The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-15
THE FUTURE OF THE BLACK
Wonderful Growth of the Negro Since
He Was Made a Freedman.
Judge Albion ". Teurgee's Interesting Talk
at Meridian-Street Church-Facts To Be
Considered by the White People.

Judge Albion w. Tourgee the well-gnown au-
thor, spoke at Meridian-street M. E. Church
yesterday morning, his subject being, THE Re-
ations of Christianity to the Future OF the Negro
Race" He said:
Christianity is the only religious system hav-
ing a universally active voice. Its command
may be embraced in two words-"go' and do"
The spirit of Christianity is the spirit OK our
American civilization. 1t has not only shaped
1t, but it is responsible for it. Ii there is to be
found in our aggregated general relations. evils,
tits American Christianity that has been to blame.
Ii there is good there, it is to American Chris
tlanlty that the credit must be given. "Go aud
do,-not as proselyters, not as seekers for indi-
vlduals nor even as givers of aims, nor as what
we mistakenly term benevolence; not as
giving crumbs to beeg'.rs and asking them to De
satisfied, but doing good and doing it right
straight forward. not pausing by the way for
formal salutations from any man.
If our American Christianity or American civ
llization, which is the same thing. has been
wrong in the past its first great duty is to right
that wrong. Our great leader. whose soul went
up from the heights of Mt McGregor in those
last days when his trembling hand almost refused
to obey the heroic WILL wrote one sentence, an
immortal heritage to the American people: mo
Nation can do evil and not pay the full penalty"
Our history in the past has brought this truth very
wildly to our mind, but the question may yet
arise whether the penalties for the past have
been fully worked out Our American Christi
anity, if it have any relation to the fate of the
colored race in America, is, therefore, an active
relation; not of purely benevolent or beneficial
character, but based xpon justice, upon right
eousness, and the questions We must answer to-
day or tomorrow, or in some near tomorrow.
are What does justice demand of us to themP
and What does righteousness demand Of us to
them2"
With the advent of the African negro in
America-and use the. term advisedy for
shall wish to call your attention hereafter to the
fact that our negro is an American-there came
to our civilization two great questions. One of
these was recognized instantly by the Christian
church. Three years after the first negro was
landed in America, and became slave by the
voice of the law, the church raised it's voice
against slavery. The cry was raised that
no man upon whom the water of
baptism had once dropped could be held
by another Christian in bondage, because the
vows taken to the Lord made him free human
soul, and no human hand might touch him with
out objectionable sin. The church stood man
fully by this until afterwards, when the law In
terfered, lest the church should shatter the
shackles of the slave. The name of the great
dissenter Whitefeld was greater than that of any
other person in this new land. He sent back
word to England that the colony of Georgia did
not want slavery; that men who had owned
slaves had set them free; that they had felt the
curse, and stain, and danger that it brought to
white and black alike. This man spoke Gods
word, and demanded that slavery be abandoned
in the colony of Georgia. Here we see the
church spoke out first on both sides of this ques
ton.
If there was evil in slavery. Christianity and
civilization in America were responsible for
paid. the penalty. We reached that point
in our development when it became
necessary that this question should be settled,
striking off the form and husk of slavery, and
IA xk1 ffx1o 10Th Is he
eleventh hour. We waited as long as we could
wait. We said it is true this is terrible, but we
have tied ourselves up and we cannot help it.
But there came time when the knot was un-
tied. The sword of the Lord touched our bound
hands and made US. against our will and pur
pose, the instruments of divine Justice and
mercy. And then we said, 1T is settled, we will
think more about it, we have paid the pen
atty, all men stand free in our land, the golden
gate Of opportunity is opened to all men in our
land.
We have answered the cry of the freedman
as the primal murderer, ''Am l my brothers
keeperi" When it is suggested that these mex
pressibly ignorant people be educated by the
government of the United States we answer in
phrase of classic slang, root hog, die, and
we mean it too. We don't desire to hear
any more of our duty in that respect.
1t is the tendency of American life to believe
luck that passeth all understanding and will
bridge over any Rubcon that we may come to.
We are apt to forget that yesterday always
shapes to day, and to-day puts on its brand of
| identity and stamps to morrow. The question
we now have before US is greater than slavery as
a mans heart and brain are greater than his
hands Slavery was condition of life; this
question is the life itself. Bondage was stricken
out of existence; color remains fact The
African is not so easily bleached. The effect of
the condition of his life may be changed; but
not in an hour, not in generation, not
in many generations can men be changed
from what we found them. The growth of
man, white or black, is q slow thing.
These people cannot change in a mere breath Of
circumstances The question that confronts
American Christians today is the relation of
color in the southern part of our Republic.
wo-thirds Of the colored life of the United
States is to be found in six States. OF the
5000, 600 of these people. five and half or
probably six millions are in eight States, and IN
these eight States the white and black popula-
tons have not 100000 between them. Is the
coored population going to stay, and If it is
going to stay is it going to stay where it is, or
spread over our whole land2 Will they stay
where they are growing thicker and closer, and
blacker and darker year after year, as the future
goes ONT The question seems to me SO curious.
They are on the very ground where a former
into life Why should the colored man
not stay there2 He was reared there. and three
hundred years of habitat 10 bondage have not
prepared him for migration. just think what it
TOOK TO get the lSrdeilCeS out or Egypt. with the
Lord and Moses and Aaron all working together,
and they seem to have had their hands full
Even after they had crossed the Red sea they
desired to return to Egypt They we're weak
ened by 430 years of bondage. They were
afraid to face the dangers of the wilderness and
the strong people they were to meet and over
come This feeling is true individually and col
ectively of the colored people of the United
States Trained as laborer given perfect
knowledge ofsthe life, and sum- and soil, all that
= - 49, Ny
is not only terra incognita to him, but terror
which he cannot face with fortitude or any hope
of success. In free country it is only the best
and strongest that dare go away from
home. Slavery never shaped a migratory
people There is but one instance in history
where slave people have been forced out of
their habitat. Our negro feels the debil.
tating effects of slavery, aud will feel them for