The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-09-06


so complex. SO momentous, so much de-
ponds upon it's solution that even the
humblest citizen may feel justified in
adding to the multitude of counsel on this
subject.
But what is the negro problem? To one
seeing it in all its bearings it is. broadly
speaking, two fold. 1t presents the two
horns of dilemma. And in proportion
as we avoid one we approach the other.
To promote peace and harmony between
the races seems, in all human wisdom, to
promote ultimate miscegnation and ANAL
gamation On the other hand to feed the
present discord and strife seems to increase
the evils which we now suffer from the
negroes presence.
Repugnant, impossible as miscegnation
and amalgamation may seem, remote as it
may be compared with the short span of
our individual lives, reflection shows us
that it is not only possible, but prob
ably danger to be guarded against with all
our wisdom and STAYED off to the last pos
sible day. History teaches us that when
two races are thrown into close contact,
that no matter how strong prejudice may
be- that somehow amalgamation results.
Miscegenation beginning slowly, covertly
at the very lowest rung of the social lad
der works its way insidiously upward
through generations, gradually callousing
the acutest sensibilities as it goes till
where there was superior and an in
ferior race there stands mongrel, one
different from either, but necessarily in
ferior to the superior one.
The extent of the harm that would re-
suit in our case will of course depend upon
the proportion which the negro race in
America then bears to the white one The
proportion in our favor will undoubtedly
be large, larger than now. Nevertheless
the infusion of negro blood will be large
enough to mongrelize the American stock
to its serious and everlasting harm.
The vast majority of Southern people
scout this whole question as absurd. The
few who recognize it, as a remote POSSIBLE
ity, comfort themselves with the thought
that, horrible as miscegeration may seem
to them in this instance, that the blend
ing of races is good thing and that Prov
idence will somehow settle matters to the
good of all America. The facts are that
in every instance where good has resulted
from the blending of two strains of blood
the strains have been allied branches
from the same social fountain. On the
other hand mongrelization has been the
curse of the world since history began.
1t destroyed many of the finest races OF
the past And the result of racial amalga-
nation (using the word racial as meaning
the distinct races of man, white, black, vel
low, etc.), can never result other than IN
mongrelization.
/ repeat that this is the paramount dan
ger that confronts the American people
from this source or from any other
source. l have more than once urged In
these columns that the racial danger which
overtops and over-balances all others is
the danger of racial amalgamation.
In separation of the races. were 1t prac
ticable lies the only final solution of the
whole problem Southern statesmen, and
in fact the general intelligence of the
South arrived at this conclusion more
than century ago. Nor was this con
cluson the result Of mere theory or alb
stract reasoning. With a presciencs
founded on closer knowledge of the ne
gro they saw that the welfare of boil
races imperatively demanded separation.
Even at that carly date the South hat
in the free negro in its midst an objec
lesson of the most alarming kind as t.
the evils that would result to both races
when the negro, freed from all restraint
was left to come in contact with the wors
element in the white race. They saw tina
the free negro deteriorated rapidly iron
his condition as slave, or probably from
III h,
gradual growth of miscegenation between
free negroes and the lowest class of whit
women. In these frictionless days before
the incendiary work of the abohtlonis
set the races at war and before the Souti
fully awoke to the abysmal danger tina
yawned in her path, miscegenation OF thl
kind was far more common than is nov
generally believed. When in the conven
ton of 1886 the question of free negro dis
reimbursement was being discussed, Judg'
CASTOR mentioned incidently that Thu
class had largely originated through thu
commerce of slave negro men and the low
est class of white women, though 1T
true that good many originated from TIN
Indian as ! have shown in former articles
Looking across centuries, gazing owe
the smoke of strife which enshrouded late
generations our forbears saw all thes,
things in the white light of verify and o
truth.
In the light of these facts the South be
came violently opposed to emancipation
except when followed by immediate colon
ization. The laws of the Southern States
as a rule prevented emancipation only o
these terms. But for the unfortunate an
disastrous interference of the visionar
abolitionists of the North the plan fo
freeing and deporting the negroes woul
now be in active operation, with vas
majority of the race already beyond til
seas, where we could no longer harm thel
or get harm from them.
Could there be stronger vindication I
the position of the early South than tt
present status of the negro question?
of the post-bellum period of the Sout
were long half distraught on this subje
ourselves, being innoculated with the VI
ionary views of the abolitionist, but no
we see clearly that the attitude of the o
South towards the negro was founded NJ