Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-09-25

furnish 10000 school teachers, and are as
sessed for S91, 900, 900 worth Of taxable prop
erty Then tell us gentlemen,
which are you really for--the color line, or
the line Of character, intelligence and prop
erty that divides between those who have
and those who have not the right TO rule p
You dare not declare for an infexible color
line such an answer would shame the 20.
litioal intelligence Of Russian"
To his statement In his former article Of
the weight Of Ignominy and injustice which
is heaped on the oolored people by excluding
them from all contact with the white people
in railway oars and waiting rooms, In church
es, In places OF entertainment and, worst Of
all, by practically making one rule for black
men and one for white In courts OF justice %,
he adds In this article numerous Illustrations
drawn from observation, and on all these his
final and conclusive commentary, sharply
propounded to those who defend such things
Is simply, 'Is It right2'
The political bearing Of the problem which
Mr.. Gable discusses with such searching can
dor and ability is touched on but briefly and
then to show the fallacy of the claim Of the
southern whites that they "had to be solid"
to protect themselves from the supremacy Of
the blacks. First, they say, to relieve this
danger, the blacks must divide. But, IT'S
that wise or just arbitration Must the
side that is immeasureably the weaker begin
the disarmament L. 'Ro5leSse o6lige un.
transferable into American p " asks Mr.. Gable
with fine sarcasm which cuts to the marrow
of the whole question.
The blessings which will result when the
people Of the South, "sometlmes wrong but
ever conscientious and ever brave" shall so
broaden the application OF the great law,
written and unwritten, of universal civil
rights that II shall include the black men in
fact as we'll as in name, are described In this
admirable paragraph
1.-THE temptations TO which the negro
shut out from aspirations-now yields, will
lose their power, and his steps be turned with
. new hope and desire toward the prizes Of
industry, frugality, and higher cultivation.
Multiplying and refining his tastes, the rank
energies Of his present nature will not, as
now, run entirely to that animal fecundity
characteristic Of all thriftless, reckless unas-
piring populations his increase in civic value
will be quickened, his increase In numbers
retarded to rate more like our own. And
neither all the crops our sun-loved South can
yield, nor all the metals and minerals that are
under the soil made sacred by the blood Of
her patriots, can bring us such wealth and
prosperity as will this change in the hopes
and ambitions OF our once unaspirinR, time
serving slaves. The solid black will be solid
no longer but he will still be black"
Mr.. Gable devotos his closing pages to an
earnest entreaty TO that large class In the
South, who have come TO a realization of the
danger and injustice which underlie the pres
emit status Of the black man, TO drop their
vague ideas of eXpediency, to give over their
most enormous capacity for pausing and
considering" and move at once for the cor
reotion of these evils
ut is an insult TO a forbearing God and the
civilized world for US 10 sit in full view of
moral and civil wrongs manlfestly bad and cur
able, saying we must expect this or that and
that, geologioally considered, we are getting
along quite rapidly. Such talk never won a
battle or race, and the hundred years past
Is long enough for US Of the South to have
been content with speed that the rest of the
civilized world has left behind. The tortoise
won in the race with the hare, the race didn't
win ITSELF"
1t Is to ''the Silent South" to men who
'leave brawlers to their brawls" and move
out upon the plain Of patient, friendly do
bate, seeking to destroy only error and to
establish truth and equity" that he looks for
the power to solve the dark problem which
slavery left as It's heritage to the people which
1t had so long cursed. He gives no intima-
ton OF belief that help can come from such
defamation at the North as we have protest.
ed against In Senator Sherman and Mr..
Blaine, but real help he sees rather through
the best men of the South coming daily into
convictions that condemn their own beliefs
Of yesterday; and to him it seems no i'm
probability that even the traditionists may be
found any day ranging themselves on the side
of the revolution that everybody knows
must come" ITO say what must is TO say
what will be; and so shall the reproaoh of
slavery, the greatest moral mistake made by
the whole American nation, be swallowed up
In the honor OF this noble gain for the cause
of humanity and universal peace"
It was brave thing for Mr.. Cable TO write
again thus plainly to his Southern brethren
in the face Of the dissent and even upbraid-
ing which his former article evoked but he
has sublime faith in the sense of Justice
which underliea the true sentiment of the
South. This article, too, will call forth
dissent and clamor in some quarters; but
nevertheless 1t will have q moral effect that
cannot be measured. No such calm, earnest,
searching appeal to peoples sense of right
can ever DO lost. It's working may be like
that Of hidden leaven, but sooner or later
its fruit will be seen in a public conscience
quickened and aroused.