<(tuu 
 
 THE PRIMARY NliliDS 01' THE NEGRO RACE." 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION of the HAMPTON NORMAL 
 AND AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 BY 
 
 PROF. KELLY MILLER 
 
 Of Howard Utiiversity. 
 
 June 14, 1899. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 HOWARD UNIVERSITY PBESS. 
 I899. 
 
"Let knowledge grow from more to more." — Tennyson", 
 "Labor conquers all things." — Yirgii,. 
 
 "Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids ; 
 
 Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall."— Young. 
 
 "You who celebrate bygones, 
 Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of races,. 
 
 the life that has exhibited itself, 
 Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, 
 
 aggregates, rulers, and priests, 
 I, habitan of the Alleghanies, treating of him as he is 
 
 in himself, in his own rights, 
 Pressing the pulse of the life that has seldom exhibited itself, 
 
 (the great pride of man in himself,) 
 Chanter of Personality, outlining what is yet to be, 
 I project the history of the future."— Wal,T Whitman. 
 
 ^e,p\<LGL\ ' 
 
 Note. — The author takes this opportunity to express his gratitude 
 to Rev. David H. Greer, D. D., rector of St. Bartholomew's Church, 
 New York, who was present at the delivery of the following address, 
 and through whose kindly interest it is now given to the public in its 
 present form. 
 
 H - IT******* 
 
 V 
 
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 
 OF THE HAMPTON NORMAL AND AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 According to a strict construction of terms, the primary needs of 
 life are those which are necessary to the continuance of the species. 
 Food and drink, covering and shelter are indispensable to animal 
 existence. Life is a continual warfare against internal and external 
 foes which, if unchecked, would speedily lead to death. Man has 
 the same physical necessities as the rest of the animal creation, to 
 which he is indissolubly linked, and of which he is a special emer- 
 gence. He therefore comes into possession of these necessities as a 
 part of his animal inheritance. 
 
 I wish, however, on this occasion, to discuss that phase of life 
 which is more than meat, and to consider those needs that appertain 
 to the nobler side of our nature — those which qualify man to live in 
 an enlightened state — and more especially, the requisites of a new 
 people who are just entering into civilization. 
 
 THE HIGHER SUSCEPTIBILITIES OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 The Negro is scarcelj- ever considered with reference to the pri- 
 mary problems of life. Those needs of the human race which do 
 not depend upon temporary conditions and circumstances, are not 
 generally deemed predicable of him. The African is not regarded 
 in his own rights, and for his own sake, but merely with reference 
 to the effect which his presence and activity produce upon the dom- 
 inant Aryan. He is merely a coefficient which is not detachable 
 from the quantity whose value it may either increase or diminish. 
 The black object is always projected against a white background, 
 producing a grotesque and gloomy silhouette. The whole history of 
 the contact of the races deals with the Negro as a satellite whose 
 movements are secondary to those of the central orb about which 
 it revolves. Civilization was not thought possible for the sons of 
 Ethiopia. The sable livery of the tropics was deemed impervi- 
 ous to ennobling influences. The Negro could only contribute to the 
 wants and welfare of the higher, or, I had rather say, the haughtier 
 race. With a self-debasement surpassing the vow of the anchorite, 
 he was expected to bow down to this white god and serve him, as- 
 cribing unto him "the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever." 
 The whole scheme of the subjugation and oppression of the African 
 by the Aryan is based upon the theory that the Negro represents an 
 
inferior order of creation, and therefore his needs are secondary to 
 and derivable from those of his white lord and master. The ordin- 
 ary attributes and susceptibilities of the human race were denied 
 him. When it was first proposed to furnish means for the develop- 
 ment of the nobler side of the Negro race, those who possessed the 
 wisdom of their day and generation entertained the proposition 
 either with a sneer or with a smile. Ridicule and contempt have 
 characterized the habitual attitude of the American mind toward the 
 Negro's higher strivings. The African was brought to this country 
 for the purpose of performing manual and menial labor. His bodily 
 powers alone were required to accomplish this industrial mission. 
 No more account was taken of his higher susceptibilities than of the 
 mental and moral faculties of the lower animals. The white man, 
 as has been wittily said, saw in the Negro's mind only what was 
 apparent in his face — "darkness there, and nothing more." His 
 usefulness in the world is still measured by physical faculties rather 
 than by qualities of mind and soul. Even after the wonderful trans- 
 formations of the past thirty years, many claim to discern no function 
 which he can fill in society except to administer to the wants and 
 wishes of others by means of bodily toil. The merciless proposition 
 of Carlyle — "the Negro is useful to God's creation only as a 
 servant" — still finds wide acceptance. It is so natural to base a 
 theory upon a long- established practice that one no longer wonders 
 at the prevalence of this belief. The Negro has sustained servile 
 relations to the Caucasian for so long a time, that it is easy, as it is 
 agreeable to Aryan pride, to conclude that servitude is his ordained 
 place in society. 
 
 As the higher susceptibilities of the Negro were not needed their 
 existence was, at one time, denied. The eternal inferiority of the 
 race was assumed as a part of the cosmic order of things. History, 
 literature, science, speculative conjectures, and even the holy scrip- 
 tures were ransacked for evidence and argument in support of this 
 theory. It was not deemed inconsistent with divine justice and 
 mercy that the curse of servitude to everlasting generations should 
 be pronounced upon a race because their assumed progenitor utilized 
 as an object lesson in temperance the indulgent proclivity of an an- 
 cient patriarch. Science was placed under tribute for support of 
 the ruling dogma. The Negro's inferiority was clearly deducible 
 from physical peculiarities. In basing the existence of mental, 
 moral, and spiritual qualities upon the shape and size of the skull, 
 facial outline, and cephalic configuration, the anti Negro scientists 
 
outdistanced the modern psychologists in assuming a mechanical 
 equivalent of thought. 
 
 But in spite of scientific demonstration, learned disquisitions, pro- 
 hibitive legislation, and divine intendment, the Negro's nobler na- 
 ture persisted in manifesting itself. The love, sympathy, tender 
 fidelity, and vicarious devotion of the African slave, the high spir- 
 itual and emotional fervor manifested in the weird wailings and la- 
 mentations of the plantation melodies, the literary taste of Phylis 
 Wheatley, the scientific acumen of Benjamin Banneker, the persua- 
 sive eloquence of Frederick Douglass, were but faint indications of 
 smothered mental, moral, and spiritual power. The world has now 
 come to recognize that the Negro possesses the same faculties, pow- 
 ers, and susceptibilities as the rest of mankind, albeit they have been 
 stunted and dwarfed by centuries of suppression and ill usage. The 
 Negro, too, is gradually awakening to a consciousness of this great 
 truth. The common convergence of religious and secular thought 
 is toward the universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. 
 This universality of kinship implies commonality of powers, possi- 
 bilities, and destiny. It is difficult to estimate the importance of 
 this belief to the backward races of the earth. We have of late 
 heard a strangely discordant jangle from the jungles of India, with 
 contemptuous reference to "lesser breeds without the law." Rud- 
 yard Kipling regards all other races of the earth only as contributory 
 factors to the glory of his own. This conviction is betrayed even in 
 what he intends for a kindly reference : 
 
 "But the things you will learu from the Yellow au' Brown, 
 They'll 'elp you an 'eap with the White." 
 
 The backward races, according to this new light of Asia, have no 
 inherent capacities, rights, or prospects, but are merely a part of the 
 "White Man's Burden," a load more grieviously to be borne 
 than the weight which mythology assigned to the back of the ill- 
 fated Atlas. But this note is strangely discordant to the prevailing 
 sentiment of the closing century. How much broader in compre- 
 hension, truer in prophecy, and noble in sympathy and spirit are the 
 lines of Walt Whitman : 
 
 "A man's body at auction ! 
 
 (For before the war I go to the slave mart and watch the sale.) 
 
 I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business. 
 
 Gentlemen, look at this wonder ! 
 
 Whatever the bids of the bidders, they cannot bid high enough for it. 
 
 For it the globe lay preparing quintillious of years without oue animal or plant. 
 
For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily rolled. 
 In this head the all-baffling brain. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Examine these limbs, red, black, or white, they are cunning in tendon and 
 nerve, 
 
 * * *■ $ « 
 
 Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition, 
 
 * * * # 
 
 And wonders within there yet. 
 
 Within there runs blood, 
 
 The same old blood ! the same red running blood I 
 
 There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, Teachings, aspira- 
 tions. 
 
 (Do you think they are not there because they are not expressed in parlors and 
 lecture rooms ? ) 
 
 This is not only one man, this is the father of those who shall be fathers in their 
 turns. 
 
 In him the start of populous states and rich republics, 
 
 Ofhim countless immortal lives, with countless embodiments and enjoyments." 
 
 It is a matter of prime importance for the Negro to feel and to 
 convince his fellow men that he possesses the inherent qualities and, 
 therefore, the inherent rights that belong to the human race. 
 
 Carlyle, though blinded by narrow prejudice, when handling the 
 Negro in the concrete, is nevertheless a true philosopher when deal- 
 ing with general principles. The same author who regards the 
 Negro as an "amiable blockhead," and amenable only to the white 
 man's "beneficent whip," also exclaims: "that one man should die 
 ignorant who had capacity for knowledge, this I call a tragedy, were 
 it to happen more than twenty times in the minute." "When it is 
 granted that the Negro has capacity for knowledge and virtue, all of 
 his other problems flow as corallaries from the leading proposition. 
 The basal needs of the human race are identical. The funda- 
 mental, natural, social, and spiritual laws apply alike to all. And 
 yet special conditions require special lines of treatment. 
 
 THE NEGRO MISSES THE GRADUAL PROCESS OF EVOLUTION. 
 
 Civilization may be defined as the sum total of those influences 
 and agencies that make for knowledge and virtue. This is the goal, 
 the ultima Thule, of all human strivings. The essential factors of 
 civilization are knowledge, industry, culture, and virtue. Knowledge 
 comprehends the facts and truths of the universe ; industry embodies 
 them in concrete form.; culture leads to rational enjoyment; virtue 
 preserves and makes eternal. The African was snatched from the 
 wilds of savagery and thrust into the midst of a mighty civilization. 
 
He thus escaped the gradual process of evolution. Other men have 
 labored and he must enter into their labors. Education must accom- 
 plish more for a backward people than it does for those who are in 
 the forefront of progress. It must not only lead to the unfoldment 
 of faculties, but must fit for a life from which the recipient is sepa- 
 rated by many centuries of development. The fact that a backward 
 people are surrounded by a civilization which is so far in advance of 
 their own is by no means an unmixed advantage. In the tempest- 
 uous current of modern life the contestant must either swim on the 
 surface or sink out of sight. He must either conform or succumb to 
 the inexorable law of progress. The African chieftain who would 
 make a pilgrimage from his native principality to the city of Wash 
 ington, might accomplish the first part of his journey by the original 
 modes of transportation — in the primitive dugout and upon the backs 
 of his slaves — but he would complete it upon the steamship, the rail- 
 way, the electric car, and the automobile. How swift the transform- 
 ation! and yet how suggestive of centuries of toil, struggle, and mental 
 endeavor! It required the human race thousands of years to bridge 
 * the chasm between savagery and civilization, but now it must be 
 crossed by a school curriculum of a few years duration. The analytic 
 process is always more rapid than the synthetic. The embryologists 
 tell us that the individual, in developing from conception to maturity, 
 must pass in rapid succession through all the stages traversed by the 
 race in its struggle upward. We are also informed that social evolu- 
 tion must take a somewhat similar course. The European child is sup- 
 posed to absorb the civilization of his race in about twenty-five years 
 of formative training. The Negro is required to master, de novo, the 
 principles of civilization in a similar, and, indeed, in a shorter time. 
 If many friends of the race have been disappointed at the results, it 
 is because they started with a false philosophy. Education may as- 
 sist, but it cannot supplant evolution. It becomes necessary for the 
 Negro to uuderstand the meaning and the purpose of the training he 
 is receiving from the schools, and to appreciate the great responsi- 
 bility which it imposes. 
 
 Education is conservative rather than progressive in its main 
 feature. Its chief function is to enable the individual to live the life 
 ahead}- attained by the race. The initiative of progress is reserved 
 for the few choice spirits of the human race. The bulk of any peo- 
 ple can only live up to the level of their social medium, and can be 
 uplifted only by social impulses imparted by some powerful person- 
 ality. It is a wise provision of nature that large bodies move slowly, 
 
s 
 
 otherwise they would acquire dangerous momentum. The progress 
 of the race must be provokingly slow as compared with that of the 
 individual. Education prepares for a statical rather than adynamic 
 condition of society. And yet, notwithstanding these stern truths, 
 every educated Negro must be a reformer, a positive, progressive 
 influence in uplifting the masses, and that, too, in spite of the fact 
 that he belongs to a backward breed that has never taken the initi- 
 ative in the progressive movements of the world. He must, there- 
 fore, be aroused to a consciousness of personal power, the energy of 
 the will, the individual initiative, that subtle, indefinable quality 
 which has always exerted a controlling influence upon human affairs, 
 in spite of the theories of doctrinaires and the formulas of philosophy. 
 The education of a people should be conditioned upon their capac- 
 ity, social environment, and the probable life which they are to lead 
 in the immediate future. We do not introduce the differential cal- 
 culus in the kindergarten, nor can the inhabitants of the deep be 
 taught to live in the upper regions of the air. That system of edu- 
 cation, by whatever name it may pass, is seriously faulty unless it 
 touches the vital needs of the people for whom it is intended. The 
 groundwork of knowledge is fixed and invariable ; but in its appli- 
 cations to the problems of life, it is adaptable to existing needs, con- 
 ditions, and circumstances. The transitional period of a people 
 necessarily produces a class of social and intellectual amphibians, 
 whose life must be adaptable to the rarer as well as the denser 
 medium. However far the individual may rise above the common 
 level, he will find that the Newtonian formula also applies to social 
 gravitation — "the force of attraction varies directly as the mass." 
 
 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE NECESSARY TO INGRAFT THE RACE 
 UPON MODERN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 The first great need of the Negro is that the choice youth of the 
 race should assimilate the principles of culture and hand them down 
 to the masses below. This is the only gateway through which a 
 new people may enter into modern civilization. Herein lies the 
 history of culture. The select minds of the backward race or nation 
 must first receive the new cult and adapt it to the peculiar needs of 
 their own people. Did not the wise men of Greece receive the 
 light from Egypt? The Roman youth of ambition completed their 
 education in Athens ; the noblemen of northern Europe sent their 
 sons to the southern peninsulas in quest of larger learning ; and up 
 to the present day, American youth repair to the European universi- 
 
ties for a fuller knowledge of the culture of the old world. Japan 
 looms up as the most progressive of the non-Aryan races. This 
 wonderful progress is due, in a large measure, to their wise plan of 
 procedure. They send their picked youth to the great centers of 
 western, knowledge ; but before this culture is applied to their own 
 needs it is first sifted through the seive of their native comprehen- 
 sion. The graduates of Hampton and other institutions of like aim 
 are forming centers of civilizing influence in all parts of the land, 
 and we confidently believe that these grains of leaven will ultimate- 
 ly leaven the whole lump. 
 
 That mere contact with a race of superior development cannot of 
 itself unfold the best possibilities of a backward people is a proposi- 
 tion, which, I think, no student of social phenomena will be inclined 
 to dispute. For four hundred years the European has been brought 
 in contact with feebler races in all parts of the world, and, in most 
 cases, this contact has been as the blighting finger of death. No- 
 where do we find a single instance in which a people has been lifted 
 into civilization thereby. Outward conformity may be enforced by 
 a rigid discipline ; but outward forms and fair practices are of little 
 or no avail if the inward appreciation be wanting. Civilization is a 
 centrifugal and not a centripetal process. It cannot be injected hy- 
 podermically. Healthy growth cannot be secured by feeding a 
 child when he is not hungry, or by forcing upon him a diet which he 
 can neither digest nor assimilate. This truth applies not only to the 
 two backward races in our own country, but also to our "new caught 
 sullen peoples," in the distant oriental seas. 
 
 Aside from political ambition and commercial exploitation, the 
 chief motive of the European in treating with feebler races has been 
 to civilize and enlighten them. The conversion of the Indian to the 
 Christian faith was the chief motive assigned for the earl)' coloniza- 
 tion of America, and yet the influence of such schools as Hampton 
 and Carlisle has, perhaps, done more to uplift the red man than all 
 of the contact with the white race siuce Columbus first planted his 
 Catholic cross in the virgin soil of a new world. Indeed, the su- 
 perficial, the frivolous, and the vicious qualities are most easily com- 
 municable. The substantial qualities of mind and soul can only be 
 developed by independent activity. 
 
 For four centuries the Portuguese have been touching the life of 
 the east coast of Africa with their missionary propagandism, com- 
 mercial enterprise, and governmental policy ; but, according to the 
 highest testimony, they have made no more abiding impression up- 
 
IO 
 
 on the life of that continent than one might make upon the surface 
 of the ocean with the dent of his finger. 
 
 The Negro has now reached a critical stage in his career. The 
 point of attachment between the races which slavery made possible 
 has been destroyed. The relation is daily becoming less intimate 
 and friendly, and more business-like and formal. It thus becomes 
 all the more imperative that the race should gain for itself the pri- 
 mary principles of knowledge and culture. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL KNOWLEDGE THE BASIS OF ALL PROGRESS. 
 
 The next great need of the race lies in the realm of concrete 
 things. When the Creator had breathed into human nostrils the 
 breath of life He gave man the injunction to subdue the earth. A 
 mastery over the material world is a fulfillment of the first divine 
 mandate. Indeed the higher phases of life must ever rest upon a 
 material foundation. While we may never hope to find, a mechani- 
 cal equivalent of spirit, yet we know that natural laws react upon 
 the spiritual world. Of two laborers, one is able to earn a dollar 
 and the other a dollar and a half per day. The difference is an in- 
 significant piece of metal or scrap of paper, which the philosopher 
 might deem wholly contemptible. But by reason of this difference, 
 the more skilled workman is enabled to give his children a better 
 preparation for the great rivalry of life, where the most fortunate 
 rather than the most fit survive. His descendants, therefore, are 
 more likely to strive for mental and moral excellence, and to exer- 
 cise a wholesome influence upon the world for all time to come. The 
 nursery lines convey an important lesson, especially if they be car- 
 ried to their logical conclusion : 
 
 "For want of the nail, the shoe was lost ; 
 For want of the shoe, the horse was lost ; 
 For want of the horse, the man was lost ; 
 For want of the man, the battle was lost." 
 
 For want of the battle, a civilization was lost. 
 
 Who can forecast the effect of material things upon the higher life 
 of a people ? 
 
 To all outward appearances, our civilization is intensely material- 
 istic in its tendency ; the dollar is its highest common divisor. The 
 value of a picture, a poem, or a sermon, and all the products of 
 hand, mind, and soul, are measured in terms of this standard. I 
 remember reading a most interesting discourse by an able divine on 
 the subject "How Christ Saves Men"; and in order to show a sin- 
 
II 
 
 fill world that "godliness is profitable in all things," the prudent 
 Scotch preacher took the precaution to have this information copy- 
 righted! The business-like methods of the modern world would 
 even place a patent upon the road to salvation. If the "Sermon on 
 the Mount" were now delivered for the first time, some enterprising 
 business house would no doubt offer the author flattering induce- 
 ment for the exclusive right of publication. We reprobate this ma- 
 terial spirit only when it begins and ends in itself, leading to no 
 higher aim. But material things must ever lie at the basis of a no- 
 bler life. 
 
 Your appearance here today illustrates this principle. There are 
 many words in the English language which can be better illustrated 
 than defined. Hampton Institute is perhaps the most striking defi- 
 nition of philanthropy that can be found upon the face of the earth. 
 And yet it is built upon a material foundation. Unless the good 
 people had first developed the material resources about them, this 
 Institution could not have been founded and could not continue for a 
 single hour. The greatest service which this school can render the 
 Negro race is to enable its pupils to get hold of the primary factors 
 of the industrial world, and to do for others what it has done for 
 them. 
 
 The Indians might have occupied this country for a thousand 
 years, but they never would have built a Hampton Institute — not 
 because they might not have had the philanthropic disposition, but 
 because the resources would have been wanting. The white man 
 expelled the Indian, took his possessions, developed the unexplored 
 resources, and now he devotes a portion of his accumulations to es- 
 tablish institutions where the red man may learn the secret and 
 method of his power. All of the humiliation, sorrow, and suffering 
 of the two races represented in this association will not have been 
 in vain if through these agencies they are enabled to get hold of the 
 primary factors of civilization. 
 
 Why do the people of the Occident outstrip the nations of the East 
 in the race of life ? It is not because they possess greater mental 
 and moral susceptibilities, nor yet because they have maintained a 
 higher degree of spiritual culture — far otherwise. But rather because 
 they have taken the advice given to man at the creation. They 
 have subdued wind and wave, light and lightning, heat and cold, 
 and the mechanical powers and forces, and made them obedient to 
 their imperious will. Upon this foundation they will yet build a su- 
 perstructure of superior moral and spiritual excellence. This is ra- 
 
12 
 
 tional development. I have always had a profound admiration for 
 the builders of the Tower of Babel, for in their aspiration to reach 
 the heavens they at least begun with a solid foundation. While the 
 Aryan races have been subduing the earth, the orientals, in their 
 ascetic lassitude, have allowed themselves to be subdued by the vi- 
 cissitudes of nature, while dreaming of the beatific splendors of the 
 world to come. And, as a result, the masses still remain in poverty, 
 ignorance, and moral degradation. The pyramid of virtue will not 
 stand upon the apex of poverty. 
 
 The Negro especially needs to become rooted and grounded in the 
 scientific principles of concrete things. A tropical climate is not 
 conducive to the development of practical energy. Slavery taught 
 the Negro how to work by rule and rote, but not according to prin- 
 ciple and method. All progress consists in applying the thought 
 within to the thing without. The day when the world paid its hom- 
 age to storehouses of abstract impracticable knowledge has long 
 since passed away. The demand of the age is, "What can you do, 
 and how well can you do it ? " 
 
 We sometimes see the higher education contrasted with industrial 
 training as to their effect up the development of the Negro race. 
 There can be no conflict of interest. The controversy is both silly 
 and mischievous. 
 
 "All are but parts of one stupendous whole." 
 
 Ten million people have all the needs of the human race. We 
 may emphasize this or that phase of their wants according to tern 
 porary conditions or the pressure of circumstances. A full develop- 
 ment must possess length, breadth and depth. If intellectual cult- 
 ure constitutes the higher, industrial training constitutes the broader 
 need. Science and skill are required in all lines of work, from the 
 lowest menial service to the highest application in the arts. A 
 practical knowledge of things enables the recipient to do with skill, 
 precision, and method whatever task may devolve upon him. The 
 slovenly, shiftless, wasteful, unthinking methods of former times will 
 no more be tolerated in the humbler callings than in the higher walks 
 of life. We must remember, too, that mental development can be 
 gotten from the commonplace things of life as well as from those 
 beyond the range of immediate utility. A scientific study of the 
 living roots of growing plants will afford as much discipline, if not 
 the same culture, as an equal amount of time spent upon the dry 
 roots of a dead language. But let us not forget that thought is the 
 
13 
 
 leading ingredient in all education. Manipulatory cleverness must 
 be under direction of a guiding intelligence ; the seat of skill is in 
 the brain, not in the fingers. Goldsmith tells us that — 
 
 "Just experience tells in every soil 
 
 That those who think must govern those that toil." 
 
 But in a land where all govern themselves, those who toil must also 
 think. The mechanics of the South produced by the regime of 
 slavery, are falling out of the industrial equation because they did 
 not possess sufficient intelligence to maintain themselves against 
 modern rivalry. 
 
 The locomotive throws forward the rays of its headlight dispelling 
 the encircling darkness, in order that its mighty engine may make 
 way safely through the dangers of the night. The Negro needs head- 
 light to direct his energies and make his wa) r through the difficulties 
 and intricacies of the industrial world. 
 
 SELF-REUANT ACTIVITY. 
 
 Another great need of the race, which the schools must in a large 
 measure supply, is self-reliant manhood. Slavery made the Negro 
 as dependent upon the intelligence and foresight of his master as a 
 soldier upon the will of his commander. He had no need to take 
 thought as to what he should eat or drink or wherewithal he should 
 be clothed. 
 
 Knowledge necessarily awakens self consciousness of power. 
 When a child learns the multiplication table he gets a clear notion 
 of intellectual dignity. Here he gains an acquisition which is his 
 permanent, personal possession, and which can never be taken from 
 him. It does not depend upon external authority ; he could repro- 
 duce it if all the visible forms of the universe were effaced They 
 say that the possession of personal property is the greatest stimulus 
 to self-respect. When one can read his title clear to earthly posses- 
 sions, it awakens a consciousness of the dignity of his own manhood. 
 And so when one has digested and assimilated the principles of 
 knowledge he can file his declaration of intellectual independence. 
 He can adopt the language of Montaigne — "Truth and reason are 
 common to everyone, and are no more his who spake them first than 
 his who speaks them after ; 'tis no more according to Plato than ac- 
 cording to me, since he and I equally see and understand them." 
 
 Primary principles have no ethnic quality. We hear much in this 
 day and time of the white man's civilization, but it is no more his 
 
14 
 
 than it is yours. We had just as well speak of the white man's 
 multiplication table. Civilization is the common possession of all 
 who will assimilate and apply its principles. England can utilize no 
 secret process of art or invention that is not equally available to 
 Japan. We reward ingenuity with a patent right for a period of 
 years upon the process that has been invented ; but when an idea 
 has been published to the world it is no more the exclusive property 
 of the author than gold, after it has been put in circulation, can be 
 claimed by the miner who first dug it from its hiding place in the 
 earth. No race or nation can preempt civilization any more than 
 they can monopolize the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, or 
 the waters which hold it in their liquid embrace. 
 
 In passing through the streets the other day I saw a young man 
 accommodate his companion with a light from his cigar. After the 
 spark had once been communicated the beneficiary stood upon an 
 equal footing with the benefactor. In both cases the fire must be 
 continued by drawing fresh supplies of oxygen from the atmosphere. 
 From whatever source a nation may derive the light of civilization, 
 it must be perpetuated by the exercise of their own faculties. All 
 of the visible forms of civilization have been dug out of the ground. 
 We boast of our towns and cities, of our steamships and railways, 
 and of the mighty works of art and invention, but the voice of time 
 is ever whispering — "dust thou art, to dust returneth." But after 
 all these shall have crumbled into dust, the ingenuity of man will be 
 able to produce mightier works than those that perished. Mind and 
 matter are the irreducible elements. Mind is the common heritage 
 of man, and mattar is indestructible. 
 
 The Negro race has not yet directed its energies to the solution 
 of primary problems. It has been content to receive the crnmbs 
 that fall from the white man's table. We are often deceived 
 by the splendid achievements which the Negro has made since 
 emancipation. A careful analysis will show that the success 
 achieved so far has come mainly from secondary rather than primary 
 conditions. Talent has been entering the field that offered the 
 greatest inducement and the quickest returns. Law, theology, 
 medicine, teaching, the ministry, and politics have absorbed the best 
 energies of the race. The success achieved has been splendid and 
 commendable. But it does not require a prophet to predict that 
 success in these directions has almost, or quite, reached its maximum. 
 By testing the strength of material, the builder can tell with certain- 
 ty the weight of superstructure which a given foundation will sup- 
 
*5 
 
 port. The distinguished men of the race so far have risen upon the 
 dead necessities of the masses. The sick must be healed, the ig- 
 norant must be enlightened, the vicious must be restrained, the poor 
 must have the gospel preached unto them. While these pursuits 
 are necessary, they do not touch the bed-rock of our economic struc- 
 ture. Those who reach distinction on such conditions stand as mar- 
 ble statues upon pedestals of clay. The primary sources of wealth 
 are agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and commerce. These are 
 the lines along which the intelligent energy of the race must be di- 
 rected in the future. They must take the industrial initiative. The 
 earth will yield up her increase as willingly to the skillful persuasion 
 of a swarthy as of a fair husbandman ; the markets of the world 
 know no article by its color; steam and electricity, wind and wave, 
 heat and cold, are blind forces and therefore can see no race distinc- 
 tions. 
 
 Last spring I received from my florist a fine rose bush that had been 
 grafted upon a Manetti stem, with instructions that the Manetti must 
 be buried out of sight and that its shoots be pinched back as fast 
 as they appeared above ground. The strength which its hardy 
 roots derived from the soil was to be diverted from the natural course 
 of developing the plant itself and infused into the more lordly rose, 
 thus insuring greater vigor of growth and brilliance of bloom. I was 
 forcibly reminded of the analogous situation of the Negro in the in- 
 dustrial world. While the race has, in a sense, been dealing with 
 industrial first principles, it has, nevertheless, served only a vicari- 
 ous purpose. The Negro has been suppressed below the social sur- 
 face, and wherever an individual emergence appeared it was forth- 
 with pressed back to the common level. The -substance which his 
 sinews derived from the soil went to enrich, adorn, and glorify an- 
 other race. But now, under the guidance of intelligence, the sub- 
 stance of his toil must be utilized to promote his own growth and 
 expansion. "Each plant must grow from its own roots," is the bot- 
 anical equivalent of the old mechanical adage — "Every tub must rest 
 on its own bottom." 
 
 The Negro race, hitherto, has been as the vine which must cling 
 to the tree or trail in the dust; but now it must imitate the oak which 
 gains independence of foothold and dignity among its rivals of the 
 forest by sending its roots into the soil and expanding its foliage 
 upon the happy air. 
 
i6 
 
 CHARACTER NECESSARY TO PRESERVE A BACKWARD PEOPLE IN 
 CONTACT WITH CIVILIZATION. 
 
 The highest need of the Negro race, and, indeed, of any race, is 
 character. This is the chief aim of education, although it is not 
 avowed in the text books or school programs. It cannot be learned 
 by recitation or rote, but must break gradualby, as the dawn; and 
 distil quietly, as the dew. Character does not consist of a single 
 virtue, but is an assemblage of qualities that stamp the individuality 
 and give it uprightness, dignity, and poise. The Negro must rely 
 mainly upon the instrumentality of the schools. An acquaintance 
 with the best men, purest thoughts, and noblest deeds that have in- 
 fluenced the world must necessarily leave a residuum of beneficial 
 effect upon the character. "As in water face answereth to face, 
 so the heart of man to man." The friends of the race are some- 
 times disappointed by the lack of moral earnestness too often dis- 
 played by graduates of schools maintained by their bounty. Here 
 again, it seems, that their philosophy is at fault. Men do not be- 
 come upright and virtuous because they are bidden to do so in 
 proverb and psalm, any more than they can become wise or wealthy 
 at the behest of the benevolently disposed. Physiologists tell us 
 that the body grows by what it feeds on, and that the old cells and 
 tissues are constantly being replaced by new ones. Character, too, 
 is transformed by the nature of its nurture. How can character be 
 developed, is the great puzzle of the educational world. Luckily for 
 the human race this question is completely answered by the Apostle 
 Paul, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 
 whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there 
 be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." 
 
 Moral and spiritual qualities are primary and eternal. Herein 
 consists the one point of attachment between man and his maker. 
 The Negro often complains, justly enough, that his acquisitions are 
 ignored, and that he is not rewarded according to merit. But virtue, 
 truth, integrity, and uprightness will be honored, at sight, the world 
 over. And what if men should fail to recognize them? Primary 
 qualities do not depend upon human recognition for their value. 
 The righteous are always recognized on high. "Doubtless Thou, 
 O Lord, art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel 
 acknowledge us not." But what need we care for Abraham or for 
 Israel when our qualities are appreciated by the Giver of every good 
 
i7 
 
 and perfect gift? A people whose feet are tenoned and mortised in 
 the granite foundation of righteousness, will overcome all the obsta- 
 cles that beset them, however severe the persecution or ill usage. 
 The voice of Heaven is ever whispering in our ear : 
 
 "Mortals, that would follow me, 
 Love Virtue; she alone is free : 
 She can teach ye how to climb 
 
 Higher than the sphery chime ; 
 Or, if Virtue feeble were, 
 
 Heaven itself would stoop to her." 
 
 It requires sterling qualities of character to build up the life of a new 
 people — something of the tough moral fiber of the early Romans or 
 the moral austerity of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
 
 I have said that virtue is the preserving element of society. 
 Every civilization that has been overthrown has declined through a 
 lapse from the path of rectitude. Vice is destructive in its nature. 
 The thief, the robber, the murderer, and, no less, those who indulge 
 in the more refined and recondite forms of wickedness, are destruc- 
 tive of the stability of social order. To a backward people in con- 
 tact with civilization, virtue is necessary to save them from physical 
 destruction. It is quite the general rule that such races are destroyed 
 by the vices of civilization. The Negro race is not immune against 
 the operation of sociological law. Civilization is a savor of life unto 
 life, and of death unto death. Sometimes a medicine is so drastic 
 in its action that the patient dies before the beneficial reaction sets in. 
 The criminal and moral status of the race is threatening its physical 
 continuance. Due allowance must be given to historic and genetic 
 causes, to present social submergence andexculpatory circumstances; 
 but the plain, unpleasant, threatening fact remains. If the American 
 Negro does not conquer his vices he will be destroyed by them. It 
 is not sufficient to say that ninety-five out of every hundred Negroes 
 are orderly and well-behaved, any more than it would be satisfactory 
 for a fruiterer to assure his customer that ninety five out of every 
 hundred apples in a bairel are sound. The vicious five must be 
 suppressed or restrained. The Negro complains bitterly that the 
 sins of the guilty are visited upon the innocent. Vicarious suffering, 
 alas, is inevitable under our social dispensation. As a family shares 
 in the distinguished deeds of its more fortunate representatives, so it 
 cannot escape the odium which attaches to its vicious members. It 
 is true that there is no caste in crime, which is a failing of weak hu- 
 man nature, and that criminals have no race, but are the common 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 0"' 011 643 952 9 
 
 enemy of mankind, yet they are an especial bane to the people 
 to whom their base blood binds them. The Negro bitterly bewails 
 the misery of his lot and hurls fiery invectives against the cruel 
 Caucasian, not necessarily because he loves righteousness and hates 
 iniquity, but because the burden bears grievously upon him. The 
 lamb denounces the ferocity of the wolf, not so much because of his 
 owe innate goodness of soul or because of the inherent deviltry of 
 his wolfship, but because he is the certain victim whenever there is 
 a test of strength. Denunciation of wrong does not necessarily im- 
 ply a love of right. The violent denunciations hurled from the 
 Negro press, pulpit, and platform are indeed natural ebulitions of 
 feelings; but their effectiveness will be in exact proportion to the 
 principles of righteousness which they inculcate upon the people 
 whose cause they espouse. Responsibility cannot be shifted to the 
 shoulders of the Aryan, whose cruelty and kindness to the African 
 are strangely blended and balanced . It is not sufficient for the leaders 
 of the Negro race to rely upon denunciation of others, however 
 deserved that denunciation may be, or to tickle the people with flat- 
 tering phrases or honied words of praise ; there is also need of the 
 severe moral castigation of the old Hebrew prophets. They should 
 proclaim with emphasis and power that "righteousness exalteth a 
 nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We sometimes speculate as to the destiny of the Negro race. 
 Omniscience alone can tell what that destiny is to be — whether it is 
 to be worked out in this land or in some distant continent. This is 
 indeed a mattter of little importance. Our concern is with develop- 
 ment, not destiny. Civilization is growing to be more and more in- 
 dependent of locality or temporary abode. A people who have mas- 
 tered primary principles can rejoice in the exultation, "Wherever 
 my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies." 
 
 The great truth w hich our Savior has taught us concerning the 
 realm of righteousness also applies to the kingdom of this world — 
 "Neither shall they say, lo here ! or lo there ! for behold the king- 
 dom of God is within you." The seeds of civilization will take root 
 in any soil; but unless a people possess the inner qualification, it 
 makes no difference where their lot is cast, they can only serve as 
 "dumb driven cattle," and are a bilght to any land afflicted with 
 their presence. The Negro must get hold of the primary factors of 
 civilization, then he can face the future, "with a heart for any fate."