The Twin-City American., 1899-05-11


the Fisk Herald for April, and forms n
most interesting discussion of HIGHER
Education in relation 10 the Negro. M
say y that u comes from the pen of Prof.
Eugene Harries, OF Fisk University, is
snftlclent recommendation to all ac.
quainted with his able expositions of this
subject. =####
The progress of a people is
largely due to those few who
have a preseience and insight
which are denied to others and
which border ON the divine; to
the far-sighted,. deep-sighted
men whose piercing eye can
reach the core of things and
see clearly today the years that
are to be. They who shaped
lsraels destiny, aud fashioned
her history, and outlined her
policy, aud developed her form
of worship aud held the reins
of her government, were her
seers and prophets. II was the
prophets of Israel that secured
the results which will make
the Hebrew nation conspicu-
GUS both in time and eternity.
Their wisdom and guidance
have been fully justified by the
outcome of their policy. Mems
ured by their results, their
labors have abundant justiiica-
ton, aud we today give them
unstintedly the plaudit, "Ser-
wants of God, we'll done. You
stood upon higher peaks than
the generality of men. You
saw deeper and further. You
saw through the surface of
things to the bottommost facts.
Before your eyes the veil was
lifted, and the future opened
up to your vision SO clearly
that it looked like the past;
and your prophecy so accurate
and complete that it read like
history in advance. You saw
plainly the cause of things,
the issues of events, the mo-
tives of action and the means
to ends; and your eyes were
bedimmed by no mist of preiu-
dice, or conceit, or seliishness,
or narrow vision. You knew
so we'll what the future would
bring forth out of the womb oil
the present and how to prepare
for it's emergencies that men
called you the inspired of God
the prophets of the Most High
Christendom today, with its
broad philanthropies, its
larger hopes, and its mighty
triumphs, is complete justiii.
cation of the folly, the insanity
and the ruinous eccentricity
which yourcontemporaries saw
in your teaching and labors."
This is a fitting tribute to the
prophets of Israel; but all the
seers are not dead. There are
still living among us some lat.
ter day prophets who came t.
the South thirty years ago for
the purpose of fitting the freed
man for the duties and privi-
leges Of American citizenship
Let us call them, "The Apos-
ties of Higher Education for
Negroes" That they should
advocate for the black man
classical training in the Ian
guages, sciences and philoso-
phies subjected them to much
ridicule and reproach. They
were the fanatics, the vision
aries, the dreamers Of the dec.
ade just after the war. chasing
the rainbow and spending
money, time and energy upon
a useless task.
II was a prevalent belief
throughout the South that the
Negro was destined both by
God and nature as newer OF
wood, and a drawer Of water;
that this was the place given
TO him in the divine system of
things; that his place was
fixed; and that for q northern
phiIanthropist to attempt by a
liberal education to give him q
higher place was TO murmur
against the Most High, to OPP
pose Code DEGREES, and impi-