Not for one month could the negro prosper in the United States, if the white man became his enemy.
In one month, we could by concert of action, so smite the negro that his mushroom growth would wither like the severed gourd-vine. The maddest thing, the most suicidal thing that the black man could do would be to arouse the enmity of the whites.
When that day comes, if it shall ever come, the white man will not any more stop to count the cost of annihilating, or of driving out the blacks, than Spain halted to count the cost of smiting and driving out the Moor.
In the United States the negro is seen at his best, because of the constant example, guidance and control of the whites.
Nowhere else on the planet has the negro the religious establishment which he has copied from us, with our earnest help.
Nowhere else has he the educational system which he has patterned after ours, aided at every step by us.
Nowhere else has he the banks, manufactures, newspapers, magazines, modernized farms, elegant professional offices which he has fashioned upon our models, amid our plaudits of approval and encouragement.
By the hundreds, by the thousands, the negro has been admitted to positions of honor and trust. He has been in the Senate; he has been in the House of Representatives; he has been in the State Legislatures; he has served on juries; he is in the army; he is on the police force.
In the proud, aristocratic city of Charleston doth not the redoubtable Dr. Crum, a negro, sit at the Receipt of Customs, drawing a fatter salary than was ever enjoyed by Matthew, the Apostle of Christ?