The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-11-26

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enlist the freedmen into the army.
o. the first regiment Of colored in
dantry being organized, Turner ap-
plied for and received the commission
Of chaplain, and this from the hands
Of President lincoln, the first eammls-
sion of its kind ever granted to,
4eelored man in the United States BE
served in that capacity till the close
IF the war, but was reappo'nted IN
he regular azuy by President An
drew johnson. ~--
He was detailed as an officer OF
bAe FFeeaman's 3 Bureau, and assigned
to To-: duty in Georgia. Resigning this
sEee, however, soou after his ap-
1iein4ment, he interested himself in
the establishing Of schools for the
black and IN preaching the Gospel.
The reconstruction era began, and
il was Bishop Turner who issued the
aaM for the first Republican eonven-
ton ever assembled in Georgia, and
j. had much to do with framing the
constitution Of the State under Rad
zeal rule. His conservatism in deal
inc with certain principles. and ms
DISPOSITION to do what was right. Tor
tie blacks and just to the whites
brought him more friends among the
latter than among those Of his own
race. and his white compeers, the
earpetbagger and scalawag.
He was a member Of the Georgia
Legislature during the years OF 1908
and 1870, and received recognition
atsonee by his oratory and his fear
hssaess and fairness in dealing with
Qalestions concerning the races, be
was, never fanatic, visionary or
a bitter partizau, and his truthful
and honest representatives Of all
rthese agitatins problems, confronting
the country at that time caused his
failure as a great political leader OF
the republican party and his race.
During the Republican regime he
was made post master at Macon, Ca,
and afterwards Inspector of Gus
:seaas. In 1880 he was made Bishop
by. the St. Louis confeenrce.
Bishop Turner and Booker Wash
ington, the two most distinguished
and influential Of the black race IN
the South today, represent two op-
posite schools of racial and political
economies.
While the are personal friends,
they differ as widely in their theo-
ries Of the future Of the race as the
poles are apart.
Washington looks upon the South
as the natural and logical home Of
the emancipated negro. Recognizing
the fact that they could not stand
alone, antagonistie as the races were
at the close of the war, and also see
ing that, in time, the fostering hand
of the Government would be with
drawn, he advocated friendly rela-
tions between the whites and blacks.
He further saw that the white would
never be lowered to the standard OF
the blacks, he taught and preached
the doctrine of education, and the
elevation Of the negro by moral and
industrial means, up to the standard
of the white race. He taught his
people that they were part and par
eel of this great commonwealth OF
the South, brought hither through d.
vine dispensation and here they
should remain and work ou1 their
OWL destiny and that through their
own individual exertions alone, they
would rise or fall-that education,
morality and thrift we're the pana-
oea. These we're Washington's ideas.
Bishop Turner took radically oppo-
site views, and had history to back
his theories. He taught that two an
tasonistic or even different races
could not live in harmony and equal
ity in the same country, that the
strong would subdue and oppress the
weak, that the blacks could never
rise to the standard of, or equal the
great overshadowing Anglo Saxon
race. In a letter to the writer ne
says:
"If the negro ever amounts, to
anything, he has to leave this coun-
try, and go to himself. You had just
as well think about raising a crop IN
the forest, under great shade trees,
as for the black man to expect to
rise to any eminence, overshadowed
by the powerful white race, for IS is
a marvellous race, say what you Will