Huntsville gazette., 1890-11-01

! a musket
In considering this problem the nation,
| strangely enough, shut its eyes to the fact
that in the history of the Revolution the Ne
gro fought braveiy for American independ-
/ enoe, and in the war of 1872 he even extorted
! praise from the stern lips of Andrew Jack
i son. His fighting qualities were noby admit
\ ted by the hero of New Orleans In spite OF
this it was insisted that the Negro was born
coward' that he could never make a sol
der; that he would run at the sight OF Il
whip. and that he would run much faster at
the sight of gun. Time and events, how
ever, helped the Negro and the nation in the
| solution of this problem as think they will
help III the solution Of any others that may
arise Fort Wagner, Port Hudson. Ficksg
burg, James Island, Olustee, Petersburg,
hichmond-a great cloud of witnesses rise
before Us to solve the proplem of the Negroes
soldierly qualities.
Whether the Negro could be educated, was
another problem. and | think this has been
/ solved to the satisfaction of all candid men.
/ He would be dishonest man, or an amaz-
ingly stupid one who. in the face of the thou
sands of Negro teachers, and the hundreds
of Negro preachers doctors, lawy ers authors
and editors, with which the country is now
studded, who should insist, as it once was in.
sisted, that education was impossible 10 the
! Negro.
But the greatest problem for the Negro was
whether he could with safety be made free.
Good men knew that slavery was wrong, but
how 10 get rid of it was the next question.
Neither the pulpit, nor the press, nor the
statesman could see q solution of this great
problem, and yet that problem has been
solved. The Negro is free, and the country
is ceansed of its greatest curse, crime and
scandal.
There were terrible things to happen upon
the passing away of slavery. The freedom Of
the slave was to be the signal of ruin. There
was to be no more cotton, no more sugar, 10
more work done by the Negro, and the South
was to become a bowling wilderness. But
against all these dark forcbodings, these pic
lures of dismal terror, the late war made
short work Of the whole problem. That
sturdy old Roman, Benjamin Butler, made
the Negro contraband, Abraham Lincoln
made him q freeman, and Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant made him a citizen.
But now, though all this has been Gone,
though slavery has been abolished, though
the Negro has been freed. though he mas be-
come a citizen, though the Union has been
saved, in part by his yaor. the Negro is not
to be let Off quite yet. He is to be made the
victim of new deal by precipitating upon
the country II false ISSUE He is to face
auot other problem.
Now that the Union is no longer in danger;
now that the North and the South are no
longer enemies: now that they have ceased TO
scatter tear and slay each other, but sit to-
gether IN halls OF Congress, commerce re
lgion and in brotherIy love, it seems that the
Negro is to lose by their sectional harmony
and good will all the rights and privileges
that he gaiue1 by their former bitter enmity.
This, it is found, cannot be accomplished
without confusing the moral sense of the
nation and misleading the public mind, with
out creating donbt, nilaming passion, arous-
ing prejudice and attracting to the enemies
of the Negro the popular sympathy by repre-
sentng the Negro as an ignorant, base and
dangerous person, and by representing to
those enemies that his existence to them is g
dreadful problem. With their usual cunning,
these enemies OF the Negro have made the
North party believe that they are now n
tending with vast and mysterious problem,
the mere contemplation of which should
| cause the whole North to shudder The
trick is worthy of its inventors, and las been
played for all that it is worth. The orators of
the South have gone North and have elo-
quently described this problem, and the press
OF the South has famed with it, and grave
Senator'S from that section have painted it in
most distressing coiors. Problem, problem,
race problem, Negro problem, has as Junius
says, fitted through their sentences in all the
mazes of metaphorical confusion.
| In speaking of this subject in another
place, | said what say now, that these South
ern people have outwitted the North. Like
skillful prestidigitators, they have turned the
| attention of the spectator to distant object
while they have manipulated the thing in
hand They have initiated the running of
| the hunter who draws red herring across
the path of the game to divert the hounds.
| The true problem is not the Negro, but the
nation Not the law-abiding blacks of the
South, but the white men of that section, who
| by fraud, violence and persecution, are break
ing the law, trampiing on the Constitution,
corrupting the ballot-boy, and defeating the
ends of Justice. The true problem is whether
these white ruffians shall be allowed by the
nation TO go on in their lawless and nefarious
career, dishonoring the Government and max
ing its very name mockery 1t is whether
this nation has in itself sufficient moral
stamina to maintain its honor and integrity
by indicating It's own Constitution and full
| filing its own pledges, or whether it has
already touched that dry rot of moral de-
pravity by which nations decline and fall, and
governments fade and vanish. The United
States Government made the Negro citizen,
will it protect him as citizen? This is the
| problem. 1t made him a soldier, will it honor
him as a patriot? This is the problem. II
made him a voter. will it defend his right to
vote? This is the problem. This, | say, Is
more problem for the nation than for the
| Negro and this is the side of the question far
more than the other which should be kept in
view by the American people.
What these problem orators now ask is that
the nation shall undo ali that it did by the
suppression OF rebellion and in maintenance
Of the Union. They ask that the nation shall
recede from its advance in justice, liberty and
civilization They boldly ask that what was
Justly and gratefully given to the Negro in
the hour of national peril shall be taken from
him in the hour of national security They
ask that the nation shall stutify itself and
commit an act of national shame which ought
to make every lover of his country cry out in
bitter Indignation and unite as ono man to
oppose demand so scandalous and so shock
ing to every sentiment of honor and gratitude.
And from whom does this demand come
Not from the men who gave their lives TO save
the nation. but from those who gave their
ir Nat 5rA, ~ 4x.on q