So flagrant became
the political scandals that reputable men began to leave poli-
tics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable.
Men began to pride themselves on having nothing to do with
their own government, and to agree tacitly with those who
regarded public office as a private perquisite. In this state of
mind it became easy to wink at the suppression of the Negro
vote in the South, and to advise self-respecting Negroes to
leave politics entirely alone. The decent and reputable citi-
zens of the North who neglected their own civic duties grew
hilarious over the exaggerated importance with which the
Negro regarded the franchise. Thus it easily happened that
more and more the better class of Negroes followed the
advice from abroad and the pressure from home, and took no
further interest in politics, leaving to the careless and the
venal of their race the exercise of their rights as voters. The
black vote that still remained was not trained and educated,
but further debauched by open and unblushing bribery, or
force and fraud; until the Negro voter was thoroughly inocu-
lated with the idea that politics was a method of private gain
by disreputable means.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236