Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-06
THE 1RREPREss1BIE CONFLICT.
Views From the Northern and Southern
Side of the Question.
L. -. !

side of the Que stion.
From the Atlanta Constitution
We find in the August number of the
Neg England Magazine, published in Bos-
ton, the following comment on the assem-
bling of the Grand Army of the Republic:
For the work of these veterans did not eulmi.
nate at Gettysburg, nor close at Appomattox.
The war altogether was but one battle in the
great campaign. Freedom did not come with
the emancipation proclamation. II did not
come TO the black man at the South. Freedom
comes only with equality, only withsShe recog-
milton of every child of man as equally with
ourselves the child of God Where the spirit t
tyl amy and caste prevails there is slavery.
The spirit-God grant it be not that of many
leading men-which, within a two-month at
Atlanta, moeks at Phillips, Brooks and William
Lloyd Garrison for their strong call for help for
the noble Southern college, which scorns to
note the color of the face of any man who
knocks q, its doors and asks for knowledge, is
the same that shut up Prudence Crandsll' S
school forty years ago, the same which in the
little story in the preceding pages remanded the
beautiful young girl from hope and promise TO
; intamy and despair. Let us not make any mis-
take about this In the presence of this Grand
Army OF the Republic let us speak no compro-
missing word, but dedicate ourselves anew to
this unfinished work" of making every man.
be his skin black or red or white. citizen and
neighbor in deed and in truth, in every part
of this American Republic.
That the writer of the foregoing is sim
cere We have no doubt, but just such fanat-
icism as lies behind this sincerity has
caused great deal of unnecessary trouble
in this world. The attempt to put in a
practical and working shape the sentiment
expressed has cost the United States Gov
eTnment more than four years of the war
in money and the deadly results of bitter
ness and strife.
When the negroes were freed those who
held such views as are set forth above were
not satisfied They wanted the negroes to
be made the equals Of the Southern whites
The freedmen were given the ballot and
the Southern leaders were disfranchised for
no other reason-and impartial history
will record the fact-thsn to give the ne
gro an opportunity to assert his equality.
The experiment having met with total
failure, is il not about time that men who
hold the opinion expressed in the extract
we have given should conclude to take an
other tack, to try another experiment?
Every device and every scheme that
could be brought to bear by Republicans,
as shrewd as they were unscrupulous, has
been resorted to, and to-day there is Just as
much difference between the white man
and the negro as there was when the peo-
pie of New England sold their slaves to
the South.
So far as any question of right is con-
cerned, no man in the South will say that
the negro is not "a citizen and neighbor
in deed and in truth" This is fact about
which any man, even though he be a fana-
tic, can easily satisfy himself. There has
not been session of the Georgia Legisla-
ture since the negro was enfranchised that
has not had negro members. In almost
every county in Georgia where there are
intelligent and upright negroes they serve
as jurymen. We will compare the record
of Georgia IN this matter with that of
Massachusetts.
As to the question of neighbors, is it not
the white people of the South, the former
slave owners and their descendants, who
visit the negroes when SICK, who go on their
bonds, who furnish them with opportuni-
ties to go into business and the trades, who
tax themselves to educate the blacks, who
furnish them with asylums for their help
less and insane? We ask the persons who
desire to keep up the strife and bitterness
of the war to look at our tax books and
Jul otdtutC OOOho lOl bliC dBoMCl vi luccc
questions
But this does not seem to satisfy some of
our Boston friends. We must admit in
word and deed that the negro is our equal
in every respect before they will consent to
say the war is over. This is the "irrespon-
sible conflict between opposing and endur-
ing forces with these men. We are will
ing to meet it, and meet it in any shape
it may come, and we are thankful to know
that we belong to the enduring forces in
this issue. There is not power enough in
the world, if it were possible to divide its
citizenship so that each and every negro
could have a detail standing by him day
and night, to make the South admit the
doctrine of equality; and the sooner the
cranks and fanatics understand this fact,
the better it will be for the country.
If the Southern people were to be con-
tinually interfering with the domestic
questions of the North-such for instance
as the pending controversy over the de-
nominational control of schools in Boston
no good would be accomplished. 1t is
far better to have this question settled by
Boston and leave it to the survival of the
fttest So it should be with this negro
question. In the South to-day there is not
so much tyranny and caste as there is in
Boston. No human being is so tyrannical
as a fanatical crank Those who fail to
agree with his offensive and unreason-
able dogmas are denounced as worse than
savages.
We thank the Lord that there is nc
human power that can be invoked to carry
out the wish of the writer in the Neiv Eng
land Magazine. To this fact we are in
debted for our safety. Since the world was
created the divine power has never in any
way interfered to change the status that
has always existed between the races, and
in this fact is also our safety.