Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/201

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AFRO-AMERICAN EDITORS.
193

after the defeat of the Republican party in Ohio, in 1883, and his warning concerning the probable defeat of the national ticket, (which proved to be a defeat,) proves that our subject is a far-seeing journalist. He says: "For Ohio to go Democratic upon the eve of a great national election, is fraught with much cause for alarm on the part of Republicans. It strikes us that the leaders of the party will be compelled to change their base of operation, and in the future look carefully to the men who are to be nominated.

"It is an undeniable fact, that the majority of the colored men in the Buckeye State supported the Democratic ticket. The Afro-American, the most influential colored paper in the state, gave all its support to the Democratic ticket. The Republican nominee for governor, a few years since, reflected upon the character of a very worthy colored woman, against whom he was prosecuting a "civil rights" case in court; and more—it is alleged that Mr. Foraker abused the colored race shamefully in his argument before the jury and the court, and that he was nominated over the protest of the colored people of Ohio, who loudly clamored for the nomination of Senator Sherman, who would, as a matter of course, have swept the state.

"There are eighteen thousand colored voters in Ohio, and it is to be regretted that their admonition was not heeded. We very much regret the result in Ohio, but it need not become general,—the defeat there need not become a rout. If the Republicans of the country will be cautious and discreet in their future nominations, the broken places in our ranks will receive the necessary reinforcements to save us from defeat in 1884. The colored men of Ohio are not Democrats; they only meant to chastise Judge Foraker for the insult offered the race in a court of justice. The Germans or Irish would have done a similar thing. The colored men who are to the front in political affairs now, are they