When Mr. Grady made his glowing speech last winter to the Sons of New England at Delmonico’s assembled, he probably did not imagine that such a delightful illustration of the paternal solicitude which the whites feel for the blacks in the Empire State of the South was in store for us. What a pity he was not aware of the boon in preparation! What sweet flowers of rhetoric he would have twined around it! It would have made his nomination for the Vice-Presidency certain.
It is possible that when the facts are known public sentiment will make it appear advisable to drop this cheerful measure, but we are assured upon excellent authority that at the present moment the Georgia Legislature is disposed to pass it; and, moreover, that Governor Gordon’s approval of a recent report connected with the subject indicates a willingness on his part to sign it. Many interesting points are involved in the introduction of this measure, including its constitutionality, and it is safe to say that they will all be discussed with considerable animation before it takes its place on the statute-book.
THE NEW YORK TIMES.
It is very hard to understand the animus of the recent attempts to cripple or destroy this noble school (Atlanta University) by Gov. Gordon and his followers. They have threatened to take away the $8,000 a year of United States money, and a bill is before the Legislature and has been reported favorably from committee to punish with a year of the infamous chain-gang of Georgia and with a fine of $1,000 the crime of some of the white teachers in allowing their own children to enter the classes they instruct. This has been a characteristic feature of the school, and one that has contributed materially to its phenomenal success in putting and keeping the negroes on their best behavior. If some of the most intelligent and refined white people are willing to face the bitter ostracism of the South and work for their benefit to the utmost limit of their strength—and sometimes, as in the case of the late lamented President Ware, far beyond it—and besides all this put their own children into the same classes with them, the negroes must indeed be vile and thankless if it did not stimulate all that is good and repress all that is bad in them.
It is certain that the sort of people sent out by the American Missionary Association will not be deterred by ruffianism of this sort from doing what they believe Christian duty requires. What object Gov. Gordon and his abettors—and it looks very much as if the silver-tongued Grady is among them—can have in stirring up sectional bitterness in this way it is hard to see. But the fact that such an outrage should be even proposed is evidence that the awful lesson of the war as to the impolicy of treating men and women as if they were mere animals has not yet been learned by some who boast that they belong to the new South. That it can be helpful to industrial development and render a residence in Georgia inviting to the most desirable Northern people no one who knows the facts can believe.
THE NEW YORK HERALD.
The Glenn Bill, which passed the Georgia House of Representatives, has caused a great deal of hot-tempered discussion. The constitution of the State is opposed to the co-education of black and white children. All right. The people of Georgia are on the ground and ought to know what is for their best interest. If they see fit to afford educational facilities to colored children in one school and the same facilities for white children in another school, well and good. And if they decree that white teachers shall teach white children and colored teachers shall teach colored children, nobody will shrug his shoulders. The object, which is to offer a good common-school education to every child in the State, will be attained.
To enact a law, however, that the white teacher who admits to his class a colored boy or girl shall be punished in the chain-gang for a period of twelve months, as related elsewhere, is decidedly drastic. That seems to be a pretty heavy penalty for a rather light offence. With a strong public opinion opposed to co-education, such a desperate resort would seem to be hardly necessary.
Colonel Glenn probably had some motive in the introduction of the bill which is not visible to the naked eye. At any rate, he committed a grave blunder, which in this case is almost equal to a crime. The bill has gone to the Senate and will be smothered there.