The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-01-16
HENDERSON, N. c., THURSDAY, JANUARY 16 1890


gia, which show that the negro, twenty
five years ago a slave, has in Georgia
alone $4,000, 900 of assessed property,
worth twice that much. Does not
that record honor him and vindicate
his neighbors3 What people, pen
niless, illlterate, has done so we'll I
For every Afro-American agitator,
stirring the strife in which alone he
prospers, 1 can show you thousand
negroes, happy in their cabin homes,
tilllng their own land by day, and at
night taking from the lips of their chill
dren the helpful message their State
sends them from the -schoolhouse door.
And the schoolhouse itself bears testi-
mony. In Georgia We added last year
sa5o,ooo to the school fund, making
total of more than $4,000, ,ooo--
and this in the face of prejudice not
yet conquered---of the fact that the
whites are assessed for s368, ,ooo, 900,
the blacks for S1o, 900, 900, and yet 49
per cent. of the benefciaries are black
children; and in the doubt of many
wise men if education helps, or can
help, our problem. Charleston, with
her taxable values cut half in two since
1860, pays more in proportion for pub
lie schools than Boston.
Although it is easier to give much
out of much than little out of little,
the South with one seventh Of the tax
able property of the country, with rel
atively larger debt, having received
only one-twelfth as much of public
lands, and having back Of its tax
books none of the $5oo,ooo,o 900 of
bonds that enrich the North---and,
though it pays annually Sac, 900, 900
to your.section as pensions---yet gives
nearly one-sixth to the public school
fund. The South, since 1875, has
spent S122, 100000 in education, and
this year is pledged to s37,ooo,ooo
more for State and city schools, al
though the blacks, paying 100 of the
taxes, get nearly onehalf of the fund.
Go into our fields and see whites and
blacks working side by side. On our
buildings in the same squad. In our
shops at the same forge. Often the
blacks crowd the whites from work, OF
lower wages by their greater need OF
simpler habits, and yet are permitted
because we want to bar them from nc
avenue in which their feet are fitted tc
tread. They could not there be elect.
ed orator of white universities, as they
have been here, but they do enter there
a hundred useful trades that are closed
against them here. We hold it better
and wiser to tend the weeds in the
garden than to water the exotic in the
window. In the South there are ne
gro lawyers, teachers, editors, dentists
doctors, preachers, multiplying with
the increasing ability of their race te
support them. In villages and town:
they have their military companies
equipped from the armories of the
State, their churches and societies bull
and supported largely by their neigh
bors. What is the testimony of the
courts? In penal legislation We have
steadily reduced felonies to misde
meanors, and have led the world ir
mitigating punishment for crime, tina
we might save, as far as possible, thi:
dependent race from its own weakness
In our penitentiary record 60 per cent
of the prosecutors are negroes, and il
every court the negro criminal strikes GU
the colored juror, that white men ma,
Judge his case. In the North, on
negro in every 185 in in jail--in tn
South, only one in 446. In the Nortl
the percentage af negro prisoners is s..
times as great as that of native white
lin the South, only four times a
great. If prejudice wrongs him il
Southern courts, the record shows it t.
be deeper in Northern courts. l as
sert here, and bar as intelligent ant
upright as the bar of Massachusett
will solemnly indorse my assertion
that in the Southern courts, from high
est to lowest, pleading for life, libert
or property, the negro has distinct ad
vantage because he is negro, apt t
be overreached, oppressed---and tha
his advantage reaches from the juro
in making his verdict to the judge il
measuring his sentence.
Now, Mr.. President, can it be serious
ly maintained that we are terroriziu
the people from whose willing hand
comes every year $1,000, 900 c
farm crops? Or have robbed a Peopl
who, twenty-five years from unreward
ed slavery, have amassed in one Stat
s2,ooo,ooo of property1 Or that W
intend to oppress the people we ar
arming every day? Or deceive them
when we are educating them to th'
utmost limit of our ability? Or out
law them when we work side by sid
with them2 Or re enslave them unde
legal forms, when for their benefit "
have even imprudently narrowed tn
limit of felonies and mitigated the Sc
verify of the law3 My ellowcountry
men, as you yourselves may sometime
have to appeal at the bar Of huma
judgment for justice and for right. Civ
to my people tonight the fair and Ut
answerable conclusion of these uncor
testible facts. But it is claimed ths
under this seeming there is disorde
and violence. This / admit. An
there will be until there is one ides
community on earth after which v
may pattern. But how widely is it mi
judged. 1t is hard to measure hi,
exactness whatever touches the negr'
His helplessness, his isolation, his Gel
tury of servitude-these dispose US
emphasize and magnify his wrong
This disposition, inaamed by prejudi<
and partisanry. has led to Injustice ar