The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1899-04-19
THE RACE PROBLEM.
FoRcEFUL SERMON BY REV. E. IL. HARVEY
ATTHE DISCIPLE CHURCH LAST SUNDAY
MORNING.

attracted mucn attention ana comments
Twenty-sixth verse of the XVII chapter
of Acts: "And hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth"
am complimented by the invitation
extended so courteously and kindly for
me to appear this morning and repeat
the discourse gave last Sabbath morn
ing i'm the Presbyterian church. AS that
sermon was altogether extempore, shall
be unable to repeat it exactly as given at
that time. However, the sentiment of
the hour | may reproduce, and shall
depend upon the inspiration of the
moment for the language in which
shall clothe that sentiment.
The subject is SO vast and vital that l
am sure that any audience of American
citizens can follow it with an interest in
the matter. In these times, when we
hear such pleasing reports from the
southern states concerning the adjust
ment of affairs between the North and the
South, it is somewhat astounding and dis
couraging to hear any adverse or contrary
report; and | do not bring any such
report to you this morning, my friends,
because | am pessimist, nor because
am hopeless as to the outcome of freedom
for the colored race in the United States
1t is a long way in the distance, but since
God is God, that consummation will be
reached; but we have not reached it yet.
/ speak this morning from eSki-
ence. For the past three or four winters,
as you know, we have been in the
southern states and have closely observed
and studied the race question, which is
certainly a question of surprising
moment to us, and we have come away
from the South each spring time feeling
somewhat disheartened and discouraged,
and never so much so as the last time.
Never have | received so unfavorable inn
pressions of the future of the colored
race in the South as during the last
winter in eastern Tennessee; and what is
true of eastern Tennessee is true, very
largely, of all the southern states.
Since last Sunday, with this appoint
ment in view, have been going over in
retrospect, so far as | am able, the history
of the centuries, especially as it relates to
the abomination of human slavery. You
may 90 back into dim and almost fabu-
lous antiquity, and you will find
superior class, small class, and an OPP
pressed class, large class; and without
exception, all along the ages, that sin of
human shackles has initiated against
good government: against consecrated
patriotism and upright society; has been
the moral and political gangrene
the ruin of dynasties. The great
Charlemagne, after looking over pre-
cedent events in Greece and in the far
East, understood that unless he could
abolish the sin it would ruin his rule, and
did all in his power as a sagacious ruler
to do away with the damaging sin, and
did limit it largely. And then we come
along in the story to some of the middle
centuries; and, my friends, there is moth
ing that can begin to portray the woes
and misery of slavery in all the times of
these middle ages.
We are conversant with the dreadful
horrors of the middle passage" as we
have read of it.
In this great crime of the centuries |
am sorry to say the Anglo-Saxon race
has had its share. | am sorry to say that
England, and later America, have had
part in this great crime of the ages.
The empires of England and Russia, like
ourselves, have been contaminated, all
have been criminals alike. But when it
came to abolition, Russia could do the
deed better than the Others. because it
only required the stroke of an autocratic
pen to liberate the serfs.
The first of August, 1884, believe, all
the slaves of the West India islands were
freed, by English enactment. And right
here | want to say one word in favor of
that race. 1t was supposed when the
emancipation should take place, that
there would be revelry, disturbance,
and when all these slaves were set free
captains put out to sea to make safe their
vessels and their lives, and there was
CONSERVATION on the part of white people
on these islands lest the negroes should
rise up and punish them for their wrongs.
But right to the contrary; the negro
slaves gathered in their churches and
worshipped God peacefully, yet enthu-
siastically, that they were at last free,
and the next morning, all over the island
of Jamaica, it is said these black people
were in the fields again, ready to work
for wages. That is tribute l am glad
to pay to the black race.
And now we come to our own slavery,
that has left such faint upon our fair