Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1889-10-24
BILL ARE.
ARP HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ON
THE RACE QUESTION.
GAtlanta Constitution

What would we do if we didn't
have the negro to write about and
talk aboutp The newspapers and
magazines are discussing the race
problem continually and doing their,
best to solve it. The people are
pondering over it at home by The
fireside, and all this shedding light
and spreading knowledge and pre-
pairing the way for whatever may
happen. But still there is nothing
done nor likely to be done. 1t is too
big thing to be hurried by any
thing man can do. BY slow and
sure degrees it will work itself out,
and reckon we had better let it
alone for awhile and watch the work
ings of manifest destiny. 1 think
that General Stephen d. Lees brief
reply to Mr.. Grady OH the subject is
the most sensible thing that has been
said or written. lie is not alarmed
about the situation and lives in a
negro country. The appeal to Pha-
raoh reads well and is tho result of
thought and research, but in this age
theories are rudoiy knocked aside by
facts. We thcorized on the war
and some Of our preachers said that
if we didn't whip the fight they
would lose faith in Il providence
of God. We theorizeo about max
ing cotton and said that the white
man couldn't make it and the free
negro wouldn't. Pharaoh says
sNo two dissimilar races ever lived
together in peace" When the fact
is the whites and blacks have
been living together in peace here at
the South for century. The last
rs years the negro has been a free
man and we are living in peace yet ;
about as much peace as could be ex-
pccted--in fact more peace than
there is between labor and capital in
the white race. He says there
would have been immigration to the
South long ago if the negro had not
been here. Then we ought to thank
the good Lord for protecting us
from the anarchists and communists
and the scum and paupcrs of Eu-
rope. We don't invite the immi-
grant who is afraid of tho negro
If the negro has done lis no othe,
good, he has ensured lis law-abid.
ing, homogeneous, patriotic popula-
ton. He has some bad traits but
we don't want to swap him off fol
trash His virtues are too much
magnified by tho North, and so arc
his crimes of the South. AS q race
they arc kind-hcarted, generous, do,
cile, good-naturcd, and, at the same
time, wasteful, careless-concerne
for to-day, unconcemed for to-mor.
row, and having more religion than
piety, more fear than conscience
Bishop Galloway said in his great
! sermon at the tabernacle that San
! Houston was once travelling owe,
Texas in diligence, and two rob
bers stopped the coach and robbed
him and his companions of Their
money and watches and, worst O
all, took their lunch of biscuit ani
sausage, and one of them unrollet
it and grcedily bit off half sausage
when the other jerkcd it violently
away and said: "Don't you eat that
you heather heretic-didn't ] tel
you this morning that to-day wal
| Good Friday, and you mustn't ca
any meat" He had more religion
than piety, and so with most of tn,
negroes. A little stealing docs no
conflict with their religion. If yor
hire one it does ot conflict with hi.
contract. We all recognize that
eight dollars q month means cight
dollars and prcquisites. The law
prosumes malice when a man com.
mits crime, but there is not n bi,
OF malice. in a negroes heart wher
he pliers from you. He loves yo,
all the better for having something
he can pick up. He takes it upor
the idea that you have got it to spare
and won't miss it, and he wants it.
that's all.
Another mistake that Pharaoh
makes is in arraigning somebody 70,
ever bringing the negroes here from
Africa. We believe that it was a
good thing and wisely designed by
Providence. What would the 6,000,.
| 900 have been if their forefathers
had been left in Africa? About
thirty years ago there was a cargo OF
negroes secretly landed on our coast
! just below Savannah, and they were
sold and, distributed among on,