The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-09-15

black or yellow or brown. L aDhor the
suggestion recently made by a distin-
guished Northern clergyman and approved
by a distinguished Northern newspaper
which has warmly supported President
Roosevelt that q system Of governmental
compulsory labor should be imposed upon
the negroes at the South as upon an
inferior race. | abhor peonage and would
have every enginery OF our governments
State and Federal, applied to punish and
prevent it. I honor the citizens OF Ala
bama who, as prosecutors, judges and
jurors, have punished it in that State,
and the great majority of white citizens
there who have supported them III their
execution of the law. In my opinion.
there rests upon the President no duty
more imperative than to enforce the Thlr-
teenth amendment and the legislation en-
acted under it. For the amendment can
be practically enforced.
None the less | should regard it as cal
amitous to the American nation, and,
above all, calamitous to the American ne
gro, if the North were to undertake,
through the Federal government, to force
upon the South the right of the negro
to vote, or TO make a political issue OF
that right. The undertaking means the
use of physical force. Can anything be
palmer than this? In the Giles case the
Supreme Court declared that it would
not enforce the right because the physical
ability of courts was insufficient. The
condition Of public sentiment being what
it is at the South, the court would have
to enter every election district and I'M
dertake the supervision of every election.
Nor is this more than saying that judicial
y,i+c o,.a f,,t.lo To nnnonnt tho lNh1ta ronn
in South Carolina or Mississippi to turn
over the government Of themselves and
their State to the black race. No power
can make Roadway with such an under
taking. Only under military law could it
attain even a nominal success, if even
that be attainable. Our generation re-
members that a Northern army did estab-
lish and maintain in the South carpet
bag governments, with their infamies
and lapses towards barbarianism. If an
other Northern army were to renew the
undertaking, we would have the same re-
suit.
For the problem, it is plain to the last
degree, is not one of Democratic self-gov-
eminent. l would, if l could, nave blacks
govern themselves. Therefore it is that
| hate the imperialistic scheme carried
out by the Republican party in the Phil
ippines. But in commonwealth where
whites and blacks, although races pro
foundly distinct from one another, never
theless live together, | should be sorry in
deed to have the government controlled by
the blacks. The whites Of no Northern
States would voluntarily submit to negro
government. Even if negroes be in a ma
jority, is it not idle to expect South
ern States in this respect to do what
Northern States would not do? If in
Southern States the refusal of white men
to be governed by black men means that
black men are to be governed by white
men and against the consent of the black
men, | dislike the result as a calamity
to both races, perhaps the worst of all
the calamities born of the iniquitous slave
trade. Whatever, however, be our grief
at difficulties pr inconsistencies, whatever
be their practical evils, it is idle to ignore
the vast radical difference between whites
and blacks, or the vast superiority of
the white race. So it is idle to discuss
whether white superiority be essentially
and permanently Unborn, or whether it
represent achievements of relatively short
time which the black race may likewise,
and in as short a time, accomplish. In
spite of many exceptions honorable to the
black race and dishonorable to the white
race, the fact of the racial difference and
of the white superiority is, for our gen
Grafton and for generations to come, open
to no doubt whatever. These exceptions
do not make the rule. The really great
relative progress of the negro since his
escape from slavery does not alter the fact.
The problem in the South is unique.
There we have two races dwelling together
in closest industrial relation, city and
country ahke-races not far from numeric-
ally equal-races of which one on the
average is very superior to the other. but,
nevertheless, both races entitled and sub
ject to a legal theory of perfect and Demo-
cratic political equality. No like problem
exists IN any Northern State or in any
Democratically governed community Of
which l / know. IF, on the one hand. negroes
be Systematically excluded from the fran
chise while white men of like qualifications
are admitted, then clearly the white man
rules the negro without the latter's con
sent, and the foundation doctrine Of the
Declaration of Independence and Of
American government and the express law
OF the land are violated. Such a result
is lamentable and demoralizing like many
another inconsistency or anomaly. If, on
the other hand, there be no such exclu-
sion of negroes from suffrage, then in
some States at least negroes will rule
white men, with the result that, so long
as the conditions of negro life are what
they now are at the South and what they
must for generations remain-civilization
5 itself Will be undermined and decay. The
rule would inevitably be what it was in
corrupt carpetbag days-a rule Of adven-
turers and demagogues kept in power by
Ignorance 11nCnaa h1v HiSa ~
white and black alike.
AS between violation of American doe
trine and law and surrender of civiliza-
ton, the Southern States with large negro
: populations have seized the horn of the
dilemma which the white of any and every
Northern State would in like situation
seize. The Southern whites stand for civ
i~lization as against political theory of
legal right. And so they will stand. Nor
: do l believe that the North will effective
l ly find fault. For only effective fault
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