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

opportunity in life; that he is going TO
recognize them and give them offices
to represent the United States Govern
ment? Does that tend to peace. tend
to good order. tend to produce that
feeling of subordination which is t!neiE
only salvation:
Some people have been ready to be-
!ieve and to contend that the negro ,S i,
white man with d black SKID. All
history diSproreS that. 90 |" Africa
What d. YOU lind there: From one
hundred and fifty million TO two nun
dred million saEageS-
happened in my bcyhood, when |
was about y years old. to see some
real Africans from their native jun
Giles. The last cargo of slaves i'm
ported into This country were brought
here in 1858 on the yacht Wandercr,
landed on an island below Savannah,
and sneaked by the United States
marshal up the Savannah River and
landed little distance below Augusta
and my family bought some thirty OF
them.
Therefore l had a chance to see just
what kind OF people these were. ano
to compare the African as he is today
in Africa with the African who, after
two centuries of slavery, was brought
side by side to be compared. 1he oil
erence was as Hyperion to a Satyr.
Those poor wretcheS. half starved as
they had been on their voyage across
the Atlantic. shut down and battened
under the hatches and fed a little
rice, several hundred of them, were
the most miserable lot OF human be-
ings-the nearest to the missing link
with the monkey have ever put
my eyes on.
Now, l do not go into the philoSo'
phv of it, or undertake to act as Gods
Interpreter, because / have no ambi-
tion of that sort and / would not pre-
sumo to even suggest a thing more
than to say that if we consider the
destiuieS of this race from a broad
standpoint, and compare the condi-
tion of the African in Africa today,
the highest and best OF them, with
the condition of the American negroes,
such as we now have them, or such as
we had them in 1868, l do not heSi-
tate to say that among the four mil
lion and odd slaves who were in the
South in 1865 there were more good
Christian men and women than all
Africa could show then or can show
now.
Then if God in His providence or
dained slavery and had these people
transported over here for the purpose
of civilizing enough of them to form a
nucleus and to become missionaries
back to their native heath, that IS a
question. I have a letter here from d
distinguished African bishop who be-
lieves it, and l want to read it. But
the thing want to call your attention
to is that slavery was not an unmltl-
gated evil for the negro, because what
ever of progress the colOred race has
shown itself capable of achieving has
come from slavery; and whether among
those four million there were not
more good men and women than coulo
be found among the nine million now
is to mind a question. I would not
like to assert it: but l am strongly Of
that belief from the facts l know IL
regard to the decentralization that has
come to those people down there by
having liberty thrust upon them II
the way it was, and then having the
ballot and the burdens Of government.
and being subjected to the strain OF
being tempted and miSled and duped
and used as tools by designing white
men who went there among them.
A little while back l received let
ter from this mani never met him
making some comment on some
thing he had seen about my utter
anceS in regard to the negro in some
speech or lecture. My newspaper
friends have always taken it upon
themselves to quote everything that
is lurid and hot and vitriolic that
say, and then to finish by saying,
''The Senator from South Carolina
made characteristic speech" leav-
ing anything that was sane and
rational and decent and eloquent. if /
ever rise to eloouence, out Of the
whole account. That is unintentional
doubtless. In their pursuit for sensa-
tion they have done me the great
wrong to misrepresent me Throughout
this country. I do not fret over it. l
know that the truth never has over
taken a lie, and do not intend to un-
dertake it, and l never will even make
a start to run down thousand and one
lies that have been told on ne.
But this man, this bishop, wrote me
a letter and called my attention to 4
dream of his, an aspiration and q
hope, and to suggest that should
submit his proposition to the Senate
of the United State and lend it sup
port. I wrote back to him the ditfi-
Guilty that lay in the way the obstruc-
tion, the well-nigh imposSibillty OF
anything being done along that line
to the extent he had dreamed. Of, and
I went on TO say something about my
idea in regard to the negro, giving a
little advice, as we are all so prone
and ready to dc. Advice is one Of
those commodities that nobody ever
charges anything for except a lawyer.
I got this letter in return:
Atlanta, Ga, Jan. p, 1903.
Hon. B. Z. Tillman, United States
Senate.
Sir: Yours of the 18th instant was
upon my table when l reached home
from Memphis, Tenn.
You say, if know anything, l ought
to know that the negro in the South
must ever and forever remain subordi-
nate or be destroyed and annihilated.
l know that as wellas you do,and even
better, for a white man can not see
the virus of this entire nation, from
the Supreme Court of the United
States down to the ward politician, as
the co Ored man can see it and feel it..