The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-11-27
THE SOLtO SOUTH
CHAS. FRANCIS ADAMS TELLS
WHY 1T EXISTS
And Intimates That the Taking
Away the Franchise From the Nc
gro Only Can Dissolve 1t.

. Away the tFancIllSe frOiu tuc NS'
gro Only Can Dissolve 1t.
Mr.. Chas. Francis Adams, Of Bos.
ON, Mass, recently made remark
able speech at Richmond, Va, from
which we make the extract below.
Mr.. Adams said:
"And now at last I come to the
natter which brings me here-the
political fact of a solid South, in
yolving as it does the Afro-American
ace problem.
"The raison d'etre Of solid South
is not far to seek. We all are cog
lizant of it. 1t is founded in the
hateful memory of what is known
as the reconstruction period; and
in lurking apprehension of action
in the shape OF new force bills, o,
/ reduction of political power under
the possible operation of the Four
teenth amendment to the constitu-
ion. The Republican party, it is
believed, still feels a secret hanke:-
ing for the negro vote.
And now l come 10 the delicate
ground. I, New Englander, Yam
lee of the Yankees, an anti-slavery
nan from my bir tn, an eX-officer OF
.he union army, lineal descendant
of signer of the Declaration OF
independence, brought up in the
taith--I, being all this by tradition.
experience and environment, am to
talk to you of a problem largely in
it's present form the creation Of
those of whom I am one, and 4
problem which you have always with
you.
"In the North and in the commu-
nifty to which belong, great
change in opinion, and consequent
feeling, on this grave problem has
been steadily going on for many
years. I have watched the change
Il have undergone it, and observ-
ed its process in myself. 1t is inter-
esting. To understand it we must
60 back about two generations, or,
say sixty years, into the scriptural,
and, so to speak, Uncle Tom" Pc
riod. The African was then a broth
er-descended from common an
cester-to-wit, Noah.
Coming at once to the point
as to speak, taking the bull by the
horns-let me say that I fully con-
cur in the remark of some obsery-
ing Englishman-John Morley, l
think, now Lord Morley-made I
year or two ago as the result of what
he saw and heard during stay in
this country. He pronounced the
African race problem in America as
being as nearly isoYuble as human
race could be. 1t is; and so far aS
we in the United States are coil
cerued, its .insoluability rests in the
fact that it offers negative-gives
the lie direct-to fundamental prin-
ciple of our social and political lie
and material development. The
American system, as we all know.
was founded on the assumed basis
of common humanity. That is,
absence of absolutely fundamental!
racial characteristics was accepted
as an established truth. Those Of
all races were welcome to our shores.
They came, aliens; they and their
descendants would become citizens
first, natives afterwards. 1t was a
process first of assimilation, and
then of absorption. On this all de-
pended. There could be no perma-
nent divisional lines. The theory
was now plainly broken down. We
are confronted by obvious fact, as
undeniable as if as hard, that the
African will only partially assim-
ilate, and that he cannot be alb
sorbed. He remains a distinct alien
element in the body polite; an ele-
ment from smallness Of quantity
negligible in the South. What is to
be the outcome? What is to be
done? A foreign substance, 1t can
neither be assimilated nor thrown
off.
"This was only fifty years ago.
yet the discussion and contentious of
the day seem now strangely remote,
archaic even. There is no ques-
tion, however, that, absurd as it
sounds to us, the reconstruction sys-
tenn was rested on that as a basis.
So Robert E. Lee was disfranchised,
while the ballot was conferred on
the freemen he had himself liber.
ated. Further comment would be
superfuous. I am glad to remem-
ber that l am separated from the
Republican party on that issue.
"Meanwhile the subtle change OF
thought was going slowly on. The
scientific was gradually, impercept-
ably superseding the scriptural; the
Ham and Japhet and brotherhood
of man theory of descent was re-
ceding-was, indeed, no longer
gravely advanced. Darwin's "Origin
of Species" was published in 1859;
his Descent of Man in 1871, and
in the light of his researches and
the influences necessarily drawn from
them, the Afro-American race prob
lem assumed a new shape. Hayti