New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-05-01

ment and courtesy, one largo class OF Phila-
delphians, and that the class with tho most
reason for approaching the COmmemOration
in its largest meaning, will regard it with
wounded and aggrieved sense of injustice.
One word as to this matter of color preju-
dice. We can fully comprehend the bitterness
and revolt wherewith every cOlored man OF
woman among us daily feels, in thousand
petty ways, the strength which this unreason-
able antipathy holds upon many otherwise
reasonable and just minds. To the whites
who feel it, and feeling it express IL
with so little Christian courtesy or even
decent good breeding, We have not
word to say Argument avails little
with such people; they are usually imltators
by nature and education. They show contempt
to the colored man because he belonged to
lower rank than themselves, and as soon as
the rank above them accepts him they Will
hasten to follow. suit. But TO the cOl0red man
himself we have this to say, that 1T is from
this highest social order among US he will
first ,eceive social recognition when he de-
serves it, and last from the lowest. The
master of the house will invite him as his hon
ored guest long before Biddy in the kitchen will
cease to jeer at him as "niggerp Meanwhile
let him remember that facts are facts. Cen
erations of slavery are not to be ignored IN
any sense. He cannot shake off the weight
or stain Of them in day. Legislation VIII
not wear away prejudice any more than the
pioneers ak will chop away malanous logs.
Time has worked more swiftly in their behalf
than cool foresight would have propheSied. 1t
needed three hundred years of civilization and
Christianity to lift the Jew from the rack and
foasttiing-spit of the Norman. baron to the
Premiership of England. 1t took but five to
place a slave in the seat Of Jefferson Davis in
the Senate. Recognition may come, to their
thinking, but tardily; but it will come. and
only by their own achievement The mills Of
God grind faster and surer when a man puts
his shoulder to the wheel and does not wait
for the wind to blow.
To apply such rules to the present instance,
which serves as an example OF many, we
think our cOlored friends showed undue SEN
sitiveness in Tesentng the ill-adyised words
of one person, who was in all probability
ignorant of the fact that their class in Phila-
deIphia had attained in many instances not
only wealth, but culture and refinement
equal to that of any of the white repre-
sentatives. Secondly, putting aside all qucs-
ton of caste and color, were we in
their place we would prefer that the colored
population of the country should make
special, separate effort fOrs the expression and
development of their position in the Centennial
rather than be merged and herded with the
indiscriminate mass of foreigners and natives
They have tale of their own to tell, unique
picturesque, and wonderful; message to
deliver to the world of the injustice and
cruelty of their past and their chance for
the future, which is of more depth and
soemnity than even the much desired title of
American citizen. We may err in judgment
but we would at least for this one last time,
as matter of taste and reason, see them
stand apart from the mass of the nation long
enough to say, "Thcse are they who came
cup through great tribulatiOn. With great
"price obtained they their freedom"