Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-01-22
NATION MUST NOT !
MAKE NEGRO WARD
SENATOR FRAZIER, OF TENNES-
SEE, IN SPEECH ON BROWNS
WILLIE AFFAIR, SAYS BLACK
MUST BE JUDGED ON MERIT.

negro race
"War1 of Nation?"
'.whenever," declared Mr. Frazier, "any
question arises affecting the negro, there
are certain people. including the negro
himself, who seem to think that he
should be dealt with in an exceptional
and unusual way; that he is to be treated
as the ward of the nation and must be
the constant object of its care and solic-
itude. No greater wrong can be done
the negro and no greater injury can be
inflicted upon the country as a whole,
than to impress upon the negro such
false and erroneous teachings
Those who have been instrumental
| in placing the entire negro population
| Of the country in the attitude OF de-
| Tending the criminals Of their race, be-
! cause they were Of their race, have
assumed a grave responsibility indeed.
They have inflicted lasting injury up
on the country and upon the negro him
self.
IF those people in every section OF
! the country who are especially solicitous
| for the negro's welfare would by act and
| deed teach the negro that he is to be
! shown no exception, but must stand or
| fall on his own conduct and merit alone,
they would render him incalculable bene-
fit and the country lasting service"
| says BLACKS Guilty
| Analysing the testimony taken in va
rious Investigations, Mr.. Frazier said
| there was no question as to the guilt of
| the soldiers of the Twenty-fifth regi-
ment He justified the president in
his discharge of the entire body of troops
because Of the impossibility of fixing the
| gyf11t upon particular soldiers. Speaking
| OF the Incentive OF the soldiers for the
commitment of the crime he said:
mo one not familiar with the real
character of the negro race knows or
| can fully appreciate the intensity of feel
| ing with which he resents any apparent
discrimination against him on account
of his race and color. This is strikingly
| illustrated in the intense opposition OF
| the negro to those laws in effect in some
states providing for the separation of
| the races in railway coaches, even where
the accommodations are equal and ex-
| actly alike. 1t was admitted by many of
| the soldiers in their testimony that this
subject, together with the subject of 9TH
| er indignities which they claimed had
been inflicted upon some of them, wers
frequent matters of discussion in the
barracks of the soldiers"
Conduct in Saloons
Their restriction in the saloons of
Brownsville, Mr.. Frazier said, gave ample
incentive for the resentment that was
shown among them against the people
| of the town.
ain the conclusions which have reach
ed in this matter, and in the views /
have expressed upon it, 1 have been in
fluenced by no prejudice against the ne
gro," he said. 'I have never favored
i any policy with reference to the negro
that did not recognize his rights as a
man, and did not assure him equal and
| iuetipp before the law
'T have never failed to condemn ev-
cry act of lawlessness inflicted upon the
negro and have always demanded for
him a fair and impartial trial when he
has been charged with the violation OF
law, it mattered not how atrocious his
crime.
"I know the negro-his faults and his
virtues--and he has many virtues. My
knowledge and observation of the negro
race covers almost the span of my life
for they nursed me in my infancy, played
with me in my boyhood, and I have
known and studied them in mature man
hood. I have prosecuted and defended
them as a lawyer; l have tried and pass
ed sentence upon them as judge; have
exerted the power of the state to shield
them for grave crimes, when l was gov
ernor of my state, and many times in pity
have reached out to them the hand Of
/. | executive CiGIlGHCys DCCduSC VI AACh
weakness. 1 recall with gratitude and
pray God 1 may never forget their 10y
alty and fidelity to those whom they
served and loved during the turmoil and
strife and bitterness of the civil war.
Cannot Dominate
Speaking of the treatment of the negro
by the people of the south. Mr.. Frazier
} said:
.sI would not be entirely frank if die
: not say that upon certain phases of the
race question /, in common with the resi-
3 of the south, have stood, and / believe
will ever stand firm and unalterable
. frs. that never again will the negro race
{ be allowed to politically dominate an6
control a sovereign state of this union
l To do so would be to enthrone the ignor
/ ance and give it dominion over intelli-
! aence and TO bring back the rapine and
utter reckless debauchery of the recon
struction era. Second, the social barrier
, which separates the races will never bt
81 allowed to be lowered. To do SO would
destroy the purity and integrity of the
? white race and shock the sensibilities anC
/ outrage the moral sense of the Caucasian
race the world over
For forty years, in patience and kind
t ness. the people of the south nave
? wrestled with this problem" he said IL
conclusion. ut is still unsolved. VIVA
4 the end will be only God IN His infinite
wisdom can see. Shall it be that thu
black race will be deported? If feasible
| IL would remove the last remaining bar
rier. TO complete the unity of the Ameri
) can people. Shall it be a race war
/ bloody, fierce, exterminating-a war fol
the survival of the fttest? God forbid
Shall it be amalgamation, and the un
speakable horror of a corrupted and In
ferior race? To allow it would be tC
destroy that civilization which is at once
our strength and pride. Shall it be tha
the two races will dwell together and
: vet apart, in peace and harmony? To dc
so. without the one race dominating anC
ruling the other would be to belle the
universal verdict of racial history.
do not know. But one thing do know
that the. solution of this problem rests
primarily in the hands of the southern
white man and the southern black mar
and calls for the wisest counsel and
broadcast conservatism of both. l know
that It can never be solved by men fal
removed from its fatal touch and whos'
| minds are not filled with an appalling
sense of the deep racial difficulties will
1 t.