Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/311

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AFRO-AMERICAN PRESS EDITORS.
303

part of the Baptists of Alabama; while the editorial columns tell the world that a man learned in the editorial art graces the chair.

Rev. Mr. McEwen's ability and deliberate judgment as an editor are fully illustrated in his comment on The Montgomery Advertiser's account of Senator Morgan's address before the Howard College students. It is found in The Leader of May 2, 1889, We reproduce for the reader the squib from The Advertiser, and Mr. McEwen's comment upon it: "'If language means anything, then the concluding sentences of Senator Morgan's address to the Howard College students last Tuesday are tantamount to a declaration that, sooner or later, the 15th amendment will be eliminated from the Federal Constitution. Speed the day when it is so.'

"We clip the above from The Montgomery Advertiser of May. In the same issue is a comment on a harangue delivered by Senator Morgan before the students of Howard College. The senator should not forget to tell the students that it will cost the same to eliminate the 15th amendment that it cost to make it, and the negro will be there with every foot up.

"The Advertiser again, in a complimentary way, endorsed the ideas of ex-Senator Alcorn of Mississippi, who says that the negro is incapacitated to govern. That idea is absolute, and no sensible man doubts the negro's ability to rule; for to rule well, means to rule right. We believe that if the intelligent negro were in power and had the administering of the law in his hands, he would see that every negro who killed a white or colored man unlawfully, was brought to justice and punished according to law, He would also see that every man's vote was counted as voted, and that the man elected held the office."

Editor McEwen, still fired by the article appearing in The Advertiser, and urged on by a question asked by The