The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-12-19
The Future Of the Negro.

From the Pittsburgh Daily Telegraph.
A curious instance of the conversion
of heart produced by adverse circum-
stances is afforded by the the lecture of
Gen. Roger A. Pryor, delivered before
the Long Island Historical Society, in
Brooklyn, the other evening.
Fifteen years ago when Roger A.
Pryor was Virginia and Washington
editor and member of Congress, there
was not a more rabid defender of slavery
in the Union. He was brilliant writer
and talker. He applauded Brooks TO
his cowardly assault on Senator Sumner,
and a discussion which occurred not
long afterwards he undertook to bully
Representative John F. Potter, of Wis
consin, in the usual slave-driving style.
Potter, however, didn't scare worth a
cent, and, when Pryor sent him chal-
lenge, accepted, and named bowie knives
as the weapons.
Still there was considerable fight in
! Pryor, and when the war broke out he
entered the Confederate service and was
made General. But he and his COM
rades were beaten, and after the war he
settled at New York, as lawyer. We
are not aware that he has changed his
party, but his general views ON ques-
tions of race seem to have undergone an
almost miraculous change. In the lee
/ L r. 1, 81,
which twenty years ago would have
been called the most rabid fanaticism
The following is an extract from a re.
ort of the lecture in the Brooklyn I'm.
ion:
The negro race at the South had held
its own as no other race had ever before
in the struggle against the better en-
lightenment of the dominant race
Thirty years study sof the negro
race, both in slavery and in freedom,
had disclosed to him Mr.. Pryor no de-
iciency in their nature, physically oil
moral, and had satisfied him that they
were altogether competent to the highest
achievements of civilization. He allud.
ed their faithfulness to their master:
| during the war, and said that they were
| the guardian angels of their masters
household, and their sublime forbearance
would weigh more than all the glories
of the puissant white race.
After praising the negro's "deep re-
ligious faith and sensibility" he conn.,
mended their self-restraint, saying:
1t was a noteworthy fact that the lib
Grafton of four million slaves was at
I YaraHaA with liffla Shnab nr ha-
ton as lady withal lets loose her ca
nary from its cage.
He refuted by the the census of 1850
and 1870 the prediction that the negro
race would die out, and adduced the
following facts to show their moral and
industrial improve ment:
In 1860 the cotton crop was $3.50, 1000
bales. 1t was inevitable that the waste
of the war should decrea Sc this, and in
1866 it was but 100000 bales; but the
rebound was prompt and prodigious,
and in 1872 the volun tary labor of the
freedmen contribu ted 100000 bales.
In that portion of the South where
slavery had reduced the negro to his
lowest level, in Mississippi, it was
stated in the Message of the Governor
of the State, that in 81 counties there
were issued in 1865, 564 marriage Ii
censes, and in 1870 there were 8, ,427. In
the same counties in 1865 the number
of colored churches was los; in 1870,
283. In 1865 the number of colored
schools was 10; in 1870, 148; and in
1872 the National Freedman's Trust
Company, only one out of many similar
Institutions, held ofdeposits over $1,000
600 of the savings of the enfranchised
slaves. Gratifying as these statistics
were, they gave but feeble idea of the
physical, mental and moral improvement
If negro the of the South compared to
lthat which he might have gained by
going among them and contrasting their
present condition with the past.
What is still more surprising, this late
fl fire-eater deprecated tke personal pre-
judice, North and South, which would
forbid the negro place in the church,
and hotel, and the theater; "nay," con-
tinued the lecturer, "even in the grave
yard, for the bones of no negro rest in
your beautiful cemetery" He added
that to weaken this prejudice was the
object of his lecture. Abiding to the
negro's mistakes in legislation, Mr..
Prior said:
1t only proved that slavery had not been.
a good school in which to learn politi-
cal economy and after all no negro had
been connected with the Credit Mobiler
and the Legislature Of South Carolina
would compare fayorably with the New
Yook Assembly under the management
of the Ring.
Taken altogether tn is lecture is a very
remarkable proof of the change of feel
ing toward the negro race which is going
on in the minds of all intelligent men.