Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-01-26
THE dOLoRED MANS SOUL.

AN ADDRESS BY AN EX-CONFEDERATE
GENERAL-PoLICY AS WELL AS CHRIs~
r1AN1rY OF SAVING CoLoRED SOULS
soME TRUE WORDS WELL SPOKEN.
&C., &C., SC.
A very good audience, among which
were two or three white and one colored
minister Of the gosp@l assembled III the
lecture room of the First Presbyterian
church to listen to an address of Gen. Geo.
D, johnson, of Alabama, the agent OF the
International Association. Y. M. q. A. to
urge upon the Southern people the ne
cessitv of better religious education
for the blacks. General Johnson is
a man of fine personal appearance,
about forty years of age and rose
from the rank of private in the Confeder-
ate army in the war between the states, to
that of Major General. He was previous
to that event a large slave holder in Ala
bama, and since hostilities ceased has been
a successful Insurance agent in that and
adjoining states. He is a man of much
religious fervor and great energy and as a
public speaker has what may be called on
the whole a fine style. He was welcomed
on entering the room by President r. S.
Hamilton. of the Association and Capt.
W. A. McCue. one of its members, the
latter gentleman being an old acquain-
lance and business associate in Alabama
some years ago. The presiding officer OF
the evening was the President of the Y.
M. G. A., and after prayer by Rev. VIM.
E. Baker, Gen. johnson proceeded with
his address.
He remarked that it was gratifying that
his first effo1ts in his new mission were
made in
VIRGINIA,
a State honored and loved throughout the
South as a commonwealth that had COM
mended itself by every good word n
work to good men everywhere 1t was a
further qualification to him that his work
had been FIRST endorsed in Virginia by its
State Convention of Y M. C.. Associations
at Petersburg, and then in even a more
pronounced manner by the Association at
Richmond which had inaugurated measures
to carry out it's resolutions of endorsement.
He had felt that it was Gods will he should
engage in this work "a work that appealed
overwhelmingly to every man and woman
in the South, especially Christian men and
women, and if he had not so felt he would
not have dared to undertake it. There
could be no subject which challenged our
philanthrophy more than this OF the fu-
ture of the colored race. 1t was one that
we had been willing, aye, glad to put away
as something we had nothing to do with,
and with this prejudice the speaker had
sympathized, but it is a great fact that ev-
cry interest of ours is combined with that
of the black race. AS a problem OF politi,
cal economy it appeals to all and it presses
itself upon the thoughts and sympathy OF
every man, woman and child.
FOUR MILLIONS
of people, the great right arm Of our labor
force, socially connected with our homes
and having more or less to do with the
rearing of our children! 1t is criminal to
overlook such a question. 1t was true the
Southern people had tried to aid them, and
been thwarted by agencies it did not be-
come the speaker to allude to. But it is
not merely as a question Of policy-in
which light it is invincible we are to look
at the religious Improvement of the color
ed race, but as a question of Duty-subs
lime sslf-sacrificing Duty Duty to the
negro, duty to ourselves, duty to God 4!
Where is the intelligent person who will
1o.- &l,o oJ,;po of tho h1,al1 r. n O IN uC for
spiritual improvement They were our
servants for over one hundred years-our
faithful servants. All the great fortunes
built up in the South before the war were
made by them. They were faithful dur
ing the war Fat is the universal opinion
in the South SNo population could have
been more faithful. And since its close
we have no right to complain Of them, but
of influences for which they are not re-
sponsiLle. We know, and they know that
they are inferior to the whites and there
fore we should all the more help them.
They are helping us.
Down in Alabama they are cooperating
with the white people largely (the speaker
did not mean poll tically). and are helping
to build up the country and put it upon a
solid basis.
HERE THEY ARE WITH SOULS
that Christ died to save as much as he died
7fee ours! Here is a race dependent on us
for q correct knowledge of the gospel truth
as it is in Jesus; dependent on the earnest,
.ChristiaR efforts of the whites made for
them. They are not in a condition to do
it themselves. There is no foreign hand
to intervene to aid them, and 1t the South
ern Church does not. they must go withs
ont. This church recognizes every fell as
its field al labor in the vineyard~Why not
this2 It gives millions to the heather, n
~nroperly. too. But here are the heather at
our own doors; in our W families bearing
the responsibility Of government with US.
Who is going to give it to them! ASK the
Southern Christians as a whole II they are
doing their duty in this matter. and they
answer honestly, frankly No! 1t might be
thought he, the speaker, talked plainly.
but be had a right to. He Was an intense
Southern man; had fought four years for
il: shed his bloodfor it, and never regretted
if. and be felt he had a right to speak can
didly.
THE SOUTHERN CHURCH rs NOT DOING
ITS DUTY.
God gives it a responsibility it can
cannot ignore except at it's W risk, and
its failure to do it's duty at its own door
was a more perilous failure than if the OBJ
ject was ia q foreign country. This failure
will not 90 without punishment. True,
in this matter its efforts had been resisted!
There was no ignoring that, but Christians