The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1882-10-21
An EnsIIshman on the Race Question

Mr.. Freeman, a distinguished
English philanthropist, whose wri-
tings in behalf of oppressed ma
tiOnalities in the East have made
him famous, thus treats the negro
( problem:
The negro difficulty must last
either till the way has been found
out by which the Ethiopian may
change his skin, or till the white
man or the black departs out of
the land. The United States-and
in their measure other parts of the
Ameri continent and islands
have to = apple with a problem
such as no other people ever had
TO grapple with before. Other
communities, from the beginning
of political society, have been
either avowedly or practically
founded ON distinctions of race.
There has been, to say the least,
some people, or nation, or tribe
which has given its character to
the whole body, and by which
other elements have been assimi-
/ lated. In the United States this
part has been played, as far as the
white population has been con-
cerned, by the original English
kernel. Around that kernel the
foreign elements have grown; it
assimilates them; they do not as
similateit. But beyond that range
lies another range where asslmila-
ton ceases to be possible. The
eternal laws of nature, the eternal
distinction of color, forbid the as
similation of the negro. You may
give him the rights of citizenship
by law; you cannot make him the
real equal, the real fellow, of citi-
zens of European descent. Never
before in our world, the world OF
Rome, and of all that Rome has
Influenced, has such an experiment
been tried. Aud this though in
some ages of the Roman dominion
the adoption and assimilation OF
men of other races was carried to
the EXTREMIST point that the laws
of nature would allow.
The bcstowal of citizenship on
the negro is one of those eases
which show what law can do ant
what it cannot. The law may de
clare the negro to be the equal o
the white man; 1t cannot make
him his equal. To the old ques
ton, Am not a man and broth
or | venture to answer no. III
may he u man aud n brother il
some secondary sense; he is no
q man and brother in the sam,
: full sense in which every Western
Aryan is man aud a brother. III
cannot be assimilated (; the law
of nature forbid it. And it i
} surely dangerous experiment t.
I have in any commonwealth an IN
: ferior race legally equal to the su
perior, but which nature keep
: down below the level to which In,
I has raised il. 1t is less dangerou
t in this particular case, because tn
Q negro is on the whole a peaccfr
| and easily satisfied creature. ii
has no very lofty ambition; he !
for the most part contcntcd TO IN
itatc the ways of the white man a
far as he can. A high-spiritc
people in the same case would b
a very dangerous element indeed
No one now pleads for slavery
! no one laments the abolition G
J, slavery; but did tho abolition G
| slavery necessarily imply the at
. mission of the emancipated slav
y to full citizenship +! There Ia,
: allow, difficulty and danger in til
position of q class enjoying civ
J but not political rights; place
under the protection of the Law
but having no share in making th
law, or in choosing its makcr
But surely there is greater difficu
ty and danger in the existence {
certain class of citizens who {
the polling booth are equal {
other citizens, but who are nC
= their equals anywhere else. W
J, are told that education has don
and is doing much for the youmgt
0 members of the enslaved rae
II But education cannot wipe ont I'll
i eternal distinction that has bee
+ drawn by the hand of nature. n
J. teaching can turn a black man int
II a white one. The question wlic
in the days of controversy, IL
l. North heard with such wrath fro
e the mouth of the South: "Woul "
you like your daughter to marry
nigger ~ lies at the root of Il
matter. Where the closest Of h
man connections is, in any lawf
form, looked on as impossibl
. there is no real brotherhood, I
= real fellowship. The artificial I
- of citizenship is in such cases