But The Louisianian takes stronger ground. The Southern question germinated when a slave was first introduced into the American colonies. The institution of slavery made all the difference; giving rise in the South to a “domineering and proscriptive aristocracy,” with regard to all of the African race, and putting all whites—poor or rich, ignorant or educated—on a footing of equality. “There was a nobility in the white skin, more sacred and more respected than the one derived from the letters patent of kings;” more even, apparently, than that based on intelligence or virtue. Slavery made of the Southern planters, “high barons in reality, although not in name.” In the North and West, on the contrary, there was a democracy politically, but a social aristocracy, not recognizing the equality of the white skin. The writer says: “The aristocrats of the South were the real ones; those of the North were spurious. The Southern question used to be, that of the maintenance of this supremacy over the whole land by these real aristocrats.”
Now “mediocrity is enthroned,” and the Southern question is the free negro question; a reversal has been made—the body politic has had its feet up and its head down. The author seems to see nothing but the race question: the law of animal life, where the strong destroy the weak, is the highest law he can think of for its solution; where a weak race comes in contact with a stronger, it must merge into it, or “subserve its interests and prejudices,” or be wiped out of existence, and Providence so orders it. “There will never be peace and prosperity in the Southern States, as long as Caucasian supremacy shall be opposed there;” but, “we intend to control the negro vote by superior intelligence, by persuasion, and not by violence.”
Equal opportunity for education should, he thinks, be given to the blacks; but they should be discouraged from all “aspirations and efforts which will end in disappointment,” [and this is the sentiment, also, of so earnest a worker as Col. Preston of Va.]; “and hasten a more active and deadly struggle.”
It will be a surprise, we doubt not, and a disappointment to many of our Northern friends, to find that such views, especially those of the admirably-written article in the North American Review, still constitute the substratum of thought among the cultivated classes of the Southern States. For what such men as this accomplished writer think in their bed-chambers, finds very different and much grosser expression among men of coarser fibre and ruder touch. We do remember that the last two writers quoted, are from the two longest and most sorely troubled States, where sentiment is probably more extreme than elsewhere in the South; and we hope, indeed, to some extent we know, that there are many of the natives of these States, who are not represented by these views, but who have freed themselves from the dominion of the old ideas of race-rule and caste prejudice. But we are glad to see these free discussions, and from these varying standpoints.
We are pleased to see that education is still not absolutely denied in them, though the motives for its acquirement are largely taken away. But we suggest to our co-workers in this field that, even though the various States in which these freedmen live, are, and have been, extending the advantages of their public schools to children of the blacks, yet, with such sentiments deep-seated in the minds of the educated, and so the influential class, this provision is uncertain, and may be at any time diminished or withdrawn. The substantial foundation for the permanent and patient work of the education of the negro, must be in the minds and hearts of those who believe in his manhood and in his education, for some sufficient use.
In regard to the general question, we believe it a law of God that, as intellectual attainment and moral character are in themselves of far more consequence than complexion or race, those who are equal in these higher spheres easily overlook the differences in things below. If we understand it at all, the Christian idea is not that the strong should destroy the weak, but “laboring, should support” them. The noblest sight on earth is when a superior race, or family, or individual—we care not which—reaches down to an inferior race, or family, or individual, to lift them up toilfully and patiently to its own higher level. The aristocracy of Christ’s kingdom is an aristocracy of service. And, in its accomplished peace, the lion does not eat the lamb, but they lie down together. It may be worth our while to practice a little here.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] “The Southern Negro as He Is”: a Pamphlet, by George R. Stetson, Boston, Mass. “The Result in South Carolina”: Atlantic Monthly, by a South Carolinian. “The Southern Question”: North American Review, by Charles Gayarré, of Louisiana.
—A variety of bills have been introduced into Congress affecting the interests of the red man. One to organize a territorial government, to secure land to individuals, to missions and to Church societies, the residue of land to be forfeited to the United States. Another granting right of way to two railroads, and still another for “a military and post-road bisecting the territory from North to South”; taking for it a strip five miles wide, some 300 to 1,000 square miles. Our large army could certainly travel it without elbowing one another. Another still is arranged, to make Indians having an organized government citizens by wholesale.