The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-10
A NATIONAL PROBLEM

nv DIR. LYMAN Abbott in me Outlook)
what we call the race problem is a
National problem. The acts which i'm
oosed II upon us were National acts. The
responsibility for it is National re-
snonsibility. 1t must be assumed as a
National obligation. 1t must be solved
bv National cooperation.
The responsibility for the race prob
lem is a National responsibility. North
and South co-operated in bringing the
African race to this country. The negroes
did not come as other immigrants have
come. of their own free will. They were
not like the North American Indians,
found here on our arrival. They were not
imported by the Southern colonies against
the will and protest of the Northern.
The whole community North and South,
united in the slave trade. And the Afri-
can race grew in numbers in the South
and the social and industrial fabric was
revolutionized by their presence, partly
because of climate, partly because of ag-
ricultural and industrial conditions, partly
for political reasons, only in a very minor
degree because the moral sense of the
two communities was different.
The original secessionists-that is. the
abolitionists of the North-demanded
that the Northern States withdraw from
the Union. and so from all responsibility
for the slave. ''No union with slave
holders was the fundamental plank of
the Garrison abolitionists. The con-
science of the North said, No! 1t is true
that this conscience was reinforced by
the commercial interests and still more
by the National pride and patriotism. But
all these-conscience, interest, patriotism
united to say to the Garrison aboli-
tionists We will not dissolve the Union,
and so escape from our share of respon-
sibility for slavery. 1t belongs to the Ma
ton, and in the Nation We will stay until
we can find a way first to limit and even
tually to destroy slavery altogether. Then
the secondary ecessionists-those of the
South-said: We of the South and you Of
the North cannot agree as to what should
be done with this African race. You want
to free him; we want to keep him a
slave. You want to educate him; We
believe that education will unfit him for
the place for which nature intended him.
You believe that he Is a man and a
brother; we believe that he is but a
higher animal, fitted only to be a newer
of wood and drawer OF water. Let us
separate We will establish a new en-
pire whose corner stone shall be slavery.
Let US go In peace, and we will take the
entire responsibility for this African race.
And We of the North replied: We will
not let~you go: we will not consent that
you take the responsibility: it is ours as
we'll as yours; In the sight of God and OF
humanity we are our brothers keeper.
The obligation is ours, and we neither
can nor will be rid OF it. For four years
we fought to retain the right and power
.ho% CHI he no inv
of this African race We won. We had
our way We emancipated the negro i'll
spite of protest and heroic resistance ny
our Southern fellow citizens; We gave
him the suffrage in spite Of the protests
of no longer resisting South. We can
not now escape the consequences of our
own acts. He is our problem-the prob
lem Of New York as truly as of Louisiana,
of New England as truly as of the Black
Belt. .Appomattox Court House estab-
Iished our authority to deal with the race
problem of the United States. But au-
thority always carries with 1t response
bility. We insisted on the authority; we
cannot now escape the obligation.
II. AS the race problem is a National
problem, so il must be solved by National
cooperation, Southerner and Northerner
sharing the responsibility and co-operat-
ing to the desired result. We cannot
force our ideas as TO the best method C
dealing with this problem by Force Bills
and United States marshals. The sword
can strike the manacle from slave; the
sword cannot make a man of him. Nor
can we impose our ideas on the South by
an aggressive moral propaganda. The
South is not missionary ground. We of
the North are not to go there in Il am
holier than thou spirit" to convert them
to our ideal of brotherhood nor in a 81
am wiser than thou spirit" to teach them
how to solve the race problem. The
problem is, our problem, but it is also
theirs. We are to assume that they are
at least as eager to solve it as We are
that they understand it at least as well
as we do; that their patriotism is not
less real, their philanthropy is not less
genuine No doubt the South can learn
something from the North on this subject
1t is even more certain that the North
can learn something from the South
Never did a people more nobly attest
their readiness to adapt themselves to
new conditions. never did a people show
more heroism in building a new civiliZa-
ton on the ruins of an old industrial or
der. than the South has done. And until
recently the North has given to It's South
ern brethren but scant honor for its hon.
cradle course. The South has opened the
way for the landless negro to buy land
Tt has paid out of its poverty millions in
school taxes for the negroes education
1t has set an. example to Northern pre-
iudice by the extent to which it has open
ed the door of various honorable voca-
lions to the negro. 1t patiently submit
ted to the experiment imposed upon it
against its will, of universal suffrage, un-
til the conditions which that suffrage IN