A Confederate and a Man.—He was a colonel. He is the editor of a leading journal of the South. Some years since, an educated mulatto woman from Ohio went South to secure a position as a teacher. She was thrust into the smoking-car to endure the commingled filth and ribaldry of the place.
After securing her position, it was necessary to return home before entering upon her duties. She sought the intervention of the colonel. He went to the local superintendent, who sent orders along the line over three roads which gave her admission to the ladies’ car, both on her way home and on her return. She proved a splendid teacher and noble woman, and the colonel is proud to have championed her cause, when to do so was unpopular.
The same colonel is now wielding a great influence in the South in favor of negro education, and recently, both in his paper and at a public meeting, has expressed thanks to the A. M. A. for work it has been doing in the South.
The influences multiply and reach out in every direction, which are destined soon to bring a total and wholesome change of sentiment, North and South.
We have received the proceedings of the Colored Men’s State Immigration Convention, held in Dallas, Texas, the latter part of February. An association was formed whose object is to locate colonies of colored people on Government lands in that State. Mr. S. H. Smothers, editor of the Baptist Journal, of Dallas, said in his address, as explanatory of the Exodus movement among his people, what seems to have escaped the attention of the Senate Exodus Committee, that the negro may act from the same motives that influence white men. His address is full of good common sense, as the following may show:
“Only a few weeks ago, in a conversation with a colored immigrant from Georgia, I asked him why he left that State and came to Texas. He replied that a great many of his white neighbors were moving to Texas, and he thought that whatever was good for them would be good for him.
“Much has been said in regard to the wrongs and oppressions of which our people complain. While, doubtless, there is some ground for their complaint, their hardships, in my opinion, are more the result of their illiterate condition than all things else. If a class of white laborers were as illiterate as our people, they would be equally oppressed as are the Irish tenants to-day. Capitalists look out for their own interest, and will, if they can, oppress one man, be his color what it may, as soon as another. We should remember that knowledge is power and ignorance is weakness. The protection which we most need is the power which education and property give. For my own part, all I ask of any man is an equal chance, and then if he can outstrip me in the race of life, let him do it.”