The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-01

paper conducted by negroes affords q most
melancholy evidence of the fact that, separated
from their white brethbren, these, the leaders,
had degenerated, and had ceased to realize, if
they had ever fully done So that the end and
object of religion is morality, the uplifting of
men into the likeness of God; for this report
portrays ministers of the gospel charging one
another with the grossest violations of the moral
Jaw
To return to the more general discussion of
our question, | ask, by whom should this per
sonal interest in the negro be felt and showni
And the answer is. of course, patent that the
duty rests upon all Americans alike. But to
the men of the South-my own dear kinsmen
after the 1esh-I would speak. and say that OF
necessity the burden of this labor must fall
upon us Hard it may seem to some of us that,
despoiled of our property for which our money
was paid, and whose protection was guaranteed
to our fathers, placed under the very feet OF our
former slaves by the conqueriEg power OF the
federal government, and the chicanery and
fraud of INSCRIPTIONS white men, we should
now be called upon to give our personal care,
our time, our sympathy and our meager re-
sources to the development of these seml-bar-
barans up to time of manhood and Intelligent
citizenship.
But be it hard, It's true. The burden rests
upon US, and we not put it away. The love
of our whole country demands it; that special
regard we can not but feel, for the well-beng
and advancement Of our own people ana our
own sunny home demands it; recognition of the
truth of human brotherhood--that revelation of
Jesus Christ and that last result of sociological
study-demands it,
And how and where shall we begin2 i answer
Every man, in the deep of his own heart by
building there firm and stable the conviction
that negro is man and a citizen; that the con-
dltions of our life are all changed; that old
things are passed away, and that the new things
which are come to us demand, with an authority
which may not be eainsaid the effort of mind
and heart, and hand, for the uplifting of the
negro, lest If he be left dying in his degradation
he pull down to his deflement. Nay,
we must build. higher than this, even
the conviction that it is the will of
God that the nobler shall be evolved
from the ignobie. that the shall progress
toward His likeness and from the summit Of this
lofty conception we can look out and see the
work to be done, and there we breathe the
pure air of heaven, and get inspiration for its
performance. though it cost self denial and self
sacrifice. Here must begin in Riding orr
hearts of the feeling of caste, which has made
them its citadel for generations.
But let it be clearly understood that have
not the least reference to the social status of the
freedman when so speak. That my Mysterious thing
which we call society" will ever take care of it.
SELF and my taking away the pariah badge
which caste has affixed to the negro is by no
means the presentation to him of card of invi
tatiOn to the soiree in my parlor. No man has
an inherent right to be admitted into circle
which is in general defined by equality of dis
lance from some fixed point of refinement, cul-
to be too true that the door of ad-
mission in our American life is general
ly to be unlocked by the golden key,
whatever be the hand that holds it. And
yet after all, this seeming welcome to the al
mighty dollar is In reality accorded to the quail
ications which wealth can supply, even culture,
leisure and refinement, and the community of
interests with those possessing like advantages.
But certainly no man or woman has any indie
feasible right to social recognition, and its re-
fusal is not denial of equity The time may
come, and will, when the prejuGices now ap-
parently invincible shall have been conquered
by the changed characteristics of the race now
under the social ban. Society, then as now or
ganized upon the basis of community of interests,
congeniaity OF tastes and equality of position,
will exclude the multitude who can not speak
its shibboleth; but there will be no color line of
separation. IL the aspirate be duly sounded the
thickness of the lips that frame the word shall
be no hindrance to the social welcome. When
shall this be2 All, when2 In the far distant
future it may be; and equally it may be that
great grandchildren shall behold such So
drawine-rooms of Washington to the
black men who have been honored guests in the
palaces of England and of France. But whether
it shall ever be or not is no point in the discus
sion | am making for immediate social recogni-
ton is not equitable demand, nor yet a nee
essary factor in the development of the negro
race, which is his right and our only safety.
But poverty and ignorance are no barrier in
America. nor yet the obscurity or even degrade
ton of his origin. Though in infancy he may
have lain among the pots. yes and the pigs of
an Irish novel, yet in this favored land of equal
rights no arbitrary distinction shall stand in the
way of his education into cultivated refine
ment that shall be as ''the wings of dove COW
cred with silver nor prevent that his trained
powers shall cover "her feathers with yellow
gold" Why shall different condition hedge
about the black man because, forsooth, the
howell he was born in was in Carolina rather
than Galway and the pigs. his playmates, had
private pen?
But further, the helping hand of intelligent
wealth never fails to be outstretched to smooth
thepath of the INDECENT white boy whose honesty,
and capacity, and diligence give promise of suc-
cessful career Our annals are full of splendid
instances of the success attending such personal
effort to further the progress of the struggling
child of poverty, and even of shame Why shall
not these annals record in the future the names
of black boys thus developed, by the personal
care of members of the higher race, into man
hood as noble and as benefcentg Is it that there
is lacking the capacity for Development Such
opinion will hardly be expressed by any intelli-
gent observer of day. The scholars and
orators, the mechanics and accountants of pure
negro blood. moral and upright, trusty and
trusted, who have been made here in America,
fatty contradict any such assumption. True.
they are few in number; true, that in general,
the members of this race have as vet acquired
but the little learning which is So dangerous;
true that, left to themselves, under leaders of
their own race, they have in almost every case
made grievous failure, have made loud boasting
of an uplifting which was just high enough to
display their grotesQue ugliness.
Difficulties frown upon as we enter this
path. Our friends will look at us with eyes
askant and it may be will speak bitter words
whose sting will wound but this we can bear,
for their conduct wllno much damage our work
aud we can believe that by and by they will see
the truth and love it. But harder to overcome,
and of direful influence upon the very beginning
of their labor who labor for peace, are the black
demogogues who have learned from their white
partners that the ignorance of their brethren
must be the mother of devotion to their selfish
interests that their unreasonng hostility to their
white neighbors is the cement which fastens Sc
curely their dependence upon them. Preachers
and politicians, each being as much the one as
the other. will resent and resist our effort to
open the blind eyes that they may see their