The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-03-11

tic Army or Navy or in doing any,
thing 70 protecta flag that gives white
men all the stars and leaves nothing
but the stripes for the negro. Please
do not class me among the politicians.
You say the natural increase OF the
negro by birth would be d bar TO emf
grafton solving the race problem. II
talk with you would make you See
otherwise. For l know all about it
am acquainted with the statistics OF
immigration to this country. But
shall not intrude upon yOu1. time ana
patience. No reply to this letter VIII
be expected. Truly,
II. NJ. Turner.
II. NJ. Turner is a Bishop Of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church.
His scheme is before you to consider.
Now, Mr.. President, a little brief
summary. and l am done. | have en-
deavored in my feeble and humble
way to give you such historical light,
such chronological light. on this sub
iect as l could come across in the orlef
time l have had, along with my other
duties, to collect. l have relied maln-
" on the inner light OF my own obser-
vations and my own feeling and knowl-
edge Of conditions.
| do not want to see the African
driven to the wall | do not want to
shut the door OF hope in his face. l
am willing to give him every oppor-
tunity in life, all that the Declaration
of Independence guarantees-life lib
erty, and the pursuit Of happiness.
But that does not involve, and So help
me God I can not consent to have it
involve, the dominance Of that people
over my people.
Then what are we to do? We have.
as I have told you. a large negro ma
jority in South Carolina. Negroes COLI
stituted the wealth Of that State be-
fore the war when these slaves were
chattels. They are there and they do
not want to leave, and We do not want
them to leave. What ! mean by that
is that today the superficial thought
/ is that if they left our fields would go
untilled, our lands would become
worthless, there would be a vacuum
in the productions OF that State, and
if YOU took them out OF the South you
would create cataclysm in finance,
and would knock down and destroy
not only the financial prosperity OF
this nation, but Of all Europe.
So you can not approach this prob
! lem at double-Quick. It has been
coming ON US for two centuries or
more. We will have to take the time
to study out the best way to go about
settling it. and then begin. We had
better never begin than to begin
wrong. We have already begun wrong.
The blunders which have been made
since 1868 have produced the present
unfortunate and. l might say. danger
Gus situation.
Consider for a moment what it
means to undertake to deport these
people, to encourage them to emigrate.
You are face to face with problem
which in it's magnitude in expense will
approximate the national debt at the
close of the war The getting to-
gether even in small quantity OF 200,-
600 year, or whatever number might
equal the birth rate, and giving them
the aid and the assistance to 60 across
the ocean, or to go to South America.
or to Mexico, or to the Philippines, or
to Cuba, or to Africa. or anywhere
else, involves transportation by sea,
the food necessary to sustain them
while they are on the way and in the
time they are on shipboard. the food
to support life: and then when you
land them on the other shore you are
compelled by humanity to furnish
them with the means of support until
they can make a start in the world.
until they can plant crop and gath
er it. So l think upon rough estl-
mate you can not possibly hope or ex-
pect to accomplish it under $500 per
Fcapita at a very low estimate.
How many Of them want to go? l
d. not know, and certainly there is no
law to make them 60 and Congress
can not pass one. Joe does not want
to go-my Joe. l do not know wheth-
er belong to Joe or Joe belongs to
me. Anyhow, We have been together
for thirty years. and we have agreed
to live together until one or both Of
US die, and when l go away, if 60
first, I know he will shed as sincere
tears as anybody. I would die to pro-
tect him from injustice or wrong.
Now, what are you going to do
about it? Throughout that broad land
there are hundreds and thousands OF
.Joes. They do not care anything
about voting. They do not know any
! thing about it. Left alone and in
peace as they are now, they do not
know anything ubout the elections.
They have forgotten all they did know
about them. They have not voted in
South Carolina since 1881, long before
they were disfranchised according to
the constitution and the law Of the
State. When we took the government
away from them in 1876 we made it
so clear that we intended to keep it
that, after one or two Spasmodic ef-
forts, they surrendered all desire o.
contention, and virtually were salts
fed to 90 and pick cotton on the 9th
or .th of November, when the first
Tuesday came.
1t is only these pcstiferious Great
ures who are organized. as I said, into
little Republican machines to furnish
delegates to nominate q Republican
President who are bothering about 1t:
and it is those fellows who are in these
offices who stir up bad blood aud Gre
ate race antagoniSm and create a feel
ing of opposition in the minds of all
those WHO are willing to be misled.
Reflections ola Bachelor.
The way to succeed is not to fail.
1t is prudent to keep platonic love
we'll iced