Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-03-18
The Negro and the Country.

A Nation is a great family. Com
posed as it is of individuals, it unayoid-
ably partakes of their imperfections.
AS there are but few families in the
world that escape the perplexities re-
sulting from Misunderstanding, so are
there but few nations of the world who
escape national troubles. Trouble is
an appendant inseparable from hu-
manity. 1t is not an attribute of hu-
manity only-it permeates the physi-
cal universe. The cyclone, the flood,
the volcano, the earthquake, the fiery
fleeting comet, all tell the same human
story of trouble or disturbance.
Differences of opinion produce all the
trouble to which, as a nation, we are
subjected. Every diverging opinion
antagonizes every other contrary opin-
ion, and is the author Of plan of oper-
alton wholly inconsistent and inhar-
monious with every other naodus oper-
andi. The practical application of
these irfeconcilable methods, conflict
ing at every point, creates the national
difficulties which involve all interests
in one common whole. Such is the
single lesson of history from the fall
of Adam to the present time. This
statement needs no lengthy comment
or far-fetched argument to make it
convincing. Disregarding for the pres
ent the much learned dissertations and
speculative arguments on the rise and
fall of nations, we may safely affirm
that all national complications find
their origin in differences of opinion
put into practice. Such las been the
experience of all ages and nations, and
such it will be until time shall have
faded into eternity. He who locks for
the dawning OF that day when peace,
undisturbed hy the connections pro-
duced by human fiuctuation and in
stability, shall reign in the grandeur
of royal perfection-when jarriDg in
terests and sectional and race preju-
dices shall be known only as history
certainly INDUCES i'm a distorted vision,
and looks i'm vain. There will be wars
and rumors of wars. Great problems
will larise-questions of morals, science,
religion, political economy, of the gen.
eral welfare-of sufficient interest and
magnitude to tax the ingenuity, gem
ius. and craftsmanship of men. Their
nature in Importance will demand con-
sideration and solution. And SO the
work will go on i'm one ceaseless round
of years, till years shall be no more.
He who takes no interest in the great
| affairs of his country-affairs which
are to mould the destiny of posterity
aud embrace the highest interests of
every human being, from the most
humble to the most exalted-is not a
| true man. He who does nothing but
murmer and complain OF the inevita-
BILE condition of things, is only too ig-
norant to realize the truth that he is
not yet transported to heaven.
| The negro question has been one of
great perplexity and vexation to the
American people. Volumes have been
written upon it, and yet there is room
for volumes more-the amount of
thought thus materIalized on the sub
ject not being of sufficient bulk to
crowd him entirely off the platform OF
consideration ard criticism. In the
discussion Of this question honest men
have widely differed. There was a
time when it was apparently limited
to within the boundaries Of politics.
time in the memory of men living. 1t
was well then to consider it in its high
est political interests. But 1t has
grown away from its original confines,
and has upavoidably intrnded itseli
| into the domain of every conceivable
interest that is dear to the American
people. Time and the general spread
of conciliatory sentiment have rescued
it from the heated cauldron of political