The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-03-12
HOar'S Noble Words.
Notable Speech Of the venera-
BILE Massachusetts Senator

and Its Treatment of the Negro H&
Shows a ConcilIatory Spirit ant
Voices Sentiments Which are Note
worthy and Significant.
Atlanta Constitution
A portion OF Senator Hoar's speech
the other day before the Union
League Club, of Chicago, touches in
an interesting fashion on race condi.
tions in the South. Coming from a
Massachusetts man, highly honored
by the country, the following words
have unusual significance:
Il know how sensitive our South.
ern friends are on this matter of SO.
cial equality and companionship
and think l might say fairly and
properly-and that perhaps l have
right to say it-that it is not wise
for the people of the North to under
take to deal rashly or even to Judge
hastily OF feeling SO deeply implant-
ed in their bosoms
''Time, the great reconciliator will
reconcile them to that if in the nature
of things and in the nature of man
they ought to be reconciled to it.
And if in the nature of things and in
the nature of man time does not
reconcile them, it will be sign that
they ought not to be reconcfled to it;
and that some other mode of life for
them must be devised.
"Now, my friends, having said what
l thought to say on this question,
perhaps | may be INDUCED in adding
that, although my life politically and
personally has been a life of almost
constant strife with the leaders OF
the Southern people, yet as l grow
older | have learned not only to re-
spect and esteem, but to love the
great qualities which belong to my
fellow-cltizens of the Southern States.
They are a noble race. We may we'll
take pattern from them in some of
the great virtues which make up the
strength as they make the glories OF
the free States Their love of home;
their chivalrous respect for women;
their courage; their delicate sense OF
honor; their constancy, which can
abide by an opinion or a purpose or
an interest for their States through
adversely and through prosperity,
through the years and through the
generations, are things by which the
people Of the more mercurial North
may take a lesson. And there is an
other thing -covetousness, cor. ap-
ton, the low temptation Of money
has not yet found any place in onr
Southern politics.
'Now, my friends, we cannot afford
to live, we don't wish to live, and we
do not live, in a state Of estrange-
ment from a people who opossess these
qualities. They are friends of ours;
born Of our borning; flesh Of our
flesh; blood OF our blood, and what
ever may be the temporary error of
any Southern State, l, for one, if 1
have a right to speak for Massachu-
setts, say to her: 'Entreat me not
to leave thee nor to return from fol-
lowing after thee. For where thou
goest | will go, and where thou stay
est l will stay also. And thy people
shall be my people, and thy God my
God"
A more notable and a loftier Ma
tional expression has not emanated
from the lips OF a statesman since the
fratricidal madness of the sixties. OF
all men high in public affairs, the
South had preferred that Senator
Hoar, Of Massachusetts,, say such
things.
Such are the final proofs that the
Nation is again one in spirit as the
dictum OF war compelled physical
oneness.
What the senior Senator from
Massachusetts said about the people
of the South before the Union League
Club, of Chicago, was as broad and
conciliatory as the sentiments ex-
pressed by the late-President McKin.
ley on Southern soil, and by reason
of the venerable spokesman s historic
personality and the peculiar constit.
uency he has so long represented in
Congress, his Chicago expression
must be regarded as even more sig
nifcant. We have had some illus
trious peacemakers, North and
South; whose dearest ambition was
to see the traditional ''bloody chasm
filed level and sodded over with q
common American patriotism and
fraternity, but in that luminous list
of great souls that scorned jacka
politics for the National good, there
are not few who will hold that this
last eleventh hour name, like that o
Abou Ben Adhem, leads all the res1
of those from the North.
When Senator Hoar speaks of $50
cial equality and companionship" al
between Caucasian and African in th'
South, he reasons we'll and truly il
philosophizing that if, at length, th
Southern people do not become rec
| onciled to this unnatural and who'll,
undesirable thing, sit will be a sigl
that they ought not to be reconcile'
to it," The test has already bee
made in every conceivable form, s,
far as concerns this people, and n
law of the Medes or Persians wa
more immutable than is this law
But in demanding that they be a
lowed to fix their own social level
and race demarcations, the people {
the South do not ask to be accorde
scintilla OF Difference on account {
section, prejudice OR antecedents
They only ask to be judged on th
broad plane of human nature wit
the application of a divine touch {
the golden rule.
| 1t is the knowledge that even til
most uncompromising elements {
the North are now evincing dispt
sition to meet their brethren of tt
| South half way on such a ration;
basis of good fellowship that is s
| gratifying The nennle n{ the Snut]