The progress., 1891-03-07
been common for more than CEN


tury !
The same friend says:
Other races have made certain degree OF pro-
gress, some more aud some less but the black
alone has stayed in bis own land proof against
the advances Of civilization.
The above quotation sounds elo7
quent, looks well in print, but what
does it mean? As shown further on
in his speech, it means nothing; no,
absolutely nothing, politically for the
negro. Who Is to be the Judge of the
capacity of the negro? By what ad-
measurement is his right to citizen
ship to be meted out? Is this self
constituted friend the person fit to be
intrusted. with that task? Oh, no,
Mr.. Chairman, he is not, for he sees
the negro through eyes that are igno-
rantly preludiced, lie falsifies his po-
sition in the south and arraigns him
as unlustly, though with guarded
words, as those here in this building
who have made their record, not as
teachers OF the negro in morals and
political economy. but as leaders in
other fields, leaders on election days,
leaders OF Hamburg, Ellenton, and
every other persecution to which the
poor American negro has been sub.
lected. #
Now, Mr.. Chairman, is that quota
ton ethnologically true? And, if true,
what does it prove? What does the
history OF man as written by Herodo-
tus, Pliny, Tacitus, Cesar and Prich-
ard teach? Why, it teaches the abso-
lutte certainty that races locked up o
themselves remain in q barbarous,
and, II not in II total, in a semibar-
barous state. ] challenge any student
OF ethnolOgy to point to race,
tribe or clan that ever rose to per-
manent civilization without the as
sisting hand of another superior civili-
zatlon. Tacitus faithfully portrays
the uncivilized and degraded dcondition
OF the Germans and Gauls at the be-
ginning OF the Roman conquest of
their lands. Pliny portrays the de-
graded condition of the Britons, and
speaks OF the women of this parent
stock OF Caucasian English civiliza7
ton as attending their religious feasts
IN nude phalanx. Casar says:
Ten or twelve clf them live together, having
their wives in common, especially brothers.. or
| parents and children amongst themselves; but
the issue i always aseribed to him who 6rst es-
Some writer's think that they were
cannibals. Now, Mr. Chairman, these
races, touched by the magic wand OF
Roman civilization, have risen from
their degradation and immortality to
the highest specimens of Christian
civilization the world over The in
cestuous British parent stock has
evolved and improved to SO high a
degree that, whenever we speak of a
woman of constancy, Christian moral
ity and absolute virtue, we go, with
out stopping to think, among the En-
glish speaking Caucasians / truth
fully say this without disparity to
| other civilized Christian. women. |
am dealing with ethnology and his
tory as recorded by the English-spaek-
ing world.
This friend. ( Mr.. Colauit) thinks the
negroes incompetent Of the achieve
ments that are common to Caucaslans.
Why, the Romans held the same
views about the Gauls, Germans and
Britons. When sending cargoes of
slaves from the British Isles to Rome,
Cesar said, II send race that it
will require a century of education to
fit for house servants" .th, Mr..
Chairman, the science of ethnology is
perfect, the philosophers of this
school have been faithful, and they
all agree that the primitive state of
an excluded people from the influx of
a worlds advancement is no proof of
their inherent and Interchangeable infe-
riority, but proves the absolute GER
tainty of the common brotherhood Of
man, created by q common Creator,
with equal faculties and moved by an
universal impulse. Will the friend
from Georgia (Mr. Colquitt) charge
the poor negro with his ignorance of
this unerring divine law?
This friend from Georgia, (Mr. Col
quitt) further says:
Another grave and significant fact is that in
nearly century Of slavery in this country the
African never attempted to achieve his own
freedom under the self-born impulse OF liberty
that seems to have animated every people in
thral dom. from the beginning of time to the
present and which has resulted in the anal ac.
quisition OF freedom by their own effort.
Will the friend from Georgia mr.
Colquitt) point to q single race of
slaves who were strangers in q strange
land, separated, absolutely separated,
as the American Africans have been
from the protection which men in
stinctively look to on their native
soil, who have achieved their freedom,
who have been SO obediently true to
their masters, and have done as much
to secure their freedom, or who have
done so much for free institutions as
the American negro9 No, Mr.. Chair
man, the negro as class in America
is not the mutinous, riotous element
of our community, but at all times he
has labored faithfully to obtain his
emancipation and to better his con-
dition.
This friend from Georgia Senator
Colquittl says:
Found ignorance upon barbarism. and you
have the condition OF the enfranchised slave
at the end Of the war
And, also, he speaks lightly OF the
morals of the women; yet he speaks
as teacher and friend of the negro.
Sir, found ignorance, incest and super
stition upon barbarism, and you have
the condition Of the English speaking
people at the time of the Roman inva-
vasion, but with all their rights secur-
ed, with the Book of Christ in their
hand, behold their grandeur to-day.
And God knows it.: man knows it; the
Southern people know it, that there
was no barbArity, rs natural history
understands and records it, common
to the American negro at the breaking
out of the war. He was ignorant and
illiterate, but never barbarous at the
/ .e<@-l a y. 80