The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-25

Those Northern Republicans are III an
awful tangle. They are torn all to
pieces on the Philippine question. The
press and the pulpit are Illuminating their
various theories and giving advice in no
uncertain sounds. DR.. Parkhurst
preached Thanksgiving sermon to an
immense congregation and left the
thanks out He made bold to denounce
the war as an unholy one conceived III
sin and waged With iniquity and de-
clared that this country had gained
neither glory nor respect by reason OF
ii. He said that not even the President
could tell whether he declared war be-
cause the Maine was exploded, or be-
cause the Cubans were being starved or
because a lot of congressman threatened
to play Judas to the administration if
he didn't declare war.
He saws the President is continually
putting his ear to the ground like an
Indian to hear what the people of the
great West have got to say about it.
1t was terrible arraignment of the
war party.
Dr. Van Dyke, another notable preach
er, took for his text The American
Birthright and the Philippine Pottage."
and forcibly denounced territorial ex-
pansion. Then again DR.. Morgan Dix,
another strong aud popular preacher,
refused to give thanks for having made
war upon feeble nation war that
was entered into for humanity sake only
and not to acquire territory
And there were other preachers on the
+Ln oh
and the press the people are bewildered
and don't know what to think. But 1t
is to be observed that all the preachers
have some filings to cast at the South
about the negro, except DIR. Thomas
Dixon. THE niger is in the wood
pile" up there and everybody is crazy
about him. But DR.. Dixon held forth
in the Grand opera house to an immense
audience and dared to tell them the
truth He declared that Mrs. Grannls
was simply insane and he hoped the
Lord would save the negro from such
friends. He said: Il know the South
ern people and the Northern people. and
/ know the negro. He is better off to-
day than the Northern working man.
He never starves or suffers for bread.
The sun does not rise or set on this
city, but what some white man or wo-
man or children starve TO death. For
every negro in the South found sleeping
on a bed of straw, | will show you five
white persons in the North who have
not got straw, and would be glad TO
have it. The Northern white man
thinks less of the negro than the South
ern white man does. You don't want
him in your house nor close about you.
No trades are open to him here. lie is
nothing here but servant; whereas. at
the South, he completes with the white
man in every trade and walk in the
economic world There are $4,000 ne
gro voters in New York now, but who
ever saw a negro office holder among
them? There is not one, and never will
be- The Anglo-Saxon will rule, and the
Southern negro need expect no more ar
tificial support from the North. The
experiment is ended. The war gave this
nation a new era of its life. The bloody
shirt was buried on San Juan Hill. The
negro must now stand alone, and there
can never be a bloody shirt issue again
in this nation. The negro alone can
solve his problem, and he must do it, no
by politics, but by work"
Well, that sounds fine, but good deal
of it is fancy. The fact remains that be-
fore the war there was not a negro in
the changing in Georgia, and now there
are 1000, and the number is increasing
daily. and the Northern Republican press
and Republican pulpits are still denounc-
ing us for it. In the language of Gov
ernor Oates. / am continually tempted
to exclaim, well. what are you'un
going to do about it!''
But we are going to have Peace
Jubilee down here. and as John Temple
Graves said of Henry Grady, I'VE are
going to love a nation into peace" See
if we don't We are going to treat our
Northern visitors so generously and love
them so hard that when they get back
home they won't say Niger for two
weeks, maybe a month. | wish it We're
possible to get those fanatics to stay
down here a year or 80 and see for them
selves how the negro is doing-not IN
Atlanta or Savannah, or any of the big
cities where most of the chaIngangs
come from, but in the country or the
smaller towns. / wish they would visit
Gainesville and see the negro draymen
hauling cotton and hear their merry
laugh and their jokes, and see the cotton
pickers i'll town on Saturday evening
and night spending their weeks wages
for something good for Sunday, or see
: them in their churches on the Sabbath,
and hear them sing and shout and give
glory to God. Who ever heard of II
Gainesville negro abusing the white peo-
pie or complaining of oppression? They
are always happy and wear better
clothes than the poor whites at the
North. and at the sound of the school
bell their children pour in or pour out
like bees from hive. There is no
trouble here or in the country; no con-
fiict, and all the money they make is
spent at home. Cotton picking is their
annual frolic. My barber told me his
shoebIack had quit him and gone to the
cotton patch. He earned % cents to
81 a day backing shoes, but he has gone
to the field, where he can pick more than
u hundred pounds of cotton and get Az
cents for it; but out there he could talk
and laugh and carry on with the other
negroes and have a good time. Who
ever heard of negro tramp gong
around begging for something TO eat!
Well, now, if they are so contented and
IL.