The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-04
Ante-BeiIum States
men Were Right.
is PROGRESS EVERYTHING
Issues of 81 Were C~entralism, I'm
perialism, and Race Question.
ARE THEY TODAY LIVE ISSUES OR DEAD
Does Not The Race Problem Stand in Our Way,
Threatening The ViriIity, the Purity,
Of Our Rae, Unless We Can
Answer k?

Of Our Rae, Unless We Can
Answer L? Z
To the Editor: Mr.. B. Boissen Bobtltt
has recently published an article on the
causes which led up to the war for
Southern independence, IN Whlch ~
analyzes in admirable temper and with
fairness as he sees it. the merit OF Tue
two sides. His position is, in SUBSTANCE
that while the South was constituencies
right, the North was right from a moran
and practical standpoint. And While ne
does not expressly say so, the unaVold-
able inference is that while Northern
statesmanship of the ante-bellum period
was broad precient, altrinstic, South
krn craftsmanship was narrow, puro-
lind, selfish.
Nor is Mr.. Bobbitt alone in the position
he holds. He is, | must admit, IN &C
cord with the consensus OF opinion.
Southern valor and Southern generalshlp
have been generally admitted. South
ern craftsmanship is still most sadly
discredited. Worst of all it seems to be
in as much discredit at the South as
anywhere else. We nave been more
| than content to kiss the rod that smote
us. and bless our former foes for having
saved us from our former selves.
From a. short sighted and from the
lowest unhistorian standpoint this atti-
tude is APPARENTLY right. There is more
| prosperity in the country, more mills,
more railroads., more men in broadcloth,
| more women in satin; we are burning our
candle faster and at more ends than II
| Grant had yielded to Lee, instead OF Lee
to Grant.
If material prosperity were all; II FOOD
and drink and fine raiment were all; II
human happiness or human virtue-and
largely speaking they are s~ynonymous-
depended on the speed and tonnage of
ships and cars; if it increased with the
output of iron at the mines, or the intake
of gold at the banks, then might We be
thankful that Southern arms failed and
that things are as they are. But if eN-
perience teaches anything it is that
riches and luxury lower oftener than they
raise the individual; if history cons over
to US one lesson with more iteration than
another it is that wealth and luxury have
been the pitfall Of nations; that man
hood and ~WomanhOod decayed as wealth
increased.
We fatter ourselves that being
The heir of all the ages
Foremost in the files of time"
! blessed with a broader and a ripper wis
dom, safeguarded by philosophy and the
printing press, that We can suck the
honey and shun the poison that turks in
the gilded flower of prosperity. Babylon
and Tyre and every civilization over,
whose ruins the bat fits and the liz
zard crawls doubtless had fetiches as pO-
tent to save in the eyes of their wor-
shippers as the fetch knowledge is in
ours. hat ours may not fail us we can
only hope; we cannot know. But this is
al, by the way.
Southern craftsmanship in 1861, accept
cd the alternative of war, because as it
solemnly averred two vital issues
were involved. Those issues were CEN
talism. Imperialism and the race Ques-
tiOn. Has time justified this avermcnt?
Are they today live issues or dead? DO
they no. o~verShadOw every other issue
tEat now cOnfronts us? Has not CEN
tralism, after dominating the field of
politics, now invaded every other field in
which the individual can be oppressed?
Does not the race problem stand.
| H. ~ III u way, ltdltIliS 10
devour the high qualities, the virility,
tic purity, of our race unless we can
; S. cCCily find the right answer? We have
in our midst ten million of negroes. a
race that for a century of centuries have
stood lmmovable and immovably on the
lowest rung of the ladder of human de-
yClOImCnt, a race whose instincts arc
the negative of morality and of all ad-
yancement.
What will be the result when these ten
million are absorbed by the American
people, when this tide of pollution flows
in upon the clear current of our blood ?
Miscegenation is a horrible thing 10
contemplate. so horrible that we refuse
to contemplate it. Yet, what thinking
man will deny that the trend is all that
way. The past teaches US that when
two races thrown together on terms of
political equality. that social equality
and finally amalgamation follows surely
and not slowly, historically speaking.
| repeat that the South drew the
the sword at no chemeras. at
no hobgoblins, tho reflection If
its own disordered imagination in the
mist that shroud the future. 1t sought
to destroy the hydra centralism; to fore
stall the race question and hold if. n
allegiance TO be solved by tho Wis
dom, not by the hot passions of tie
country; by the philosopher and +ne
statesman, not by the fanatic and the
politician.
Till her Just fears for her very exisf-
ence aroused by the incendiarism oe
Northern fanatics, the South was moi,
only fully alive to the evils of slavery
TO both races, but was constantly ,aet-
ing about for some means to MIGRATE
ana finally abolish it. But great a. vas
the evil of slavery, our statesmen =
that UNNECESSARILY vaster evils would
no" from suddenly destroying the bar
rlers ana allowing this alien tide to vorl,
us VIII socially, politically and raciaI1v
Inc necessity for disunion was = de-
ploTable one. It's contamination would
! undoubtedly have brought evils j., IT,