The semi-weekly messenger., 1900-03-27
VERY, INSTRUCTIVE AS To RACE
EXPERIMENTS.


E. ]. Hale, editor of The Fayetteville
Observer, after serving his four years
with such distinguished ability (the
/ great Chicago merchant fields says he
was the best official representative
] abroad the Cleveland administration
! had) IS consul 10 Manchester, England.
was sent tc India by people in Man
[ chester 1--WE forget the exast facts) ami
had the opportunity of making a study
! Of racial conditions in .h3t great coun-
I try of more than two hundred million
people. In his recent article in
The News and Observer on the
opinion of the late Senator Vance
! as a voter, etc, to which The Messen-
ger referred two or three .dayc ago, he
gives something of wnat he saw, ami
his conclusions are really of mucn ill
tsrest for tEcy are the conclusions of
Il vigorous, capable observer. In 4
conversation come ten years ago with
Senator Vance be told him of his ''ob-
servations and Investigations bearing
on the racial subject" We give long
. extract and it will pay to read it. Ma
jor Hale writes:
Il went abroad entertaining the
then prevalent American notion that
African slavery had ceased to exist
with its abolition in the United States
. and in Brazil. 1 described to him the
astonishment with which L had come
to realize that the South had not only
been the scapegoat for the sins of
England in respect to Americas share
, in that great tragedy, but for those of
all the white men to this day who
come in contact with the blacks l.; .li-i'
own country. l told him that l had
learned that there were 90, 000, 900 of
slaves in Africa at this time, and that
parents in Africa sold their children
sometimes before they were born)
! into slavery-thus demonstrating the
fact that the idea of slavery and its
correlative, despotism, was inherent in
that race, which was consequently un-
fitted by heredity for political rights in
a republic. I told him how had beer
asked in India if / could suggest a bet
ter plan for the treatment of the ryots
than that with which the British had
replaced their possibly worse treatment
by the ancient Zimindars and maliks;
how l had taken my interlocutor'S
breath away by suggesting that they
be made slaves OF, under a like sys-
tenn to that which prevailed in the
south before our war; and how | had
overwhelmed him by quoting the sta
tistics from DR.. Dabney's book, Gas
above.) When / described to Senator
Vance the horror with which the ruling
class in India (congeners of the British
West Indian slave owners) regarded
the movement for beStoWing even a
narrowly restricted suffrage upon the
natives. though the latter are, racially,
incalculably superior to the-negroes,
and referred to the unspeakable cruel
ty of inflictinS unlimited negro suf-
frage upon those ex-slave owners
whose humane rule DR.. Dabney had so
beautifully portrayed. he exclaimed,
Yes. it was the greatest crime in his
tory -
Senator Vance said that while ne
was willing and anxious to see justice
done" 80 the negroes in ''everything,'
that ne was mot willing that they
should rule me or my people. He said
this in the senate in the speech quoted
from by The Messenger the other day,
and that can be found in ''Dowd's Life
of Vance
We read in 1867 a very thought
full and impressive book from the
pen of the late Rev. Robert l.. Dab
ney, D. D.. whom we believe to have
been one of the most powerful minds
the south ever had in any field Of III
tellectual activity. His was truly
mind of great vig0r, acuteness and
breadth. Major Hale quotes = very
impressive incident from DR.. Dabney,
which we gladly reproduce. Coming
from such high source the statement
may be taken literally without grain
of allowance. The great theologian
(who served in the war for second in
dependency says this:
IF political science has ascertained
any law, it is that the we'll or ill-being
of people powerfully affects their i'll
crease or decrease of numbers. The
climate of the British Indies is salubri-
Gus for blacks. Yet, of the one million
seven hundred thousand Africans i'm
ported into the British colonies, and
their increase. only six hundred and
sixty thousand remained to be emanci-
pated in 1882. The three hundred and
seventy-fve thousand (the totaD i'm
ported into the southern states, had
multiplied to four millions. Such is the
contrast. How grinding and ruthless
must have been that oppression which
in the one case reduced this prolific
race, in the most fertile and genial
spots of earth. in the ratio of five to
two! And how generous and benefcent
that government which, in the south
ern states. nursed them to more tho
ten-fold increase, in a less hospitable
and fruitful cline, Well may we de-
muir to have the world take its con-
ceptions of our slavery from the Brit
iSh."
People of small observation and less
reading of historic and clinical facts,
would do we'll TO ponder this extract
| and learn what fools these mortals
be-"
A DECISION As TO TRUSTS.