The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-28
The Negro Race in America
 Governor Chamberlain to James Bryce. M. P.

mental in my sympathy and affection for that race. Their lot at best Is e hard one. Heaven forbid that I should add to its burdenst Still more do I trust that I am not forgetful that if Christianity. if religion, teaches any great and universal lession, it is that we are bound-and the more bound as the distance between the race and that race seems wider and wider in respect of education or orgininal ca- pacity or present moral or physical condition to feel and act constantly in the spirit of genuine belief in the brotherhood of all man and the coms mon fatherhood of God. Contempt or can have no place in a Christian mans heart or conduct. How to treat him for his own best good. by what in- fiuences to elevate him. by what arts to inspire the race with ambition to become good men and women and hence good citixens. how to oblfterate all differences except such as arc in- .eradicable, how to exhibit toward him and teach others. all men, how to ex- habit toward him. the virtues of jus tice forbearance. sympathy. helpful ness: these are the certain and indis- putable claims of our common human ity. Tn my thinking. speaking and writing on this theme I try to carry such thought in my mind and heart at all times. It Is the least of my mis- givings that I may be charged with inconsistency. hope am somewhat wiser on all subJects--this among the rest-than I was thirty or forty years ago.
 Regarding the negro problem in this spirit. I find myself forced by my ex- perience and observation to say that perhaps our first practical aim should be to undo. so far as possible. what we have heretofore done for the negro since his emancipation--namely the inspiring in him the hope or dream of sharing with the white race here a so- cial or political equality, for whoever will lay aside wishes and fancies and your Romanes lecture. after discussing things are impossibilities within any measurable ranges of time. if ever. Assume as certainty that what you call "the blending of races" by inter- marriage. cannot take place between the negro and the white race of this country. I go further and say that such intermixture Is as undesirable as it Is impossible. It would be the de- gradation of the, white race, but not the elevation of the negro race. In your Remains lecture. after discussing "the method of fusion of two races in- to one through intermarriage." you re- mark that this method is not always applicable. Where physical repulsion. usually grounded on difference of col- or. exists, the two races will not mix their blood, but remain confronting one another as distinct and unfriendly bodies." and you point out the inevi- table results of this attitude on your pages 29-30. pages which I wish all our people might read. fea
 There are those who deny the verity of the existence of this physical re- pulsion on the part of the white race here toward our negro race. I have some eminent and wise acquaintances who regard the assertion of such repul- sion as a pretense. suppose each in- dividuai on this point must be allowed to speak for himself. Speaking for my self. freely acknowledge the repulsion and. speaking from my observation of others, feel no doubt that this repul- sion may be truly described as a nat ural and well nigh universal feeling-a feeling so deeply implanted, so strong ly felt, by the vast majority of the white race here that 1t is simply quix- otto to attempt to preach 1t down or to essentially lesson its force It is, therefore. a fact to be reckoned with, not denied by or overlooked.
 Starting with this fact, we find next that a tremendous effort has been made here to establish political equality be- tween the two raoes-an effort which resulted directly in shocking and un- bearable misgovernment wherever the negro race predominated. This, in turn. inevitably aroused the fierce antagon- ism and hate of the white race. In the desperate struggle of the white race to throw off its political bondage to the negro, violence and fraud in their many forms resulted. The triumph of the white race in this struggle left the relations of the two races embittered to a high degree. Generations will. be needed to overcome completely the ex- acerbations and animosftfes' which are the direct fruit of the attempt to es- tablish by force of law a political equality between the two races.
 Thus we see that our negro problem has not only been artihcally created in the first instance. but that it has been artifically intensified, made dan gerous to the peace of the country and destructive of good relations between the two races.
 But this Is not all. nor the worst. A nameless crime, widely prevalent, has come to heat the thrice-hot' antagon- ism which other causes held aroused and has covered with ghastly horrors. not only our South. but great part of the North. Of this phase tsof the problem, shall not shrink from speak ing with perfect plainness, for know 1t is hopeless to think of removing or abating the crime of lynching until the crime which has called it into vogue shall cease or be abated I do not wonder, nor will anyone who will real ly make the case his own wonder, that lynching prevails in the South as a method of punishment or revenge for the crime of criminal assault by ne- groes on white women. I think 1t entirely safe to say that under like circumstances it would prevail to a like extent in any part of our country, or in any Anglo-Saxon community. Theoretically, I would say with Abra- ham Lincoln. There Is no crime so bad that lynching for 1t Is not worse;" but practically, I come very near to saying that I do not blame the South for re- sorting to lynching for this crime.
 And this terrible remedy has been att tended and followed by the usual com sequences of any resort to lawless methods. In the first place, 1t has not been deterrent upon the crime in question. In the next place. 1t has accumulated horrors such as do not oc- cur in any other part of the whole civilized workable burning of human beings at the stake-not alone. be it remembered, at the South, but in sever al Of our middle Western States and even In John Browns Kansas. Fi- naIy, y,lynching has been extended to be the frequent punishment for other crimes or alleged crimes. The de-