The war having ended in a complete conquest of the South and a sentimental control of the vigorous West, expanded by the East as it exploited the broken South; through the destruction of the codes and the imposition of Congressional Reconstruction, the whites of the South were welded into a new mass, cruder and tougher and not unnaturally quite inimical to the Negro who had been made to rule over them, until by revolutionary methods they had overthrown such. That they, the Negroes, and the Western whites had all been subjected to the control of the East as thoroughly as economic laws could subject them to it, was not for decades appreciated in the South or West.
Had Lincoln not been assassinated and had he remained true to his Western ideals, he would have been broken on the wheel of capitalism as relentlessly as was his great Southern successor, who struck down Germany in her hour of triumph. But Lincoln was spared that test and died without realizing the entire measure of his service to the Union and the whites who inhabited it; for to him the Negroes were a negligible quantity, despite all the phrases with which he utilized them, in his purpose of preserving the Union. Indeed it was not until the fountains of the great deep were broken in the World War, that the inevitable consequences of emancipation forced themselves upon public opinion, and, in this connection, a small episode, of the above related meeting of the American Historical Association in 1909, throws some light upon the state of mind of the East at that date.
At the same meeting in which Dr. DuBois read his bold, elaborate and interesting defense of Congressional Reconstruction, the author of this study submitted, on request, a paper on the Negro question, in accordance with the limitations, which, while accepted and edited for publication by the Board, was not permitted publication in the Report of the Historical Association, Mr. Charles D. Walcott having the power to exclude it from such, and using the power. That the skeleton piece of 1750 words was to some slight degree critical of the East is not to be denied; but if the Eastern scholars rose above their prejudices when presented with truth why could not the official? The gist of the little paper when printed does not appear very inflammatory.
“Says a distinguished Northern writer—‘The North is learning every day by valuable experiences that there are vast differences in political capacity between the races.’ Certainly nothing has afforded such an opportunity for the North to acquire these valuable experiences day by day, as the diffusion of the Negroes throughout the Union. Meanwhile as the masses in the South are reduced the Negroes will not constitute, to the degree they now do, the criminal class; their good qualities must become more noticeable and their bad ones excite less that intense or contemptuous regard, which has, in the minds of many Southern men, made Negro and criminal almost synonymous terms. The war made the Negro question a national question, and it is too late to say—‘the man of the South must be trusted to work out this (the evolution of the Negro race to higher conditions) in his own good time’ and that ‘he is charged with the burden and must bear it.’ That is a sectional attitude just to neither the Negro nor the white man of the South. In time and with greatly reduced numbers of the Negroes about him, the Southern white man may change the view, which inheritance of ideas almost forces him to hold, viz., that the Negro is essentially servile; but that is his sentiment today; and while, therefore, he may be best fitted to rule him as such, he is not constituted to assist him in the evolution to a higher condition. As they spread out, the Negroes must come more and more in contact with all grades of our civilization and from such draw the lessons best adapted to their own development. The sentiment therefore, which would deny them this; which would seek to confine the masses to the South, deciding for them that it is their natural home and having but little sympathy for them beyond the pale, is in my opinion, the greatest obstacle to their advancement and, to some degree, a cause of moral deterioration of the higher race.”[347]
But while Dr. DuBois and the author of this study, in response to the invitation of Dr. Hart, before the historians of the United States were discussing, each in his own way, a subject they thought of some importance, it is of interest to consider what was occupying the mind of the wisest and most neglected Negro in the United States, at the same time. About the same date William Hannibal Thomas wrote to the author of this study:
“It has long been my dream to see all the railroads under one management. Therefore had I the influence and cooperation of others, I would procure a charter from the Congress of the United States creating a National Railway Company capitalized at fifteen billion of dollars and empowered to issue bonds for a like amount. Five great subdivisions would be created. All south of the Potomac river and east of the Mississippi would constitute the Southern division. New England the Eastern division. New York and the states north and east of the Mississippi, would form the central division. Westward of that great river there would be a northern and southern Pacific division. Such in brief is the scheme I have in mind and, as an economical factor in National uplift, I know of but one other thing that would surpass it.”[348]
We might measure the scope of this Negro’s dream in the autumn of 1909, by the following news item of April 17, 1923, which apparently was only another dream:
“Legislation to make affective the plans being worked out by the interstate commerce commission for consolidation and regional supervision of the railroad systems of the country will be undertaken in the next Congress, Chairman Cummins of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee said today, after a discussion of the railroad problem with President Harding—‘I think consolidation for the railway system as initiated in the transportation act is the only means of gaining the efficiency that the country requires of the railroads,’ said Senator Cummins. Moreover it seems to me to be the only method of bringing down freight rates on commodities on which the rate must be lowered.”[349]
Whatever difference of opinion may exist amongst railway experts as to the merits of the legislation concerning railroads which the Iowa senator has made his name synonymous with, few doubt his knowledge. Yet he would seem to be just about fourteen years behind the neglected Ohio Negro, whose opportunities were restricted to two sessions of the South Carolina legislature in Reconstruction days. Is there anything that has ever been resolved with regard to railroads better calculated to serve the general public, than that introduced by Thomas, when opposing the most brilliant of the Carpet Baggers, Daniel H. Chamberlain, in 1874?—
“VIII. We hold that all franchises granted by the State should be subservient to the public good; that charges for travel and freight should be equitable and uniform and no unjust discrimination be made between through and local travel.”[350]