The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-11-03

sovereignty of the country Is 10 be a2ic
TO maintain a Republican form OF gov
eminent The negroes OF tins State have
not this knowledge either by inheritance
or education; as a consequence they have
been easily led TO form combinations with
a small minority Of white men and br.ng
TO the State intolerable government.
Why didn't Prof. Bassett give the true
reason for the suffrage amendment az
stated by our able Governor, unless he
wished to SANDER the State?
2. The passage of Jim Crow law vas
not due to hatred of blacks" as Pref.
Bassett seems TO think. but TO a
desire to secure on the cars the same
separation that obtains in school, and
churches. and it has worked Wei.
8. increasing resort to lynching.' II
there mas been any increasing resort 20
krching'' it has been mainly due to an
increasing resort" to the crime Tor
which it is the penalty. Leading Southern
men stand against l~ynching and Southern
officials have risked their lives to save
rspists from lynching. Why didn't Prof.
BaSsett give the record OF brave Southern
officers if he wished to be far?
q. "a general augmentation Of that seq
sitive disposition on the part of South
erners to take fire a. the hint OF a negro
outrage God forbid that the South or
the North should ever fail to take fir"
over the despoiling of w~omanhood. What
Prof. Bassett enumerates as an evidence
of hostility is the crowning glory Of
Southern manhood and Southern chivalry.
and he will find that it exists among chlv-
alrous men in Indiana and Illinois as we'll
as in North Carolina. The best sentiment
Of both sections favors the legal punish
ment for outrages, but can any MAI tan to
take fire" when that outrage comes to
him or his neighborhood?
Prof. Rassett does not seem to approve
the early legislation looking to complete
racial separation, though he does not hold
it up as evidence of general opposition
to the negro" as he does the suffrage law,
Jim Crow law and the tendency to lynch
for rape. For US, we honor the men woo
passed all such laws, regretting only that
all separation laws nave not been more
rlgidly enforced. The only hope for the
South is for complete social, religious, elu-
~cational separation-a separation leav-
ing to each race to work out its own
destiny, with the duty imposed upon tho
stronger race of helping the weaker race
IN THE WAYS IT IS NOW HELPING.
Prof. Bassett says he doubts whether q
Southern y-bifa farmer swoI111 admit that
the highest negro in America is superior
tc the Southern hired man who is white
In order to relieve Prof. Bassett's doubts,
we will say that no Southern white farm
e. would make such an admission because
it would be untrue. The highest negro
has a right to make a place in his own
race and to be treated properly by the
white people, but every day ''the South
err hired man who is white" achieves
social position to which no negro may as
pire. He is Of a race superior to the
negro race, even if he is uneducatcc.
Does Prof. Bassett think otherwise?
Passing over the mistaken statement
that both the progress and repression OF
the negro have brought down on hun
the hostility of the whites, an indict-
ment of the Southern white people tina.
has no warrant in their kindly treatment
Of the negro-we come to a statement
that will give pause and secure for the
writer the indignant condemnation Ct
every White man who reads his words.
Writing of Booker T. Washington, he
says:
"NOW WASHINGTON IS A GREAT
AND GOOD MAN, A CHRISTIAN
STATESMAN, AND TAKE HIM ALL IN
ALL THE GREATEST MAN. SAVE
GENERAL LEE, BORN IN THE SOUTH
IN A HUNDRED EARS"
When we first read this sentence, we could
not believe our eyes. We re-read the words
some mistake or some error in proof
reading. But, no, there it stands in It's
boldness, in its directness, IN its wanton
, and absurd negro dedication! No negro
!, philist at Oberlin, no man claiming to he
the reincarration of Wendell Philips, no
second Harriet Beecher Stowe in the great
est creation of fiction out of nothingness,
could ever make an assertion so far from,
the truth of history, past and present. Is
! 1t possible that Prof. Bassett believes his
own statement? Is he ready to declare
in his saner moments of reflection that
Booker T. Washington is all in all tf.e
greatest man, save General Lee. born n
l the South in ar hundred years." It is
inconcelvable that a man of Prot. Bias
} sets education and study of history
4 could make such a statement unless we
: charitab bly, believe he is under the spell OF
: ~negropholist hypnotism.
: Let US consider a minute the significance
OF this sweeping statement. Booker T.
Washington is "the greatest man, save
General Lee, born in the South in a
hundred years. Why except General Lee?