The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-06-20
Facts Plainly Stated.

0SSS L AoAAAy oSOSSNs
Or. LYMAN ABBOTT TAKES RATIONAL VIEW
OF SOUTHERN RACE PROBLEM.
Mistake of the North In Clothing
With Rights of Full Citizenship "a
Ignorant and Incompetent Mass oi
Suddenly Freed Slaves-la its Su-
preme Desire to Have the Intellect,
the Conscience, the Education, Rule.
the South Is Right, Says DR.. Abbott
Frankly.
Lyman Abbott, in New York Outlook. }
When two forms of civilization
come in conflict, a higher and lower,
one of three results inevitably ensues.
The higher civilization may destroy
the lower and extirpate the barbar-
ians, as the Hebrews did the Canaan
ties; the higher civilization may sub
jugate the lower and hold it under
control, and as England is now hold
ing the Hindu race in India; or the
higher civilization may pervade the
lower, convert and transform it, and
so make it over, as primitive Chris
tianity did imperial Rome. One of
these three results is certain to ensue
-extirpation, subjugation. or trans
formation. In this country we have
tried to avoid that inevitable, eternal.
inf1eNible law OF God; we have tried
so to fence around the Indian civiliza-
tion (Which is barbarism) that it
should remain permanently in this
country alongside of the higher civili-
zation. And this cannot be done.
The race problem at the South is
more complicated and more difficult,
but it is to be solved by the same fun
damental principle. At the end OF
the Civil War our fathers were con-
fronted with very difficult problem.
What should they doe Should they
give the ballot back into the hands OF
the ex-slaveholders who had been in
rebellion against the National Gov
ernment, and leave the destinies OF
the Southern States in his hands,
This was perilous to National inter
ests. and they believed it would be
perilous to the rights OF the negro
race; for there was current talk in the
Southern States at the time ot estab-
fishing some system Of serfdom to
take the place of slavery. Should
they put the political power into the
hands of the Union men? These
were hard to find; and when they
were found, to confer political power
upon them and deprive all others OF
it would have been an insignificant
and not very intelligent oligarchy,
Should they control this conquered
territory from Washington by impe
rial administration? The Nation had
no gifts for imperial administration
and no desire for imperial admins
tration, and our fathers justly feared
the effects on the Nation as we'll as on
the conquered country. The expert
ment which we finally resolved to try
was this: Congress established uni
versal suffrage. gave the political
power equally to blacks and whites,
ignorant and educated, thrifty and
thriftless, and said to them, Take
care of yourselves" At the same
time we intimated, in many a hot
political debate and many a public
utterance in press and platform, &
profound distrust of the Southern
people and belief that the negro race
who lived among them could rot ex
pect from them good will and fail
| treatment. Thus, on the one hand
| the North showed a strange and ex
| traordinary confidence in the blacl
race, and a not SO strange but equally
marked distrust of the white race.
But the confidence and distrus
have alike been proved erroneous
1t is not necessary for me to trace
here the results of the carpetbag rule
in the South. growing out of negro
domination. The facts are fresh il
the recollection of most OF us. The
page is dark, even a terrible one.
and there is little inclination on the
part OF any Of us to re-read it. Under
that government OF ignorance, in
competence, and corruption the fun
damental function of government wa:
not fulfilled; persons were not pro
tected, property was not protected
the family was not protected, reputa
tion was not protected. The ends o
government were for the time los
sight of; the object OF government
was not accomplished.
Our distrust of the white man il
the South has also been proved false
Il. I, o., - Lo I'll
the slave who used to work in hi
home and on his farm. We NAV wei
be proud of the Nations record since
the close of the Civil War. A grea
stream of beneticence has flowed frou
Norther churches and Northern
philanthropists into the South Il
establish and maintain schools for th'
| negro race. But it has been insigni
fcant in comparison with the recorC
which the South has made by its gift
to Southern education. Forty million
dollars a year, Marion l.. Dawson
tells US in the last number Of th'
North american Reriew, (for February
l901,) are spent by the Southern
States for education. one-thirtieth o
it contributed by the negroes, nearl,
one-half of it given to the negroes
A community of ex-slaveholders
whose slave system compelled th
keeping of their slaves in ignorance
have suddenly reversed all their pre-
cedent history. and out Of thei
poverty have contributed with un
eHampled largeness of generosity 10
the education of those whom, little
while before. it was a penal offense t
instruct: we may search the pages 0
human history in vain for a parallel
The solution of the race problem il
the South is a reversal, on the ont
hand, OF the unreasonable confidence
and the reversal, on the other hand
OF the unreasonable distrust. 1t is
mistake to suppose that every maj
has a right to vote in any community
1t is a still greater mistake to sup
pose that a people who have neve
learned how to govern themselves ca
of