The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-01
ONE PROBLEM OF THE TIME.
Bishop Dudley Discusses the Question,
"How Shall We Help the Negro?'
How Shall the Races Dwell Together in Har-
mony?-A Great Duty that Rests Upon
All Americans Alike.
Article in the june Century.


In discussing this question do not propose to
snter the arena Of statistics. I am not quite
ready to admit the statement of one writer. that
comparison based upon the census of 1870 is
utterly worthless as regards the negroes while
get do agree that in certain portions of the
South it was materially at fault, and although,
therefore, the figures of Professor Gillian show
ing that eighty years hence the Southern blacks
will nearly double the Southern whites may not
be perfectly accurate, yet as he further says.
'ft is morally certain that by that date, and per
laps sooner, the negroes throughout the South
viii have great numerical superiority"
Nor do propose to enter the lists either as
champion or as assailant of the Negroes progress,
physical, intellectual or moral. There can be no
question that Mr. Greener, the first colorec grad
uate of Harvard University, says that the negro
is self supporting and that he is accommodating
property. AS certainly. too, we must admit
that the intellectual progress claimed for his
race by Mr. Greener is indicated by the exist
ence of upward of hundred journals owned
and edited by negroes" and by the number and
influence of educated negroes who are now scat
tered broadcast through the South; but on the
'intemperance, a low standard of morality, an
emotional rather than a reflective system of
religious ethics, partial divorce of creed and
conduct, and tendency-byno means confined
20 negroes-of superficial learning, and of the
less desirable elements of character, fitness, or
brain, to force their way to the front, are evils
which every honest negro must deplore, while
sadly admitting their existence"
I recall as / write, conversation in New Or
s.n -, xwba I al he avf
to distinguished federal official at dinner
table, whereat the wealth and the intelligence of
the Crescent City were gathered to do honor to
the Chief justice of the United States. A
rather NAL apropos remark OF mine elected from
my companion the confession that he had come
20 Louisiana as a philanthropist in the days Of
reconstruction; that he had been nourshed in
the faith of human freedom; that his aged
father in New Hampshire had prayed with his
family morning and evening, since mis- earliest
freed, and then he added that the
greatest disappointment of his life was
to be compelled by experience, to acknowledge
that the negro is Incapable Of development, and
Ehat he is utterly incapable of the proper per
formance of the citizens duty either at the polls
or in the jury-box. Beyond controversy, and by
the testimony of the educated negro leaders and
of their partisan friends of the white race there
are still remaining in spite of all their boosted
progress an ignorance which is simply abysmal
and moral incapacity before which the lover of
humanity. and still more the patriot American,
stands appalled,; so that / am constrained to fear
and to believe that Prof. Gillian speaks the
truth when be adds, as conclusion of the SEN
tence of which I have already quoted part.
that, with numerical superiority. eighty years
hence the negroes throughout the South will
haze made 'disproportionate gain in wealth
and education, and gain lower still in the do
main of morals"
1.-THE negro has come to America to STAY. y
says Dir. Armstrong, in the North American Re
view for July, 1884, and his opinion is corrobo
rated by the opinions of all the educated negroes
given in the symposium whereof he was one
Bishop Dudley does not believe that the prob
lem can be solved by an amalgamation of the
races.
Certainly, he says, the white man of the
Southern States cannot even consider this REM
edy for his present ills, this proph ylactic against
future woes, and let US remember that the negro
looks with just as little good will upon the
project to break down the wall Of race partition
and make of the twain but one race Mr.. Fred
erick Douglass seems not to have gained, but
rather to have lost, influence with his people by
bis recent matrimonial alliance with white
woman, What may come in the far distant
future, when. by long contact with the superior
race, the negro shall have been developed to a
higher stage, none can tell. For my own
part. believing as Go that "God hath made of
enc blood all the nations of men," look for the
day when race pecuiarltes shall be terminated;
when the unity or the race shall be manifested
rs the method of most rapid progress Indignantly
refuses to be thus set at naught. Our tempo
Pary ills of to-day may not be remedied by the
permanent wrong of the whole family in heaven
and earth.
Still the problem remains. how shall these
races dwell in safety side by side, each free and
nnhampered in the equipment of life and liberty
and in the pursuit of its happiness; how ska
the lower race be lifted up to higher stages of
human Development For only so can the rights
IS q 1a no do Az
present and for the future, and this is the chief
est right of them who are now cast down.
answer. by the personal endeayors of individuals
of the higher race by their personal contact with
these their ignorant and untaught nefghbors
exhibiting before their wondering eyes in daily
life the principles of truth aud justice purity
and charity, honesty and courage
Perhaps this may seem to be the veriest plati-
tuda the gush of sentiment, the twaddle of q
maudlin religion but in all truth and sebefness
mean exactly what say. Let me try to ex-
plain more fully. These people need help, that
they may be lifted up mean, then, that IN my
Judgment that help must be personal and not
official; the hand of friend rather than the
club of officer; the patient counsel of 8
neighbor rather than tbs decree of court, the
enactment of q Congress or the proclamation of
y President.
The solemn sanctions Of the organic law are
thrown round about this liberty, and the robe of
citizenship full, perfect aud complete, with never
seam nor rent, has been put upon it. The courts
have declared its inviolable character and this
decree affirms the negro, the liberated slave a
citizen. But does the declaration make them
suehl We have had declarations from every de-
partment of the government that the negro is a
citizen; but they are powerless to effect their
purpose as were the oft repeated acts of the
Confederate Congress to make the paper dollar
worth more than two cents;as nugatory and vain
as the old time legislation of Virginia that there
should be town nc a certain designated cross
road. The negro is a citizen, and he has rights
under the Constitution and laws that any white
man has, and yet he needs help, though it may
be the black and white denlagogues would dislike
ual. patient loving help, that he may be fitted to
exercise his eovenanted rights, and to do the du-
ties which these rights impose.
Let US turn for moment to another sphere of
life wherein he now plays an independent part.
mean the Christian church, using the term in its
widest possible Specification, including all or
eanizad bodies of Chrisfian diseinles Whan the