Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1904-04-09

have come about. and what errors have
been committed which still affect the
two races.
The dissension which has come be-
tween the tive races has either been
sown since the Negroes emancipation
or Is inherent in the new conditions that
have arisen.
When the War closed, and the
emancipation Of the Negroes became an
established fact, the first pressing ne
cessity in the South was to secure the
means of living; for, in sections where
the armies had been, the country had
been swept clean, and in all sections the
entire labor system was disorganized
The internal management of the whole
South, from the general government of
the Confederate States to the domestic
arrangement of the simplest household,
had fallen to pieces.
In most iDstances--indeed, in all of
which the writer has any knowledge
the old masters informed their servants
that their homes were still open TO
them and that if they were willing to re-.
main and work, they would do all in
their power to help them. But to re-
main in the first radiant holiday of free
dom, was. perhaps, more than could be
expected of human nature, and most of
the Blacks went off for time, though
later large number of them returne d
In little while the country was filed
with an army of occupation, and the
Negroes moved partly by curiosity,
partly by the strangeness of the situa-
ton, and, perhaps mainly, by the lure
of the rations which the government
i'm mediately began to distribute, not III
naturally flocked to the post of the local
garrison. leaving the fields unworked
and the crops to go to destruction. Z"
He faithfully portrays conditions at
the close of the War when says:
/" From the first, the conduct of the
North towards the Negro was founded
on the following principles: First, that
all men are equal, and that the Negro
is the equal of ths White; secondly, that
he needed to be sustained by the Gov
eminent; and thirdly that the interests
of the Negro and the White were
necessarily opposed, and that the Negro
needed protection against the White
The South has always maintained
that these were fundamental errors. -
We subscribe to these principles now.
All men are legally equal and it is bet
ter expressed by the phrase, equality
before the law"
MIR. PAGE knows this. He knows
that all white men are pot equal, but he
knows, too. that they are presumed to
be equal before the law.
When Mr.. PAGE argues that q man is
inferior to another man simply on &C.
count of his color, he knows that he be-
lies history and attacks the fundament-
al principles of the government itself.
The Negro did not need 60 be sus-
tanned by the government per Sc, but
the laws of the land should have been
upheld by the government, and the cit.
izen of color would have been inoidsnt-
ally the beneficiary of such action.
That the Negro ne eded the protection
against the Whites-synonym for Red
Shirts, White Caps, Klu Klux Klans
and the like now admits of no question.
He should either have been protected or
left with arms and ammunition with
which TO protect himself.
Mr.. PAGE speaks truly when he states
y
that these were fundament errors''
Mr.. PAGE continued:
The chief trouble that arose between
the two races in the South after the
War grew out of the ignorance at the
North of the actual conditions at the
South, and the ignorance at the South
of the temper and the power Of the North
The North believed that the Negro was,
or might be made, the actual equal of the
White, and that the South not only re-
jected this dogma, but, further, that the
South did not accept emanci patton with
sincerity, and would do all in its power
TO nullify the work which had already
been accomplished, and hold the Ne
groeS in quasi servitude. The South
held that the Negro was not the equal
of the White, and further held that,
suddenly released from slavery, he must
be controlled and compelled to work. "
The above was unquestionably the
South's position, and against this posi-
tion the abilities of every intelligent
citizen are concentrated. Any discrim-
ination based on race or color is antago-
nized Any discrimination based on
condition is accepted. The one closes
the door of hope to us; the other places
it within our own power TO enter, by the
Improvement OF that condition against
which complaint is made.
Mr.. PAGE continues:
a. Thus, the South holds that the
question is vastly more far-reaching
than the North deems it to be; that, in
deed, it goes TO the very foundation of
race preservation. And this contention,
so far from being mere political tenet,
is held by the entire White population OF
the South AS the most passionate dogma
of the White race.
This confusion of definitions has in
the past resulted in untold evil, and it
is of the utmost importance that the
truth, whatever it is, should be estab
lished. When this shall be accomplish
ed, and done so clearly that both sides
shall accept it, the chief difficulty in
the way of complete understanding will
be observed. So long as the two sections
are divided upon it, the question will
never be settled. AS soon as they unite
in one view, 1t will settle itself on the
Only sonud fouudatiOn-that of nm