The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1907-08-08
Bl sATTERI.EE.
Fro@sthe Independent.

of Washin4ton, gave the more i'm
portant partSsot his address before
the ,ate diocesan convention to the
cnurch's ',dNtyfto the colorea race.
IL is 70 MS honor that he recognized
the me9importance OF this, duty,
He admitted that his church does
not have th4sGon fidence of the Negro,
and he gAya&no explanation. of the
fact, but his Rddress itself would az
FORD an explanation If the bishop is
fair representative Of 1t. 1t was
throughout ~ reiterated assertion of
essential and inevitable racial in
feriority. ,ySN
Now, nobody likes to be told that,
even II It IS true. Our Declaration
or Independence says that all men
are created equal, and that, sounds
nattering nd+hopeful. We like to
near IT., NBfshop Satterlee's first sem
tence says that here are IL, 900, 900
people belonging to weaker race. 4"
We know NO evidence of that. He
goes on to say that "the presence OF
subject race In the midst OF an
other peope" has always made trou,
BILE, although Christianity has grad
ually, In the past. removed dissen-
sions between subject and superior
races" The early church, he says,
never came i'm contact with the
Negro and had to do with much
stronger races Of men," He pro-
ceeds to assume:
We have to help elevate race
which Is morally and intellectually
weaker than the Greeks and Syrians,
Egyptians and Gauls Of Apostolic
days, Or the sGoths and Vapdals OF
medieval Tides" re
We imagine that will not be very
seductive reading to Professor Kelly
Miller OF Howard University, or the
Register of the Treasury, and he
goes on to rub In this inferior con-
dition, for the Negro problem, he
says. has been greatly complicated
by this fact: w.
ITO prevent the Negro from being
subject raceSt the country has given
them the right to suffrage, making
them the equals Of the whites, when
they are not their equals"
So he would have the fifteenth
amendment escinded-though he
does not need to say so in terms
but his attack on Negro suffrage and
the Constitution will not placate the
Negro spirit. u.
That the Negroes are trying to rise
and make themselves the worthy
equals of white people he sees, but
1t will be a sure failure, for he says:
cat the present day the colored
people of America are led astray by
mere delusions as to the way in
which the difference between a
stronger and -aaweaker race may be
overcome. 10
"The most ignorant OF them think
that by standing for their political
rights as fellow citizens they are
going to coeree recognition as social
equals and therefore many of these
act with blataiit self-assertion and
an assumption Of equality whenever
the opportunities offers in public or
private. Others dream that they
will break down the color line by
becoming householders, and there
fore are buying, Up all the land they
can pay for; others suppose that
they can attain the same object
through the possession of wealth,
and others still aim for equality by
being educated in schools and coll
leges, entering upon the learned pro-
fessions and having university de-
grees attached to their names.
But no stream can rise higher
than its fountain head and the his
tory Of the Negro race in the past 40
years Is great historic lesson.
Though for more than a generation
the Negroes have. been made the
political equals OF the whites by uni
versal suffrage, the result has only
brought out more plainly than ever
before the fact that they are morally
and intellectually weaker race and
that even If they should become great
land owners, men Of wealth and men
of education, race antagonism would
only become stronger and more
sharply defined"
Let us say to Bishop SatterIee that
he IS as ignorant of the Negroes as
he confesses he was until lately Of
the Methodists. The colored people
OF America are not concerned at all
about social recognition, only about
their equal personal rights. They
do not admit that they are 1ntellec-
tually or physically inferior to any
other race; they are only little later
in getting started. They have an
ambition, reasonable one, Which we
shall do our best. to support, that in
intelligence, culture, wealth and
genius they may prove themselves
equal to the best the world has yet
produced. We expect to- see men Of
that blood occupying the highest po-
sitions in this country, all conceited
and arrogant Caucasian or Anglo
Saxon assumption and resistance to
the contrary Notwithstanding. We
want to see it; it Is, decently Chris
tian to desire it,. We believe that
succeeding generation will see
great black, republics in Africa, pro-
ducing statesmen, philosophers, poets
and orators worthy to be counted be-
side Homer and Plato and Cicero
and Dante and Shakespeare. Equally
we expect such great leaders to ap-
pear in regenerated Russia. These
t,or,on nrn na raarn fa MT q stic thu n