The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-04-03
THE EGR ON TRIAL.

actual experiment in government
by the negro race is the one to be found
in Haiti. The Messenger incidentally
referred TO it a few weeks ago. Some
two or three years ago it considered
conditions in Haiti as described by
whites in the island, and published in
the New York Herald. In that island
a prolonged experiment has been tried
in efforts to uplift and to civiliZe the
African-to equip him and qualify him
for the civic duties and responsibilities,
to make him a good citizen, and TO de-
velop into self-government. The trial
is a very e failure. The test has
broken down completely according to
the testimony of northern people who
are supposed to be the negro's partic-
ular friend and most gracious admirer.
1t is we'll known that old Fred Dou-
glass, without one drop of negro blood
in his veins as he often b~oaSted-half
white, half Indian-had not much if
any confidence in the future of Haiti
and the experiment on trial there. He
thought the final outcome there would
practically settle whether the genuine
African had in him the capacity of cit
izenship and self-government. 1t is a
lamentable, d~espicable failure, and
awful in some of it's aspects. Senator
Money, in the senate, gave this account
of conditions, and they are in accord
with other accounts by people who
have visited Haiti and seen for them
selves. The senator said:
II would not particularly recite the
history of Haiti but that Mr.. Douglass,
the great orator of the colored race,
declared a he o with anxiety
to the fate of Haiti, because that was
to decide the negro's capacity for self
government. What has been the his
tory of Haiti, the most beautiful island
in the world, with the most fertile soil,
and delightful climate, and where grow
the most precious woods? The French
brought to them the blessings of the
Christian religion, paved roman roads,
docks, forts, country houses, mills;
and in a spasm of generosity the
French, when 'Egalite, fraternite, lib
erte,' was the slogan, the intoxicating
watchword of the French revolution,
handed it all over to the negroes a
free gift.
What is their condition today?
Those are the people we are to look
to as the example of the capacity of
the colored race for self-government.
When their cities were burned, as they
have been, in the numerous revolutions
| i believe there a been twelve con-
situations in the island in about forty
years-they were never rebuilt. When
| ever a road was worn out it was never
| repaired; whenever a mill or a planta-
ton went down it was never rehabili-
/ tated. When the rice fields were over
II nrv with uvoo6C hrna6in~ nncfiJnn-
| tial fevers, they were never reclaimed.
The coffee plantations AVE been neg
/ lected.
Their trade has materially declined.
| Not only that, but they have arrived
at thai condition when the Christian
religion has been in part rejected;
| hey have returned to fetchism and
| ers, and to cannibalism in some places.
! These are unpleasant facts, but they
are true and are taken from the rec
| ords of the courts of that island, from
the reports of conSulS and ministers;
they are found in the secular and reli-
| gious press of that island; AND today
| the man who is the hero of Haiti, the
man who has his day on the 1st of
January, as we have the borthday of
George Washington on the 2 nd of Feb
ruary, is D~eSSalines. DeSSalines was
such a monster that his own people
said, He spared a man in his
anger nor a in his lust He
was the man who ordered the massacre
of the mulattoes in the island, WIKI
plundered the treasury, and murdered
and robbed every one of his political
opponents"
In parts of Louisiana where negroes
re left to themselves, they have gone
back to the savage rites of the natives
=, kfr;ao 70 roadonicn, fotiohicno
cannibalism, and so on. Senator Money
got his own facts from James Anthony
Froude, dead for some years, one OF
the greatest in style of historians. Tht
senator says that he was in Haiti fol
sixteen years, was the friend of the
negroes, and yet 'he said in the second
edition of his work that the first wa:
not written in ink, but in rose water
That writer, the great historian, es'
sayist, and philosopher, Mr.. Froude
i could not accept these conclusions a
first He could not believe such con.
ditions were possible. He attributed
the failure Of those people to the fac
Of their French civilization and Cath
Ollie religion. He then vent to the Eng
lish West Indies; and in that delight
full book, which we a all read. Tbs
English in the West Indies, he formu'
lates his conclusions as to the menta
and moral incapacity Of the African
race for any seif-government."
The north has no true understanding
of the negro character and capabilities
1t takes a few half-breeds, and now
and then a negro of but slight admix-
ture Of blood, who has forged to the
front of their race, and then judges the
millions by these examples. The north
ern white man-scholar. philosopher
politician, or philanthropist, knows