Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1900-07-19

90 uay AAs@&Af &1@ AZ w 60 #eAH - ACH
weeks ago when your mizlster vas
one Of those who ofiiciaEtd 81 his
funeral. He was one who hsd spent
o generation Of life as lave. A
good man. one. whom oil grown
to respect, and what W. Of much
less consequence, my friead 10 the
last.
Now say, that under teso cir
cumstances, 10 u not stang That
| speak to you as q friend. What
ever ! say viii be with the deepest
friendship, and whatever / may
say that may be in itself unpleasant
shall be entirely respectful both in
word and spirit.
/ was asked to address you upon
the legal status Of the teacher. /
said to Professor Walker, Who
brought me the invitation, and with
whom / had correspondence and
conversation. that that was very
narrow subject, that really, il ]
confined myself to the letter Of that
subject the best thing l could do
would be to take the Acts Of the
Legislature and read them to you
and sit down. But / said pre-
ferred to do, with his permission
and with the permission Of the In
stitute, what the preachers some
times do-take q text, and talk
about anything; and I said to him,
as ! say to you now, that / would
take that narrow text and discuss
some larger and broader questions.
intend in what little | shall say
to You to tell you that the teacher
should teach. ! will say this in
reference to the teachers themselves.
They occupy the vantage ground.
In the frat place, presumably. and
actually, they are among the most
intelligent Of your fellow-citizens,
the best educated. They are the
persons whose calling gives them
the opportunity and tie leisure to
read and to reflect, and especially
it gives them the opportunity of in
culcating their views upon those
who come in contact with them.
They are in q position to WELD
great influence, and they ought to
do it, if may presume to instruct
other people in their duties. They
ought to do it in broad and wise
spirit. When l say that I propose
to tell you what the teacher ought
to teach, / do not mean to say what
he ought to teach out of the books.
| look outside of the text books,
and think of those great practical
questions which affect your people
and my people, and those are the
questions to which / would direct
the attention of the teachers of this
Institute.
1t seems to me that the first thing
that the teacher should understand,
thoroughly grasp and take in, is
the environment, the surroundings
of the race to which he belongs.
Now i know that the first and most
salient fact in this connection is
American citizenship. We are all
here tonight, without distinction
of race or ancestry or color, Amer
lean citizens. We are all to that
extent upon the same plane. We
all have the same rights, at least
theoretically before the Law, but
there 10 something that in deeper
and stronger than the Law, and that
is the race feeling, and he would be
an unwise man, be he teacher or
preacher, il he ignored that factor.
No Law. no constitution, can be 90
levelling, and make things 80 uni
form as to obliterate that which the
Father Of rs all has seen proper to
create. It will not down. You
cannot overcome it. IL il there,
and there is no man, who is q wise
teacher, that will close his eyes to
this great fact.
And 30 You find yourselves in the
midst Of another race. What 10
your relation now to that race in
some Of the great factors which
must control our existence ? In
numbers, for instance !? Your num-
bers are fewer. / am not provided
with any statistics; am not pre-
pared to say whether the white race
quite doubles your race in the South
ern States. You teachers know
better than I. But there il, at any
rate, q great preponderance of the
white race. Not only is there this
preponderance of the white race ut