XVII. Well Done.
What has been done by the Negro since his emancipation to make himself an industrious, christian citizen? How well is he meeting the expectations of his friends? How successfully has he defeated the prophecies of his enemies? How is he working out his destiny? Go to the farms and the work-shops—go examine the tax-books of the country—go see the million colored boys and girls attending the industrial and other schools of the South—go count the hundreds of magnificent temples, all over the land, erected to God—go ask good men, who have informed themselves on the Negro question—go read the history of the industrial civilization of the last quarter century, and the answer will be, WELL DONE. There have been many discouragements—there have been many days as dark as the brow of midnight—as black as the curtains of hell—yet scintillations of Hope ever shot forth from the altars of religion and patriotism, which are bursting into refulgent light and heat to chase away the shadows, dispel the mist, disperse the clouds, and drive all animosities into the Red Sea of fraternal love. The asps which dropped from the head of the Medusa of slavery, are being driven out by the good St. Patrick of mutual interests and fellow-feeling. We are treading upon new ground, without the lamp of experience, or the lessons of history, to guide our feet. The conditions surrounding the races of the South are new problems in the political annals of the human family. The solution is proceeding according to the rules of Providence. Only the Negro and white man of the South can handle the crayon. External intermeddling can be productive of no good. The races of the South, alone, are responsible to God—amenable to the generations of the future for the figures and calculations which are being made upon the slate of southern development. It is true that we have had our Copiahs, Carrolltons and Danvilles, but the great wonder is that these conflicts have been so few, and so small. It is a marvel that the races have maintained such amicable relations, when the former conditions and the bitterness engendered by the change of those conditions are taken into consideration. It has required the exercise of profound wisdom, great foresight, and almost supernatural patience on the part of both races to bring us where we are with such propitious environments.
A Western paper says: "The negroes of the South are rapidly solving their own problem by their religious and educational progress since their freedom. In view of the ignorance, superstition and degradation that enthralled them, we do not believe any other race on the globe has ever made more rapid progress than this people in the twenty-two years of their emancipation."
The People's Advocate, whose able editor is worthy authority upon Negro statistics, says: "The close of the first century of the constitution finds us after a record of twenty years, fourteen men having been in congress, a thousand men in state legislatures; to-day with 16,086 schools, 1,030,463 pupils, 22,183 in normal and high schools, academies and colleges, 1,900 studying theology, 100 reading law, 150 studying medicine; pay taxes on $150,000,000, and fully two millions are invested in business."
XVIII. Conclusion.
When a young man, just arrived at majority, leaps beyond parental control, into the wide world of personal responsibility, it is true that his immunities are greater, but his cares have increased also. So the Negro, being clad in the habiliments of freedom, steps out of the tomb of thralldom into liberty and citizenship. But his responsibilities are in proportion to his new liberties. He has graver cares and more arduous duties than when he rose and retired at the sounding of the overseer's horn. He must look at these duties to himself, his family, his neighbor, his state and his God, calmly and in the new light which must accompany freedom in order that it may be permanent. Freedom is a contradictory term. It is a deceptive word. There is no absolute freedom in civilized society. Among civilized people freedom means restraint—restriction. The farther man is removed from barbarism, the less freedom he has, and the greater the curb and restraint upon his conduct. Obedience to law and a regard for the general interests of society are fetters stronger than the chains which bound Prometheus to the mountain rocks. When a citizen throws off this restraint, he ceases to be a healthful factor in the state. As long as the great Mississippi River is held in restraint by its banks, it floats upon its bosom the commerce of our nation, carrying joy and comfort into millions of homes. But if the great Father of Waters leaps beyond the lawful bounds he becomes harmful and destructive; or if we remove the curbs and permit the water to flow as it will, we could no longer derive the least benefit from this grandest stream in North America.
I have spoken as I think the interests of labor demand, without appealing to the prejudices or caprices of the laborer. I have endeavored to be candid, as I am sincere. I know that men, generally, do not like statements which differ from their views, though such statements be the embodiment of truth and virtue. I know, also, that the common ear leans to the titillations of flattery, however illogical and damaging.
The Negro is here to stay. He is a citizen according to forms of law. He must be, and can be, according to the light of the nineteenth century civilization. Let the past be as oblivious as the contents of an ante-deluvian reliquary. Turn the eye and the effort to the living present, and the rising sun of the future, which shall make his course across the skies of the nations, to the adjustment of all difficulties and the guidance of mankind up the broad plains of highest christian development, and the Negro shall be thrifty, intelligent, honest and faithful in all things.
