The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-11-25
The SOLID SOUTH
CHAS. FRANCIS ADAMS TELLS
WHY 1T EXISTS
And Intimates That the Taking
Away the Franchise From the Ne
gro Only Can Dissolve It.

Mr.. Chas. Francis Adams, Of Bos
ton, 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
matter which brings me here-the
political fact of solid South, III
volving as it does the Afro-American
race problem.
''The raison d'etre Of solid South
is not far to seek. We all are cog
infant OF it. It 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:
a reduction Of political power under
the possible operation of the Four
teenth amendment to the constitL-
ton. The Republican party, it is
believed, still feels secret banker
ing for the negro vote.
And now I come to the delicate
ground. I, New Englander, Yam
kee of the Yankees, an anti-slavery
man from my birth, an ex-oficer OF
the union army, lineal descendant
Of signer of the Declaration Of
Independence, brought up in the
faith-I, being ali this by tradition.
experience and environment, am to
talk to you Of problem largely in
its present form the creation Of
those of whom I an one, and
problem which you have always with
you.
'In the North and In the commu-
nifty to which I 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 it's process in myself. It is inter
esting. To understand 1t we must
go back about two generations, or,
say sixty years, into the scriptural,
and, so to speak, Uncle Tom" Pc
riod. The African was then broth
sr-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 observ-
ing EngHshman-John Morley, l
think, now Lord Morley-made a
year or two ago as the result of what
he saw and heard during a stay in
this country. He pronounced the
African race problem in America as
being as nearly isoluble as a human
race could be. 1t is; and so far as
we In the United States are con-
cerned, its insoluability rests in the
fact that 1t offers negative-gives
the lie direct-to fundamental prin-
ciple of our social and political lite
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
process first Of assimilation, and
then Of absorption. On this all de-
pended. There could be no perrua-
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 assin-
Nate, 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 t.
be the outcome? What is to be
done? A foreign substance, it 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 II
sounds to US, the reconstruction sys-
tenn was rested On that as basis.