The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-20

wiz ter and spring it was common talk here ths
, he had spent seventy or eighty Thousand dollar
report by the committee.
CHRISTIANITY AND COLOR.
4 (Scribner for December.1
No American Of ordinary habits OF observation
can have failed to notice that in those sects il
which much is made Of religious emotion, and tn
policy OF powerful public appeals to feeling i
pursued, the moralities of life are at discount
The same fact is evident in those communitie
where dogma and doctrine form the staple of re
ligious teaching and religious life II any on
will take up the early colonial records Of New
England, he will be surprised and shocked at thu
amount of gross immortality which he will fin(
recorded there Rightly Of doctrine, the full
naination Of the most terrific punishments in tn.
future life, the passage and the execution
OF the most searching and defnitive laws
against every form Of social vice, 60 hand in hano
with every form of vice. There was adultery il
high places and adultery in low. SANDER held
high carnival. Common scolds were almost toe
common to be noteworthy. In brief, it seems
that religion which makes most Of it's ortho-
doxy, or most of its frames and emotions OF mind
| is q religion most divorced from morality. A
man who is told that the genuineness Of his re.
1igion depends mainly upon the orthodoxy OF his
faith, or mainly upon the raptures OF his mental
experience, is either partly demoralizeA by his
reception OF the statement or 6p0c1alIy uuHCteO
to meet the temptations Of his life.
The negro has been supposed to be particularly
susceptible toreligious influences. He is as fond
of religion as he is music; and we fear that he ia
fond of it in very much the Same way. 1t is no
SANDER to say that large proportion Of the relg
ous life ofthe negro is purely emotional, and that
large proportion Of the negroes of the United
States have never thoroughly associated, either
in their theories or their practical life, religion
with morality The typical negro preacher
| loud hal vuhn
peals in his own fashion to the crowd before
him and the more he can work them mp
to great excitement, and wild and noisy DEM
onstrations Of feeling, the better he is pleased.
In portions Of the South there are orgies con-
nected with the religious meetings Of the negroes
which are too absurd too ridiculous, too hea hen
| ish, to be mentioned by one who reverently re-
members in whose sacred name they are per-
formed. The yelling, dancing, pounding Of backs
and insane contOrtiens of these worehipers, are
the same, in every essential respect, as they
wonld he in the worship Of q fetch. It is an
amusement-a superstitiOus amusement-whch
leaves no good result whatever, and does no
more toward nourishing their morality than the
music of the fiddle to which they dance away the
next night with equal enthusiasm.
| In . recent conversation with an Intelligent
clergyman, who has spent many years at the
! South-though Northern man-we heard him
declare, without reserve, that he did not know q
negro in the whole Southern country whom he
regarded as thoroughly trustworthy in matters
Of practical morality. Moreover, he declared
that the worst men, as class. among them, were
tended to indicate specially the selfappointed
preachers ignorant, but bright men-who had
secured the admiration and support of the mas
SEES. We asked him if he could not except from
his very sweeping condemnation such among
them as had been educated at the North. He
shook his head, and replied that he knew
some among those, whose superb intellectual
culture would grace the proudest race in the
world, but never knew one Of them whom he
could particularly with his neighbours wife,
Now, this man had abundant opportunities of
observation, and spoke with candor and con-
science. On one of the bright September Sun
days Of the present year, the writer listened to
the outdoor preaching, on Boston Common, Of
one of the finest and most amiable looking speci.
mems of the African race he ever saw. and what
was he preaching about Not purity of character
and life, not love Of God and love of man, not
duty to family and neighbor, but the theological
action from the emotional religion of his race.
but it had no more in it for his race. in its mo-
ralities, than the fiery nonsense of his less edu-
Gated brethren.
Let us allow something for mistakes in the
judgment and observation of the man whom we
have quoted, and still we shall have sufficient
ground for the declaration that the negro in
America, as rule, holds his religion Independent
of morality, as something which either takes the
place of it, or has nothing whatever to do with it
full of grave suggestion, not only as it regards
the future welfare of the race, but as regards
the country in whose political fortunes he has be-
come so important factor. Much as the negro
ucation more. To learn to read will do little for
him il, at the same time, his sense Of right and
wrong, his personal purity, his regard for the
rights Of others. his conscience, are not i'm
be does to-day the relations Of Christianity to
character and conduct his Christianity will rather
debase than elevate b m. In an enormous null
ttude of instances, all over the South, his reli-
gious rites are travesty OF Christian observ.
ances, and libel on Christianity itselt-a trav-
esty and libel that bring religion into contempt
among thousands Of observers.
It will be said that the loose notions Of mar
riage that prevailed during the Negroes bondage,
and the thefts in which he then justified himself,
moral sense. It is claimed that his education
will lift him above his present religious teaching.
Granted, and still we have the emotional nature
OF the negro left, and his natural tendency to
problems with which we have to deal-to educate
the conscience OF the negro. To give him intel
igence without this, is to make him more dan
gerous to himself and us than he is. Ell her a
white man or a black man, with rights and no
sense Of righteousness, is a dangerous man.
His political power is easily bought and readily
sold in the market, he is led with awful facility
into unlawful combinations, he becomes social
curse in every community. The first special aim,
in all our efforts to raise the negro from his de-
gradation, should be directed to his morals This
must be mainly done among the young, and in
schools; and any teacher who is not competent
to this work has no calling among the African
and, if he belongs to the North he had better
come home.
Splendid tool boxes at Weingarts, 81 Chartres
street.
Black cloth vests at 81 so, So. 50 so and 50 IS
at Garthwaite, Lewis & Miller's, 100 Common
street.
Mr.. Bromberg, Representative in Congress
from Alabama, is again urging bill before the
House providing for q National Board of Health,