The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-28
Massachusetts, and Mr.. Adams on the
Negro,

Negro.
In the resolution appropriating $50 900
for the expenses Of Massachusetts par
tioipation in the jamestown exposition
the General Court has incorporated a
clause which requires that the Governor,
before he appoints the State commission,
must be satisfied that in the exposition
and it's grounds all citizens of the Com
monwealth will be treated without dis
elimination, exactly as if the exposition
were to be held in Boston itself. This
provision was adopted at the request OF
the negroes and the negro sympathizers
Of the old Bay State. There the old
abolition spirit Is u~ndiminished. Some
citizens Of Massachusetts, according to
the Springfield Republican, wanted the
General Court ito insist upon equal
treatment by the Southern people OUT
side of the grounds Of the exposition,
namely, that all the laws Of Virginia
which discriminate against the colored
people should be Suspended by act OF
the Legislature on account OF the pres
ence Of colored people Of Massachusetts,
and that Virginia should guarantee that
the colored people be treated with no
more difference than they are treated
within Massachusetts,
This is rather q large contract, even
for Massachusetts,, and it is n not
likely to be undertaken. Meanwhile, MI.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS has been
travelling in Africa and once more has
contributed to the public some Of the
impressions produced on his sensitive,
acute mind and some of the thoughts
inspired in him by the sights he saw.
In an article printed in the May Gen.
tury he says, among many interesting
things:
Looking about me among Africans In Africa
far removed from the American environment TO
which I have been ac~eustomtd-the scales fell
from my eyes. ! found myself moss Impressed by
a realizing sense Of tho appalling amount of error
and emit In which VIC of tho United States have
INDUCED on this topic tthc African In Ameiiedl.
We have actually wallowcd In q bog Of self-suficieut
iEnorance-especlaily 10 phllanthropists and theo-
rsts Of New England. We do 80 still. Having
eyes we do not SEQ. Even now we not lnfreauently
hear tho successor to the abolitonist and humani.
tartan Of tho ante civil war perod-the Uncle Tom
ps1od-announce that tbs difference between the
White Man and the Black Man is much less consid-
cradle than Is ordinarily supposed. and that the
only real obstacle in the negro's way Is hat-'He
has never been given q chancel'
For myself. after Waiting the black man In his
own house. j come back with q decided impression
that this 10 the sheerest Of decisions, duo TO pure
ignorance Of rudlmentary facts; yet We built upon
II in reconstruction days as upon a foundation
stone-a self-evident truth, Let those who indulge
in such theories 60 10 the Soudan and pass a week
at omdurmAn. That place marks in ommerce
in letter. and in art. in science and architecture.
the highest point OF development yet reached by
any African race. AS already suggested. the differ
ence between omdurman and London about meas-
ures the difference between the Black and white"
This will not be mistaken for ante
bellum error and cant Of the New Eng
land philanthropic and theoristic school.
Mr.. ADAMS further declares that after
emancipation the negro should have
been treated as a ward and dependant
and not as a political equal. Mr.. ADAMS
continues:
Equality results not from law, but exists be-
cause things arc in essentials alike; and a political
system which works admirably when applied to
homogeneous equals results only In chaos when
generalized into a nostrum to be administered uni
vcrsally. 1t has been markedly SO oflate with US"
The action of the Massachusetts law
makers comes at the very moment Mr..
ADAMs's article is printed. Each is
the expression Of a Massachusetts, opin-
ion on a subject Of the greatest and most
urgent importance, Which is correct,
Mr.. ADAMs's, uninluenoed by party po-
litical considerations, the fruit of per-
sonal observation and close study, or
that Of the General Court, the members
OF which will go before the people this
fall for vindication and reelection