The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1888-08-25
ADVICE TO THE NEGRO.
Geo. w, Cable Tells the CoIered Man TO
From the Milwaukee Wisconsin.

ColOred people will find some good
advice in the Forum for August, under
the caption what Shall the NegrJ
Do ?" 1t is from Geo w cable. whose
words heretofore uttered in behalf of
the negro of the South have drawn
against him an unwritten edict of
ostracism by the Southern people
among whom he for many years re-
sided.
Mr.. Cable is close observer, and
during his life in the South he noted
clearly the trend of things social aud
political. and therefore be knows
whereof he speaks. He uses plain Ian
guage, and does not hesitate to criticise
where criticism is Just, or censure
where censure is deserved-he cuts
right and left with the impartiality of
one who is firmly convinced that he is
right
The negro's grievance, Mr.. Cable
SAYS, lis not that his liberties are few;
1t IS that IN land and nation whose
measure of every mans freedom is all
the freedom anyone can attain without
infringing upon a like freedom in others.
and where all the com petitions of life
are keyed on this idea, his tenure of
almost every public right is somehow
mutllated by arbitrary determinations
against him." In other words, the
negro is nOminally the possessor of
rights he is not permitted 10 fully en-
joy To make this more clear Mr..
Cable saws:
But the negros grievance is that
the determinations made against him
are more and more unbearable the bet
ter public citizen he is or tries TO be;
that they are impediments, not to the
groyellngs of his lower nature, bur TO
the aspirations of his higher: that as
long as he is content to travel and lodge
as q ragamutfin, frequent the vilest
places of amusement. laZe about the
streets, shuu the public library and the
best churches and colleges, and neglect
every political duty of his citizenship,
no white man cOult be much freer than
he finds himself; but that the farther
he rises above such life as this the more
he is CALLED and tormented with igno-
mInlous determinations made against
him as public citizen, both by custom
and by law; and finally, that as to his
mother, his wife, his sister, his daugh-
ter, the encouragements to ignOble
and discouragementst TO nobler life are
only crueler III their case than in his
own"
The position of the negro as To his
civil and political rights could not be
more tarsely stated; and even the most
bitter opponents of the colored man
must admit that Mr.. Cable is not in
error. The barriers of prejudice
reared through more than a century of
injustice 20 the eolored race cannot be
very reaG1 Y swept away, and the negro
who received his freedom twenty-five
years ago is not yet as free as the white
man who exists in the same country
and Is amenable TO the same laws
Toward a solution of the problem
Mr.. Cable advises the negro 10 make
the most of the liberty he has; to or
ganize for the advocacy and promotion
o: his civil rights; and to urgently claim
the liberty to perform all his civil duties
az the liberty to enjoy ali his civil
rights He should proclaim that he
does not want negro supremacy" and
that as to political office be yields no
right or emolument &c any man because
he is white, nor claims any because he is
black-tbat he does not want any office
that does not want him.
Mr.. Cable strongly emphasizes the
necessity of voting. He says 10 the
negro "You must keep your vote
alive" He advises him TO east bis vote
though he is taxed forit; TO vote though
he is delrauded OF II; to vote though he
die for IT.
/ Let no man cry Liberty or blood :
leave that for Socialists and Partisan
mobs; but when liberty means duty,
and death means ones own extinction,
then the cry Liberty or death is a holy
cry, and the man who will not make it
his own, even in freedom, Is not free.
Seek not To buy liberty with the blood
either Of friends or OF enemies; it is
only mans OWN blood at last that counts
in the purchase of liberty
In telling the negro TO cast his vote
even though he die for IT Mr.. Cable calls
his attention TO the fact that 800,
Coo white men poured out their
blood To keep him bound. that
still another 100000 died to set
him free, and still the measure of
American freedom is not his. "A fl
tieth as much of your own blood shed
in the inofensive activity of public duty
will buy it,
This appeal to the bravery of the col
ored people Is equivalent to telling
them that henceforward the labor of
working ont the destiny of their race
must tall upon their own shoulders:
that their extrication from the quick
sailue pi e1dNSis Sect inc hNS0 "a oFCi
half a million of white men, and now
that they are on the road toward per-
! feet freedom they should push on de-
spite al dangers that beset them
should shed their own blood freely If
necessary IN the cause Of their advance
ment-
If the negro can be brought TO see
the necessity OF united, determined and
unceasing effort within the scope Of the
law, as Mr.. Cable sees it, the White
! Lesguers and the ballot-box fine work
ers' of the South will have to give way
| before the irresistible force of bravery
for the right; and prejudice against the
colored race will be worn away by the
force of exam pie that confirms the title
OF the former slave 10 full political and
civil freedom