The times., 1899-08-13
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opening of new worlds of enterprise and
activity; Of power. political and military.
They followed centuries of superstition,
when imagination ruled action; days of the
crusades, of converts, of spiritual pilgrim
ages, of communications and the results
OF all these extended through succeeding
generations. The eighteenth century was
the age of reason, and with reason, as was
inevitable, came democracy. Voltaire,
Franklin, Paine, Jefferson-all of them phi
loscphers, not theologians or men of ac-
tion-shaped the ideal governmental gov
ernment of religious, political, and jour-
nalistic liberty based on the natural rights
of man: and the fact that they arrived at
this basic principle, identical with that
laid down in the New Testament, is one OF
the many curious things in this paradoxical
world. The basis of free government is that
every man shall be allowed to love his God
God according to his conception, not that
of someone eIse-and that he shall not de-
mand any privileges for himself which he
is not willing TO accord to his neighbor
Truly. it seems as If all the law as well as
the prophets do hang on these two rules
OF course, the realization of this tre-
mendons theory of government which,
even as a theory, was only worked out in
the eighteenth century. must be slow. Mr.
Thorpe calls attention 10 the fact that even
in the making of State constitutions Yer
mont alone. of all the thirteen Common
wealths. applied the doctrine of natural
rights TO all men irrespective of race or
color, and he observes that this clause
in the Vermont constitution may well be
called epoch making, since it was the pre-
cedent for a similar clause in the constitu-
tions OF Ohio. Illinois, and New York.
The succeeding chapters deal with the
organizations OF government in the vari-
Gus States, and the questions of the quail
icstions of voters. the dissertation of
church and state. State sovereignty, the
organization OF the Democratic party, and
the development of the West. As Mr..
Thorpe hints, the rising power of the West
really brought TO the front the idea of
the nation. and brought up the question of
State rights. The development of Western
civilization is sketched in one of the most
picturesque chapters In the book. The
early life OF the Middle West was Homeric
in some of its aspects. 1t was not copy
OF older phases of social life; 1t was in a
certain sense autoehthonous. From the
first, political and industrial problems
were forced on the people. Nothing was
settled for them: they made their own
standards. Hence the crop OF statesmen
which, in course of time, was exported
from the Mississippi Valley.
In the twelfth chapter-about two-thirds
of the way through the first volume of the
book-Mr. Thorpe comes to the great
anomalous feature Of the Republic inner
ion and predatory greed-the slave prob
lem. In this chapter, which is entitled
"A People Without Country" he says:
Democracy In America, during the
first century Of independence. exhibited the
anomaly of being slavocracy. Its excuse was the
common of the heir-atlaw; its real defence
was the lust and the enjoyment of riches and
power. Had the sunny, serni-tropieal
climate of Florida and South Carolina extended
over New England, the abolition of slavery would
have been advocated farther North. Even our
morality is much a matter Of latitude.
Not until the eighteenth century was nearly
past did the people of New England, New York,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey arrive at the con-
clusion thst slavery was Improbable. Then
they provided for its gradual abolition. Their
morality sustained them during this trial, Just
rs the morality of people In States farther South
their slave codes more severe and their laws
permitting emancipation less liberal.
The account here given of the liabilities
to which free negroes were subjected, even
in the free States, until comparatively re-
cent period, will surprise most people, and
ought to dispose effectually of the objec-
tion that the negro is an inferior being be-
cause when free he did not prove his
equality with the white man. When nine
men out of ten unite to keep the tenth from
learning or doing anything useful, he will
need to be a very superior person indeed
to overcome their opposition; and that was
precisely the case of the free negro until
nearly the time OF the civil war. In 1888
Massachusetts forbade Africans to stay IN
the State longer than two months. II was
almost impossible for him to learn to read.
In 1892 a Quaker lady in Connecticut was
fined, imprisoned, and her house burned to
the ground because she admitted a colored
girl to her school. Cases like these cause
the thoughtful reader to reflect that,
though public opinion may seem to move
slowly, It does move. Mr.. Thorpe says In
commenting on these oppressive disabili-
ties:
As the American world grew larger and ceas-
ed, or tended to cease, being provincial the
people Of the North let the free negro alone.
It was great opportunity for him.
(This comes near being sarcasm. It was
q great opportunity for the negro to be
allowed to earn his own living without be-
ing required 10 move out of the State at
the end OF two months, or arrested and
sold or imprisoned while looking for a job
These things happened TO him under the
laws of both North and South.)
AS soon as he was let alone he began TO pros
per. There IS a hint here for those who are
seeking the solution of the race problem in
America. As as the negro was suffered to
earn his own living like the rest of the world
difficulties began TO disappear. Legislatures ceas
ed sending out resolutions In complaint Of free
negro invasions negro was seen here and
there planning board, shingling roof, mendng
a shoe, or LAYING a wall. A thus engaged
was not likely TO belong 10 the criminal class.
Public policy began to discover this simple fact,
as the half-century drew to a close. vague
sense of economic necessity was putting the laws
in their true light.
In short after being fer many genera
tions more afraid of the effects of justice
than OF the smallpox. people began to find
that 1t was not half as dangerous as OPP
preston, and that human nature is more
inclined to behave properly when given a
fair chance than when hampered by all
kinds OF oppression.
One incident which is noted by Mr..
Thorpe in this connection is not generally
known, though, as he hints, In justice it
ought TO be. He says:
In Louisiana special act Of the legislature
authorized free negro troops TO be raised during
the second war with England, but only those
residing in the parish Of hatchitoches, who pos
were eligible General jackson wrote in a let
ter 20 President Monroe, describing the battle
Of New Orleans: 81 Pakenham reel and pitch
out of his saddle. ! have always believed that
he fell from the bullet oi freeman Of color,
who ives famous rife shot, and came from the
Sttakapas region OF Louisiana"
II war be mans most glorious occupation, and
the death of an enemy's commander-in-chief be
desirable, America should erect a monument to
this forgotten free negro.
There is no partisanship In Mr.. Thorpe's
work. He implies all the way through
his book that the basis of the white mans
treatment of the negro. North or South
was a purely personal view Of the econo-
mics OF the situation, and that most of
the privileges accorded him, In either sec
tinn were due. not 10 sympathy. but to a