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

part by the counsels Of the wise and good
citizens. I say in small part, for the bad
and designing demag0gue has more power
over the ignorant vote than the good and
useful patriot. Second, the votes of igno-
rant men are largely determined by preju-
dice. Out of prejudice proceed conflicts and
all manner of social and political wrongs.
Third, the votes Of the ignorant are largely
influenced by bribes, offered in one form or
ruption without end and bottomless. The
worst thing about this huge illiterate vote
is not the incapacity of the voters to use
their ballots wisely; it is this: Ignorance
fits them exactly to become the tools of
corrupt men of superior intelligence. With
an illiterate vote large enough to hold the
balance of power, elections are for the most
part, dictated by demagogues and manipu-
lated by villains. It is left to intelligent,
industrious and honest citizens to settle the
costs of corrupt government.
OBJECTIONS TO NEGRO EDUCATION CONsID-
Erred.
l am not unacquainted with the answer
to all this as plea foEafe education of the
negro. "Book-learning," we are gravely
informed, "is not sufficient; the negro needs
education in morals" This is true, and
true as to the negro, because it is true as to
|
ously urge the negro's need of education in
morals as an objection to his education in
books? Is book-knoWledge then unfavor-
able to good morals? Is ignorance the
mother of devotion and the nurse of re-
| ligion? Then recall the fierce Arabs who
put torch to the library of Alexandria and
bid them burn down your colleges and
schools; bid them destroy your books and
stop your busy press forever. Then stop all
education-stop all thinking-vegetate and
die. It is unmitigated nonsense, this mis-
erable pretense of reasoning that since the
negro does need betterment in his morals
the school-house is not good for him. A
most significant fact may be mentioned at
this point. The only white people in this
country who are eXpending either much
money or much service in the effort to i'm
prove the negrO's morals are also the people
who are eXpending most money and service
in the endeavor to teach him the knoWl-
edge of books. 1t is also true that those
who have the most to say about the negro's
need of education in morals, as reason for
not educating him in books, are precisely
the people who are not doing anything Of
consequence to educate him in anything.
| TO plain man there seems to be degree
of sham and can't in their talk.
The objections of the negrO's education
| that control mems 'sopinionS have their origin
in four roots, closely united. First, in igno-
rance; there are not a few who are, at bot
tom, opposed to all education. Second in
stinginess; multiplied thousands deny their
own children education because it costs
money. Money is their god There are
many white men in this country who are,
by some sad mischance, the fathers of fami-
lies and the owners of good properties, but
they are too mean and too near barbarism
to educate their children. They are traitors
to their sacred trust Of fatherhOod and dis
grace to the human race. And as to public
Schools, in which the children of the poor
may be taught the rudiments Of education,
objection with most people would cease ii It
cost them nothing. Of thisclass of objectors
I have yet to meet one man who opposed
the schools, in which the children of the
poor may be taught the rudiments of educa-
ton, objection with most people would cease
if it cost them nothing. Of this class of OBJ
jectors I have yet to meet one man who op-
posed the schools somebody else's money
paid for-unless from sentiment worse than
avarice. Third, in prejudice-prejudice
against negro because he is negro. Ava
rice is a mean spirit, but this sort of preju
dice is meaner. 1t is cowardly and ignoble;
it is, root and branch, utterly unchristian.
If any think that my language is too strong,
let them test their prejudice. Take them
them. Test them in the light of the Ser
mon on the Mount and of the Judgment
Day. How mean they look in that light |!
Fourth, in apprehensions that appeal to two
classes of fears. One is, the apprehension
that the education of the negro will spoil
him as laborer. l know what l am talk
ing about when ] say that this fear is at the
bottom of much of the current opposition to
the education of the negro. | 60 among the
people and keep my eyesand ears open. If
the argument that supports this apprehen-
sion be worth anything it proves too much;
for it is just as good as an argument against
the education Of the poor whites it will as
certainly spoil them for laborers. The spir-
it that is capable of such an objection to the
education of the poor of any race is selfish,
cowardly and essentially mean. tits worthy
only of the Dark Ages. 1t is at bottom
plea for the tyranny Of "bossism." Put in
to form it says this: 81 am, by virtue of
money, or shrewdness, or learning a sort of
boss among my felloW-men | must keep
them in ignorance that l may keep them
down and be better able to play the boss"
MANS UPWARD TENDENCY.
But there is nothing in the argument; it
is false all through, for no man is better for
anything in this world that is worthy to be
done because he is ignorant. a trained dog
is better than wild dog. Ignorance is not
qualification for anything which God in
tended men to do. 1t is first, last, all the
time disqualification rather. Every princi-
pie of right and justice denies it; every law
of political economy condemns it; the his
tory of the human race repudiates it. Intel
ligence spOils no man for anything that
man ought to do in this world. And were
it otherwise, what right, before God, has one
human being to keep another human being
in ignorance in order to keep him his slave?
These questions go to the bottom, and we
must 60 to the bottom in settling questions
of rights and wrongs between man and his
felloW-man.
What is history good for except to teach
us by its examples If history teaches any
thing it teaches that no social, or labor, or
national or race problem was ever yettru
ly solved by mere repression-by merely
trying to keep human beings down. 1t is
in our times seen at its best and at its worst
in Europe. 1t is the Russian system. 1t
fails always and everywhere; there is in it
dynamite and death and hell. 1t must fail,
for in it's very heart it is tyranny, and the
Eternal powers are against it.
With some, too, there is opposition to the
education of the negro from a vague fear of
something that is called "social equality"
Just now the poor negro is in "a place where
two seats meet" There are two classes of
extremists one is in mortal terror lest he
should become somebody the other is NOR
bidly anxious that he should assert claims
to what he is in nowise fitted for. If be-
tween the two he does not lose his balance
he will deserve the respect of both. There
never was in this world in any nation or
community such thing as social equality,
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