“Two hundred and fifty millions is a vast sum. Could a race gather and hold so much in a commonwealth where its rights are being trampled upon with impunity? The question answers itself. There is, in truth, no place on earth where the common negro laborer has so good an opportunity as between the Potomac and Rio Grande. Here he is admitted to all the trades, toils side by side with white workmen, and is protected in person and property so long as he justifies protection.
“As to the statement that one thousand have been lynched in the past ten years, doubtless Mr. Harding accepts without further examination the crooked figures of partisan newspapers. But, granting this horrible record to be true, it must be acknowledged that the man does something to call forth such treatment. Along with the telling of our alleged bloodthirstiness, there should be related the frequency and atrocity of his outrages against our homes. The south willingly appeals to the judgment of civilized mankind as to the truth of her declaration that the objects of enlightened government are as well secured here as on any portion of the globe.
“That Mr. Harding and his sympathizers are actuated by excellent motives, I do not mean to question.
“We are as mindful as others of the dangerous tendency of resorting to lawlessness, but strangers cannot understand the situation as well as those who are personally familiar with it and have suffered by it. It is much to be regretted, of course, that lynchings occur, but it is far more to be regretted that there are so many occasions for them. When the sanctity of woman is violated, man, if man he be, cannot but choose to avenge it. If the villain did not commit the crime for which this penalty is inflicted, then we would not be inflamed to summary vengeance. The perpetrator of this deed, the most heinous of all crimes and to which death is often added, need not complain when vengeance is visited upon him in a swift and merciless manner, according with the teaching of his own villainy.
“Unquestionably it would be better if judicial formalities could be duly observed, but the law should make special provisions for summary execution when such grave offenses occur. Then, too, there is something to be said for the peculiar indignation which such cases incite. This anger is the just indignation of a community against a peculiarly vile class of criminal, not against a race, as Mr. Harding and others have grown to believe and to set forth. That it has seemed a race question with the south, has been because for every negro in the north we have one hundred here.
“Mid the stormy scenes a quarter of a century ago, when the bugle called the sons of the south to war, they went, leaving their wives, mothers, children and homes in the hands of the slaves who, though their personal interests were on the other side, were true to their trust, protected the helpless women and children and earned for them their support by the sweat of their own brow, and with a patience unparalleled left the question of freedom to the arbitrament of war. Their behavior under manifold temptations was always kindly and respectful, and never one raised an arm to molest the helpless. In the drama of all humanity, there is not a figure more pathetic or touching than the figure of the slave, who followed his master to the battle-field, marched, thirsted and hungered with him, nursed, served and cheered him—that master who was fighting to keep him in slavery. This subject comprises a whole vast field of its own and if the history of it is ever written, it will be written in the literature of the south, for here alone lies the knowledge and the love.
“Who has taught him to regard liberty as a license? Who has sown this seed of animosity in his mind? Until they who have sown the seed of discord shall root up and clear away the tares, the peace and prosperity that might reign in this southern land can be but a hope, a dream. It is this rooting of the tares, and this more surely than anything else, that will bring nearer the union and perfect good fellowship which is so greatly needed. Sound common sense and sterling Americanism can and will find a way to prosperity and peace.”
CHAPTER VIII.
The sun had set; off beyond the glistening green woodline, the sky was duskily red. The air was full of that freshness of twilight, which is so different from the dew of morning.
Elliott left the bran-dance by a new road which was plain and characterless until he had passed through an unpretentious gate and was driving along the old elm avenue, a part of the Carr domain, which was undeniably picturesque. Shortly the elm branches came to an end and he entered a park, indifferently cared for, according to modern ideas, but well stocked with timber of magnificent growth and of almost every known native variety. Perhaps the oaks dominated in number and majesty, but they found worthy rivals in the towering elms.