Mexico weekly ledger., 1889-07-25
THE RACE PROBLEM
Reviewed at Length by Re-
publican.

To the Editor of the Ledger.
MEXICO, Mo-, July 20, 1ss9.-|
The South. must work out its own
salvation. If the confession OF igno-
rance is the first step in the road to
knowledge, Think [ am in way to
learn something though it may leave
me in the end both a "wiser and
sadder man." When [ came
South l thought I knew some
what of its peculiar social and po-
litical questions; but 1 find that
[ have a great deal to learn, and
that while my sympathy for the
colored race remains as before,
there are difficulties in the adjust
ment of its relations to the white
race which could not be seen at a
distance, but which, on a near ap-
proach, become distinctly visible.
So long as the two races were
living together in the relation of
masters and servants, there was no
friction between them, as the one
was subject to the other and its at
titude was that of submission and
obedience. But when, in the sud-
den and violent convulsions of the
war, the perpendicular line had
changed to the horizontal and there
was no more such thing as supe-
rior and inferior, but the two races
were politically on the same level,
jealousies arose which did not ex-
ist before.
This began process of aliena-
ton which, unless checked by
moral influences, will in the end
have the most disastrous results.
That we may regard the matter
from point of view other than our
own, I ask my friends at the North
to look soberly at the race problem
as modified by events since the
war. 1t is now "a years since the
surrender at Appomattox. We
have had nearly quarter of cen
tury of the great experiment of uni
versal freedom. How has it work
ed? What is the result? What is
the prospect? The fruit which
meets our eyes everywhere at the
South, Is the vastness of the color
ed population.
Whether it be according to any
law by which races living in power.
ty, with scant clothing and hard
| fare-or, as some philosophers
| would say, living nearer to nature
multiply more than those who
live in comparative luxury, or not
the fact is apparent, that the pro.
portion has been changing steadily
and even rapidly, in favor of the
former; the whites have increased
but the blacks have saoarmed, til.
the three or four millions of which
We used to speak have become
seven or eight millions.
! The importance of this fact il
the settlement of the relations e1
the two races is evident. The
emancipation of the blacks has mo-
changed their industrial position
If they are no longer slaves, neither
are they masters. They are still
as before, hewers of wood and draw
ers of water, only receiving wages
as free Iaborers; though whetheI
there be any change in their mate
rial condition, as between the form
er bondsmen and the present freed
men, is a point on which opinion
differ. But it is not the chief enc
of man to be clothed and fed, bu
to be master OF himself. The frs
condition of perfect manhood i
| freedom. And since the whites a
the South say that the new orde
of thingsis far better for them ther
tneed be no further discussion as t
the wisdom of the great act O
emancipation - the giving to tht
blacks political power. This wa
mot included in their freedom.
| The suffrage is quite distinc
from personal liberty. Alexande
II emancipated twenty millions O
serfs in Russia, but that did no
give them the right to vote; neithe
did it give the right to the free
slaves of America. That was ne
Ipromised in the emancipation
proclamation of Mr.. Lincoln.
was the act Of Congress ratified b
the States under the excitement c
: war long after Lincoln was i
| his grave-an act which / do nc
believe would have been carrie
,, through If he had lived. His rus
ged common-sense would hav
lperosivea the fearful danger Of con