The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-05-26
EX-GOVERNOR NORTHEN ON THE
SOUTHERN NEGRO.

and were treated to one OF the most
lucid speeches ever delivered OH this
subject, on Monday night by Elk Gov
ernor w. J. Northern, OF Georgia, who
spoke before the Congregational Club
of that city. The Ex-Governor oc-
cupied over two hours but had to con-
dense his remarks against the protest
of his audience who wished him to
continue. Some of the principal
points of the speech are as follows
81 am not here to apologize for the
South. The South has her ills, her
sins and her crimes. What section has
not? The South has had and will
have violent shocks to her civilization.
What section has not ? The South
has had her sorrows. God knows they
have been grievious and hard to be en-
dured.
whenever the South finds an ideal
government without sin, people per-
feet in law and perfect in its enforce
ment, the South will do its respectful
obeisance and ask to be led into its
broader civilization and its better
power. Till then, and not till then,
we shall stand abreast of all other
sections, and challenging those with
out SIN to cast the first stone at US.
$50 much l desire to say for the
white people of the South. For the
negroes OF that section cannot decline
to say that, taken as mass, would
not exchange them for any l have
seen in any other parts of the United
States without tremendous money
boot in the exchange. lam the friend
of the negro in my State, and they
recognize in me one of their strongest
defenders. am not here to defame
them. God forbid! l am here to
speak their worth, when they deserve
it, and to condemn them when their
wickedness SO demands.
"Lest may be misunderstood, de-
sire to say, with emphasis, that shall
not speak to you in any sectional or
partisan spirit. Let us thank God
that sectionalism is, or ought to be,
dead.
After the war the negroes were
promptly made citizens. They were
enfranchised and not only made equal
with their former masters, but they
were taught that liberty meant license
and that the domination of the white
man was the one thing for them to
strive for and attain. The people of
the South looked not only upon aban-
donment by the negroes, but upon
absolute treachery among her own
people. Many men who had been
true to their colors during the war,
now broken down in fortune and with
out hope for the future, believed they
saw political elevation for themselves
in the use of the negroes vote.
Uniting themselves to the carpet
baggers and scalawags who flocked to
the South like vultures over dying
carcass, they ate carrion together, as
in all the shame of union leagues and
midnight political marauding they
planned for the negroes antagonism
toward the white people that has
proved the bane Of the negro and the
white man at the South. Here began
the separation between the negroes
and the white people of the South.
The breach was widened by the pres
ence of the military all over the South,
not only encouraging the schemes of
division and domination concocted in
the union leagues, but offering sup
port and defense by such arms as
might be needed.
"Our Legislatures were composed of
negroes and carpet-baggers; our laws
were made, on the one hand, by those
absolutely ignorant of our institutions
and our government, and, on the other,
by those who had no sympathy with
our interests and not dollar in our
business.
"Since that day the negro at the
South has been determined to oppose
everything politically that he believes
the white man wants.
Upon this subject Prof. H. M.
Browne, a negro and member of the
faculty of Hampton Institute, one
among the best schools for negroes at
the South, says:
1.-THE greatest enemy to the negro
and the greatest obstacle to his pro-
&ess is the politician, and the negro
politician is the worst Of ALL
I'm thirty years 40 per cent. of the
illiteracy of the colored race has dis.
appeared. In education and indus
trial progress this race had accom-
plished more than it could have
achieved in centuries in a different
environment, without the aid of the
whites. The negro has needed the
example as we'll as the aid of the white
man. In sections where the colored
population is massed and removed
from contact with the whites the pro-
gress of the negro has been retarded.
He believes in educating his children,
because he can see that an increase of
knowledge will enable them to better
their condition. But segregate the
colored population aud you take away
the object-lesson.'
NO INTERMARRIAGE.
The relations of the negro to religion
and society were next considered by
the Ex-Governor. In regard to inter
marriage he said:
"InIermarriage at the South not
only makes the union void, but sub
jects the officiating clergyman to
punishment in the chain gang, the
penitentiary or heavy money fine, in
the discretion of the judge.
''If the people OF the North see fit
to differ with US on this point we will
not have any dispute over the matter
as the people OF the South are not
given to the effort at control of
othor mems matters. We are in per
feet harmony with the old adage,
There is no disputing about tastes
THE SAMUEL HOSE LYNCHING.
"You need not ask me if approve
the horrible enactment that occurred
within forty miles OF my home Il few
weeks ago-the lynching of Samuel
Hose. God forbid that should. DO
you condemn the burning as strongly
as it was condemned through the
Northern Pressf' 1 answer emphat-
ically, just as strongly. Then you APP
prove the course taken by the North