Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-08-16

TRIAL NECESSITY.
The Rev. Atticus G.. Haygood, president
of Emory College, Ga, in his capacity as
general agent of the "John F. Slater Fund" )"
delivered, by special request, striking ad-
dress on the education of the Negro, before
the Southern Sunday-School Association, at
Monteagle, Tenn, on the End instant. He
would not discuss the relative capacity of
the two races, and said:
The proposition am here to advocate is
this, and this only: The negro in the United
States ought to be educated.
The first reason offer is in the fact of his
humanity. He ought to be educated be-
cause he is man. AT this point say moth
ing to those who deny the essential unity of
the human race. I speak to those who do
believe in the essential unity of the race,
and believe in the brotherhood of the hu-
man race. believe, therefore, in all broth
erly help and service, wherever and how
ever I find any human being. For the very
same reasons that believe in sending the
gospel and the Christian civilization that
goes with it to China, I believe in giving
Christian education to the negroes in Amer
lea and lest by some possibility there should
be some misapprehensiOn as to the truth l
hold, let me say, believe in giving the op-
negroes for the same reason that l believe
in giving the opportunities of Christian edu-
cation to the white people-that is, because
they are alike human beings, and by natu-
raj, God-given right should have the best
opportunity Gods providence allows them
for becoming all that they are capable of be-
coming.
| THE NEGRo's CAPACITY FOR LEARNING.
How much he can learn, of what develop
ment he is capable, we of to-day do not
know our children will not know, for the
elevation of a race implies the education of
generations. But individuals Of the negro
race have done enough in the matter of adj
vanced education; hundreds of thousands of
them have done enough in the matter of
elementary education to put tofight utterly
the theories and arguments that genera
tion ago we of the white race, with few ex-
CeptiOns, accepted as the final orthodox phi
losophy on this subject
AS a practical proposition l would say
that every child in this country, white
and black, should have, from his parents
or from the Government, an equal chance
for elementary education. Ibelieve in what
Americans mean by the common school,"
There should be schools enough to give to
you please, the "three RS" And these
schools should be good enough to teach the
rudiments thoroughly. Such schools there
must be, if the children of the Republic are
to be educated if they are to be efficient, if
they are to reach the case, they must be
backed by the Government. TO accomplish
this end wisely, justly, efficiently, there
must be a fair and equitable distribution of
the school funds, without distinction of race.
I rejoice that every State in this Union
with perhaps one eXception-does now in
10 o. &c r- writ
out distinction of race, so that in the OppOr-
tunities of elementary education there may
be justice to both races.
What comes after this universal elemen-
tary education? The answer is simple and
to me obvious; whatever individual capaci-
ty, aided by the benevolence of good men
the wise enterprise of the church, makes
possible. Give them all, white and black,
the keys of knowledge, and then let them
unlock as many doors as they can. pity
the coward who is afraid to give a human
that any race will rise too high, that any
individual of any race will learn too much
truth. There is no danger more remote
than the danger of over-education; there
is no danger more imminent than the dan
ger of under-education and false education.
And there is no part Of the civilized world
that, at this time, has greater need to con-
Germ itself with the social and political and
moral perils that lurk in widespread igno-
rance than our own well-beloved and fair
"Sunny South" of the year 1888.
PRACTICAL POLICY OF THE CASE.
With not few persons of good business
faculty and shrewd world wisdsom it often
happens that an argument on the plane Of
policy goes much further than an argument
on the higher plane of truth and right.
They are prone to forget that there is no
wise policy that is against right, and that
while God reigns there cannot be.
[ will offer the argument on the lower
plane. The negro is here, and here to stay.
He is citizen armed with that thunderbolt
of political power, the ballot. That it was
given to him unwisely and without condi-
tions that would develop in him a wise con-
science as to the use of it; that as q rule he
is unfit to be voter-all this I understand
fairly well. But this is not the subject to
discuss at this time. He is a citizen, he is
a voter. In some States he is in the ma
jority in every southern State he is a tre-
mendous poWer-a power whether he uses
it or designing white men use it. 1t is
about time to consider facts. His citizen
ship is fact and his presence here is fact.
There are now at least seven millions of
negroes in this country; nearly all Of them
are in the Southern States. They increase
rapidly and steadily-faster than the white
race increases. The increase in the Total
population of the United States from 1870
to 1880 was 80 per cent; the increase of the
white population, aided largely by foreign
immigration, was 1882 per cent; the in
crease of the negro population, unaided by
foreign immigration, was 34.7S per cent.
Some writers OF name and position have en-
deavored to break the force of these start
ling figures by calling in question the accu-
racy of the census tables ana by seeking, in
the comparisons Of longer periods, as rom
1860 to 1880, to prove a smaller percentage
of increase. If they want the best test for
comparison let them try ten decades; in
stead of two sets of two. One hundred
years ago there were in this country 600
negroes; now there are 100000. That is
they have multiplied ten times in a CEN
tury. How many will there be in 1888?
THE ILLITERATE VOTE.
A man who does not know that voters
ought to be able to read and write does not
know enough to be argued with. The illit-
crate vote Of our Southern States is simply
appalling, and this illiterate vote is increas-
ing. From 1870 to 1880 there was an in
crease of illiterate voters in the Southern
States of nearly two hundred thousand.
Figures may not be interesting to a mixed
audience, but they are sometimes instruc-
tive. will give you few on the illiterate
vote of our section of the Union: In Georgia
the illiterate white vote in 1870 was 81 $780,
in 1880, 2S,67l; the negro illiterate vote
in 1870 was 100, ,55l; in 1880, 1866. The
white illiterate vote in Kentucky in 1870
was 43, ,S2G; 1880, ST ,955 the negro illiterate
vote was in 1870, 37,s49; in 1880, 43,l77. In
Tennessee the white illiterate vote was in
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