Mexico weekly ledger., 1883-05-24

URI, THURSDAY,
THE GoLoBED RACEPROBLEM.
corresppndence d. ths Ledaer.
Mrxfco, No., May. 20.-In your
issue Of TIE ard inst, over the head
lines Of Colored r Population 2 I read
with some interest your own remarks,
as well as that Of others taken from
your exchanges. You do injustice to
our colored citizens. 1t is true they
have been declared free men and free
women, but no intelligent person,
living where slavery once existed,
will say that more than a single step
has yet been tsken toward making
then free in. fact, The barbarian
sconrge d American slavery has
stamped its impress on both white
md black throughout the land. - /
copy largely from report given to a
New York Epaperof the Emandpation
Jubilee, held in Washington on the
10th Of April. last, it being the
Twenty first anniversary Of the emian-
cipation of slaves in the District OF
Columbia. Not long since a vener-
able South Carolinian in an ecclesi-
astical assembly in which the aptness
of the negro to learn and his thirst
for knowledge were asserted, replied !:
''Yes; they are initiative, and 80 are
monkeys" The white llliteracy of
the South must beware Of these
monkeys Their bondage state Of
dependence for generation appears eff
fectually to have inwrought into their
very being unconcern for ~to-moErpw,
provided they have a crust for to-day.
Many of them are learning self-reli-
anee, frugality and thrift; they are
laying the foundation for competence
and wealth. As a class, they are the
happiest, sincerest people you meet,
many of them literally taking no
thought for the morrow. Blighted
and cursed by the neglect and wrongs
of their bondage period, this rapidly
multiplying people, so teachable and
kind, so confiding and eager to learn,
so emotional and religious, will be
moulded under christian influence into
. noble and manly factor in the state
and in the church. The gospel, with
them, as with all who grow under its
light and life-impartipg principles,
will be the power of God to save them
from ignorance and improyidence,
from indolence and superstition, and
will transform them into an intelligent,
independent and thrifty people. But
this transition can not be made in 8
day, nor a single generation. As q
race, they are not yet a single gener-
alton from the lash, and the fetters,
the cabin, and the, hoe-cake, and the
barbarous laws written in the statute
book in letters of blood. Another
genera ton and another, win work
wondrous changes.
But the event Of emancipation day
was the well-timed and deeply earnest
grafton of Frederick Douglass. From
a slave in Maryland, fleeing for his
freedom, he is to-day probably the
noblest Representative Of his race
having the confidence of all who know
him. Says Mr.. Douglass: ~
''Thirty-seven years ago, I was
abroad for safety, rather than fol
health, for at that time there was ne
place Of safety for me anywhere
under the American flag, or or
American soil. An Irish "No l.
is safer here now, than I was then
Our government then had no grea
tenderness for refugees, however in
nocent of crime, if their skins hap
pened to be slightly tanned, or thei
hair trlfe woolly.''- g. = p
I give you a few sentences from
this excellent address, for the negr'
problem interests all thoughtful peo
|ple. tits not q dead. but an interest
ing living issue, and must more ant
more engage the brain and heart o
patriot as well as the philanthropis
and christian. I know its discussion
is most unpalatable in some sections
but, for that very reason, loyalty t
truth, and right, and Cod demand
its free, full and fair discussion
This clear-headed and honest man
speaking for more than six million
of his people, says: ~
'sUntil the colored mans pathwa
to the American ballot-box, Mort
and South, shall be as smooth and
safe as the same is for the white cit
zen, this discussion will go on; ur
til the celored mans right to praetic
at the bar Of our courts, and sit upo
Ijuries, shall be the universal law an
practice of the land, this discussio
Twin go on until the courts of th
country shall grant the colored man
fair trial and a just verdict, this dis
cussion will go on; until the America
people shall make character and nj
color the criterion of respectability
this discussion will go on; until trut
and humanity shall cease to be Twin
ideas. and mankind shall sink bac
into moral darkness, and the worl
tshaii put evil for good, bitter II
sweet, darkness for light, this discu