The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-23
Uhe Wessenger'.


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dealing with the serious, difficult negro
problem. They appear to have no
~misgiyings whatever as to the reasona-
bleness Of their views and the sagacity
of their intellections. Without n
proper understanding of the real stu
alton, really knowing nothing of either
lis divided and composed in this south
land, they are swift to deliver judg-
ment, to offer advice, to propose a rem
edy, and madly rush in where an
gels" might well dare not to tread.
But the south is used to all this kind
of performance. The empiricism of
the offered practice is SO apparent that
it Is spurned and despised. A physi-
clan would be censured for his quack-
cry who would dare to administer a
remedy when he had not diagnosed the
disease and was utterly ignorant of the
symptoms and the probable cause Of
the sickness. Whenever a man is sick
there is an internal battle waging be-
tween the invading disease and nature,
the great m~edicatrix. To pitch in vi eft
arms blindly the doctor might aid the
disease to the overthrow of nature.
The northern man at long range and
without true knowledge of causes and
events who would volunteer his wis
oom to solve a most complex racial
problem would be quite as apt to injure
the cause of the negro which he would
fain help, as to injure the cause Of
white mans supremacy
Some men, negroes and whites, have
written about the race problem with
wisdom an6 insight and kindness.
Bishop Gaines, an able negro official in
African M. E. church, is of this kind.
In a recent sermon preached at Allan
ia, described as both forceful and elo-
quent by the Constitution, he gave his
race much sound, salutary advice,
while strongly denouncing crime and
4mobs. To the great crowd he address,
ed himself with conspicuous boldness
and candor. Many whites were pres
,ent. We make a few extracts taken
here and there:
"He denounced the crime of rage in
unmeasured terms, but deprecated
lynch law. In one passage he said:
Perhaps if a man were charged
with rape and l had an X-ray
heaven turned on him so that | knew
he was guilty, l would be willing to
turn him over to the mob"
81 want to say to day that he who
ssapolpgizes for the crime of rape, Or
has any sympathy for the inhuman
monster who commits this crime, be
he black or white, is an enemy. to God
and a traitor to his race.
"In all the catalogue OF crime can
imagine no deed more ~dastardly, no
fiend more foul and Internal, than the
beast who would outrage virtue and
take from a good woman the treasure
of her honor, brighter and more price
less than any jewel that ever gllttered
lin the crown of a king. I can find no
words to express my detestation for
Sucu d dAu VI ooSA
t"We want to put the world on notice
that we will not sympathize with such
an inhuman monster. We will not rest
under the imputation. To do so would
nut a scarlet letter on every black face
in this country and advertise to the
world that we are a race of rapists and
monsters"
But the LANCER of mob law is that
~onn ~ onr6oro n nd
and executed. And in my condemnation
of lynch law it is not that l wish the
guilty to escape, but that l do not wish
the innocent to suffer"
There is no danger of a race war;
all such talk is idle and foolish. With
95 per cent of our race good citizens,
what occasion is there for war? The
good men of both races will and can
get together, and peace and harmony
will prevail"
That class of negro abusers OF the
whites, who defend rapes or ignore
them, and who favor a race war, and
like that little rascal who was run out
of Wilmington Che fleeing from the
avenger in advance) and who is a fire
brand of %iniquity, in his dirty little
sheet at Washington is seeking to stir
up a bitter strife between the best part
of the negro race and their white
tneighbors should be Stunned as a sane
man would shun a lazar house or flee
from a cyclone. They are public enc
mics and incendiaries.
Bishop Turner, another able negro
bishop and a man Of character, believes
the one solution is for the entire negro
race to return to Africa. But this is
not remotely probable and not even
possible. To remove eight or ten mil
lions of people from one country to an
other country eight Or ten thousand
miles distant, and set them in the for
ests to find a living would be a ire
mendors ioh reouiring an immense out