The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-10
The Race Problem.


Tho MORNING News is under obligations
to Senat II Joseph E. Brown for copy of
the pamphlet containing the speech of
/ Senator James T. George, Of Mississippi. re-
Gently delivered in the Senate, on the bill
"to provide for inquests under national au-
thority." The speech is an admirable one
1t is not too much to say that in many
respects it is the best one on
| the race question in the south that
| has ever been delivered in congress,
or anywhere else. 1t is wholly free from
bitterness, and its statement of facts and
its conclusions are about as near the truth
as it is possible to get. A half century
hence the historian who treats of the matters
with which it deals will feel himself justified
in following it closely. If it were placed III
the hands of every northern man there
would quickly be a marked change in the
north with respect to the race question i'll
the south.
Senator George traces briefly, but intel
ligently and forcibly, the Introduction of
slavery into this country, the difficulties
which the fathers of the republic had in
dealing with it, the political agitations
which grew out of it in later years, and the
appeal to arms to settle questions which
were closely connected with it. He reviews
the reconstruction period, aud shows how
the white and black people of the south
were forced into hostility to each other by
the national Republican party through its
agents He pictures in a mastery way the
corruption, misrule and poverty which
marked republican control in his own state,
aud the ruin with which the state was
threatened by placing the ignorant negroes
and white adventures in the places of
power.
He contends that it is an unsolved prob
lem whether a state can become prosperous
with two races having political equality
races which can never assimilate and make
a homogeneous population-but that tie
south is doing Ter best to solve it, and will
solve 1t if its solution is within the bounds
of possibility. He quotes the repu lican
leader of the Senate, Mr.. Edmunds, to show
that homogeneity of population is essential
to prosperity in a state. That senator said
in speech in the Senate in 1852, that ''no
republic can succeed which has not "a homo
geneous population" Several republican
Guiding the Chinese made the same asser-
ton.
If homogeneity of the people of a republic
is necessary to Its prosperity, is not the
same thing true with respect to states which
are part of a republic? And yet the Re-
publican party has always acted upon con-
trary idea in all the legislation for the
southern states for which it is responsible
1t is true that neither Lincoln nor any of
the other republican leaders thought of Civ
ing the colored people the ballot and en-
trusting them with political power at the
lightning of their freedom, because they
were not regarded as fitted for citizenship,
but when the Republican party saw that it
could retain control of the government only
through their aid, it Immediately enfran-
chised them, and endeavored by every
means in its power to secure their ascend
ency in the southern states.
Senator George says that there are two
great obstacles in the way Of the success of
negro suffrage-the one primary; the other
the incident and aggravaton of the other
The first is the difference in race, the want
of homogeneity in the population. The
second, the permanent fixing of the two
races into distinct and separate peoples by
outside influence and external predominant
forces" Senator George thinks that the
two permanently combined are insurmount-
able, and says that the two are combined
now. He holds that, if the presence of the
latter is eliminated. the course of events
must determine whether the first alone
is an insurmountable barrier to success.
The south is certainly doing all she can
to solve the race problem. She is educating
the colored people and lending them help
ing hand in many ways. If she succeeds,
it will not be by any assistance she has re-
ceived from the Republican party.