The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-06
NEGRO AND SOLID
 SOUTH DISCUSSED
pr. John A. Wyeth Writes on interesting Subject
NOT A SECTIONAL ISSUE
Eminent southerner Points Out That Responsibility for Negroes In Amer lea Rested Equally Upon citi-
 gems of the Original Colonies.

Dr. John A. wyeth. the distinguished surgeon of New York, but native Ala
 bamian. discusses the negro and the solid south in an article in the New York Sun, which is here reproduced as follows:
 In the discussion and ultimate solu- tion of the negro problem. the dominant race throughout the entire country should be guided by the dictates of humanity and justice. It is not an enlightened or polite view of this question to consider 1t as a sectional issue
 Responsibility for the presence of the African race in North America rested equally upon the white citizens of all the
 original colonies and states, without re-
 gard to their geographical position or commercial interests. The development
 of a higher moral sense was not the cause of the disappearance of slavery
 from the east and north. The exigencies
 of commerce alone carried the negro to
 the south and left him there in bond-
 age. Had at that same period the com
 mereial advantages existed and had the
 moneyed reward attached to African
 slavery in the northern as 1t did in the
 southern states, no reasonable mind can
 doubt that it would have persisted north
 just as it did south of Mason and Dixon's
 line.
 While it is true that the relation of the two races in certain localities of the south, where most of the blacks reside, and where in some communities they greatly outnumber the whites, makes this question of more immediate and vi- tai interest to the dominant race of that section, they should have the help of practical and thoughtful men and women everywhere.
 They do not need, nor do they desire, the misapplied philanthropy of the the orst and the enthusiast; for, though this may spring from the highest and noblest of motives, it only serves to increase the present irritation and to deepen the existing prejudice, and thereby defeats the object which 1t seeks to accomplish. Nor should those unfamiliar by actual contact with the conditions existing in the southern states presume to sit in judgment upon the white people of this section, or indulge In sweeping condem- nation of their prejudice against the ne- gro without careful consideration of the subject in all it's bearings.
 The threat of interference on the part of the general government with the po- litical status of the southern states or with the relation of the southern whites to the negro, or to those high in official position, can never do away with preju- dice or bring the southern whites in regard to the negro race which Is so much to be desired.
 It is the attitude of that element in the northern states which the ruling political party represents toward the negro ques- ton chat today divides the south from the north as distinctly and clearly as 1t did in the days preceding the civil war which was but the bloody climax of the differences long existing between the two section. Polcy-not involving a sacrifice of prineip1e-rather than politics must take the initiative in the solution of this problem. There has been at least one President of the United States sufficient ly wise and farsighted to outline a policy which was rapidly solving this vexatious question in the only way possible to it's solution. From the standpoint of a south erner, one familiar with the sentiment of the more educated and influential peo- pie from all quarters of that section, I as- sert that by the considerate and concili- atory policy of President Mckinley this class was rapidly turning away from the prejudice of more than a century and was being won over to the appreciation of and sympathy with that element of the republican party of which he was the exponent Since his death the conditions are so changed that the lines are again drawn in bitterness with practically every white man of southern extraction living north or south of Mason and Dix ons line arrayed upon the side of the solid south.
 The deep seated prejudice of the south ern whites against the republican party prior to the election of President McKin- ley was. from their point of view, nat ural and justldable and the negro the innocent cause of all their misfortunes and prosecutions, became on this account the object of their prejudice. Their con- tention Is that the war of secession had as it's primal cause the negro; that Afri- can slavery not being profitable in the north, the people of that section sold their slaves for cash to the south, where it was profitable.
 The constitution, the basis of union, in two fo it's original articles recognized and in Section ? of Article ", made a special provisi.n for the protec- ton of property in slaves escaping from one state into another. Congress empha- sized this clause of the constitution by special enactment. Certain citizens of the north representing as a body the more educated and advanced people of their in open disregard of the