Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-09-03
ONE OF MORAL DECAY
Is Race Problem, Says John
Temple Graves.
ADDRESS AT CHICAGO
DECLARES SEPARATION Is THE
ONLY SOLUTION.
"God Did Not Intend Opposite and
Antagonistic Races Should
Live Together"
ADDRESS AT CHICAGO

i
ments 1t is one of impossible conditions.
Stated in a sentence. this Is the propiem'
How the strongest of races and the weakest
of races thirteen hundred years apart In
civiliza ton. unequal In history and develop
mont fnconsruous unassimilable and In
herentIy antagonistic. tossed between party
schemes and sectional 1ealouses. trritated
nv racial conflicts and misled by mistaken
philanthropy can live on equal terms I'M
der exactly the same laws and share on
equal terms In the same government-When
no other races opposite and antagonistic.
have ever shared. in peace and tranquility,
since the world began. any country or any
government created by God or fashioned by
man?
This is the question that the times are
called to answer. This IS the riddle that
the twentieth century is asked to read. This
Is the experiment that the temporfzing
craftsmanship of a civil revolution has
forced upon the age.
....The statement of the proposition carries
it's condemna ton. and the equations must
be changed before the problem can be
solved.
The Failure of the Experiment.
The experiment has had thirty-efght
years of trial. backed by the power of the
federal government. and by the sympathy
of the world. 1t has failed. From the be-
ginning to the hour that holds US. 1t mas
failed. The races are wider apart ana
more anita gonistic than they were In 1859
There Is less Of sympathy and more OF
tension than the races have known since
the terrible days of reconstruction made
chaos in the south.
THE fifteenth amendment is practicaliy
repealed In nearly every state OF his nu-
merical habitation the negro IS disfran-
chised under the forms of law. In all the
states where his ballot is a menace to white
supremacy 1t Is restrained. with all these
years and all these forces at his back, there
has been an utter failure to establish the
negro in a satisfactory and self-reliant po-
sttion under the law.
-Four decades after his emancipation ne
is in point of fact less a freeman and Inn
nitelv less a citizen than he was In 1853
The tumult Of the times about u proclaims
the continued existence and the unrecon-
ciled equations OF the problem that no
makes: and in the common Judgment OF
mankind the legend failure Is written large
and }owerin& above the tottering fabric OF
his civil rights.
And vet the experiment goes on. I'm
changing and unlearning. the republic
gropes in solemn stupidity. In helpless apa-
thy, in misguided philanthropy. through
tea seless complications and hopeless prece-
dent to the hopeless and preordained con-
.clusion. The experiment goes on
A Problem Of Moral Decay.
, cit Is a problem of moral decay. 1t de-
moralizes politics. Wherever black SUI
premacy is threatened through a black ma
jority the black ballot Is strangled with
out reserve in the black hands that hold 1t
against the safety Of the state. This is
wrong 1t is illegal. 1t is monstrous But
1t Is true. IT Is true IN Georgia. 1t is true
in South Carolina. Aye. and 1t would be
true in Ma sSachuSettS and In Illinois
e Put yourself, men of Illinois. in the place
of the people you perhaps condemn. Sup
pose that by the steady drift of emigration
the negro had come from the south to be a
ma jOrity in every congressional district IN
every legislative precinct and in every mu-
hicipal ward of Illinois Suppose that, real
izing this majority, he had organized to
utilize il.
: Suppose that you looked forward in the
next election not only to the proba bility.
but to the absolute certainty. that the next
governor of Illinois would be a negro: that
you would have two negroes In the United
States Senate to take the places of Hop
kins and Cullom: that you would have
solid negro delegation in Congress; legis-
lature at Springfield looking like a black
bird pie; negro judges on the bench: negro
solicitors in your courts; negro mayors IN
your chairs and negro policemen on your
3treets-let me ask you, man of Illinois.
with your pride In the past glories and your
confidence in the future achievements of
your historic state-let me ask you IT, In
the shadow of this threat and danger the
streets of Springfield and Chicago and the
woods and prairles of Illinois would not be
filled with eager white men asking how the
south suppressed the negro vote?
The Poison of the Ballot
But the stern and solemn necessity does
not cure the moral stain. The deadIiest in
fluence that can compass popular govern
.ment is in the decay of the spirit that
hedges the ballot with sanctity. The bal
Hot is the palladium of our liberties The
ballot is sacred
"A crime against the ballot Is a stab at
the Constitution. and the necessity which
makes the ballot the sport of conditions
must be removed If the republic shall sur
vive. And yet the problem shows no prom
Use on this line. We might as we'll be hon
est here.
We might as well face stern facts with
fearless frankness- / do not say 1t Is right
know IL is wrong. l do not defend
do not justify. l do not argue it at all
But ! am simply here to tell you plainly
certainty of knowledge that which Won
already know. and that which under re-
yersed conditions you would unauestiona bly
indorse-that there will never come a
chanse IN these suppressions while these
conditions last ~
Never. never, in thousand years, will
the negro. north south. be allowed
to govern in this republic even whore nc
najorities are plain. We might as well fY
1hls fact in our minds to stay. No statuta
oan eraocate. no public opinion can re-
inherent invincible. indestructible and ~
you VIII. the INSCRIPTIONS capacity ara do
termination of the Anglo-Saxon ra'sa 20
rule. 'H race 10
/. IS only the knife of surgery that can
cure the poison in the body and tho honns
OF pohtlcs. Under the shadow of tho 49,
lem our politics must and will be stained
Two Things Clear
wo things seem clear In relation to the
race problem. In It's present status IL COM
passes the progress of the white man with
uemora AVIATION and difficulty that puts his
very civilization in peril and disrepute
IN ITS present status IL wraps the nepro.s
uesuny IN unequal competition and leaves
MIN helpless under the weight of a pretu-
olee universal uplifting, unchanging and
oVerw helming"
MI Graves discussed speculative reme-
dles. and taking up the possible solution
OF the race problem. said:
separation of the races is the way-tha
only way II God hath made of one blood
an the nations of the earth He hath also
established unto them the metes and
pounds of their habitatonr He did NOT in
TEND that opposite and antagonistic races
should live together.
The prejudice of race Is a pointfnc of
providence and the antagonism of pennies .
1lt