The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1886-11-18
SENATOR BLAIR'S ADDRESS
BEFORE THE COLORED FOLKS
FAIR IN RALEIGH.
Some Extracts from the Address the Bur-
den OF " hich was '.Get Education and
Get Land

Some Extracts from the Address the Bur-
den Of " hich wa '.Get Education and
Get Land
senator Blair commenced his speech
with expressions Of pleasure at beholding
the manifold exhibitions Of the innate and
acquired capacities Of the negro race. He
SAID that productions III agriculture, me-
chanic arts and IN various departments OF
industrial development had astonisled him
and that the visible evidences at the Fair
Of special culture and Of artistic and
aesthetic qualities showed that only OPP
portunlty for expansion and exercise We're
needed TO surprise the world
The Book informs Us that God hath
made Of one blood all nations Of the earth
and, although said the senator, '.this
proposition does not imply that in personal,
family and general social intercourse there
may not and must not be both autipathies
and atlinities, yet it does imply that III
natural powers there is 50 much Of like
ness, not to say equality, among all races
of men, that with the fair equalization of
conditions of action equality before the
law and equality in fact between indi
yidualS and communities III the practical
administration Of the law all men are
capable of high development and progress
in all directions and III all things III which
any are thus capable. that however
it may vary III degree whatever in kind
may be predicted or hoped for in one race
or person may be predicted or hoped for
in another individual or race.
To have accomplished 50 much in TWEEN
ty-fve years is simply wonderful and no
race of men which ever inhabited the
planet, could have done more under the
same circumstances During the
last quarter of a century the seven millions
Of coIorcd citizens have abundantly De
monstrated the wisdom Of their freedom.
our best friends should be those with
whom our interests are immediately lden
titled, and although emigration may some
times be a relief from evil yet in a free
country where the resources of nature
abound on every land, ;s they do every
where III this wonderful Southern land,
uneNhausted and even untouched the best
place for a man IS that where he WAS
born ...... Too often 1t is = distance
lends enchantmcnt to the view and 10
transfer vast populations from one part Of
the country TO another is impossible. 1t
never should be necessary.
The hard naked truth is that this is Il
world of toll and that whatever we get we
must pay for in real solid work. The only
difference between freedom and slavery IS
this: Slavery is work without pay; Free
dom is WORK with pay.
Ia our present free condition under the
law to receive a mans work and not to
pay him is to rob him. TO pay him less
than Il fair price i, to rob him proportion
ately The right to fix or rather TO
agree with the employer upon the price
paid for his labor or to work for ones self
as the alternative is the substantial advan-
tage which the freeman possesses over the
slave.
The first quality of a freeman is knowl-
e-intelligence- for knowledge is pow
er The second qualification is the own
ership of land and skill to earn a living
upon it. IF could fix these two thoughts
in the minds of my countrymen | should
be their greatest benefactOr.
Get Education
Get Land
Get the best possible of both, and always
remember that a little Of the best is worth
more than much Of an inferior quality.
But at all events get some and get US much
as YOU can of Education and of Land, and
if you cannot get the best of either then
endeavor to make that which you get still
better by your own eXertlons-for after
all as your old North Carolina song has it
EsIt is more in the man than it is i'll the land
Whoever possesses the knowledge will
come to possess the land of any country
and thus it is that in the last analysis
knowledge itself is liberty, because knOWl-
edge IS power. ... knowledge and Lana
the masses of the people must have or
they will become the bondmen of the su-
perior classes at home or of more power
full nations abroad. The attainment of
these should be the great earthly object Of
us all Without them there is no
true liberty of the soul in the realm of
eternal things, none of that higher and
sublimer freedom wherewith the great
author of our religious faith shall make Us
free indeed.
But what is knowledge! What is Land?
Both of these terms are used in a very
comprehensive senSe-the former as en-
bracing all that we care to know, or which
may be known, whether from books, from
science and liberal culture or without
them; the latter term-Land- embraces
air and water as we'll as the soil
Human life is not merely a struggle to
exist, but to climb; not merely to hold but
to acquire; to develop the grand and no
bic, pure and God like, not in one nor in
few, but in all, and the proper discharge
of the common duties of existence has
these lofty purposes directly in view.
\ free people must know how to govern
| themselves III order to become or continue
free. They must possess and exercise the
! In, l., L.
for the whole people, a free people must
1 do for themselves If intelligence and
wisdom are necessary in the king even 50
must the people possess the same or fail
| in the performance of the functions of
government. No people can govern
| themselves unless they know how to do it.
The ballot which is self government, is
| but knife in the hand of the ignorant
man, wherewith he may destroy society,
! however innocent or praiseworthy his in
! tantiOn Educate and Oualfv him