The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1899-06-15
THE NEGRO PROBLEM.

( blI1QbRitt DIraOlllHttllO ldCC, anu
race antipathy between the two
|peoplessis. widening and deepening
Us the decades pass.
Just after the war there was a
marked sympathy between the
former slave owner and the liber-
ated slave. This kindly feeling
demonstrated itself in thousand
and onesways; but the old master
and his negroes will soon be silent
in the grave, and with them will
lie buried the last vestage of toll
Grafton and. kindness between the
races. Unfortunately for TIL e
young white and young black
man, race prejudice is deepening
sand becoming more and more in
tense as time passes. There is
less i'll common between us now
than ever before in the history of
the American Negro.
Race prejudice is not depend ant
son environments, times nor sea-
sons-nor is it controlled by edu-
cational qualification or advance
ment. There are not to be found
on this mundane sphere any two
races of people more unlike in
views and feelings than the Amer
lean white ard black man. Meth
er race is at all responsible for the
fact. 1t is the result of the wis
dom and the goodness of God.
These differences are strong and
potential, and are widening and
deepening these race estrange-
ments.
These facts are the more serious
as the colored race is increasing
with greater rapidity as the de-
cades follow each other in
swift succession. If we are to
judge the future by the past, edu-
cation and the gospel have not
had the happying influence we
had hoped, because these race
troubles are becoming more fire.
quent, and, if possible, more ag-
gravated than they were during
the first fifteen years succeed
ing the adjustment of slavery.
Until today this fair land is being
stained in blood at the hands of
lawless cruelty unparalleled in
our history for a hundred years
past. Resolutions of religious as
sociations may have some infu-
ence for good, but lawlessness goes
on with accelerated pace. We
must look elsewhere for relief and
appeal to other measures for pro-
lection. The land is being pol
luted with blood. A righteous
God will frown; national disaster
will follow.
The colossal mistake of the CEN
fury was made when the right of
suffrage was guaran-
teed to- the uneducated, liberated
slave. 1t is said that "freedom
shrieked when 'Kosciusko fell"
1t may now be said that American
institutions staggered at the blow
If Negro suffrage. The right of
has always been attended
With national dangers. The DOM
nant and self-assertive character
IF the Anglo. Saxon race in the
owe of constitutional liberty NAV
yet relieve the country of this ma
5ional disaster and danger. AL
ready our people North and
South, East and West, are alive
% the necessity of abridging the
light of unlimited suffrage in the
hands of our African neighbors.
Several of the States have taken
action on this line. We only re-
greet Georgia had not taken the
cad. In this way the national
disease may work out it's own
What will be the effect of the
acknowledgements of the Negro on
5he.evils overwhelming the coun-
try? So far no remedy has been
found. The remedy, when found,
must operate on the negro, and it
must stop the first crime. When
the first is committed, the second
will follow. And there is no
earthly chance to avoid the Sec
ond. Therefore, wise men
Christian men-must ad dre's
themselves to an honest effort to
remedy the evil. In the first
place the dominant race must pro-
vide the remedy. Let it be said
to the credit of the Christian
white man, that, for a third of
the closing century, herculean eff
forts have been made to improve
the mental and moral condition
of the black man, and if rape and
lynching are increasing, then the
logic of facts force us to the con-
cluslon that education and the
gospel have proven failures, and