The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-18
RISE OF THE COLORED RACE.
Congressman Lynch Talks to His People
About HOWto Advance Themselves.
lie Also Tells in an Interview EoW Large Re-
publican Majorities in Mississippi Are
Overcome By election Frauds.

OF mississippi, speaker OF national reputation
was to address the meeting in the afternoon, but
there were so few to listen to him that he, while
graciously pleased to speak to those who were
there. did not talk long, his friends asking
him to postpone his effort until the evening.
What he did say was delivered in clear and i'm
pressive manner, and the burden of his theme,
while showing the material advancement of the
eolored race in the South, also exhibited the
fact that they were deprived of their choicest
preroeative as citizens in being deprived by
fraud Of their politicsi rights.
Mr.. Lynch, together with Messrs. j. Allison
Sweeney and ). S. Hinton, who were also to
have spoken, was escorted from the Denison
House to the grounds by the When band and
English Guards, the band furnishing music
during the afternoon. and the guards giving a
drill in the Exposition Building
In the evening the attendance was slightly
larger, but far from satisfactory. Mr.. Lynch
was urgently requested to remain day longer
and give the people of his race and his white
fellowcitizens opportunity to hear him in a
suitable place to be selected in the city, Mr.
Lynch, therefore, spoke briefly, touching upon
the material interests of the colored people.
He said he could not speak knowingly of the
progress of the colored people in the Northern
States, as his information had. for the most
part come by reading and hearing but in regard
to the section from which he came he could
speak knowingly. The needs of the colored peo-
pie should be dwelt upon, he said, for the reason
that the race had not yet passed the experiment
al period. When freed, it was predicted by
those who thought themselves best qualified TO
judge that freedom would result in the destruc-
ton OF the race-that the colored laborers of the
South, if they were made free, would be paupers
upon their respective communities and value
less. as laborers. To-day moro cotton is
produced by colored labor than was pro-
duced in the days of slavery: so, too,
more rice, more sugar and more of every prod
uct of the soil. The South gets more money
to-day for the product of the colcred mans labor
than even during the days of slavery. And yet
the colored race has not passed be-
colored people North and South
can never occupy that position which will entitle
them to equal representation in the nation with
the white race until they have wealth, culture,
refinement and virtue, equal to that possessed
by the white people of this country There can
not be equality in the enjoyment of public
rights as long as there is infe-iority in condi
ton. The colored people could not expect to
secure all of the things to which they
titled as people until they show by their con-
duct their department, their mode of life their
public works and walks, that they are equals
among the best of the whites. What is it they
need mostY First, they need education. Their
preachers will say religion, after which all
things will be added INTO them / say, when it
comes to this worlds affairs, we have got
to have intelligence, and more than
all, we have to have money-money! If
you have not money, you may have all
the religion the Bible contains, it may save you
at the death. bed, but it will not help you along
as people in this world. We must get this
worlds goods. Cod in my opinion, helps those
who help themselves and unless we have the
good things of this world we will not have much
chance to get the good things of the world to
&C. 30 ~ v@~A
of this world-it is only wrong when wor-
ship them and think moro of them than of our
God.n
Mr. Lynch spoke Of the Blair educational bill
He thought it an excellent proposition, with
some few exceptions and qualifications. He be-
liesed in a national system of education; that
the general government should provide for the
education of the illiterates of the country: but
the unfortunate thing in the Blair bill is it's
recognition of the dangerous doctrine Of States
rights. The money is to be paid into the treas
uries of the several States, the State to be the
trustee of the fund. II know from the past, so
far as the Southern States are concerned" he
said, that a large part of that money will be
misappropriated, misapplied and squandered
therefore want national system of education,
which will be free from State control ! want
the money to be under the control of national
authority, the State government to have nothing
to do with it, except in an advisory capacity 7
regret to say the doctrine of States rights still
fingers, and if the friends of republican institu
tons are not cautious that doctrine will yet be
the rock upon which our government will split. y
The Speaker referred to the decision of the
Supreme Court of the United States in the civil
rights bill as adherence to this pernicious doc
trine, and paid glowing tribute to Judge Har-
Ian, who dissented from the opinion of his con-
freres. He said that not long since he read a
speech of Jefferson Davis, in which he req fl ymed
and redeclared that doctrine to be the doctrine
upon which the Confederacy was based, and
when he read that speech he went to his room
and again read the decision declaring
the civil rights bill to be unconstitutional,
coming to the conclusion that If the
doctrine laid down in that decision is correct,
that Jefferson Davis. in his States rights ideas,
is not very far off. eve have hard struggle
a struggle made still harder when the Supreme
Court of the United States turns us over to the
tender mercles of our enemies much applausel
a Supreme Court that has consented to the in
depreciation of the Constitution as expounded
by jefferson Davis. When speak of education
/ do not mean book learning merely. We must
teach our sons and daughters industrial occupa-
tons as well. All of US cannot be and
ought not to be lawyers. doctors and preachers.
We ought to have our blacks miths, our carpen-
ters, our painters our plasterers, our bricklay-
ers, our manufacturers, our printers-in fact
people engaged In every trade that white men
are engaged in, making an honorable living
The white people of this country have become
accustomed to look upon the colored men as the
representative of mental system of labor.
That came about from slavery, and they have
not got out of it yet That such state of affairs
exists is as much your fault as theirs Organize
yourselves let your grievances be known, and
reasonable white people will concede the Justice
of your claims. and help you. Take every advant-
age youi can to give your sons and daughters
trades. Don't let the white people Guido you in
making money, in being strong and influential
in the community.
Another great need among the colored people
of the South is an intelligent ministry. Down
in my part OF the country we have almost too
many ninisters--that is, too many persons who
call themselves ministers-and sometimes too
many church buildines-I sometimes think al
most too much religion-that is. too much relig-
ion of emotion and feeling instead of love. We
cannot accomplish much in the South to better
our political condition for reasons which perhaps
you all understand, but we are striving. and the
day of our deliverance may not be far off,
w. Allison Sweeney made a short speech
which was quite electrifying In its effect nnon