The Negro vs. the White Man

The Democrats have turned away some "negroes" from voting due to their Conservative support.

The Negro vs. the White Man. It has been repeatedly stated in the Richmond papers, and Mayor Chahoon's own certificate to the same effect was published to prove the statement, that white men of good character and standing have been discharged from the police force of this city for no other reason than that they were opposed to the Radical party. The New York Tribune has never had a word to say upon this subject. It is all right for respectable white men to be turned out of employment because they are Conservatives. But the Tribune sings another song over the scalawags of Mississippi. It publishes an article headed "Freedmen turned out of place for voting the Republican ticket," and declares that this act shows "what sort of freedom" the Democrats will leave the negroes "if they have their way." In other words, white men ought not to be allowed to discharge their negro employes though engaged only upon private business, but carpet-bag officials most be encouraged to discharge white men though these are public servants. General Howard, the negrophilist who has grown rich out of his Bureau pickings, also announces, in regard to the conduct of the white men of Mississippi, that General Gillem "will enforce the proper remedy." What says General Stoneman? Will he be less vigilant in protecting white men than General Gillem in protecting negroes?

“The Negro vs. the White Man,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed March 30, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1084.