Arkansas weekly mansion., 1884-03-29
REPLY TO BISHOP PIERCE
Editor Mansion


l am always timorous in coming out be-
fore the reading world to discuss topics of
national and social concerns, and much
more reluctant am l to place myself in such
conspicuous positions the columns OF
Journals to break sabers with one whose
ideas OF the negro are too absurd and low
to trend with the public mind; however,
time, place and circumstances, often rem
der timid men bold. If the kid on the
houses is bold enough to rail on the wolf
passing by, most certainly will the freedom
of thought, speech and press of this age
and cline prompt the most insignificant
negro to raise Il dissenting voce-through
the mouth-pieee of the times-agsinst any
individual or institution that publicly slim gs
mud at our race.
l noticed in your issue of the Sth inst,
that Bishop Pierce, of Georgia, had de-
scended from his lofty seat of clerical dig
nifty to deal out balls of mud to be slung at
the negro race. His hope seems to be that
the negro in his rising power of industry
and learning might ever be beaten back by
public cstracism-such as the learned di-
vine himself has moulded in the color OF
fair sentiment-but the seer is a quarter
century behind his own prophecy. His
views of the negro will go like Herod g last
orders-perish when be perishes.
If it be true, as the Bishop has said, that
"higheT education will be a positive ca
lamity to the negro,'' it follows that the
more illiterate the negro the better his con-
dition, and that the Inhabitants OF the wilds
of Africa who are cropping in ignorance, are
in better state of affairs than the Ameri-
can negro who has acquainted himself with
l:tters and learning-yes, "higher" learn
ing.
Again. if s:higher education of tho negro
will increase friction between the two
races" social equality of the two races will
not depend upon equal culture and training
of the two races, but on the other hand it
will depend upon the ignorance and base
ness of the Negro, associated with the
highly intellectual and moral qualities of
the white race. The above conclusions fol-
low from the Bishops absurd premises, but
he is such logician that he would reject
them himself.
The Bishop also states that 'shigher edu-
cation" on the part of the negroes would
elevate their aspiration higher than the
station for which They were created. Can
the Wesley of the nineteenth century be
sober in his expressions? That all men are
taught all through the Bible. Does the
veteran of southern Methodism think that
Gods purposes are arranged that our
race must be lifted to the concave of heaven
and another chained down from the sky ?
Sad is the fate of all such Bishops.
There are negroes in the south who
would fain grasp the hand of Bishop Pierce
as their warmest friend. They would ne v er
have expected such lava OF color line caste
to flow from the Bishops crater to bury the
negroes hope and blight their prospects
forever, because she is the Bishop but
"pigmles on Alps are pigmies still"
Further, the Bishop says ''higher edIIca-
tion' on the part of the negro will result in
intermarriage, and that the appointment of
negroes to positions of trust and RESPONSE
bility liz an insult to the southern people.
AS tor the intermarriage, l don't think
that there will ever be SO many cases that
prisons will have to be used as pest houses
to remedy such an outbreak of the age.
What few there have been has not involved
society into turmoil and blOodshed, for the
prevailing opinion seems to be that mar
rage cOnbTacts never become the properly
of Il third party.
Federal appointments should not insult
the southern people, nor can l think they
do. There may be ONE few in the south
whose ideas are shapened by the Z shops
wonderful mould, (for "they who make
their idols are like unto them hut they
are not by any means the whole Southern
people, No, it is not the ''SOl thern peo-
pie" Insulted, but it is the Southern Bishop.
After all, suppose all the Bishop said was
true; what then? Is not the world moving
on just the same? Who can help it? No
one but the good Lord, and he does not
wish to do so. Such sentiments as Bishop
Pierce's might be expressed by all the
Bishops and POpes of the age, but they
would not effect the liberty and learning
that the regro CLEANS in this age.
Negroes are filling positions Of trust and
responsibility with money to themselves
and credit to their race. Negro youth all
over our common country are bending over
the tables of science and art and walking
among the tombs of the dead languages.
The best thing the Bishop can do is to pray
like Simon of old. j. A. BOOKER.
Nashville, Tenn, March Is, 1884.