The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1906-01-31

who finally left it born and reared. There
they lived and there they held their property
The greater destiny of the Normans Mortimer
not to be realized in the North of Europe, but
in France and England The destiny of the Turk
not to be realized the slopes of the Golden
Mountains of Central Asia, but the banks of the
Bosphorus, the boundary line of eastern Europe
and western Asia God removed these nations,
lsraelites from Egypt to Palestine, the Mortimer
from Scandinavia to France and England and the
Turk from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. Who
for moment, question the hand of God in these
changes?
1 do not believe the negro will ever reach his des-
tiny in America l do not believe God intends that
it shall be his situation in this land every day
becomes and intolerabe. The sentimen-
talism of many of his illynformed well-wishers has
well nigh gone. The professions and trades be-
ing closed to him. He is being rapidly displaced
everywhere by the white His place in the
cotton field and the farm is being empted by the
white man. This is very markedly true III the
South, where for two hundred years, has found IL
congenal home Some of the most observing of his
race have noticed this They that some
thing must be done for the When he is
displaced, it is not to rise a higher level but to
sink to lower
The negro man has been cruelty deceived by the
politicians-men who have simply used him to fur
Their their selfish schemes. He has been misled
and deceived by the misguided leaders among his
own race who have talked line of conduct and
practiced another. These, like cruel mockers have
held out inducements that have been illusory as
the morning cloud, and to the pictures drawn by
these have the negroes responded rather than the
counsels of the conservative and wiser leaders
among them
There are negro men and women, who, under the
guiding hand of Gods Spirit, have sought and la
bored for the good of their people, and women
whose hearts have bled with agony of suffering
OF which tears were only faint indication when
they have been inundated by awful deed per-
petrated by black man. These have had
following hay hean
popular leaders.
The negro from the very beginning of his enfran-
chisement mistook his destiny. His dreams have
all been of this land His fathers land as a posi-
bic home has been seriously considered by him.
So Israel content to remain in Egypt Then
God interviewed and Egypt became for them intoer-
able dwelling place. Then, and then only, were
they ready to leave. The first Christian disciples
content to remain in Jerusalem, although
Christ had told them they to begin from, Jeru-
salem and that their work to be wrought out in
the world Then the prosecutors sword was un-
sheathed and they scattered and realized
their glorious mission
Do the present conditions in this land which every
day grow harder, have intimation to the leaders
among the negro race? My own conviction for
years has been that the American negro should and
will finally go back to Africa. The whole question
resolves itself into matter of Inducemen Response
and PrdcticdbiGty.
The first question is that OF Inducement Can he
live in Africa? Africa is the negros home land. 1t
offers every inducement to him to go there. People
generally have very erroneous idea of Africa TO
many 1T is an arid desert parched by tropical suns
whose people derive the most precarious subsistence
from the soil. shall speak of only one portion of
it, but other portions just attractive and some
possibly more Let take the Congo basin The
interior of Africa is elevated plateau some 1000
to 1000 feet above the level and with mountain
masses rising TO elevation from 5000 to 1000
feet. The Congo River is 5000 miles long With
its tributaries it has 1900 miles of navgable
waters. The volume of water it pours into the At
lantc Ocean is thirty times greater than the volume