New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-26

N0W ~
Especial Correspondence Of the Republican,
NORTHERN POLITICS.
New YORK, May II, 1876.
Those who have been disposed to ignore
the Protestant question in the impending
presidential election and its relation to the
negro, are about 20 be aroused into con-
sciousness that the negro question and the
Protestant question are to be the controlling
elements in American affairs for the next
twenty years. The religious press of tho
North has begun to diecues this question
with an esrnestness quite new to it. The
presence of the South American Catholic
Emperor has much to do with stimulating
this discussion, NO doubt, but there are
other causes at work producing this un-
wonted activity in the papers and in the
pulpit in regard to the negro question, ae it
relates to the future of the Roman hierarchy
in the New World. As an indication of the
extent of this discussion, l copy leading
editorial from the World of this date:
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE NEGRO.
Mr.. Edward w. Blyden. who is . full
blooded negro, university graduate and
the head of prominent educational insti-
tuition in Liberia, contributes to an English
magazine remarkable article On Chris.
tianity and the Negro Race" com-
panion piece to his "Mahometanism
and the Negro Race" published last
tall. In his Introductory recital Of facts
connected with the history of American
slavery, he recslls the slave holding record
of Penn, Whitefield and Edwards, the care.
full training of generations OF Puritan or
Huguenot deecent in the belief OF the God
given right of enslaving the negro, and the
teaching of the negro himeelf by Christian
divines Of all shades of opinion, Of the duty
of submission. He received the Goepel
travestied and diluted, and his morality
grew all awry. Since the civil war and the
abolition of slavery, social and moral pro
grees has been made, though necessarily it
has been slow, mainly because the negro is
taught not to be himself, but to initiate
some one else, to copy the white man in ell.
From this general introduction Mr.. Bly,
den paeses on to discues Q question in
which Americans will take q special inter-
eet-the relative claims of the Catholic and
Protestant churches to the respect and a.
legiance of the negro. The text 10 the
article published in the Independent by
Bishop John NJ. Brown, Of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, warning the
on their ranks Of the Roman Catholics, ana
the reply of George T. Downing contro-
verting the Bishops position. Mr.. Bly,
denis comments are marked by trankness,
acuteness and ampleness of Information.
He does not believe that the thoughtful
and cultivated Protestant negro can read
history without being. impelled ire
eis.ibiy to acknowledge the deep
the Catholic Church. The only Christian
negroes that freed themselves and main
tanned their position - freemen-the Hay
tians-were Catholics, and 1.-The gre0est
negro the Christian world has yet pro-
duced-Toussaint rOuverture"-was also q
Catholic. Rome has canonizsd many ne
grOee, male and female, but Protestantism
has no colored saint. A negro in the six
teenth century rose to be professor OF
Latin and Greek in the schools attached to
the Cathedral Of Granada, and married q
lady of that city, who erected monument
to his memory in the cathedral; in what
Protestant university has negro been tOl-
Grated! BENJAMIN Banneker, says Mr.. Bly,
den, is the most distinguished negro pro-
duced by a Protestant country, and the
only literary recognition he ever received
was in an appreciative letter from JEFF
ferson, q reputed infdel. All the his
torians of Brazil extOl the name OF
Henry Diaz, the negro general. Borros. the
POrtu guese historian, rates the negroes. as
soldiers, as preferable to the Swiss. The
blacks Wed with the French in the defense
of Guadalupe and Martinique. When, ON
the other hand, has there ever been q negro
General, in a Protestant army, or have
Protestant negro soldiers proved as etti'
cient! In 1872, Martinique sent as her dele
gate to the French National Assembly. a
negro, NJ. Pory Papy; if the British colonies
were represented in the House of Commons,
would the people of Jamaica or Barbados
do as much2 When in the Episcopal con-
vention held in this city in 1874 it was de-
cided to censecrate negro bishop OF
Hayti, the English bishop Of Jamaica, DR..
Courtenay, dissented, alleging that after
twohundred years Of residence in Christian
Jamaica and forty years Of freedom. the
island had not yet produced priest of
purely African race, that mo negro in holy
orders could command that respect in
Jamaica which white priest could COM
mand."
Under Protestant rule, Mr.. Blyden con-
cludes, the negro is kept in such state Of
tutelage and responsibility that he can
scarcely fail to be constantly dependent,
and therefore, in any emergency, useless.
He had in his previous essay shown that,
as compared with Mahometanism, which
admitted the negro as an equal, educated
him and conferred responsibilities on him,
the same thing was true of Christianity.
He finally notes that as a rule the truest
friends of the negro among Christians
have been found outside of the orthodox de-
nominations. Charming, Parker, Garrison,
Phillips, Emerson, Longtellow, all were
Unitarians, and the most constant and un.
compromising defender of the cOlored
man in England has been the goddess West.
minister Review.
Here, then, we have protest against the
policy of race ownership, which the Protest
ant whites of the United States and of the
British West Indies propose to establish
over the negro. This protest will stand
There is not an intelligent negro in America
who will hot feel that this system of per-
petual pupilage, under the form Of freedom,
is bitter mockery and indignity.
We have heard much lately in regard to
the clark horse" which was to appear in
the political arena this year and decide the
contest. Political managers of all parties
have been looking for this clark horse
Well, he has made his appearance at last
And now, what do the men who believe in a
white mans Congress, q white mans gov.
ernment, q white mans church, white
mans school, and white mans graveyard
propose to do about itl
IwOuld say q word in the way of correc