The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-02-04
The Negro and His Country.

A mass-meeting of negroes, held
under the auspices of the Afro-Ameri-
can League, which has been in session
in Washington, was opened with the
singing of che hymn Ny Country,
'Tis Of Thee - "Why do you sing
that songs" shouted the orator OF
the evening, as he began the speech
in which he called on his hearers to
seize the torch and the sword aud
spread waste, blood and desolation
through the South. ''Why do you
sing that so? You have no country !"
In the midst of the busy West In
dian waters there lies an island which
the negro may claim, as, in the fullest
sense, his country. Hayti is exclusive
II black mans land. In the eastern
half of it a proportion of mulattoes
mingle with the blacks, but in the
populous territory of Hayti proper
there are ful-blooded Africans alone,
The white man nowhere exists.
Hayti is an island three times as large
as Massachusetts,, with Connecticut
thrown in. It has a population of
nearly two millions-an excess over
that Of Cuba. It Is by nature one OF
the most marve1ously favored spots
on the face Of the globe. It has been
under negro domination for almost
century-it vas just ninety-nine years
ago that the independence of the black
nation was declared, after the inhu-
man butchery Of the French popula-
tion. It is fair to ask what the negro
has made of his country.
So sinister has been its reputation
that the island is Stunned by the ships
of the nations, and its interior at
least has remained for many years un-
visited by white men, though from
time to time reports Of hideous condi-
tions to which the people have sunk
have reached civilization. Within
the last few months, however, cor
respondents have penetrated into the
heart of the island and have come
back with a complete picture OF the
most degraded, the most abiect and
cdatemptible human spectacle which
the sun has ever looked down upon IN
any land pretending to civilization-a
state Of society appalling in its wretch
edness, an offense to the conscience OF
the world, and an afront to every IN
stinct of decency and order.
It is not merely case Of country
without mile of railroad, or even Of
highway over which wheels. may pass: !:
nor of harbors filed with filth, rotting
wharves, roohess warehouses aban-
doned plantations and the encroacbing
Jungle; nor of mere squalid, grovelling,
hopeless poverty nor Of imbecile gov
ernments occasionally emerging out Of
normal anarchy. It is a case of ma
tional atavism far on the way to
primitive African savagery, charact-
erized by serpent worship, the sacrifice
of children, canibalism and kindred
denominations.
It is with no exultation, but with
profound regret, that the horror Of the
failure of the experiment OF negro gov
ernment is contemplated. But when
black man, living in the enjoyment
of the right of property and citizen
ship, in the midst Of al orderly society,
rejoicing in the opportunities for
education, the exercise of religion,
rational pleasures and all the mani
fold advantage secured to him under
this Government-when such a man
in his folly, because he and his
friends are not given Offices enough to
please them, cries out We have no
country it is expedient to remind him
from the example Of Hayti that, in
the sense in which he means it, he is
happy in having none.-Courier-Jour-