Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-09-05
MIR. CABLE AND THE NEGRO.


Mr.. George w. Cables promised
paper, The Silent South" appears in
the Century Magazine for September.
It is an answer to the attacks made
on his @Freedman's Case in Equity"
by Mr.. Henry Grady, of Atlanta, Mr..
James Phelan, OF Memphis, Mr.. Henry
Watterson, and other representative
Southerners.
Mr.. Cable is a citizen OF New Or
leans, an exConfederate soldier, and
claims to be in full sympathy with the
South; but his ideas on some ques-
tons are very widely different from
those entertained by the great mass of
white people in this section.
As literary man, Mr.. Cable has
reached higher level than that attain
ed by any Southerner of the present
day. His genius in this particular
was first recognized at the North, and
that popuIous and cultivated section
has furnished the best marke for his
works.
1t is no answer to argument to ac-
cuse an opponent of selfish motives,
but those who disagree with Mr.. Ca
BILE think that these facts to great
extent account for his adoption of
Northern sentiments in regard to
Southern affairs.
The first indication of these kind of
ideas having taken possession of Mr..
Cable occurred in his novel, "Dr. Sc
vier," in which he exclainls, while
speaking of body of Federal soldiers
in 1868, March on, soldiers of the
Unionl Your cause IS just; we of the
South are willing to admit that now"
Some of the protests that followed
showed that %we of the South" were
not altogether unanimous in any such
admission.
But what placed Mr. Cable in open
opposition to prevalent Southern SEN
timent, was his paper published in the
Century some months ago entitled
The Freedman's Case in Equity" In
which he argued that all racial distinc-
tons should be abolished and the ne
gro received in all public places and
in the same churches and schools on
perfect equality with the whites. This
raised storm of opposition, and "The
Silent South is "A reply to his critics
Mr.. Cable draws a distinction be-
tween "civil rights" and social choice"
He argues that it is silly to speak of
6socIal intermingling," social equality"
ETC., as being in any way the same
thing as such mixing of the races as
he proposes. This is true If we limit
the word social" to that narrow sense
which applies to the home circle and
the right to such companionship as
persons may select for themselves, but
after all, termenology has nothing
to do with the matter. 1t makes no
difference whether this intermingling
be social" or civil" there is neverthe-
less strong feeling against it on the
part of the whites that can't be reason
ed away.
III you come to abstract reasoning
it would be difficult to show cause
why the mixed offspring of marriages
between negroes and whites should
not be as well received as the descend
ants OF Pocahontas, but all the logic at
Mr.. Cables command will not induce
the white paople of the South, nor
those of the North, to act ON such
theory. You may call it prejudice il
you like, but it has an actual and po-
tential existence-this repugnance ON
the part OF the whites to mingling
with negroes, and it would "precipitate
a chaotic state OF society" 10 try to ell
force such a thing.
The mixing OF negro and white
children in the public schools would
simply destroy those valuable institu-
tons. The white people would not
patronize them and would not tax
themselves for their support.
We believe the one church plan
would be more irksome to the negro
than the white man. The negro
preacher, who is Il very numerous and
worry iv,,,ortant naFsonaU0 would find
his occupation gone. The perpetual
revival plan would have to be aban-
doned by the blacks, and those wild
orgies in which they delight could be
practiced no more.
The race problem is one that time
must adjust and the advancement of
such ideas as those Mr.. Cable possesses
won't help it along.