The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1883-03-07
TIE WHITE SIDE OF TIE SUB
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1nbNTuCltOn, II WOflhy % moAO 90
tention from the public press thanit
receives. 1t seems to US the subject
was sadly overlooked, or but curse
rily glanced at by our popular Gov
ernor when he made his recommen-
dalton to the Legislature. At the
risk Of being thought troublesome,
or presuming, or as knowing more
than we ought to know, and giving
others credit for knowing less, We
lift our voice again, as one of the
peoples servants, to condemn the
unwise suggestion. Understand us
at the outset-lce are not opposing
the appointment of an assistant Su-
perintendent of Public Instruction
if the Superintendent needs an as,
sistant. Perhaps he does. Perhaps
others of our excellent Governor
heads of State departments may
stand in need of assistants. If so
let the legislature give them TO them
The business of the people deserves
to be managed properly, and there
is no good economy in withholding
assistance where office holders, eth
er from overwork or incompetency
are found unequal to the task i'm
posed upon them. But what we oP'
pose is that feature of the subject
which would assume that a negro
assistant Superintendent is needed
or would be a good thing for her
public school system. And the prom,
Use was implied, in our caption, that
we would look at the subject, just
now, from the phite side only.
An assistant is always regard
ed as holding position just be-
low his principal. The assistant
Superintendent, as next in of
fee to the State Superintendent
would rank county and district SUI
perintendents and commissioners OF
public schools. How would our
friends and patrons and white peo-
pie of Tennessee like that? But il
is only for the negro schools, we are
told in reply. Yet those schools, as
n general thing, if not universally,
are under control of white officers ali
over the State, and no matter how
polite aud even differential. and no
matter how educationally competent
such assistant Superintendent OF
Public Instruction might be Gov.
Bate would no doubt be very care
full this time as to what man he
would invest with the office still,
we say, the prejudice is SO
natural and strong, that there would
be "unpleasantness," and white men
would not thank our excellent Gov
ernor for sending the negro gentle
man to supervise the school business,
employment of teachers, etc.
Again: the fact will not be ques-
toned, we presume, that our colored
schools, generally, are taught by
white men or women. Excepting
it may be such. of the teachers as
hail from away "down East, and
have been educated up to the black
doctrine of social equal
ity, even the official presence of the
negro assistant would be di,tasteful
--emphatically SO, we may say.
Our negro admirers may retort
upon us and say that we ought to
get rid of our prejudices. Per-
haps we might do it if we would try,
for " where there a will there's a
way" the adage says. But we don't
want to get rid of them in this case.
intending to reflect upon
the black man, we say we would as
soon think of Kidding our minds OF
our prejudice against the leprosy or
small pox, or any other disease that
disfigures the skin of a man. We
even GO so far as to declare our Opin-
ion that if the negro is proud of his
color it is ignorance and not knowl-
edge that makes him proud of it.
If any of them could be white, if
they would and will not, they show
4 lamentable deficiency in what Os-
car Wilde calls, we believe, the sci
ence of aesthetics, or a true appreci-
alton of the beautiful in nature. I'm
til nature is reversed, and night is
better than day, and dark
ness better than light, this prejudice
against the Ethiopian on account Of
Of his color, which has existed from
the beginning, will continue to pre-
vail to the end of time. Legislation
has modified somewhat, as we'll in
ancient as in modern times, so far as
10 secure to the black man equal
rights before the law, and equal po-
Iitical privileges. But beyond this,
no law making power can go, for the
reason that the hand of
human law cannot enter into the
hearts of men, and this depreciation
Of the negro on account of color is
one Of the great Acknowledgements of
the human family. The laws of So
,iety rest upon these judgments nat
lrslly, or ought to do so, and while
human brute force may temporarily
suspend their operation, the remov
II of this force will always result in
! restoration of the suspended social
order. In plain language, brute