Negro world., 1891-02-28

Philiips's maideD speech In the inter"
est of Abolition III Fan uil Hall ls
still echoed from he platfor Il of the
school and the college. The Quaker
poet still lives among US who II ed
the hearts of our people with such
lines SIS these:
"The voice of Massa chusetts, Of free sons
and daughters
Deep calllug unto deep aloud,-the sound
of many waters;
A gainst the burden of that voice what ty-
rant power can stands
No letters in the Bay State! No slave upon
her land"
1t is gratefully remembered that
when the Negro had no voice tospeak
for him in the councils of the Nation,
that then Charles Sumner became his
lifelong advocate, dying with the
words on his lips, "Take care of my
Civil Rights Bill.
1t is a signal fact that Senator
Hoar, of Massachusetts,, is now full
filling, at this very hour, the dying
Injunction of the great Sumner.
New England gave to the cause
Gilbert Haven and your own noble
and beloved citizen, DIR. r. S. Rust,
These men loved the Negro with a
passion which absorbed them, and by
their epochal achievements have link
ed themselves forever with the histo-
ry of the cause whose Quarter>Cena
tennial we gratefully celebrate.
We should bs recreant, therefore,
to our best Inheritance as we'll as our
deepest convictions if we did not
endeavor to speak an earnest word in
support of the Freedmen's Aid and
Southern Education Society.
We are requested to state what
were the impressions brought back
from a recent tour into the Southland.
In general, we make answer that we
were disillusionized of many mistaken
impressions.
/. We had not any adequate i'm
preston of the magnitude of the prob.
lem. We did not understand the
mathematics of it. We were told
that there were eight millions of Ne
groes in the South; hut what snck .
population meant, we did not begin
to apprehend until we had seen some
good portion of it. Eight millions Of
Eegrt es would people two New Eng
lands. The birth rate is given at six
hundred per day. We4ive, when at
home, in city of sixty thousand peo-
pie. If the population OF that city
were to perish teeday, you could re-
people it in one hundred days from
the birth-rate of the colored race. In
the marvellous fecuudity of this race
there is an Indication of Gods retri-
butive and coEpensative justice God
intends to make that people so many
that they shall demand just attention
from the American people at large.
Any person who would intelligently
study this question can not ignore
this striking fact.
2. We had not an adequate appre-
hens,on of the degradation of the
people. We preface this statement,
in which we have been misunderstood
and still expect to be, with the ex-
planation that we are speaking of the
race as a who Q, and not of the small
remnant that have been reached by
our schools. The fact is we have not
touched the fringe of that great pso-
pie. We have forty-three schools,
with eight Thousand pupils; that is,
one from every thousand of the pop
ulation. There are great masses OF
the colored people in rural sections,
away from the cities, that are sinking
into deeper barbarism than in the
days of slavery. This is not the fault
of the Negro. Put the Anglo-Saxon
through two hundred and fifty years
Of slavery, then turn him loose, un'
restrained and unhelped and he
would sink to deeper degradation
than the black man. Our observa>
ton in the South leads us to pain
full apprehension of the fact just pub.
Iphed to the Church by DR.. Hartzell'
The work has only begun. Millions
of colored and whi'e in the South
have q, yet been untouched. The
public schools are few, and the mar
iority very poor. The birth>rate has
been greater than our education oi
the column of illiterates; therefore,
the number who can not read and
write is greater now than twenty-five
years ago. May God help US to
commence our Second Quarter-cen-
tennial with larger plans aud deeper
consecration than ever beforep
8. was most happily convinced
Il tie ability, b, the means Of