The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-08-16
An Experiment That Failed.
washington POST

We fear that the negro troops, and
especially those which have coloredm men
as commissioned officers, must be set
down as a failure. Properly command
ed and disciplined, the negro makes
a fair soldier. He will fight. He has
endurance. He is sufficiently cour-
past few months has shown us that
the negro officer is impossible under
any circumstances, and that the negro
soldiers are, as a rule, discOrdant
with vi scheme of society and civili-
zation. 1t is useless to ignore facts
This is a white mans country, and
the whites are not willing and con-
not be compelled to accept the negro
on equal terms in any relation of life.
White soldiers will not salute negro
officers, neither will they associate
with enlisted men Of color. We have
tried the experiment and it has fail
ed. Whether the negroes nave been
too jealous and too swift in asserting
their imagined rights, we do not pre-
tend to say. 1t is characteristic of
them to do so, and the chances all are
that they have given free rein to their
predictions. But however that may
be, the record of conflict, of resent
ment, of turbulence, and of agitation
has been so universal and so ugly
that we cannot shut our eyes to it's
significance.
There is another untoward aspect,
too. 1t appears that, although the
regular officers have hitherto had no
great trouble with their colored troops,
the breaking out of war and the con-
seQuent introduction of abnormal con-
ditions have led to many alarming and
unwelcome revelations. 1t seems diff
ficult if not impossible to make the
negro understand that he is amenaDle
to the civil law, to rid them of the idea
that the policeman is his natural enc
my, to awaken in him a sense of Obli-
cation to any authority other than
that of the military establishment.
1t may be said, for it is true, that SOL
diers on liberty, whether white Or
black, are prone to disturbance Of the
public peace, but the fact. remains that
while white offenders are always ar
rested without trouble by the civil pO-
lice or by the provost guard, the negro
is invariably protected by his fellows,
ever to the point of violence. From
Chattanooga, New Orleans, Tampa
wherever colored troops have been
encamped, whether regulars or volun-
teers-we have the melancholy, the
overwhelming proof. Within the past
week colored troops have, on two oc-
casions, broken into Florida jails, in
Inundated the sheriff, and rescued
criminals belonging to their respective
regiments. Indeed, it is of record that
they have frequently assaulted the po-
lice, both in Tennessee and Florida,
for the purpose of rescuing negro GRIM
inals belonging, not to the army, but
to the local population. In a word,
the best friends of the negro have been
discouraged by the revelations Of the
past few months, and have been forced
to the conclusion that they are fore
ing the negro's social evolution with
unwise energy.
The underlying cause of the negro's
attitude toward organized society is
not far to seek, but it would make too
long a story at this time. Enough to
say that it is far less his fault than
would seem at a hasty glance, n
that for the present we need deal only
with the fact.