Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1874-01-01
The NEGRO.
A Southern Mans Lecture GA the A'ast'
Present and Future of the Negro.
rom The New York Sun of December.

Present and Future OF the Negro
From the New York Sun of December
General Roger A. Pryor delivered IL: elo-
uucnt address last night before the Lers
Island Historic al Society in the chapel OF the
Packer Institute. His theme was he Ne
gro: His Past, Present and Futures; and tor
more than an hour his earnest words kept
large and captivatcd audience intensely IN
tcrested. General Pryor said:
''In proportion as the negro shall be care
full. prudent and industrious, he shall add to-
the material wealth ef the country, and III
lust such proportion as he advances IN men
tai culture and in the building up of his moral 4
nature he shall contribute to the elevatloniuf
society at large. Bat if he shall prove to
idle. improyident, immoral and vicious, ne
shall be a pest to society and a curse to HIM
self and his kind The destiny of the indl-
yidual depends largely, i. not chiefly, on his
nhcrteu characteristics; and OF all men,
none is so little bchelden to past history as
the black man. The history OF bis race IS
one long, sad story Of lamehtatlon and woe,
of misery and oppression. No noble deed OF
a noble ancestry illumine the page. II IS all
gloom and darkness and degradation. AT
the birth of his race everything was against
him. Tht climate of his native land was
enervating, and the soil such as demanded no
manly toll to make it yield him food. For
countless ages he grouped in ignorance, until
at last the Egyptians came and enslaved him.
Thcnceferth he was the thrall OF earth. lie
became identified with us as the victim OF
system Of slavery for which the merchant OF
the North was as fully responsible as the
planter of the South. When emancipation
came it found him ignorant. idle, and i'm
provident, and totally unfit for the change in
his condition. Suddenly ushered upon the
arena of life to struggle for existence with
the strongest nation III the world, he was
looked upon with little favor by one-half who
had come to grief III the contest, ana win
bat little more by tlc other to whom he owed
his freedom 1t was confidently predicted
that under the new order of things he would
| 70 from bad to worse, ana al last become
extinct, but lie has shown an inherent strength
of character not 10 be despised; and as a
Southerner say it, be is gradually making
himself competent to the highest achievement
of civilization. Applause.] In the war he
was not surpassed in courage by his fairel
comrade: in devotion to the cause for which
he fought he was not cxcclled; and what can
eoaal the heroic fidelity with which he cared
for and protect ID the defenceless wives and
children of the confederate soldiers who were
struggling in the field to keep him in bond
age? His virtues are his own; his vices are
the result of the untoward circumstances that
have always surrounded him.
The speaker then cited authorities to slow
that instead of dying out, as had been pre-
dicted, the negro race in the South was rap.
;ily increasing in numbers. He said:
lin 1860 there were 1858, 1GO slaves in the
Southern States. In 1870 the census returns
showed a population of 1850, ,070 colored citi
zens. This increase Of twenty per cent. is g
sufficient rebuke of the contemptuous predic
ton of the black mans decay. The negro is
also developing the resources OF the country
In 1860 the cotton crop reached 3, $50, ,OO(
bales: in 1866, tho war having just closed
the Weld was only 100000 bales; but III
1872 the voluntary laborers, once slaves but
now frcemcn, send to market !, 900, 600 bales
AS an evidence that the negroes OF the Sou,t
are improving morally, let me quote from re-
ports touching the condition Of thirty-ont
counties of Mississippi, which in 1865 ba(
but nineteen cOlored schools, and in 1872 nc
fewer tkan 49, In 1865 only 6G4 marriage
licenses had been issued to the blacks. fr
1872 the number had increased to $3.50.
have great hopes for the negro. TO be sure
the system of slavery was not the best schOO
in which to learn the science of government
but we have not yet heard that coloree
Congressman was in any way implicated II
the Credit Mobilcr scandal, and do not be
lievc that the negro Legislature of Soutf
Carolina was any more purchasable than th'
New York Assembly during the days of th'
Ring. [Applause. What the negro wants
is chance to advance with the rest of man
kind. In the North the theatres, the hotels
even the churches are closed to him, an(
when he dies, prejudice actually defies the
equality of the grave and forbids that hi
bones shall desecrate the sanctity of Green
wood and Woodlawn and Laurel Hill.
In conclusion, General Pryor predicted tha
the extreme Southern States would becon'
the home of the blacks-that in fifty year.
they will be 10, 000, 900 strong, and that they
will bring to our councils that patriotism
which the memory of their later past mus