Here is Mr. Ewart, Republican Member of Congress from North Carolina:
Suppose [said he, in the House of Representatives] you place this law on the statute books: how have you helped the negro? You again solidify the white voters of the South, now on the eve of disintegration; you again solidify the black vote, thus entirely destroying the kindly relations which exist between the two races to-day. You frighten away Northern capital now pouring into the South. You retard our industrial interests, and all to do what?
Here is Mr. Coleman, Republican member from Louisiana:
I am opposed to any Federal election law at this time. If you think the South has not yet suffered enough from the war and its results, then start afresh the echoes of those dreary years of reconstruction. Roll back into the past the present march of progress and development. Pass a Federal election law, and many who are now willing to separate from the Democracy will immediately get back into the so-called “white man's party” rather than risk “negro supremacy.”
Here is Mr. Baxter, the Republican candidate for governor in Tennessee: “One of the worst consequences of the passage of this bill will be the irritation produced in the South and the consequent retardation of the fraternal feelings between the two sections of this Union now slowly, but surely, being cemented.”
I might go on for hours quoting the voices of Southern Republicans, politicians, merchants, manufacturers, clergymen, aye, and of colored men, imploring Congress not to throw this brand of discord into the South, wantonly endangering its peace, fraternal feeling, progress and prosperity. And what is the answer? “The negro has the right to vote. He must be protected in the exercise
