St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-09-10

In wanting 10 rule the country, Is, III
my humble opinion, only a chimera
evoked to make political capital"
But after all these impressions have
been recorded, after a Northern man
has conceded so much that argues good
and only good for the South and the
whole country, there remains the-to
Northern minds-most important fac
tor of all, the negro. What of him
How do the Southern people treat him,
what do they mean to do with him 7
For answer to these questions Mr.
Warner says, first of all:
''If | were tO say what my Impres
sion is, it would be abOut this the
South is quite as much perplexed by
the negro problem as the North is, and
is very much disposed to await devel-
Opments, and to let time solve it. One
thing, however, must he admitted, in
all this discussion. The SOutherners
will not permit such legislatures rs
those assembled once IN Louisiana and
South Carolina to rule them again.
'Will YOU disfranchise the blacks by
management or by force 2 well, what
would YOU do in Ohio or Connecticut ?
Would you be ruled by lot of igno-
rant field hands allied with II gang of
plunderers ?"
In looking at this question from a
Northern point of view Mr.. Warner re-
minds his readers that two things have
got to be kept in view first that the
government gave the negroes suffrage
without any educational qualification,
and second that it has handed their
control over to the several states absO-
lutely and beyond federal interference
except through constitutional methods.
Where fear of legislative domination
has gone the feeling between the two
races is that of ami5y and mutual help.
The loyalty of the slaves to their mas
tiers during the war is remembered
with gratitude, and the feeling toward
the negroes generally is one of good
will, of desire that they should devel-
Op into true manhood and womanhood.
Indifference and neglect nndeniably
exist to q greater or less extent, ac-
cOrding tn locality, and this is especial
~ true with respect to the education
of the negro; but as regards this neg
lect it must be remembered that the
whole matter of education is new one
i'm the South, a problem to he studied
and the general development of the
subject is quite AS advanced us could
be expected.
"The thoughtful and the leaders of
opinion are fully awake to the fact
that the mass of the people must be
educated, and that the only settlement
of the negro problem is in the educa
ton of the negro, intellectually and
morally. They go further than this.
They say that for the South to hold it's
Own-since the negro is there and will
stay there, and is the majority of the
labOring class-it is necessary that the
great agricultural mass of unskilled la
Dor should be transformed, to great
extent. into a class of skilled labor,
skilled on the farm, in shops, in factO
ries, and that the South must have Il
highly diversified industry. To this
end they want industrial as well as or
binary schools for the cOlOred people.
Ii is believed that, with this education
and with diversified industry, the So
cial question will settle itself, as it
does the world over. Society cannot
be made or unmade by legislation. In
New Orleans the street cars are free to
all colOrs at the Exposition white and
cOlOred people mingled freely, talking
and looking at what was of common
interest.
eve who live in states where hotel
keepers exclude Hebrews can not say
much about the exclusion of negroes
from,SOuthern hotels. There are preju
dices remaining. There are eases of
hardship on the railways, where for
the same charge perfectly respectable
and nearly white women are shut out
of cars while there is no discrimination
against dirty and disagreeable white
people. In time all this will doubt
less rest upon the basis it rests on ut
the North, and social life will take
care of itself. 1t is my impression that
the negroes are no more DESTROYS to
mingle socially with the whites than
the whites are with the negroes.
Among the negroes there are social
grades as distinctly marked as in white
society What will he the final out
come of the juXtapositiOn nobody can
tell :; meantime it must be recorded
that good will exists between the
races"
After abiding to the excellence of
the exhibits made by the colored peo-
pie in the Exposition, Mr. Warner goes
on to record the fact that on "LOuisi
ana day" the cOlOred citizens took their
full share of the parade and hOnOrS,
their societies marching with the 9th
ers and the two races mingling on
the ground in unconscious equality,
while it was freely conceded by ortho-
dOX Southern Democrats that, among
all the speeches made,-the governors
not eXcepted-the hOnOrs were carried
off by an educated cOlOred clergyman
''whO united eloquence with excellent
good SENSE" and spoke with Just pride
of his native state of Louisiana and
asserted in Il perfectly manly way the
rights and position of his race.
In concluding his article Mr.. Warner
makes no attempt at Summing up"
the negro problem, nor does he com
nit the weakness of attempting to tell
how it should be solved. He simply
says that no one can see the colOred
masses in the cities and on the planta-
tons slowly coming to moral con
seriousness without il recognition of the
magnitude of this problem, and he
frankly says he is glad that his state
has not the settlement of II, while he
profoundly sympathizes with those
who have. There are many encourag
ing things, and one of these which is
by no means least is the way in which
the cOlOred people are learning to work
and make personal sacrifices to- educate
themselves and their children. The
demand for good cOlOred teachers eX-
ceeds the supply; a cOlOred graduate
of the Straight University in New Or
leans is now superintendent of the col
Ored schools in Memphis at salary of
$1,000 a year. ''Are these exceptional
cases 2" he asks in conclusion "Well,
suppose it is also exceptional to see
a cOlOred clergyman in his surplice
seated in the chancel of the most i'm
pOrtant white Episcopal church in New