The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-02-13

failure OF negro citizenship and II
proclaim the idea that the masses art
nobler than the man. | came especi
ally to deny that any call goes up from
the negroes of the South for the pat
ronizing friendship of the colored mer
of the North, who with all their boast
ed freedom have remained lower or
the ladder of mental powers and in
dustrial progress than the negroes o
the war-ravished section. l came tc
say that aside from sporadic evils,
which are lamented by our whole pop.
ulation, and would prevail under like
antecedent conditions in the most civ
ilized society on the globe, we are the
most happy part of the American peo-
pie. l was opposed to the bombastic
speeches which the frenzied and frothy
speakers dare not make in Mississippi,
because no man has right to make a
fire that is to cremate his fellow man
without that fellow mans consent.
This thing of the rattlepated negro
nondescript of the North vilifying the
best and only practical every day
friends of the Southern negroes has
gone to the limit of silent endurance.
At least, as a citizen of that maligned
snctioh, l will not endorse by dumb
ness the dainnable twaddle of a noisy
Northern mob that assails the virtue,
honor and christian character of every
white man of the South, who, like the
white man of the North and of the
world, is true to human instincts: nat
ural law and the equities Of the situa-
ton. This farcical pantomime Of a
race that has never distinguished itself
in human history challenging the civ
ilization of this the most luminous
age since Adam walked away from
the gates of Eden, and putting the foam
Of impotency in the teeth of thunder
tongued destiny, would be humorous
if it were not tragedy. The white
race is Gods flaming chariot circling
! the globe with its achievements of
! genius.
! 81 lament the loss to this land of
Mr.. Grady, who struggled to get the
descendants of cavaliers and puritans
on platform of common patriotism
and the negro on that of common
sense. 1t is an outrageous contempt
of propriety that the negro should
| clothe himself IN the cast-of garments
of the white mans achievements and
| then whine because the new suit is de-
MED to him. 1t would have reflected
some credit on the race if the league
convention had told the American
negro and whispered similar informa-
ton into its own ear that the twenty
five years Of negro citizenship does not
equal the twelve hundred years of
Anglo Saxon progress, that the opin-
ion Of mankind is, eventually, just !;
that honesty and economy are more
potential han hatred and mistrust );
that there are human rights antecedent
to all law which no law can contra
vene; that they should adjust them
selves to the republic instead Of trying
to bend the republic to themselves,
that they owe their longings for loftier
attainments to contact with the white
men OF the world; that liberty is in
dividual opportunity on the stage of
action; that no league on earth and
no law between heaven and hell can
remove the beam of irnpotency out of
the negro's eye; that the race enjoys
more OF human rights and has suffered
less to obtain these rights than any
other race in recorded history, and
that no rainbow road leads TO the
realms of Newton, Calico, Columbus,
Edison and Morse. Instead of vast
ing the substance of the race with par
tiality communistic leagues, offered by
salaried men, that will, like the locusts
of Egypt, consume the glory of Ethi-
opla's fields and devour the remnant
of her fodder, the race had best bestir
itself before foreign immigration and
British gold sets southwark and mini
mizes its opportunities.
d" There were no railroad presidents.
bank cashiers, merchant princes or
eminent engineers in this league con-
vention. Not man was there of us
all who has enriched the world by one
benefcent appliance. No great indus
try did we represent in the western
wonder of industry. No ships are
, sailing the seas at our command Lon
don and Liverpool do not know us
Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and New
York never feel their monetary sinews
pinched or expanded by the financial
fingers of the race whose self-appointed
guardians organized leagues whose
duty shall be to shake CORY locks at
the phalanx 0! human depravity, stand
ing in every town aud hamlet of the
South. If we cannot be men on the
lines of human experience, individual
worth and personal progress, I'VE should
admit Our capacity for manhood de-
velopment."
Tt is not usually those who are in