The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-29

punishment IOf their GOnllHuduttS III up
posing this principle; we asserted the
right of secession in the case of Panama
against the United States of Columbia,
and sustained it by force of arms, and
section of the United States asserted the
right of secession in 1861, but were I'M
able to enforce this right by force of
AIMS
We now deny to the Filipino the rights
we have always claimed for ourselves and
assume. as a republic, to govern these
people, whom we first bought and then
conquered, as subjects. There is no prece-
dent for It under our laws. and no future
but disaster If this course be persisted
in. There are but two alternatives upon
which we can retain control of these dis
tant islands, they must be governed as
subjects which is repugnant to every
principle of our law, or be admitted as
citizens.
The Negro Problem.
The last and greatest problem affect
ing this country is the negro question
Our fathers sinned against this race, the
New England slave trader seized these
people in their homes and carried them
across the seas and sold them into slav-
cry. 1t is true, there was never South
ern ship engaged in this traffic. but
though the New Highlander stole him,
the southerner received him, the one
thief, the other a receiver, each equally
guilty We held him in bondage which
was our second sin against him. and, as
If this were not enough we took the
slave of centuries, and in day MADE
him a citizen and then debauched him as
a citizen. The tale of our crimes against
this race is complete, and we fairly de-
serve the awful burden he has become.
The sins of the fathers shall be visited
upon the children to the third and fourth
generations; our sins, our fathers sins are
now visited upon us. a The greatest
calamity which ever befell this nation
was the untimely death of Abraham
Lincoln: but for that the horrors of the
reconstruction period would never have
occurred. Instead of being Immediately
enfranchised and Immediately debauched
as a citizen, for partisan political pur-
poses, the ballot would have been held
out to the negro as a prize to be won, ana
the whole future of the race would have
been changed But all that is past, and
it is the grim present we must face as
a penalty for our sins. There is no light
from history to guide us. Wherever in
the past an inferior race has come IN
contact with a superior race, one of two
things has happened, the inferior race
has amalgamted with the superior race,
or it has been ruthlessly destroyed.
We cannot put to death ten million
human beings; we can no more intermar-
ny with them than we can murder them
all Both the alternatives are equally
unthinkable and impossible. We must,
in some way unknown to the experience
of all the ages of the past, settle this
imperious problem, and upon that settle
ment, in large measure, the whole fu-
ture of this nation rests. Christianity
has failed with the Negro his religion
is merely a matter of emotion without
bearing upon conduct or character. Ed
cuation has failed with him, as he has
so far received It, He is more danger
Gus and more criminal today than at any
period of history, and the last census of
the United States shows that the edu-
Gated negro in Massachusetts is more
criminal IMAM lHe lsllOI ait hCSio III -hiS-
sissippi. 1t is mate to him to commit
crime and to conceal the criminal of his
own race. The recent combination or
three whole companies to protect a dozen
foul murderers in their number is mere
ly an exhibition of a quality which all
who have intelligently observed them have
long recognized and deplored. 1t is pos
sihle that the action of the President
in this case may have even the full eff
feet for which we fondly hope. and bring
the negro to a sense of his accountability
and check, and maybe change, this most
dangerous trail II such should be the
case the time would come when Lincoln $
proclamation of emancipation from slav-
cry and Roosevelts proclamation of re-
sponsibility and duty as citizens. would
take rank, side by side the two great
est utterances of American Presidents.
The problem is further complicated by the
misiudged theorist, who has played so
large a part in the degradation of the
negro, his worst enemy having ever been
his ignorant and foolish friend
The Solution.
There is way-and the only way.
The courage the patriotism, the benevo-
lence of every true citizen in this coun-
try must unite in recognition of our own
wrongs done to the negro, the spirit of
bigotry, whether for or against him must
be destroyed his weakness, his inferior
ity, must be recognized. and the best eff
forts of all good men brought to bear.
TO deal with him in firmness, but in alb
solute charity, in absolute justice-not
the Justice mete to a man, but the JUS
tice demanded for the hayward child
1t canont be settled by communities or
sections, the whole country, wisely, jul
dicially, fairly. impartially. must settle
to this stupendous task Parties and
politics must be forgotten, avarice over
thrown, greed and graft destroyed, and
this problem met in absolute equity, or
the time is at hand when this nation
will face a crisis too dreadful to speak
of in any calmness. To your tents,
my army, or you will see such a storm
or blood and flame and ruin as no nation
of this earth has ever known.
AE