wanted to know how the other stood to Billings, he would say "Liberty" and if the other was a Billings man he would answer "Liberty." Social Ostracism of Negro Conservatives Statements of [1874] WE wanted to give him time to speak and relate why he thought it was right to have a colored society and a white society; that a negro man could not keep his wife if he was a democrat; and a young colored woman of that society had to leave her husband if he was a democratic negro. The president of the society, his name was Treadwell, was an ex-member of the legislature; he lived in Opelika. They had to make a pledge and pledge this: that any woman. would leave her husband if he was a democrat, or a young woman would not marry a man if he was a democrat. The preacher of the church . . belonged to the M. E. Church. He stopped the secretary from his office salary because he was a democrat, and stopped another man from being a deacon of the church because he was a democrat. He put it to a vote and silenced him from his membership. After Ten Years of Freedom National Republican, of Atlanta, Georgia, quoted in Nordhoff, Cotton States, p. 105. [1875] WHAT is the record of ten years of freedom? In the matter of temperance has there been progress? Nay. Nay. In this respect the freedmen are a thousand per cent. worse off than they were in slavery. Rarely do we find a strictly temperate man. Very nearly all drink, in town and out, young men and old, and the women too. . . The freedmen of Georgia spend in a half year for liquor as much as they have paid for schools since emancipation. Is this a matter of which we should be proud? To whom is the infliction of this wrong due? What has been done for schools? A little money has been raised, but not a hundredth, if a thousandth, part of what has been spent for tobacco, and shows, and shot-guns, and fines. One show here last Winter is said to have carried away $3,000 of the colored people's money-more than their voluntary contributions to schools in this city since 1865. In ten years not more than one in nine or ten has learned to read in this State; or out of 550,000 not more than 60,000 or 70,000; and these very largely through the aid of Northern missions. This year taxes will be paid on an aggregate of $7,000,000 of property, or less than $13 per head. This is the showing of a decade of freedom and fair opportunity. For it, in some measure, the whites may be responsible, but the responsibility lies chiefly with the people themselves. They have probably earned from $35,000,000 to $45,000,000 a year, and out of it should have saved a large percentage. But there has been improvidence and waste on every hand. Not quite, but very nearly, as poor and ignorant are the freedmen today as when emancipated; and their ignorance and their poverty quite as much as the "preju dice and hate" of the whites, serve to keep them where they are and what they are hewers of wood and drawers of water. 3. THE "EQUAL RIGHTS" ISSUE Equal Rights in Florida Wallace, Carpet Bag Rule in Florida, p. 86. [1868] FAILING to either intimidate or subsidize the Governor for their purposes of plunder, as a last alternative, the Osborn ring, under the lead of Speaker Stearns in the Assembly, and United States Marshal Wentworth in the Senate, determined to inaugurate a "war of races," and thus compel martial law, so that the Federal troops under the control of the marshal should have full sway. It was planned in secret counsel that before adjourning the Legislature bills should be passed to compel hotel keepers and railroad companies to receive and provide for negroes on the same terms as the whites, and thus place the Governor between two fires. If he approved the bills the whites would be provoked to violence, and if he vetoed them the freedmen would all be arrayed against him, and his impeachment would be made certain. Accordingly, two bills were framed and passed in the Assembly, making it a penal offense to exclude persons from equal privileges in hotels or on railroad cars on account of color. To avoid difficulty, the Governor called the Republican Senators in council at the executive office and explained the impossibility of maintaining civil administration with such aggravating legislation, and finally he declared he would not sanction it. The only response was the immediate passage of the bill and its immediate veto by the Governor. It was near the last day of the session; and after the final adjournment the negro population had assembled in the rotunda of the Capitol and unitedly denounced Governor Reed as a traitor, and then the plan of impeachment was perfected, to be carried out at the next session. Equal Rights in South Carolina Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vol. xiv, p. 386. This was the third of a series of equal rights statutes. A fourth act was passed in 1875 expanding section 1 of this act. [March, 1870] WHEREAS, in this State the government is a democracy, the people ruling, and the government is also a republican one, in which all things pertaining to the government are in common among all the people; and whereas, it follows that no person is entitled to special privileges, or to be preferred before any other person in public matters, but all persons are equal before the law; and whereas, these propositions lie at the very founda tion of our policy, and the American people have embodied the same, in the most emphatic manner possible, in their organic and statute laws, and the same do by their sovereign will and pleasure sustain; and whereas, notwithstanding all these great and glorious facts, there are found some brutal, illdisposed and lawless persons in the State who persist in denying and trampling upon the sacred rights of certain of the people; therefore, Section I. Be it enacted, It shall not be lawful for any common carrier, or any party or parties engaged in any busi ness, calling or pursuit, for the carrying on of which a license or charter is required by any law, municipal, State or Federal, or by any public rule or regulations, to discriminate be tween persons on account of race, color or previous condition, who shall make lawful application for the benefit of such business, calling or pursuit. Section 2. Whoever, being a common carrier, under any public license, charter, rule, or regulations, shall, by himself or another, wilfully assign any special quarters or accommodations whatever to any passenger or person whom such common carrier may have undertaken to carry, or who shall, under any pretense, deny or refuse to any person lawfully applying for the same, accommodation equal in every respect to that furnished by him to any other person, for like compensation or reward, in a like case, having no regard to the persons per se who may be applicants therefor, shall, on conviction, be punished by a fine of one thousand dollars, and also by confinement at hard labor in the penitentiary for five years; and if such fine be not paid, the convict shall be confined in the penitentiary at hard labor, as aforesaid, for not less than six years. Section 3. Whoever, conducting or managing any theater, or other place of amusement or recreation, by whatever name the same may be recognized, or whatever called or known, if such theater or place be licensed or chartered, or be under any public rule or regulation whatever, shall wilfully make any discrimination against any person applying for accommodation in, or admission to, any such theater or place, on account of the race, color, or previous condition of the applicant, or shall refuse or deny to any person lawfully applying therefor, accommodation equal in every respect to that furnished at such place for a like reward to any other person, on account of race, color or previous condition of the applicant therefor, shall, on conviction, be punished by a fine of one thousand dollars, and also imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary for three years. Section 4. Whoever, not being the principal offender under sections 2 and 3 of this act, shall aid or abet in or about the commission of any of the offenses therein mentioned, shall, on conviction, be punished by imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary for three years, and no such convict shall ever vote or hold any office under any law of this State. . Section 7. In every trial for violating any provisions of this act, when it shall be charged that any person has been refused or denied admission to, or due accommodation in, any of the places in this act mentioned, on account of the race, color, or previous condition of the applicant, and such applicant is a colored or black person, the burden shall be on the defendant party, or parties, so having refused or denied such admission or accommodation, to show that the same was not done in violation of this act. . Section 9. The several solicitors of this State are hereby specially charged to take care that this act be promptly and rigorously enforced; and every such solicitor who shall fail in any respect in the performance of his duty under the requirement in this section contained, shall be deemed to have committed a misfeasance in office, and, on conviction, shall forfeit his office, and be incapable of holding office for five years, and |