Year: 1874

The Co-eduoation of the Races.


What then would be the practical re-


suit, as respects education, of the social


cd Civil Rights Bill, as originally


introduced into Congress by Gen. But


Ter? Would it secure the ce-sduca-


ton of the races? Impossible! Would


education be facilitated in any way? 1t


would inevitably be destroyed, as a pub


lie affair. Every State in the Union now


has school system for both races sup


ported at public expense. How long


would such school system be maintained


in the fifteen ex-Slave States Just as


long as would be required to go through


The forms of law needed to destroy it, and
no longer, except in those wretched states


where the negroes and their allies domi-
nate over the property therein. In those
States some sort of system would be main
tanned for the benefit of the negroes, or at
least money would ostensibly be raised for
the purpose. AS to this being the practi-
cal result, there is no difference of opinion
among men acquainted with the state of
the case in these States. Everybody
knows it, black and white and, there
fore, the blacks do not desire mixed
schools, and the real friends of universal
education do not desire it, whatever may
be their political theories There are now
more than million and a half of children.
white and black, in the public schools of
the fifteen ex-Slave States What would
be the subsequent reputation of any states
man who would aid in passing law, the
only practical effect of which would be TO
turn these school children out of doors?


But what of the great future? Are we
forever to go on thus? There is DO need
for US to solve social and economical prob
lens for unborn generations. We have
our hands full with the present Do not
let US spoil our work from the fear Of set
ting bad preeedents. Our children will be
sufficiently progressive. The prejudices
which disturb US now will run their natu-
raj course, and, so far as they are merely
prejudices, will end The tidal wave
which may be omnipotent in its pride,
sinks exhausted at last on the bosom of
the deep. Unqnestienably the tendency
of mankind is toward the obliteration of
race distinctions, and it is seen in the
brightest centers Of civilization, as well as
among the lately secluded peoples of the
East. Some Of the most cultivated Cau-
casians have declared their preference for
a mettled society-or as an eloquent ora
tor expressed it, for " a rainbow of colors
on the social sky" And IN the most
polished courts of Europe, not only has
the Turk, the Japanese, the Chinaman
and the Persian received the highest social
recognition, but the same has been accor-
ded to the despised African.


Hence, in arguing for the policy advo-
Gated IN this paper, it is not done in ig-
norance Of the tendencies of the race at
large, or with any vain expectation that
we can anchor here. Still less is there
disposition to deny to the negro equality
before the law, or equal means Of improve
ment with the whites. Nor is there a
disposition to disparage the intellect of the
negro, or to discourage him in his aspira-
tions Those who have chosen to trace |
back the Ethiopian race into the remote
past, know that it too has had its heroic
age in which it led the civilization of the |
world. And those who have studied the
remote causes out of which have grown
the diversities in the human race, and the |
influences which gradually depress or ele-
vate any particular race or class of men,
know that there is nothing in either the
history or the present condition of the
African race to preclude the idea, that in
The great future it may possibly (though
not probable) attain an equal rank in all
respects with the foremost of the other
aces.


But the fullest admission of such facts
md possibilities as these does not affect
he truth of the declaration, that at least
Turing the present generation the attempt
o mix the white and colered races in the
chools of fifteen States of this Union, is
lot only as imposs BILE as to equalizo soci-
lllp the Brahmins and Pariahs of Hindoo-
tan, but if forcibly pressed, would de-
eat the general education of both races.
W. II. Rgtaer, IN ScrtJner's for May.