The Dawson journal., 1883-09-13
The Negro Problem.

1
tous and interesting question, wheth-
er or not the negro is capable of any
great improvement. DR.. Haygood
takes the ground most decidedly that
he is, and that all that is necessary
to be done is to educate him; that he
is man and human being, and is
capable ofbeing elevated to the plane
Of the white race. A large number-a
very great majority-of our State
contemporaries have taken issue with
the reverend gentleman, and dispute
his position, aud of this number we
are constrained to be one for the fol-
lowing reasons:
The experiment of endeavuring to
bring about the approach Of the ne
gro to the plane of the white man by
education, has been quite fully test
ed in the South. When the war end
ed with the freedom of the southern
blacks, it left all races in our section.
as rule, as poor as poverty itself.
The white man of family returned
from the army to find his property
lost and scattered to the four winds
OF heaven, and he had nothing upon
which TO rely for the support and ed
ucation of his children but his own
indomitable spirit and strong right
arm. Thus white and black children
IN the South had pretty even START
in tie educational race, and when
the public school system was adopted,
schools for the former, as well as the
latter, were inuagurated. Now at
the end of nearly 90 years what do
we fnl? Notwithstanding the in1-
mense disavantage, under wich they
labored, the whites of the South have
made material progress onward,
while the blacks-despite that in ad--
dition to thepublic schools provided,
and kept up for them by taxation
mainly of the whites, have had sever
al large sums of money given them
for educational purposes by North
ern 'philanthropists have, as a
class, not only stood still, but, can
dor compels US to say, have, in most
cases, retrograded Education seems
to have been actually clog to them,
for they have not only made no sub
siantial progress, but it is q conceded
fact that their efficiency as laborers
has been greatly reduced.
Neither is this the experience of
the Sodth alone. In the British pos
sessions south Of us, the same state
of affairs exists. In the Island of
New Providence, one of the Bahamas
belonging to Great Britain, the negro
population is very large, and the
british government has established
schools and done what it could for
the advancement of it's colored SUBJ
iects. Yet the traveller to that local
ity would be amazed to see the iono-
rance, shiftlessness .and idleness of
this class of the population. So in
Jamaca, another island belonging to
Great Britain, and where every effort
has been made to advance the status
Of the race. There the same condi-
ton Of affairs exists, and the negro
has made no progress since he was
set free many years before our eman-
cipaton. The instances of Hayti.
which Is an island entirely under ne
gro control, and Of Liberia, where
strenuous but unavailing efforts to
create a prosperous free African Re-
pubic have been made for years,
might also be cited. All these 90 to
prove that the colored race are capa-
BILE only of a certain degree of prog
ress, and that its elevation to the
plane Of the white is, even under the
most favorable circumstances, impos-
sible.
This fact being abundantly proven.
1t is but q waste of time and money
to ep1eavor to make the white and
black races in the South equal, and it
is clear that the Almighty never in
tended that they should be. The
white must be the leader and instruc-
tor OF the black, and the latter MUST
always recognize the superiority of
the former
But this places a gret responsible
ty on the white man, Fespecially of
the South. 1t is his duty to treat
the negro kindly and with humanity.
for the latter is not only man, but
citizen. He should oe instructed
In such Things as he ought to know.
lt should be imposed upon him that
idieness and vice are sure to bring
him to poverty and degradation that
he must be reliable workman who
respects his word and understands
the sacredness of bis contracts; that
he must do his part faithfully in that
sphere of life in which thath rlaaood