Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1884-06-12
The Future OF the Colored Race.

Try Il, Il never fails SIS Tor Sat druggists, or
The Future Ofthe ColOred Race.
At one of the sessions of the Baptist
National Anniversaries held In Detroit
recently, Rev. p. s. Hensen, ID. d.,
delivered a thrilling address upon
'The Ultimate Aims and Destiny of the
Colored Race in America" The Rev.
erend gentleman spoke of their future
financially, intellectually ana religious
ly, in words of eloquence. that betrayed
the zeal, not only of the enthusiast, but
of one whose heart was in the words
which he uttered. Speaking of their
political future he said; And politically
let their aim be not to thrust themselves
into public offices, as only too many
have been disposed to do-basing their
claim upon their color-and so perpetu-
ating line that ought to be obliterated
forever. No man in America should
be invested with q privilege, or subject
ed to q disability, because he is black
or white, brown or yellow. Politically,
we should know no race but the race
of Adam. The inward recognition for
this nationality or the other is thing
utterly foreign to the genius of Amer
can institutions. The question should
not of color or descent. not of race
or nationality but is he the best man
possible for the office to be filled. And
though the Office &c the highest in the
peoples gift, the chief magistracy of
the fornost christian Iation on the
globe, if some American citizen of Afri-
can decent should ever be found. who
by virtue OF culture, moral character
and splendid craftsmanship, shall of
all men be- the best fitted for so high a
place, then that dark, horse may
count on one Baptist hacker and with
voice uplifted high, will cheer him as
he runs. And intellectually their ambi-
ton and endeavor ought to be to wipe
out the reproach of ignorance and i'm
becility which so long have been asso-
ciated with the very name OF Ethiopia.
With what do you mix your colors?
asked young painter of an old one.
With brains, sir, was the prompt and
pertinent reply. And brains will tell,
and training. Great Britain is only u
little island, and vet it sways the might
lest sceptre in the world. 1t isn't her
ships but her schools her batteries
but her brains, that make her such u
power. 1t is all delusion 10 suppose
that any people can hold any masterful
plan IN the nineteenth century unless
they are abreast with the thought
of the nineteenth century. The colo:ed
race cannot shake their broken shackles
in our faces, and stir our sensibilities
by plaintively reminding us of their
centuries of bitter bondage and unre-
quilted toll. and so keep to the front in
our national affairs. That national and
generous sentimentality has had its day
and is passing away. The glamor and
the poetry are gone. and now we come
to precise facts. The colored race TO
be power must climb TO the high
places of power 10y superior intelligence.
And this superior intelligence is not to
be born in decade, if indeed in a CEN
fury. The Anglo-SaXon of to-day is not
the product of a hundred wears. Little
by little he has steadily climbed
wrestling with kings. battling with
priests, schooled in adversely, suffering
and conquering he is what he is
by the conflict of ages.
1t were useless TO disguise the fact
that the rapturous sentimentalists OF
the emancipation period have been dis
appointed in the African. When the
letters first were broken, and schools
were started anu enthusiastic phi
lanthropists swarmed NOrthward TO
open to the emapcipated slaves the
portals of knowledge, we were con-
stantly RECALLED with extraordinary re-
ports of the marvellous precocity Of
those sable pupils, and it was really
supposed by many well-meaning but ex-
travagant people, thai the whites would
soon be distanced in the race Of prog
ress by the eager strides of those
colored competitors.
The rose colored vision has vanished
like the morning cloud. or the airy
castles of our boyhood's dreams.
The sober part is that the colored
child is just like any other child only
more so, for he has To plod and plod
if he would learn, and in the matter of
intellectual capacity, with here and
there q brilliant and notable exception,
he is handicapped by the consequences
of ages of barbarism in Africa, and
centuries of slavery in America.
Anu lllDt anu JOll dlUuc CtE ucNolol'
the splendid possibilities that lie en-
folded in his heart and brain.
Let his aim be TO realize these in
tellectual possibilities.
Far be it from me, discouragingly to
wish that the colored man must teach
for the weary roll of centuries before
they can hope to lead the van. The
world moves faster than ii did Of yore
Instead of the snail paced stage coach
we speed across continents with the
rush of storm, and instead of the
slow going merchantmen, we slash
across the seas in palatial steamers.
They need not in this era of steam and
tightening to wait for the far away
years to realize their possibilities.
And let them resolve, God helping
them that they will help themselves
that in the worlds broad field of battle,
they will not be driven cattle but heroes
in the strife. They have escaped from
bodily bondage, let them determine to
be Intellectually free, so that they shall
not be the dupes of willy demagogues,
but masters of their own destiny.