From the Mirror

(The punctuation and spelling are as they appeared in the original document.)

September 7, 1876

   Frederick Douglas, jr. (colored) publishes a letter in the Washington Chronicle, on the cause of the troubles in the South, in which he says:
   “I am not at all surprised at the State of affairs in the Southern States among the colored people when I take into consideration the class of white Republicans who have misled them ever since they became citizens, for their own selfish ends. The colored people of the South have been made to believe from the start by their pretended Republican friends that there was money in politics, so much so that it has been impossible in very many instances to get good, honest colored men in office, because they could not be used to wink at whatever white Republicans might do that was corrupt. The most illiterate, unprincipled colored men are generally chosen for office by the white Republicans of the South because they are easier to manipulate. White men have been elected to office by Negro votes who scarcely had a second shirt on their backs before being installed in office: a few months later they were sporting fine horses, gold watches and chains, smoking fine cigars, and purchasing fine dwellings, traveling &c. The black man notices this and immediately makes up his mind that the next time he is asked to vote he must receive something, if not he must have an office, whether competent or not.”