> wade took a bold stand in favor of giving negroes the vote in his home state of ohio in 1867a stand so unpopular it probably cost him reelection for a fourth term. he supported grant through two terms, and vigorously denounced president hayes for abandoning the radical regimes in the south and thereby sacrificing the freedmen to the tender mercies of their former masters.  > at first sight it would appear that the record speaks for itself. but surprising as it may seem, ben wade, the courageous defender of negro rights, actually held the most vulgar private prejudices against the very people he benefited so much. his correspondence with his wife leaves absolutely no room for doubt on this score. when he first arrived in washington in 1851, he gave free vent to his opinions in his letters to mrs. wade. what impressed him in the capital was the great number of negroes. because of his contempt for southern whites, he found the negroes to be the most intelligent part of the population. but he wrote that he could not abide "nigger smell" "in and about everything," and bemoaned the fact that the food was "all cooked by niggers until i can smell and taste the nigger." > nor did eighteen years of residence in washington cure him of his notions. while discussing the servant problem with his wife in 1873, he complained bitterly about the terms demanded by a prospective colored employee. "for mere nigger power it will cost over $500 a year," he wrote, expressing the wish that he could get "a white woman of the english or northern european breed," because he was "sick and tired of niggers." nor did he confine his strictures to unlettered freedmen; he felt wronged by an attorney to whom he referred as a "nigger lawyer," and, while serving on grant's commission to san domingo, he made unfriendly remarks about frederick douglass, who had accompanied the group as a secretary. wtf was his problem?
Australia