The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-11-12
''SIIRRING UP THE FIRES OF RACE ANTIPATHY." :"
Prof. John Spencer Basset Of Trinity College, Outrages
Southern Sentiment by the Publication of an Article in
the South Atlantic Quarterly On the Negro Question.

hint OF negro outrage" God for
bid that the South or the North
should ever fail to "take fire. over
the despoiling of womanhood! What
Prof. Bassett enumerates as an evil
dence of hostility is the crowning
glory OF Southern manhood and
Southern chivalry, and he will find
that it exists among chivalrous men
in Indiana and Illinois as we'll as in
North Carolina. The best sentiment
OF both sections favors the legal pun
ishment for outrages, but can any
man fail to "take fire" when that
outrage comes to him or his neigh
borhood?
Prof. Bassett does not seem to ap-
prove the early legislation looking
to complete racial separation, though
he does not hold it up as evidence of
general opposition to the negro" as
he does the suffrage law, Jim Grow
law and the tendency to lynch for
rape. For us, We honor the men who
passed all such laws, regretting only
that all separation laws have not
been more rigidly enforced. The only
hope for the South is for complete
social, religious, educational separa-
tion-a separation leaving to each
race to work out it's own destiny.
with the duty imposed upon the
stronger race of helping the weaker
race IN THEaWAYS 1T is. NOW
HELPING.
Professor Bassett says he doubts
whether a Southern white farmer
"would admit that the highest negro
in America is superior to the South
ern hired man who is white" In Or
der to relieve Prof Bassett's doubts,
we will say that no Southern white
farmer would make such an admis-
sion because it would be untrue. The
highest negro has a right to make a
place in his own race and to be treat
ed properly by the white people, but
every day "the Southern hired man
who is white" achieves social position
to which no negro may aspire. He
is OF a race superior to the negro
race, even if he is uneducated. Does
Prof. Bassett think otherwise?
Passing over the mistaken state
ment that both the progress and the
repression of the negro "have brought
down on him the hostility of the
whites, "-an indictmento of the South
ern white people that has no warrant
in their kindly treatment OF the ne
will give pause ard secure for the
writer the indignant condemnation
OF every white man who reads his
words. Writing of Booker T. Wash
ington, he says:
"NOW WASHINGTON is A GREAT
AND GOOD MAN, A CHRISTIAN
STATESMAN, AND TAKE HIM
ALL IN ALL THE GREATEST
! MAN, SAVE GENERAL LEE, BORN
IN THE SOUTH IN A HUNDRED
YEARS"
When we first read this sentence,
we could not believe our eyes. We
re-read the words and then paused
| to see if there was not some mistake
or some error in proof reading. But,
no, there it stands in it's bOldness, in
it's directness, in it's wanton and alb
surd negro deification! No negro
philist at Oberlin, no man claiming
to be the reincarnation of Wendell
Philips. no second Harriet Beecher
Stowe in the greatest creation of fic-
tion out of nothingness, could ever
make an assertion so far from the
truth of history, past and present.
Is it possible that Prof. Bassett be-
| lieves his own statement? Is he ready
to declare in his saner moments Of
reflection that Booker T. Washing
ton is "all in all the greatest man,
save General Lee, born in the South
in a hundred years?"
It is uncomfortable that a man OF
Prof. Bassett's education and study
of history could make such state
ment unless we charitably believe
he is under the spell of negropholist
hypnotism.
Let us consider a minute the signi-
ficance of this sweeping statement.
Bnoker L. Washington is ''the great
est man, save General Lee, born in
the South in a hundred years." Why
except General Lee? Does any
thoughtful man, in the South or else
where who has studied history, for a
moment consider Booker Washing
ton in the same class with Jefferson
Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, Rob-
ert Toombs, Benjamin II. Hill, Judah
P. Benjamin, L. @. C. Lamar, Zebu-
Ion B. Vance, Matthew W. Ransom,
Wade Hampton, Stonewall Jackson,
Beauregard, Forrest, A. P. Hill, D. H.
Hill, Pettigrew, Hoke, Ramseur, Pen
der, Branch, Grimes and other i'm
mortal names of the Civil war era?
Who will agree that Booker Wash
ington is greater man than Badger,
Graham, Mangum, Morehead, Dob
bin, and other men that won fame in
the era that produced Clay and Cal
houn and Hayne7 But, perhaps,
Prof Bassett will say that he did not
mean to include statesmen and sol
diers. Then why did he by name ex.
cept General Lee? And why did he
call Booker a great Christian states.
MANI" Prof. Bassett may think SC
land we pity his Judgment if be
es)-that Booker Washington is a
greater man than Braxton Craven
the big Drained and many sided
founder of Trinity College. If SO, he
will find no man in North Carolina
who will agree with him. Will the
friends OF Trinity College applaud
the statement that Booker Washing
ton is a greater man than Craven
it's great founder; Duke, its generous
. donor; and Kilgo, its eloquent presi
dent? Suppose, without naming over
; thousands of illustrious men il
church and State who are as fal
greater than Booker Washington al
!; an electric light is more brilliant
than the tallow candle, we ask th'
men most competent to pass judg
| ment to say whether the Alabama
negro teacher is greater than Ven