News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-08-29
BLACK VERSUS WHITE.
Extracts From a Gloomy Speech
What Will the End BeP

What Will the End BeP
The following extracts, made by the
Atlanta Constitution from a speech de-
livered ut Memphis by Colonel L. Il.
Edgington, illustrate the gloomy view
Jf the race problem entertained by many
white residents of the South:
During the brief period in which the
aegro race wore dominant in politics,
the issue OF bonds in certain States be-
came so oppressive that the land owners
we're fast becoming mere tenants Of the
State, aud the tax gathersr was his land
| lord. A little ut ontion to statistics will
show tho wonderful fecundity of the
negro race, and il VII give us II timely
warming Of the dangers OF the Ethiopian
| fetich. Some twenty-five years ago an
snterprising citizen Of Memphis brought
| from Central Park, New York, n paIT OF
English sparrows. The city ID now filed
with millions of the pcsky little crea-
lures, and they have driven out all the
other birds The birds of gay plumage
and fine song are seen no more. Even
the Gu koo returns no., and the mock
ing bird is no longer heard iIi the trees
that surround our dwellings, ana uIc our
avenues.
Some twenty five years ago an enter
pr sing Englishfna1i transported pair
of rabbits to Australia. Rabbits have
become so numerous there that they de-
YOUR the crops that are planted as soon
as they begin to grow. They devour the
grass even so that the sheep have. moth
ing to subsst on Ali the wisdom of
the English people Las been set at
naught in their efforts to rid Australia
of its rabbits They imported the stoat.
and weasel, carnivorous animals, which
were known to feed on rabbits i'll other
countries. But in Australia these little
carpet baggers have affiliated with the
rabbits and lived on terms of friendship
with them, and for purposes Of subsist-
ence they have turned their attention
industriouslv to Australian henroosts.
The negro in America is acquiring s.
distinction similar to the rabbit in Aus.
tralia. No snakes ha lived in Ireland
since st. ,Patrick's time. No rabbits
had lived in Australia until the English
recently imported them, and no negro
lived in America until the slave traders
brought them here before the reyolu-
tionary war and on down until the abo-
lition of the slave trade. From the first
colonization of this country, on down to
the da.e of the abolition of the slave
trade only about 300, 900 negroes were
impol ted, and none have been brought to
our shores since. They increase i'll geo
metrical ratio. The mind does not
readily conceive how this ratio, with
such small beginnings, could so soon
reach such large results. A single dollar
loaned for twenty years on the stipula-
tion that at the end of each year the
sum would be doubled, and so on,
would require payment of over mil
lion of dollers for the last payment.
Population, in obedience to this law, at,
tains vast proportions within single
century.
The condition of slavery was not so
favorable to the rapid propagation of the
negro race as the condition Of freedom
has proven to be. There are those who
believed that the negro, i'll a state of
freedom and self-depcndence. would
share the fate of the Indian. Like the
Indian it was thought that he would
gradually disappear from the face of the
country as the whites multiplied. The
reverse has proven to be the case, and
the grave question confronts us: VIII
the white man disappear from the face
of the country as the negro multiplies2
In the summer of 1920 n Dutch man-of-
war sailed up the James River to the
plantations and sold twenty Africans at
auction to the wealthier planters. They
were made slaves for life, and thus the
institution of slavery took its start in
this country, although slavery was not
in the colonies until about
a half century afterward.
Tho total amount of negroes in the
United States in the year 1880 was 697,-
O00 The census of one century later,
which will be taken next year in 1890,
will show q negro population i'll this
country of about ten millions. There
were 6, $50, 900 in 1880. Under the more
foVo, able conditions of freedom the ne
pro popuation doubles itsel about every
twenty years. Lnder the impulse of n
heavy foreign immigrntion the white
race only doubles itself in this country
about every thirty five years. When we
consider the increased ratio of propaga-
tion among the negroes over the whites,
the results are positively startling. The
dollar which was doubled each year for
twenty years increased to over a million
dollars. The twenty negroes whom the
Dutch landed on the James River have
increased now to about ten millions.
Fifty years hence this country will con-
tain sixty millions of negroes.
The census of 1850 gave Mississippi
white population of 479, 900, and ne
gro population of 650,000. 1t gave
South Carolina n white population of
391 900, and negro population of 604,-
300, or about two to one. 1t gave Lou
siana 454, 900 white population. and
1873, 900 negro population. The census
of 1890 will probably show that the ne
gro population outnumbers the whites
N Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Ten
years later, or the year 1900, will find
Virginia, Arkansas and North Carolina
with negro population that outnum-
1ers the whites. Thus, in ten years
lence, upon free ballot and fair
count, we will find nine states of this
lnion ruled by its ex-slaves.