New-York tribune., 1903-05-18
LOST FAITH IN REPUBLIC.
DR.. abbott and CIeUeI0nd Haze,
.Says DR.. Hills.

From the pulpit of Plymouth Church. Brook
lyn. yesterday the Rev. DR.. Lyman Abbott, for
merly pastor of the church. was severely criti-
cised for his attitude on the negro question by
the Rev. DR.. Newell Dwight Hills, the present
pastor. He linked the name of DR.. Abbott with
that of ex-President Cleveland in attacking their
utterances on negro suffrage at a recent meeting
in this city. He declared that they had for the
hour lost their faith in the republic and in the
equality of the races intimated that they were
trying to revise the Fifteenth Amendment and
said: Not even an ex-President religious
editor can revise or enlarge improve Gods
word that says, All ye are brethren"
Dr. Hillis's subject THE Decline of
Great Convictions: Is the Republic to lose its
leaders? Is the number of distinguished men
less and less? A stud OF the sovereign con-
victions that lend stability and progress to the
nations life" He said in part:
Our fathers founded the republic upon liberty
that all men, without regard to race, should have
equal opportunity. And now. strangely enough.
China and England and India close to our shores,
}o6a e e f6ar9 U,g w iternationai law and Justice
and international harmony, we behold some Of our
races and the rights of suffrage for white and
At a meeting held in New-York a few weeks ago
the ex-President Mr.. Cleveland, and a great re
coIored question. They affirmed that the giving of
the right of suffrage to the negro had a fail
Worthy: they closed the door Of hope in the negros
face. and, with reference to the fact that several
Southern States have dsfranChised the negro, they
affirmed that the South should be left free to settle
the negro problem in its way. For the hour the
ex-PreSident and the editor are among the old
leaders in the South. the most popular men in the
North.
Both the statesman and the editor have for the
hour lost faith in the republic and in the equality
of the rae in the universal suffrage. Let all
cherish the hope that neither one fully realized the
scope of their statement If the negro Is TO be dis
franchfsed IN the South do these two men under
stand that they must also disfranChise him IN the
North2 If they affirm that they dlsfranchise the
iterate will they also dlsfranChise the one mill
ion white who also flliterate? If the
negro is 10 be dsfranchised: then the Declaration
of Independence is wrong. II the Wf1te man. pc
cause Of his illiteracy, and the black because
of his ignorance to lose the ballot, then the
foreign races-Italan. Bohemian and Polish and
If the universal suffrage is wrong, then the Fly
teenth Amendment TO the constitution must De
his speech at Gettysburg and the million soldiers
who gave their lives for liberty spilled their blood
in the interest of folly and superstition.
Last vear, DR. Abbott said. More democracy" in
his ..Fiebts OF Man" This year DR.. Abbott says
the cure of the ills of democracy is less democ-
racv Why should more democracy cure demOc-
racy's ills in 1902 and less democracy cure It's MS
in 1873? Let us hope that that wise man. Booker
T Washington will be controlled by super
fetal statements in leading his host out Of the
wilderness look toward the drifting cloud study
the tin weathercOcks the netghhOrlnS barns.
Ii he and the pilgrim host ever reach the prom
fsed land" Of happiness and peace. they must steer
bv the stars that fixed and immovable. In
when there is so little fundamental think
ing and recognition of foundation principles, all
Young men interested in the great race problem
should consider one fact. that the problem Of the
DOIitical method, called taking suffrage from the
negro, but an industrial and economic problem.