states.
Both the old
parties have done this thing until they have constructed as perfect a “slot
machine” as the world ever saw. Drop the old, worn nickel of the “party
slogan” into the slot, and the machine does the rest. You might beseech a
Southern white tenant to listen to you upon questions of finance, taxation,
and transportation; you might demonstrate with mathematical precision that
herein lay his way out of poverty into comfort; you might have him “almost
persuaded” to the truth, but if the merchant who furnished his farm supplies
(at tremendous usury) or the town politician (who never spoke to him
excepting at election times) came along and cried “Negro rule!” the entire
fabric of reason and common sense which you had patiently constructed would
fall, and the poor tenant would joyously hug the chains of an actual
wretchedness rather than do any experimenting on a question of mere
sentiment.
Thus the Northern Democrats have ruled the South with a rod of iron for
twenty years. We have had to acquiesce when the time-honored principles we
loved were sent to the rear and new doctrines and policies we despised were
engrafted on our platform. All this we have had to do to obtain the
assistance of Northern Democrats to prevent what was called “Negro
supremacy.” In other words, the Negro has been as valuable a portion of the
stock in trade of a Democrat as he was of a Republican. Let the South ask
relief from Wall Street; let it plead for equal and just laws on finance;
let it beg for mercy against crushing taxation, and Northern Democracy, with
all the coldness, cruelty, and subtlety of Mephistopheles, would hint “Negro
rule!” and the white farmer and laborer of the South had to choke down his
grievance and march under Tammany’s orders.
Reverse the
statement, and we have the method by which the black man was managed by the
Republicans.
Reminded constantly
that the North had emancipated him; that the North had given him the ballot;
that the North had upheld him in his citizenship; that the North had upheld
him in his citizenship; that the South was his enemy, and meant to deprive
him of his suffrage and put him “back into slavery,” it is no wonder he has
played as nicely into the hands of the Republicans as his former owner has
played into the hands of the Northern Democrats.
Now consider: here
were two distinct races dwelling together, with political equality
established between them by law. They lived in the same section; won their
livelihood by the same pursuits; cultivated adjoining fields on the same
terms; enjoyed together the bounties of a generous climate; suffered
together the rigors of cruelly unjust laws; spoke the same language; bought
and sold in the same markets; classified themselves into churches under the
same denominational teachings; neither race antagonizing the other in any
branch of industry; each absolutely dependent on the other in all the
avenues of labor and employment; and yet, instead of being allies, as every
dictate of reason and prudence and self-interest and justice said they
should be, they were kept apart, in dangerous hostility, that the sordid
aims of partisan politics might be served!
So completely has
this scheme succeeded that the Southern black man almost instinctively
supports any measure the Southern white man condemns, while the latter
almost universally antagonizes any proposition suggested by a Northern
Republican. We have, then, a solid South as opposed to a solid North; and in
the South itself, a solid black vote against the solid white.
That such a
condition is most ominous to both sections and both races, is apparent to
all.
If we were dealing
with a few tribes of red men or a few sporadic Chinese, the question would
be easily disposed of. The Anglo-Saxon would probably do just as he pleased,
whether right or wrong, and the weaker man would go under.
But the Negroes number 8,000,000. They are interwoven with our business,
political, and labor systems. They assimilate with our customs, our
religion, our civilization. They meet us at every turn—in the fields, the
shops, the mines. They are a part of our system, and they are here to stay.
Those writers who
tediously wade through census reports to prove that the Negro is
disappearing, are the most absurd mortals extant. The Negro is not
disappearing. A Southern man who looks about him and who sees how rapidly
the colored people increase, how cheaply they live, and how readily they
learn, has no patience whatever with those statistical lunatics who figure
out the final disappearance of the Negro one hundred years hence. The truth
is, that the “black belts” in the South are getting blacker. The race is
mixing less than it ever did. Mulattoes are less common (in proportion) than
during the times of slavery. Miscegenation is further off (thank God) than
ever. Neither the blacks nor the whites have any relish for it. Both have a
pride of race which is commendable, and which, properly directed, will lead
us to the best results for both. The home of the colored man is chiefly with
us in the South, and there he will remain. It is there he is founding
churches, opening schools, maintaining newspapers, entering the professions,
serving on juries, deciding doubtful elections, drilling as a volunteer
soldier, and piling up a cotton crop which amazes the world.
II
This preliminary
statement is made at length that the gravity of the situation may be seen.
Such a problem never confronted any people before.
Never before did
two distinct races dwell together under such conditions.
And the problem is,
can these two races, distinct in color, distinct in social life, and
distinct as political powers, dwell together in peace and prosperity?
Upon a question so
difficult and delicate no man should dogmatize—nor dodge. The issue is here;
grows more urgent every day, and must be met.
It is safe to say
that the present status of hostility between races can only be sustained at
the most imminent risk to both. It is leading by logical necessity to
results which the imagination shrinks from contemplating. And the horrors of
such a future can only be averted by honest attempts at a solution of the
question which will be just to both races and beneficial to both.
Having given this
subject much anxious thought, my opinion is that the future happiness of the
two races will never be assured until the political motives which drive the
asunder, into two distinct and hostile factions, can be removed. There must
be a new policy inaugurated, whose purpose is to allay the passions and
prejudices of race conflict, and which makes its appeal to the sober sense
and honest judgment of the citizen regardless of his color.
To the success of
this policy two things are indispensable—a common necessity acting upon both
races, and a common benefit assured to both—without injury or humiliation to
either.
Then, again,
outsiders must let us alone. We must work out our own salvation. In no other
way can it be done. Suggestions of Federal interference with our elections
postpone the settlement and render our task the more difficult. Like all
free people, we love home rule, and resent foreign compulsion of any sort.
The Northern leader who really desires to see a better state of things in
the South, puts his finger on the hands of the clock and forces them
backward every time he intermeddles with the question. This is the literal
truth; and the sooner it is well understood, the sooner we can accomplish
our purpose.
What is that
purpose? To outline a policy which compels the support of a great body of
both races, from those motives which imperiously control human action, and
which will thus obliterate forever the sharp and unreasoning political
divisions of today.
The white people of
the South will never support the Republican Party. This much is certain. The
black people of the South will never support the Democratic Party. This is
equally certain.
Hence, at the very
beginning, we are met by the necessity of new political alliances. As long
as the whites remain solidly Democratic, the blacks will remain solidly
Republican.
As long as there
was no choice, except as between the Democrats and the Republicans, the
situation of the two races was bound to be one of antagonism. The Republican
Party represented everything which was harmful to the blacks.
Therefore a new
party was absolutely necessary. It has come, and it is doing its work with
marvelous rapidity.
Why does a Southern
Democrat leave his party and come to ours?
Because his
industrial condition is pitiably bad; because he struggles against a system
of laws which have almost filled him with despair; because he is told that
he is without clothing because he produces too much cotton, and without food
because corn is too plentiful; because he sees everybody growing rich off
the products of labor except the laborer; because the millionaires who
manage the Democratic Party have contemptuously ignored his plea for a
redress of grievances and have nothing to say to him beyond the cheerful
advice to “work harder and live closer.”
Why has this man joined the PEOPLE’S PARTY? Because the same grievances have
been presented to the Republicans by the farmer of the West, and the
millionaires who control that party have replied to the petition with the
soothing counsel that the Republican farmer of the West should “work more
and talk less.”
Therefore,
if he were confined to a choice between the two old parties, the question
would merely be (on these issues) whether the pot were larger than the
kettle—the color of both being precisely the same.
III
The key to the new
political movement called the People’s Party has been that the Democratic
farmer was to leave the Republican ranks. In exact proportion as the West
received the assurance that the South was ready for a new party, it has
moved. In exact proportion to the proof we could bring that the West had
broken Republican ties, the South has moved. Without a decided break in both
sections, neither would move. With that decided break, both moved.
The very same
principle governs the race question in the South. The two races can never
act together permanently, harmoniously, beneficially, till each race
demonstrates to the other a readiness to leave old party affiliations and to
form new ones, based upon the profound conviction that, in acting together,
both races are seeking new laws which will benefit both. On no other basis
under heaven can the “Negro Question” be solved.
IV
Now, suppose that
the colored man were educated upon these question just as the whites have
been; suppose he were shown that his poverty and distress came from the same
sources as ours; suppose we should convince him that our platform principles
assure him an escape from the ills he now suffers, and guarantee him the
fair measure of prosperity his labor entitles him to receive—would he not
act just as the white Democrat who joined us did? Would he not abandon a
party which ignores him as a farmer and laborer; which offers him no
benefits of an equal and just financial system; which promises him no relief
from oppressive taxation; which assures him of no legislation which will
enable him to obtain a fair price for his produce?
Granting him the
same selfishness common to us all; granting him the intelligence to know
what is best for him and the desire to attain it, why would he not act from
that motive just as the white farmer has done?
That he would do
so, is certain as any future event can be made. Gratitude may fail; so may
sympathy and friendship and generosity and patriotism; but in the long run,
self-interest always controls. Let it once appear plainly that it is to the
interest of a colored man to vote with the white man, and he will do it. Let
it plainly appear that it is to the interest of the white man that the vote
of the Negro should supplement his own, and the question of having that
ballot freely cast and fairly counted, becomes vital to the white man. He
will see that it is done.
Now let us
illustrate: Suppose two tenants on my farm; one of them white, the other
black. They cultivate their crops under precisely the same conditions. Their
labors, discouragements, burdens, grievances, are the same.
The white tenant is
driven by the cruel necessity to examine into the causes of his continued
destitution. He reaches certain conclusions which are not complimentary to
either of the old parties. He leaves the Democracy in angry disgust. He
joins the People’s Party. Why? Simply because its platform recognizes that
he is badly treated and proposes to fight his battle. Necessity drives him
from the old party, and hope leads him into the new. In plain English, he
joins the organization whose declaration of principles is in accord with his
conception of what he needs and justly deserves.
Now go back to the
colored tenant. His surroundings being the same and his interests the same,
why is it impossible for him to reach the same conclusions? Why is it
unnatural for him to go into the new party at the same time and with the
same motives?
Cannot these two
men act together in peace when the ballot of the one is a vital benefit to
the other? Will not political friendship be born of the necessity and the
hope which is common to both? Will not race bitterness disappear before this
common suffering and this mutual desire to escape it? Will not each one of
these citizens feel more kindly for the other when the vote of each defends
the home of both? If the white man becomes convinced that the Democratic
Party has played upon prejudices, and has used his quiescence to the benefit
of interests adverse to his own, will he not despise the leaders who seek to
perpetuate the system?
V
The People’s Party
will settle the race question. First, by enacting the Australian ballot
system. Second, by offering white and black a rallying point which is free
from the odium of former discords and strifes. Third, by presenting a
platform immensely beneficial to the interest of both races to act together
for the success of the platform. Fifth, by making it to the interest of the
colored man to have the same patriotic zeal for the welfare of the South
that the whites possess.
Now to illustrate.
Take two planks of the People’s Party platform: that pledging a free ballot
under the Australian system and that which demands a distribution of
currency to the people upon the pledges of land, cotton, etc.
The guaranty as to
the vote will suit the black man better than the Republican platform, which
will lead to collisions and bloodshed. The Democratic platform contains no
comfort to the Negro, because, while it denounces the Republican programme,
as usual, it promises nothing which can be specified. It is a generality
which does not even possess the virtue of being “glittering.”
The People’s Party,
however, not only condemns Federal interference with elections, but also
distinctly commits itself to the method by which every citizen shall have
his constitutional right to the free exercise of his electoral choice. We
pledge ourselves to isolate the voter from all coercive influences and give
him the free and fair exercise of his franchise under state laws.
Now couple this
with the financial plank which promises equality in the distribution of the
national currency, at low rates of interest.
The white tenant lives adjoining the colored tenant. Their houses are almost
equally destitute of comforts. Their living is confined to bare necessities.
They are equally burdened with heavy taxes. They pay the same high rent for
gullied and impoverished land.
They pay the same
enormous prices for farm supplies. Christmas finds them both without any
satisfactory return for a year’s toil. Dull and heavy and unhappy, they both
start the plows again when “New Year’s” passes.
Now the People’s
Party says to these two men, “You are kept apart that you may be separately
fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that
hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which
enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how
this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system which beggars both.”
That is so
obviously true it is no wonder both of these unhappy laborers stop to
listen. No wonder they begin to realize that no change of law can benefit
the white tenant which does not benefit the black one likewise; that no
system which now does injustice to one of them can fail to injure both.
Their every material interest is identical. The moment this becomes a
conviction, mere selfishness, the mere desire to better their conditions,
escape onerous taxes, avoid usurious charges, lighten their rents, or change
their precarious tenements into smiling, happy homes, will drive these two
men together, just as their mutually inflamed prejudices now drive them
apart.
Suppose these two
men now to have become fully imbued with the idea that their material
welfare depends upon the reforms we demand. Then they act together to secure
them. Every white reformer finds it to the vital interest of his home, his
family, his fortune, to see to it that the vote of the colored reformer is
freely cast and fairly counted.
Then what? Every
colored voter will be thereafter a subject of industrial education and
political teaching.
Concede that in the
final event, a colored man will vote where his material interests dictate
that he should vote; concede that in the South the accident of color can
make no possible difference in the interests of farmers, croppers, and
laborers; concede that under full and fair discussion of the people can be
depended upon to ascertain where their interests lie and we reach the
conclusion that that the Southern race question can be solved by the
People’s Party on the simple proposition that each race will be led by
self-interest to support that which benefits it, when so presented that
neither is hindered by the bitter party antagonisms of the past.
Let the colored
laborer realize that our platform gives him a better guaranty for political
independence; for a fair return for his work; a better chance to buy a home
and keep it; a better chance to educate his children and see them profitably
employed; a better chance to have public life freed from race collisions; a
better chance for every citizen to be considered as a citizen regardless of
color in the making and enforcing of laws, – let all this be fully realized,
and the race question at the South will have settled itself through the
evolution of a political movement in which both whites and blacks recognize
their surest way out of the wretchedness into comfort and independence.
The illustration
could be made quite as clearly from other planks in the People’s Party
platform. On questions of land, transportation and finance, especially, the
welfare of the two races so clearly depends upon which benefits either, that
intelligent discussion would be necessarily lead to just conclusions.
Why should the
colored man always be taught that the white man of his neighborhood hates
him, while a Northern man, who taxes every rag on his back, loves him? Why
should not my tenant come to regard me as his friend rather than the
manufacturer who plunders us both? Why should we perpetuate policy which
drives the black man into the arms of the Northern politician?
Let us draw the
supposed teeth of this fabled dragon by founding our new policy upon justice
– upon the simple but profound truth that, if the voice of passion can be
hushed, the self-interest of both races will drive them to act in concert.
There never was a day during the last twenty years when the South could not
have flung the money power in the dust by patiently teaching the Negro that
we could not be wretched under any system which not afflict him likewise;
that we could not prosper under any law which would not also bring its
blessings to him.
To the emasculated
individual who cries “Negro supremacy!” there is little to be said. His
cowardice shows him to a degeneration from the race which has never yet
feared any other race. Existing under such as they now do in this country,
there is no earthly chance for Negro domination, unless we are ready to
admit that the colored man is our superior in will power, courage, and
intellect.
Not being prepared
to make any such admission in favor of any race the sun ever shone on, I
have no words which can portray my contempt for the white men, Anglo-Saxons,
who can knock their knees together, and through their chattering teeth and
pale lips admit that they are afraid the Negroes will “dominate us.”
The question of
social equality does not enter into the calculation at all. That is a thing
each citizen decides for himself. No statute ever yet drew the latch of the
humblest home – or ever will. Each citizen regulates his own visiting list –
and always will.
The conclusion,
then, seems to me to be this: the crushing burdens which now oppress both
races in the South will cause each to make an effort to cast them off. They
will see a similarity of cause and a similarity of remedy. They will
recognize that each should help the other in the work of repealing bad laws
and enacting good ones. They will become political allies, and neither can
injure the other without weakening both. It will be to the interest of both
that each should have justice. And on these broad lines of mutual interest,
mutual forbearance, and mutual support the present will be made the
stepping-stone to future peace and prosperity.
Source: Thomas E. Watson, “The Negro
Question in the South,” The Arena 6 (October 1892): 540-550.
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