New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-11-06
The Public Good.

"A SlHCcIe TcSaIu IoE the pupiic "eidic mas
been at the foundation Of all great move
ments.
When the opponents Of freedom used to
accuse Garrison and Phillips of deserving their
own race in the interest of the negro, the
natural and the truthful reply was 1--WE de-
sire to redress the negrO's wrongs, partly
because We have been led to see that this is
the only way to conserve the white mans
rights. We would save the black man from
the effects Of injustice, because we are GER
tain that this method alone will save the
white man from the guilt of depressing him.
Oppression is an evil in itself, but the conse-
quenccs Of it bring more terrible evils still.'
The history of single decade has indicated
the utteranccs and justified the attitude Of
these great reformers.
May we not learn something from these
facts? They had to tight au organized rei-
gious sentiment, compact, commercial in
terest, a defiant political ascendcncy, but
they won, because every argument and every
appeal touched the public pocket as we'll as
the popular heart.
We will not say that in the great fight be-
fore US VIC find as great hindrancc as these
men encountered, but it cannot be denied
that we fail to find as much unity among
those Immediately interested in civil rights
as was shown by those who banded together
to check Tic injustice Of their own people to-
wards our own.
Let us take the churches and the ministry
for instance tests of the activity of scnti-
mcnt and the efficiency Of labor among our
people.
/ OF the five millions Of colored people in
this country at least one-iiith Or one million
belong to churches of some sort. And the
strange thing is that one million of people,
with the ballot in their hands, have not made
the organizations to which they belong as
powerful in the advancement Of civil rights
as the pro-slavery churches of the South were
in the securement of their continued enslave-
ment.
The white ministers, like Nehemiah Adj
ans, DR.. Lord, Gardener Spring and others,
made themselves heard and felt in every
church gathering, in every ecclesiastical as
sembly, in almost every newspaper in favor
Of the divine origin of slavery and in advo-
cacy of saving the souls of one race by sacri-
ficing both the souls and the bodies Of an-
other.
In this unholy crusade against the African,
the Colonization Society, as the organ of the
white churches, justified the degradation of
colored women, the sale of colored children,
the kllinSof colored men, and expatriation
of all of them that the work of the Lord
might go on in Africa, and that the hatred
Of the negro might continue in America.
lfmen were reused to such deeds under
the inspiration of sellslness and prejudice as
put continent to the labor of abusing aud
destroying IL helpless people, is it not strange
that, now that slavery is dead, now that the
colured man is enabled to worship under his
own vine and fig tree, we do not hear voice as
unanimous aud as far reaching from the col.
ored church in favor Of civil rights as were
those in the white churches against US.
1t seems to us that the thing lacking here
Is public spirit. Is it not time that the pulpit
should begin to discuss these public ques-
tions? While the schools are closed to our
children, or only opened to put upon them
the mark of degradation, which forbids them |
from entering any but prescribed schools,
while the steamboat, the railway, and the |
hotel are ali closed against the members who |
travel as well as against the minister whose
duties force him to avail himself Of public |
conveyauces, the members and ministers are |
partly to blame.
True, il iuay be thai the work Of the niu-
istry is religious, but there can he no true
religion without au iutcruuinslins Of the spirit
OF philanthropy. a man who desires 10 save
the souls Of men caunot on that account
plead exemption from the duties which are
involved ;D looking after bis body; - that
a minister OF the gospel is tue man Of all
others not only 10 speak Gu tue subject vi
civil rght., but to test them in his own per-
.oU. For the white people, as we'll as the
colOred people, would soUu become aroused
10 tue iudignity offered TO our ministers were
hey TO resist being put into Jim Crow cars
md cabins, were they to contend for the
,qual education of their children. We sin-
,crely trust oug churches will be pervaded
~ the public spirit. and that our ministers
sill be actnated by the courage to bring this
ivil rights question before the people, secure /
igna,ures to the petition published in this I
aper, aud so assist Senator Sumner and his |
rienJs in tho attempt TO make u citizens in I
act as well as in name. a
N n Al .