YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 1940 PLEI18 FOR PR08RE88. BY ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD. printed for the author, Publishing House of the M, E, Church, South. J, ^(f^B-BKEpWIBMT, NASHVILLE, TENN, 1889, Entered, aecorrling to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, By ATTicns G. Hayqood, in the oflice of the Librarian of Congress at 'Washington. Cb3f ^^3 Vu TABLE OF CONTENTS. Pagb The Education op the Negro 5 How He Makes His Way . . ; 25 A Nation's Work and Duty 55 Concert op War Songs 83 Public Schools 98 Hand as Well as Head and Heart Training 118 Some Needs op the Negro 137 Building a Christian College 147 Broaden the College, Better the School 157 The Gammon School op Theology 175 A Dedication Speech 191 Our Brother in Black 212 Neglecting and Neglected 235 " Rescue the Perishing" 250 The Convict Question 266 Our Danger and Our Defense 281 The Duty op the South 297 (3) PLE/IS FOR PROGRESS. THE EDUCKTION OP THE NEGRO. [Monteag-le, Tenn., Augrust 2, 1883.] THEEE is nothing peculiar in the subject I am to discuss at this time. The education of a Negro is the education of a human being. In its essential characteristics the human mind is the same in every race and in every age. When a Negro child is taught that tvi'o and t-wo are four he learns just what a white child learns when he is taught tlie same proposition. The teacher uses the same faculties of mind in impart ing the truth as to the sum of two and two. The two children use the same faculties in learning the truth; it means the same thing to them both. In further teaching and learning tbe methods may vary, but the variations will depend less on differences of race than on peculiarities of the individual. What is here ad vanced is so obviously true that any human being trying to teach any other human being that two and two are four would naturally use the same metliod in conveying the truth of tlie statement, and would cer tainly expect the same results when the truth was once apprehended. All this has nothing to do with the question, Which child learns most readily? or with another question, (-5) Pleas for Progeess. Which child can learn most? If I were called on to answer these questions, I would say, as to the first, that the Negro child of ordinary intelligence will apprehend that two and two are four as readily as a white child of ordinary intelligence. Except in the mind of a fool there is no more in this statement to excite preju dice than if one should affirm that a Negro boy ten years old weighs as much as a white boy ten years old, or that he can jump as far. ' TWO THOUSAND YEARS THE START. As to the second question I would answer in per- fectlrankness that I do not know how much either can learn, and therefore I do not know which can learn most. If urged to answer the question, Which race, as we find them to-day in this country, is capa ble of tbe higher mental training and culture? I would answer that this is a very different question; for the ca pabilities of a race are the results not only of their original ethnic endowment, but of their ethnic history for many generations. As applied to these two races the condition of the problems of their education are not now equal, nor can they now be made equal; for the white race has fully two thousand years the start. The ethnic development of the Britons was higher be fore Julius Caesar than was the ethnic development of the African tribes from which our Negro fellow- citizens were taken some generations ago. Nothing should less need proving than the doctrine here set forth. Any stock-breeder can expound to you the force that is in the law of heredity. Ask the wise men who breed race-horses, Jersey cows, hunting- dogs, or even canary birds. They attach great im portance to pedigree, and they can tell you why. The Education of the Negro. NOBODY KNOWS. I do not then propose to discuss the relative capac ity of the two races; my theme is a very different one. Besides, I am not prepared to discuss that question ; I do not know any man who is prepared to discuss it; neither race is sufficiently educated to furnish a gauge of its possibilities. As to the Negro nobody knows, even approximately, what he can do. His experiment is just begun. Until recently he had no chance; to day he has a small chance; till the gospel and common selise have conquered the prejudices of us of the /white race he will not have the best conditions for showing what he can do. Considering what small chance he has had, and the short time in which he has been allowed to learn, his achievements seem to me to "^tre-fiaest^emarkable. But on this point I know very well that, as is usual where feeling enters into judg ments, those who know the least from personal inves tigations will make the most dogmatic assertions and the most vehement denials. The proposition which I am here to advocate is this, and this only: The Negro in the United States ought to be educated. The first reason I offer is in THE FACT OF HIS HUMANITY. He ought to be educated because he is a man. At this point I say nothing to those who deny the essen tial unity of the human race; I speak to those who do believe in that essential unity. For one, I believe in the essential unity of the race, and I believe in the brotherhood of the race. I be lieve, therefore, in all brotherly help and service wherever and however I find any human being. For Pleas for Progress. the very eame reasons that I believe in sending the gospel and the Christian civilization that goes with it to China, I believe in giving Christian education to the Negroes in America. And lest by some pos sibility there should be some misapprehension as to the truth I hold, let me say: I believe in giving the opportunities of Christian education to the Negroes for the same reason that I believe in giving the oppor tunities of Christian education to white people — that is, because they are alike human beings, and by nat ural, God-given right should have the best opportu nity God's providence allows them for becoming all that they are capable of becoming. So long as I be lieve in Jesus Christ and his gospel I cannot stand upon a lower platform than this. I think I know what he would say on this subject. It is he who spoke of himself as " the Son of man," the Brother of every man; it is he who gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan and the Sermon on the Mount; it is he who lived for all men and died for all men; it is he who will tell us how to discuss and answer questions that involve the rights and needs and destinies of hu man beings. People who have opinions they are afraid to carry to Jesus Christ had better change their opin ions. THE KEYS OF KNOWLEDGE TO EVERY CHILD. At this point I offer all I care to say at this time as to the extent to which the Negro's education should be carried. He should have opportunity to learn all that he can learn, because he has the right that God gave him, when he made him, to become as much of a man and as truly a man as his nature allows. This right he has in virtue of his humanity — right cannot The Education of the Negro. 9 { be diviner. How much he cau learn, of what devel opments he is capable, we of to-day do not know, our children will not know, for the education of a race implies the education of generations. But individu als of the Negro race have done enough in the matter of advanced education; hundreds of thousands of them have done enough in the matter of elementary education, to put to flight utterly the theories and ar guments that a generation ago we of the white race, with few exceptions, accepted as the final orthodox philosophy ou this subject. " THE THREE R 'S." As a practical question I would say: Every child in his country, white and black, should have from his parents, or from the Government, an equal chance for Elementary education. I believe in what Americans meaii by the common school. There should be schools enough to give to every child the rudiments of learning; if you please, the "three B's." And these should be good enough to teach the rudiments thoroughly. Such schools there must be if the children of the republic are to be ed ucated; if they are to reach the case they must be backed by the Government. To accomplish their end wisely, justly, efficiently, there must be a fair and equitable distribution of the school funds, with out distinction of race. I rejoice that every State in this Union — with perhaps one exception — does now, [no exception now, 1888] in principle at least, use its school fund without distinction of race, so that in the opportunities of elementary education there may be justice to both races. What comes after this universal elementary educa- 10 Pleas for Progress. tion? The answer is simple and to me obvious. What ever individual capacity, aided by the benevolence of good men and the wise enterprise of the Churches, makes possible. Give them all, black and white, the keys of knowledge, and then let them unlock as many doors as they can. I pity the coward who is afraid to give a human being this chance. Little danger is there that any race will rise too high, that any indi vidual of any race will learn too much truth. There is no danger more remote than the danger of over- education; there is no danger more imminent than the danger of under-education and false education. And there is no part of the civilized world that at this time has greater need to concern itself with the social and political and moral perils that lurk in wide-spread ignorance than our own well-beloved and fair sunny South of the year 1883. ARGUMENT ON TIIE LOWER PLANE. With not a few persons of good business faculty and shrewd worldly wisdom it often happens that an ar gument on the lower plane of policy goes much far ther than an argument on the higher plane of truth and right. They are prone to forget that there is no wise policy that is against right, and that while God reigns there cannot be. I will offer the argument on the lower plane. The Negro is here, and here to stay. He is a citizen armed with that thunderbolt of political power, the ballot. That it was given to him- unwisely because untimely and without conditions that would develop in him a wise conscience as to the use of it; that as a rule he is unfit to be a voter — all this I understand fairly well. But this is not the subject to discuss at this time. The Education of the Negro. 11 He is a citizen; he is a voter. In some States he is in the majority ; in every Southern State he is a tremen dous power — a power, whether he uses it or designing white men use it. ri It is about time to consider facts. His citizenship is a fact, and his presence here is a fact. There are now at least seven millions of Negroes in this country; Vjiearly all of them are in the Southern States. They increase rapidly and steadily faster than the white race. Some writers have attempted, with small suc cess, to impeach the United States census tables. This much may be said on this point: these tables are the highest authority we have on this subject. TEN TIMES IN A HUNDRED YEARS. What do the census tables show? Thoughtful men will consider the answer to the question. The in crease in the total population of the United States from 1870 to 1880 was 30.06 per cent. ; the increase of the white race, aided enormously by foreign immigra tion, was 28.82 per cent.; the increase of the Negro population, unaided by foreign immigration, was 34.78 per cent. Some writers of name and position have endeav ored to break the force of these figures by calling in question the accuracy of the census tables and by seeking, in the comparison of longer periods, as from 1840 to 1860 and from 1860 to 1880, to prove a smaller percentage of increase. One good man has offered his personal observation against the conclusions of the census of 1880! If they want the best tesb for comparison, let them try ten decades instead of two sets of two. One hun dred years ago there were in this country about 700,- 12 Pleas for Progress. 000 Negroes; now there are 7,000,000. That is, they have multiplied ten times in a century. How many will there be in 1983? A man who does not know that voters OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO READ AND WRITE does not know enough to be argued with. The illit erate vote of the Southern States is simply appalling, and the illiterate vote is increasing. From 1870 to 1880 there was an increase of illiterate votes in the Southern States of nearly two hundred thousand. Figures may not be interesting to a mixed audience, but they are sometimes very instructive. I will give you a few on the illiterate vote of our section of the Union. In Georgia the illiterate white vote in 1870 was 21,- 899; in 1880, 28,571; the Negro illiterate vote in 1870 was 100,551; in 1880, 116,516. In Kentucky the white illiterate vote in 1870 was 43,826; in 1880, 54,- 956; the Negro illiterate vote in 1870 was 37,899; in 1880, 43,177. In Tennessee the white illiterate vote in 1870 was 37,713; in 1880, 46,948; the Negro illit erate vote in 1870 was 55,938; in 1880, 58,601. In Texas the white illiterate vote in 1870 was 17,505; in 1880, 33,085; the Negro illiterate vote in 1870 was 47,- 275; in 1880, 59,609. It has increased in every one of these States. ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE SCARED. Let those philosophers who think that " education spoils the poor for laborers " take heart. The unedu cated adults among the whites and blacks in the South increase in numbers. If ignorance makes better la borers, there has been great advance in our industrial resources since 1870. There were among us nearly The Education op the Negro. 13 two hundred thousand more grown men who could neither read nor write in 1880 than in 1870. Alas! there are more illiterate women than illiterate men. Doubtless 1883 would show still farther progress — downward. THE VOTES OF IGNORANCE. Surely it cannot be necessary before this assembly to point out the perils to our institutions involved in this large and increasing illiterate vote. How are the votes of ignorant men determined? 1. In small part by the counsels of the wise and good citizen. I say in small part, for the bad and designing --demagogue has more power over the ignorant vote than has the good and unselfish patriot. 2. The votes of the ignorant are largely determined by prejudice. Out of prejudice proceed conflicts and all manner of social and political wrongs. 3. The votes of the ig norant are largely influenced by bribes, offered in one form or another. And this means fraud and corrup tion without end and bottomless. The worst thing about this huge illiterate vote is not the incapacity of the voters to use their ballots wisely; the worst thing about it is this: ignorance fits them exactly to become the tools of corrupt men of superior intelligence. With an illiterate vote large enough to hold the bal ance of power elections are for the most part dic tated by demagogues and manipulated by villains. It is left to intelligent, industrious, and honest citizens to settle the costs of corrupt government. THEY SAY: "TEACH HIM MORALS." I am not unacquainted with the answer to all this as a plea for the education of the Negro. " Book-learn ing," we are gravely informed, "is not sufficient; the 14 Pleas for Progress. Negro needs education in morals." This is true, and true as to the Negro because true as to all other men. But will sensible men seriously urge the Negro's ed ucation in morals as an objection to his education in books? Is book-knowledge, then, in itself unfavora ble to good morals ? Is ignorance the mother of de votion and the nurse of religion? Then recall the fierce Arabs who put the torch to great libraries, and bid them burn down your colleges and school-houses; bid them destroy your books and stop your busy press forever. Then, stop all education; stop all thinking; vegetate and die. It is unmitigated nonsense — this miserable pre tense of reasoning that since the Negro does need betterment in his morals the school-house is not good for him. A most significant fact may be mentioned at this point: The only white people in this country who are expending either much service or much money in the effort to improve the Negro's morals are also the people who are expending most money and service in the endeavor to teach him the knowledge of books. It is also true that those who have the most to say about the Negro's need of education in morals, as a reason for not educating him in books, are precisely the people who are not doing any thing of consequence to educate him in any thing. To a plain man there seems to be a degree of sham and cant in their talk. FOUR ROOT OBJECTIONS. The objections to the Negro's education that con trol men's opinions have their origin in four roots, closely united. The Education op the Negro. 1. In ignorance. There are not a few who are at bottom opposed to all education. 2. In stinginess. Multiplied thousands deny their own children education because it costs money. Money is their God. There are some white men in this country who by some sad mischance are both fathers of families and the owners of good properties, but they are too mean and too near barbarism to edu cate their children. They are traitors to their sacred trust of fatherhood and a disgrace to the human race. And as to public schools, in which the children of the poor may be taught the rudiments of education, ob jection, with most people, would close — if it cost them nothing. I have yet to meet one man who opposed the schools somebody else's money paid for — unless from a sentiment worse than avarice. 3. In prejudice — prejudice against the Negro be cause he is a Negro. Avarice is a mean spirit, but this sort of prejudice is meaner. It is cowardly and ignoble; it is, root and branch, utterly unchristian. If any think that my language is too strong, let them test their prejudices. Take them to Jesus Christ and ask him to approve them. Test them in the light of the Sermon on the Mount and of the judgment-day. How mean they look in that light! 4. In apprehensions that appeal to two classes of fear: (1) The apprehension that the education of the Negro will spoil him as a laborer. I know what I am talking about when I say that this fear is at the bot tom of much of the current opposition to the educa tion of the Negro. I go among the people and keep my eyes and ears open. 16 Pleas por Progress. "BOSSISM." If the argument that supports this apprehension be worth any thing, it proves too much, for it is just as good as an argument against the education of the poor whites. Education will as certainly spoil them for laborers. The spirit that is capable of such an objection to the education of the poor of any race is selfish, cowardly, and essentially mean. It is worthy only of the Dark Ages. It is at bottom a plea for the tyranny of "bossism." Put into form, it says this: "I am, by virtue of money, or shrewdness, or learning a sort of 'boss' among my fellow-men; I must keep them in ignorance that I may keep them down and be better able to play the ' boss.' " But there is nothing in the argument; it is false all through. For no man is better for any thing in the world to be done because he is ignorant. A trained dog is better than a wild dog. Ignorance is not a qualification for any thing that God intended man to do. It is first, last, and all the time disqualification rather. Every principle of right and justice denies it; every law of political economy condemns it; the history of the human race repudiates it. Intelligence spoils no man for any thing that a man ought to do in this world. And were it otherwise, what right before God has one human being to keep another human being in ignorance in order to keep him in slavery? These questions go to the bottom, and we must go to the bottom in settling questions of rights and wrongs between man and his fellow-men. THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM. What is history good for except to teach us by its exa,mples ? If history teaches any thing, it teaches that The Education op the Negro. 17 no social or labor or national or race problem was ever yet truly solved by mere repression — by merely trying to keep human beings down. It is in our times seen at its best and worst in Europe; it is the Russian system. It fails always and everywhere; there is in it dynamite and death and hell. It must fail, for in its very heart it is tyranny, and the eternal powers are against it. A NEEDLESS SCARE. (2) With some there is opposition to the education of the Negro from a vague fear of something that is called " social equality." Just now the poor Negro is in a place where "two seas meet." There are two classes of extremists: One is in mortal terror lest the Negro should become somebody; the other is mor bidly anxious that he should assert claims to what he is in no wise fitted for. If between the two he does not lose his balance he will deserve the respect of both. There never was in this world, in any nation or com munity, such a thing as social equality, and there never will be. The social spheres arrange themselves to suit themselves, and no laws promulgated by State or Church wiU change the social affinities and natural selections of men. Men choose the circles for which they have affinity, seek the companionships they pre fer, and find the places that are suited to them. After all it would be well to remember that the great and good and wise God reigns among men, that he will reign when we are all gone from this world, and that he has more concern about the welfare of men than they can have about themselves ; and that he who has ruled in the history of the nations since the beginning of the world has purposes of his own which, 2 18 Pleas for Progress. in his own good time, he will work out in blessings to the whole race of man. Conscience is wiser than reason. When we cannot know what in the world's sense is politic, we can al ways know what in God's sense of things is right. Everywhere and forever the right thing is the politic thing. THE QUESTION NOW. But the question is no longer a question as to what we prefer; it is now a question as to what can be done. These millions are here among us; they are citizens; they are voters— taking part in the government of this whole nation. When a man of sense can't have his own way he will seek the next best thing he can get. It may well be that we would not choose that the con ditions of our very difficult problem should be what they are. But they are what they are. Only fools have contempt for facts. It is not in the providence of God left to us to choose our own problem; it is ours to accept facts and to do the very best we can. Nor is it any longer a question whether the Negro will be educated. That work was begun before Ap pomattox; it has been going on ever since; it is now being pushed with more vigor than ever before. Of this we may be sure: the Negro will, sooner or later, be educated. The State governments recognize him in the public school administration. Northern liberality has spent more than twenty millions of dol lars in the South since the surrender of the Confed erate cause for the education of the Negro. With our approval or without it this work will go on, and it ought to go on. I thank God for those who have car ried it on thus far; for the liberal men and women who The Education op tjie Negro. 19 have given great sums of money, and for the devoted men and women who have given their personal service. That some cranks and marplots have appeared among them in the course of twenty years is no more an ar gument against the great work itself than is the dis covery of an occasional hypocrite aud scoundrel in the pulpit an argument against Christianity. During most of the time that this work has been going on in our midst its promoters have had little countenance or encouragement from us. Many times they have been opposed and despised and made to feel our contempt. ABSURD AND CHILDISH. In all truth and common sense there is no reason for discounting, in any respect, a white man or wom an simply for teaching Negroes. It is utterly ab surd. I believe it to be also sinful. Let us consider our attitude on this subject for a moment. We have the Negroes to cook for us, and if they do not know how, as is often the case, our wives and daughters teach them. We employ them in all sorts of ways. When elections come on we ask not only their votes, but their " social influence." Candidates, from gov ernor to coroner, do this earnestly, invariably, and without social discredit. We sell goods to them, we buy from them, we practice law for them, we practice medicine for them, and it is all well enough. In all business relations, except teaching, so far as I can re member our ways on this subject, whether as em ployers or employees, we think it all very nice, and so do our wise neighbors. How utterly and child ishly absurd it is to "make an exception" if one teaches a Negro child how to spell, to read, and to 20 Pleas for Progress. write. Will some master in such fine knowledge ex plain just wherein it is seemly to sell goods to a Ne gro, or to buy from him, or to practice law for him, or to give him medicine, or even to preach to hini some times, but a thing abhorrent to teach him whatever he can learn that we can teach? Of what shams we are guilty! Think of people going into raptures over David Livingstone, explorer of Africa and pioneer of Chris tian civilization, and then turning up their noses at a teacher, not because he is ignorant or ill-bred or bad, but because, forsooth, he teaches a Negro school. A word more I add on this point. If the best re sults are to be achieved, both for the white and black races, in the education of the Negro, then Southern white people must take part in the work of his educa- ^011. TV.rE CHANGES, AND TIIE GRAVE BURIES. Let us take courage; prejudices that must hold their own, both against conscience and common sense, must die after awhile. Great changes occur in the life-time of one generation, and the law of mortality buries the bitterest prejudices in the grave. How great revolutions in sentiment fifty years may produce many facts of our country's history illustrate. It has been only fifty years since a fierce multitude in Can terbury Green, Conn., mobbed a cultivated and Chris tian woman only because she was teaching a few Ne gro children. THERE ARE SIGNS OF PROGRESS. In May, 1882, at the late General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the College of Bishops, in their quadrennial message to the Confer- The Education op the Negro. 21 ence, earnestly recommended some adequate provis ion for the better preparation for their work of col ored teachers and preachers. The Committee on Ed ucation reported in favor of the plans suggested by the bishops; the General Conference, without a dis senting voice, adopted the report of the committee. The result so far is the appointment of a Board of Trustees, the sending forth of a general agent, the se lection of a place and the election of two of the best men in that Church to serve in the Faculty of Payne Institute, Augusta, Ga. For seven months the gen eral agent and the President, both of them distin guished and able ministers in that Church, have worked hard, with small success. It may be considered "unparliamentary," but I take leave to ask. Did the General Conference mean any thing by the action it took on the subject of Negro education in Nashville, Tenn., in May, 1882? If so, what did it mean? It is incredible that we should have in this history a case of conscience like this: too much conscience to repudiate a duty, but not enough to do it — just enough to use good words. If that Gen eral Conference represented the Church in its action on the subject of Negro education, how are we to in terpret the non-action of that Church when asked to do what the General Conference put into words? If it did not represent that Church, what is to be come of a Church that does not even put into words its recognition of an obvious duty? What finally will be the attitude of this Church if it shall drop the work which it solemnly declared, through its bishops and its General Conference, that it ought to do and that it promised to do? It will be discredited and it 22 Pleas for Progress. will never recover from the wound given its own heart by its own hand. [The cause gains. Payne Institute is getting its roots down into the native soil. It has been going on for about five years; Eev. Dr. Morgan Callaway, first President. The property, worth about $20,000, is paid for, and one good man, Eev. Moses U. Payne, has put under it $25,000 to begin endowment. Eev. G. W. Walker is President. Payne Institute, Augusta, Ga., is but the beginning. May, 1888. The commissioner, Eev. W. C. Dunlap, is pushing the work, and friends are coming to his aid. — A. G. H.] Other Churches in the South have small occasion to glory over the Church whose General Conference ac tion I have discussed, for none of them have done any thing worthy of special mention; few of them have even gone so far as to talk of doing any thing. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER. If the Churches of the South take no part in the Christian education of the millions of Negroes in our midst, what will be the verdict of history upon their course? A far more important question is this: What will be the verdict of the Head of the Church of the Lord God Almighty, the Father of us all? and what will be the result in the life of these Churches if God should see that by taking no part in the work angels would be glad to do they have made themselves un worthy to be trusted with that work? Can the Churches of the South consider any questions that more deeply affect the very roots of their life? THE ONLY PLATFORM. It is one of the sad things connected with the diffi cult problem of the two races living together in this The Education of the Negro. 23 country that not a few good people of both races have despaired of its solution. The author of the Decla ration of Independence wrote, it is said, in 1782, this prediction: " Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free; ner is it less certain that the two races, equally free, can not live in the same government." It does not surprise me that Mr. Jefferson made both these predictions. As to the first, there was at that time in Virginia and other Southern States a strong party that favored the emancipation of the slaves. As to the second, he had studied French ¦philosophy more than he had studied Christianity. If this country had been pagan Eome or infidel France, the first prediction would have failed — the slaves never would have been set free by the will of man. Had they been set free, the second prediction would have been fulfilled, for in a pagan or infidel country the two races could not be " equally free and live in the same government." They would not have been set free had this not been a Christian coun try; as it is a Christian country, the two races, " equally free " before the law, can " live in the same government," and the problem of their citizenship can be solved. As to this whole subject, full of difficulties, as those best know who have personal relations to it, there is just one platform on which Christian people can stand. Our problem with these millions of Negroes in our midst can be properly solved, not by force of any sort from without the States where they live; no more can it be solved by repression within those States. It can he worked out only on the basis of the Ten Commandments 24 Pleas for Progress. and the Sermon on the Mount. On this platform we can solve any problem whatever — whether personal, social, industrial, political, national, or ethnical— that Providence brings before us. On any lower platform we will fail, and always fail. HOW P MIKES HIS WHY. A Southern Man's Report on the Negro. [Chautauqua, N. "y., Priday, August 17, 1883.] I AM to talk to you to-day of seven millions of peo ple. They are not of the past and distant, but of the present and the near. There is no history so unique as that of the African race in this country — a history that could not have been without the mind and hand of God. These people have been in the country about two hundred and sixty years; for a long time they were few in numbers. One hundred years ago, by natural increase and by new importa tions by the slave-ships, they had grown to be about 700,000 strong. There are now at the least 7,000,000 of the African race in this country. Their rate of in crease is something wonderful; it recalls the story of Israel in the land of Goshen. The last census gives us some figures that are somewhat startling to those dreamers who told us at the close of the Civil War that the Negro race would follow the Indian, and gradually die out. There can be no greater delusion. The in crease in the total population of the United States be tween 1870 and 1880 was 30.06 per cent. ; the increase in the white population, although enormously aided by foreign immigration, was only 28.82 per cent.; the increase in the Negro population, entirely unaided by immigration, was 34.78 per cent. (25) 26 Pleas for Progress. Some writers are trying to break the force of these figures by calling in question the accuracy of the cen sus tables, but these tables are our highest authority. Some writers seek to prove a different and lower rate of increase by comparing longer periods, as the dec ades between 1840 and 1860, and between 1860 and 1880. If we would be sure, let us compare ten dec ades. What do we find? That the Negro race has grown in one hundred years from 700,000 to 7,000,000. That is, the Negro population in the United States has multiplied itself ten times in one hundred years, giv ing us an average of increase of about 33 per cent, for each of ten successive decades. FEWER MULATTOES BORN. Of the seven millions of Negroes in the South the overwhelming majority of them are pure- blood Afric ans. There is no misconception held by Northern people touching the South that is wider of the mark than the prevalent notions as to the proportion of mulattoes to the whole number. The tourist sees many of the lighter skins about the hotels and other public places, and makes an inference as to the num ber of persons of mixed blood. Those who think that there are very large numbers of mulattoes in the South are mistaken, and not unnaturally. The white blood betrays itself; a score of white or black chil dren are passed unnoticed; one yellow face is ob served. Moreover, most of the mulattoes are in towns; partly because the majority of them are born there, and largely because they naturally drift into the towns, being in demand where sprightly and in telligent servants are wanted. But the great mass of the Southern population is rural; of the entire pop- How He Makes His Way. 27 ulation hardly one million are in the cities. There is but one case in history of a race living for generations in the midst of another race, and yet keeping its blood so pure; the Jews alone can match this unique fact. It should be mentioned in this connection that fewer mulattoes are born now than before the war, although the population has increased nearly three millions since 1861. All informed people know this. The reason may be simply this: freedom has given legal force to the testimony that the unmarried Negro mother might give in a suit brought to secure the sup port of the child. ¦''' In their emancipation in 1865 "the children of light" recognized the hand of God. When in his mercy and wisdom he set them free he also set free the white people of the South. Emancipation brought infinite gain to both races. For all of which God be thanked! THE NEGROES DURING THE WAR. The Negro's conduct during the war makes one of the most wonderful chapters in the world's history. He knew what the war meant to him ; he had been praying for freedom for generations; he did not lack excitation to deeds of violence that would have made the stories of Hayti and San Domingo tame; he did not lack opportunity — the men of the South were fol lowing their flag to its final setting. Yet these Negro slaves tilled the land without whose products the Southern armies could not have staid in the field, and protected the families of absent soldiers who were fighting desperately under a flag that did not promise ¦•¦'Seepage 51: " Opinions Concerning tlie Freedmen and Tiieir Condition." 28 Pleas for Progress. freedom to them. In what history can the conduct of these Southern Negroes from 1861 to 1865 be matched ? People will differ as to the right explanation. Some say that the Negro is not naturally daring or revenge ful, and he had formed the habit of submission and feared the white man's vengeance. These things are true, but they were also true when the world was shocked by the horrors of San Domingo and Hayti. These explanations do not account for the marvelous behavior of the Southern Negroes during the war which involved their freedom. There are two' other answers which do explain their conduct. First, the great majority of the slaves did truly love the white people; second, the chief reason is the wide diffusion among them of the Protestant religion; during the war a half-million of them were communicants in the various Protestant Churches of the South. None of them were infidels; they all believed in God, in heav en, in hell, in the judgment-day. GOD IN THIS HISTORY. At this point let me say with what force I can that no man can understand the Negro question in Amer ica — whether we speak of its history, discuss its solu tion or seek to forecast its issues — who leaves God out of the question. He who does not recognize God's hand in the whole of this long and troubled history can never understand it. He who cannot see God's hand in it all — in their coming to this country, in their slavery, in their emancipation — cannot understand the history of Israel in Egypt, or any other history. I do not mean recognize God's approval of all things, but God's providence in all things, a providence master- - ful, comprehensive, overruling, all-wise, and good. How He Makes His Way. 29 LANDLESS, BUT NOT HELPLESS OR FRIENDLESS. What was the status of the Negro when the surren der of the Southern armies and the subsequent acts of the reconstruction conventions in the Southern States not only made him free in fact, but in law? First of all, he was landless. A hasty and ill-informed man will add that he was also helpless and friendless. Not so; he was neither helpless nor friendless. He was not friendless, for the white people of the South were kindly disposed toward him ; they did not blame him for the horrors of the war, or for the utter over throw of their cause. The majority of them were grateful to the Negro for his conduct during the war. Men who did not leave their wives and children in the care of their Negroes cannot understand this state ment. I did leave my family so. They were not helpless, for if they were landless their former owners were without labor. Each had what the other needed; neither could get on without the other ; neither was helpless, although both classes were very poor — poorer than any can understand who did not live down there and take part in their struggle to get upon their feet once more. Most of this labor was unskilled, though there were, in the days of slav ery, not a few good mechanics among them. The great mass of them understood farm work after the old methods, but so much of this sort of labor has been wanted that there has never been enough of it. I doubt whether the laboring classes of any country in the world are so certain of constant employment as the Negroes of the South."'^ *See page 51 : "Opinions Concerning the Freedmen and Their Condition." 30 Pleas for Progress. TROUBLE AND CONFUSION. It would be a mistake to suppose that the re-adj.ust- ments that followed the war were always smooth aud comfortable to either party. Far from it; there was trouble and confusion without end — especially about the time that designing men filled the Negro imagina tion with the notion of the gift of "forty acres, a mule, and a year's provisions " from the United States Government. Thousands of them were sorely disap pointed that these expectations were not realized. As to the reliability of their labor, experiences and opin ions differ widely; some will tell you that it is the best in the world; others, that it is the worst. The truth lies between these extremes. In these matters much depends upon the employers; some farmers have trouble and failure always, and some have none. There had to be time and patience; neither party un derstood free labor; the one did not know its rights, the other as little knew its duties. Negro labor in the South cannot now be equal to the best labor, for free labor, to be the best, must be intelligent. Freedom and ignorance combined cannot make the best condi tions for securing thoroughly-efficient labor of any sort. WHAT TIIEY DO. What work do they do? All that they are compe tent to do. The majority are on the farms, 'w'here the majority of white laborers are. They work for fixed wages, or, as tenants, pay their rent in part of the crop. Their worst trouble as tenant farmers grows out of the fact that most of their supplies are bought at credit prices, which consume their profits. But in this they are better off than the poor whites, who farm under similar conditions, for the reason that they can. How He Makes His Way. 31 and as a class do, live cheaper. They are emjiloyed in all the services which Northern people employ for eigners or their poor neighbors to do. There are some occupations which Negro men nearly monopolize. As porters in hotels and sleeping-cars, draymen, garden ers, train-hands on the railways, hotel-waiters, hod- carriers, as common hands on buildings, and in street work they are found everywhere, with little competi tion. They are largely in, the majority in building railroads and in keeping them in order. They dig nearly all the wells, and drive all the carriages that are not driven by their owners. In the cities they al most monopolize the cabs, many of which they own. My observation is that the majority of shoe-makers in the South are black men. They are fully represented in the mechanic arts as carpenters, brick-masons, plasterers, blacksmiths. SOUTHERN PEOPLE MOST PATIENT. It is long since I have seen a building going up in a Southern city where Negroes were not upon the walls working with white men and receiving the same pay for the same work. Can you say as much for any Northern city ? If collisions occur in such cases, it is generally between Negroes and Irishmen. Next to the Irish, Northern mechanics have least patience with them. And, as a rule, nothing is better under stood in the South than that those of our people who never owned slaves (and they are the great majority of Southern Avhite people) have less patience with Ne groes as servants than those who once owned them; and that Northern people who have come South since the war have less patience with the Negro's careless ways than any Southern people. 32 Pleas for Progress. WHAT FIELDS ARE OPEN TO NEGRO WOMEN? Many of them work on the farms with their hus bands and children, doiug the lighter work as well as the men. They monopolize domestic service. They do nearly all the laundry work, and much of it is ¦wretchedly done. In plain work many of them find employment as seamstresses. Whatever may be the difficulties of their position, they are better off than white women who are compelled to do servants' work for a living, for it is much easier for them to find em ployment. There is no question more perplexing to tlie prin cipals of colored colleges than this, as one of them re cently stated it to me: "What is to be done with the young women we educate ? There is nothing for them but school-teaching and domestic service." This is a great deal, for as teachers of the children of their own race many thousands of them are need ed, and very few of them are ready. Already many of them are teaching primary schools for colored chil dren; in this service there are more colored women than men, and I think they do better work than the men do. [This was an error; there were more men than women. — A. G. H.] But there is nothing pecul iar in their case as to employments; more fields are open to them than to dependent wliite women. THE NEGRO PREACHER. "What are colored men doing in the professions?" More of them than are fit are teaching schools. Is preaching a profession? Here the colored brother is in his glory. Several thousands of them are preaching — as it were. A few of them are thoroughly trained, are capable, are eloquent, and are doing in- How He Makes His Way. 33 calculable good. Many of them are partially fur nished for their work, and are doing much good. The majority of them are simply exhorters, aud do more or less good. Many of them, it is to be feared, do more harm than good; not because they are Negroes, but because they are totally unfit for their work, just as some white men are unfit for their work. Some of their sermons surpass in absurdity the " harp of a thousand strings." Some of the most ignorant are the best, and in rude eloquence and pathos, both in exhortation and prayer, surpass many who are supe rior in culture and learning. They are much given to the uso of big words of wondrous sound, and when they do not know them, make them off-hand with the most amazing facility. It would be easy to amuse you with specimens, but there is hardly time for that to day; but were there time I have not the heart for it. Their very blunders are pathetic when they are try ing to imitate the ambitious oratory of vain white men, or seriously trying to express the thought that stirs their hearts. The number of Negro preachers in the South is almost incredible. They have a con suming passion for public speaking, and the dignity of the sacred office fires his ambition as well as his zeal. The pulpit furnishes him the only field for or atory and office-holding that is easily accessible to him. And in this is one of the perils of the Church life of the Southern Negroes to-day. But after all, the great law of supply and demand asserts itself here; Negro liberality cannot support more than a certain proportion of preachers, and the necessity of working for a living tends to correct the evil of a too pronounced impulse to public speaking. 3 34 Pleas for Progress. There is one fact incident to this discussion worthy of mention. It has often been supposed that Eoman Catholicism might make great progress among the Southern Negroes. Not yet awhile; they are dead opposed to the doctrines of an exclusive priesthood aud of the celibacy of the clergy. CONSERVATORS OF TIIE PEACE. The ignorance, the incapacity, the unfitness of the average Negro preacher I recognize, but in some quarters injustice is done him. So far as my obser- ¦vation goes — and I have lived among these people all my life — I utterly deny that the morals of the average Negro preacher are as low as they were asserted to be by a Southern preacher— a Northern man resident in the South for some years past — at a Church Congress in Eichmond, Va., last autumn. As to the deliver ances of that clergyman, and as to the testimonials from his brethren by which they were supported in a pamphlet subsequently published, I have this to say: Granting them the purest motives and the most per fect sincerity, as I do, I think they are incompetent witnesses, for the ministers of that Church, both be fore and since the war, have had less to do with the religious life of the Negroes than with any other class of people in the country, except possibly the poor whites. With all his faults and imperfections, many of them cruelly exaggerated by caricaturists and sen sational writers, I bear this testimony to the Negro preacher in the South: Life there would have been much harder without him. With rare exceptions they have been found on the side of law and order, and in our day of storm and stress they were, as a class, con servators of the peace. There were some shocking How He Makes His Way. 35 exceptions. They have urged their people to send their children to school, and have been useful in a thousand ways. The tens who fall into sin and dis grace are widely advertised; the hundreds who simply do their duty are unknown to the newspaper world. A LESSON FROM WHITTIER. The good poet Whittier, in a poem read at Wood stock, Conn., last Fourth of July, has given us a lesson that will encourage the charitable and candid among all classes in our country. It is appropriate as ap plied to the subject I am now discussing: Whate'er of folly, sh.ame, or crime ¦Within thy mighty hounds transpires, ¦With speed defying space and time Comes to us on the accusing wires; ¦While of thy -wealth of noble deeds, Thy homes of peace, thy votes unsold. The love that pleads for human needs. The wrong redressed, hut half is told I i Each poor wretch in his prison cell Or gallows-noose, is interviewed; We know the single sinner well, And not the nine and ninety good. Yet, if on daily scandals fed, AVe seem at times to doubt thy worth, "We know thee still, when all is said. The best and dearest spot on earth. ALL NEGROES NOT ALIKE. It IS easy to understand how there should be utterly- conflicting reports. One observer does not see it all; only a few have seen all representative classes. All Negroes are not alike. They are scattered over a vast territory. There are wide differences among them. The Negroes of the midland regions as a rule are far 86 Pleas for Progress. superior to those of the coast. They have been more with the white people, and their ancestors were among the first that were brought from Africa.* DEVOTION TO HIS CHURCH. I ought to say more about the Southern Negro in his Church relations. Nearly one million and a half of them are now communicants, nine-tenths of them being Methodists and Baptists. Their Churches are the center of their social as well as their religious life. No man has more influence with his followers, than the Negro pastor. Whoever studies the Church life of the Southern Negro will be impressed with the power of their ecclesiastical organizations. Whether their leaders have any instinct for Church govern ment I know not, but it is certain that they hold to gether well. They are devoted to their Churches. There is not simply individual enthusiasm, but a cer tain esprit in the congregations that might well be the envy and despair of many a white pastor. They go their length for their Churches. But one other Church in the world has such a grasp upon the money question. I mean the Eoman Catholic Church. In proportion to tlieir ability the Negro Churches in the South raise more money for Church purposes than any other copgregations in this ¦ country. No people in the world. can match them in r.ticking to a protracted meeting. They think noth ing of holding on three, or even six months. There * [They are not alike as to tribal origin. Their ancestors were from different nations in Africa. There are difterent varieties of African men, as there are Irishmen, Englishmen, Germans, among the whites; or Seminoles, Cherokees, Flat- heads, etc., among the Indians. — A. G. H.] How He Makes His Way. 37 is something in this besides religious enthusiasm; these meetings largely gratify their pronounced social instincts. No doubt these meetings are attended with many follies and extravagances, many mistakes and wastes of power, in some cases with exhibitions of fanatical superstition. But it would be modest — at least for white people whose fathers and grandfathers fell under the power of the "jerks" at camp-meetings fifty years ago — not to be too hard in criticising the Negroes, whose ancestors a few centuries past were snake-worshipers, and who themselves learned what they know of the gospel from their white critics. HIS RELIGION A REALITY. I have seen them in their many religious moods; in their most death-like trances and in their wildest out breaks of excitement. I have preached to them in town and country and on the plantations. I have been their pastor; have led their classes and prayer- meetings, conducted their love-feasts, and taught them the catechism. I have married them, baptized their children, and buried their dead. In the reality of religion among them I have the most entire confi dence, nor can I ever doubt it while it is a reality to me. In many things their notions may be crude, their conceptions of truth realistic, sometimes to a painful, sometimes to a grotesque degree. They are more emotional than ethical. The average of their morals is not high ; they do many things that they ought not; nevertheless their religion is their most striking aud important, their strongest and most formative characteristic. They are more remarkable here than anywhere else; their religion has had more to do in shaping their better character in this country 38 Pleas for. Progress. than all other influences combined; it will most de termine what they are to become in their future de velopment. It is wrong to condemn them harshly when judged by the standard white people hardly dare apply to themselves with their two thousand years the start of them. The just God did not judge half -barbarous Israel, wandering in the twilight about the wilderness of Sinai, as he judges us on whom the Sun of righteousness has risen, with the full light of gospel day. EARS AND TONGUES MADE FOR EACH OTHER. The hope of the African race in this country is largely in its pulpit. The school-house and the news paper have not substituted the pulpit as a throne of spiritual power in any nation. I do not believe that they ever will. But for this race, for generations to come, its pulpit is pre-eminently its teacher. Here they must receive their best counsels and their divin- est inspirations. I say «Ys pulpit; I mean this. AVhite preachers have in the past done much for them, and ought to have done more; they can now do much, and ought to do more than they do; but the great work must be done by preachers of the Negro race. Tongues and ears are made for each other; in each race both its tongues and its ears have characteristics and sympathetic relations of their own. No other tongue can speak to a Negro's ear like a Negro's tongue. All races are so; some missionaries have found this out. Missionaries plant the Church; the native ministry must extend and perpetuate it. How urgent the need and how sacred the duty of prepar ing those of this race whom God calls to preach to their people! If there was ever a work done in this How He Makes His Way. 39 world that God loves it must be the work done in the South by those who are trying to get the sons of Af rica ready to preach the gospel to their own people. Heaven bless these "schools of the prophets!" Heaven bless the men and women who have given money and personal service in this holy work! Fools may taboo them ; the angels honor them. RACE INSTINCTS. The importance of this work of training wisely their future religious teachers will be emphasized when we consider the most remarkable tendency that has so far shown itself in the development of their ecclesiastical life; I mean the strong and resistless disposition in those of like faith to come together in their religious organizations. The centripetal is stronger than the centrifugal force. We have already a large number of African organizations. The ma jority of them belong to Churches, not only of their own "faith and order," but of their "own race and color." I cannot now discuss this large question. I can at this time only give an opinion reached after much observation and communication with them. As the matter appears to me, there is somewhere in their secret thoughts and aspirations a mighty undercur rent of sentiment that tends to bring tiiem into race affiliations in their religious life. It is an instinct that does not, perhaps, recognize itself; that certainly does not express itself plainly in words; that dues not argue, but that moves straight on to its end, steady, resistless, and in the end triumphant. Every experiment that has been made by any Church furnishes convincing illustrations to persons who know facts when they see them and are willing 40 Pleas for Progress. to recognize them. The Negro wants a Church of his own, and in some way he will have it. Churches and Conferences may be mixed at first; but in brief time they unmix. It would be as unkind as untrue to say that the white people who began these experiments tired of them. The simple truth is this: Instinct is supreme; the colored brethren want their own churches, their own pastors, their own bishops, their own Conferences. Whether we of the white race ap prove or disapprove matters little; the movements that grow out of race instincts do not wait upon the conclusions of philosophy. Who knows enough to affirm that in the long run their development will not be all the better for following this instinct, for build ing themselves up by doing tlieir own work in their own way? OBLIGATION INTENSIFIED. If these race instincts should work out their nor mal results in Church organizations of their own — not only as to the great majority of them, as is now the case, but as to them all — the obligation of the white people to help them is not diminished thereby; it is intensified. NEGRO SCHOLARS AND TEACHERS. This address, considered as a partial statement of the Negro's progress and prospects, would be unpar- donably defective if it left out the consideration of his relation to the subject of education. But nothing, in the limitations of this occasion, is possible to me except a few suggestive statements that thoughtful and informed people will understand. First, then, the total colored school population of the South in 1881 was 1,840,585. Of these 802,559 were enrolled as at- How He Makes His Way. 41 tending the public schools in that year— that is, a fraction over 47 per cent, of the colored children of school age were enrolled. Of the white children of school age 62 per cent, were enrolled. In these States the school age runs from six to eighteen years, and the school term averages from three to five months. It is doubtful if two-thirds of these children — col ored or white — attend school during the full term. Nearly all the colored children in the public schools are taught by colored teachers. These schools are low- grade primaries, with exceptions so few that they hardly affect the statement. The school funds of these States, with perhaps one exception, are divided without distinction of race. [No exception in 1888 — A. G. H.] That is, they share it alike. These teachers are, most of them, inefficient; they are sadly deficient in qualifications. Nevertheless these colored children are actually learning to read and write and to cipher. And this is a great deal for a people totally illiterate twenty years ago to learn. The right way to consider the results of the efforts of these humble teachers is not to compare them ¦with Boston grammar schools, but with nothing. In the cities of the South, where public schools under mu nicipal direction have been established, many of the colored schools are as well taught as are the best white schools, and with results the most satisfactory. I could name a dozen Southern cities where the work done in the public schools by colored children would not cause a blush in the face of the most ardent friend of the race in any country. SCHOOLS THAT PREPARE TEACHERS. Of schools called universities, colleges, institutes, 42 Pleas for Progress. seminaries, normal schools, there are nearly one hun dred and fifty. Among these are seventeen known as universities or colleges; there are twenty-two schools of theology, three schools of law, two of med icine, and two for the deaf, dumb, and blind. These are the figures given by the department in Washing ton. Summing up, we find, for 1881, of common schools 15,932, with an enrollment of 802,982; univer sities and colleges and professional schools, forty-four, with an attendance of 2,968; normal schools and schools for secondary instruction, eighty-one, with at tendance of 13,905. Eeports for 1883 would show an increased attendance at nearly all of these schools. Only a very small proportion have completed the college course in the highest-grade schools. When the circumstances of these people are considered, the wonder is that any have completed it. Those who have completed the higher course have done enough in true learning and culture to justify the best hopes of those who founded these institutions. Time and again, and by the most competent judges, ample tes timony has been borne to the admirable work done in these better-class schools, and to the astonishing re sults wrought in their pupils. It must be understood that the graduates do not represent the gracious work done by these colleges for colored youth. Perhaps ten times as many have received most valuable in struction as have completed the course, and thou sands of them are now teaching in the public schools for their people. Three years ago the secretaries of the American Missionary Association estimated that at least 150,000 children had been taught more or less by the pupils How He Makes His Way. 43 educated in the high schools and colleges under their care. As much could be said for all the great socie ties that have been engaged in this holy work iu the South since the war. Such contributions to the civil ization and uplifting of the race must tell. They do tell; the race makes progress, real and substantial progress. SENATOR BROWN'S OPINION. There is not a candid or progressive man in the South who will not indorse the language of Senator Brown, of Georgia, in an address appealing for na tional aid to public education, in the United States Senate, December 15, 1880. "I confess," says Sena tor Brown, "I have better hopes for the race for the future than I had when emancipation took place. They have shown a capacity to receive education, and a disposition to elevate themselves, that is exceedingly gratifying not only to me, but to every right-thinking Southern man." Alas! all Southern men are not "right-thinking" men. Some deny that the Negro has any capacity, that education is possible or desirable for him. Some of them speak bitterly about the matter. And some Northern papers — shame to them! — are ten times as apt to quote what our wrong-thinking men say as they are to quote what our right-thinking men say. The Northern and Southern people of this country have been singularly unfortunate in not finding out the best things about each other, and they have been singu larly successful in finding out the worst things about each other. This is one reason there has been so much wrath and evil-speaking, mud-throwing and ly ing on both sides, and for so many long, weary years. 44 Pleas for Progress. the sky breaking. The worst fault of the Southern people since the war, in relation to the Negro's education, is not that they themselves have not done more (for they have not, as 'a class, been able to educate their own chil dren), but that they have not more cordially co-oper ated with those who were able to do great things and were trying hard to do them. For one, I am sure that I might have done, fifteen years, ten years ago, much that I did not do to help those to whom in God's providence this great work was committed. But in the boiling sea in which we were being tossed and wrecked, and out of which we were struggling to reach the shore, we would not take the wisest view of great questions that were sometimes most rudely thrust upon us. Both sides, so far as understanding each other was concerned, were moving in something like a London fog, made denser by the sulphurous vapors of a bitter war. God be praised! The blue sky is breaking over us all at last. THE SOUTH AND TRAINING FOR COLORED TEACHERS. But the South has done, and is doing, more in this work of educating the Negro than most people sup pose. For illustration: Maryland appropriates $2,000 per annum toward the support of a normal school for the training of colored teachers; out of the proceeds of the land-scrip fund donated by Congress Virginia gives $10,000 for the school at Hampton; South Car olina gives $7,000 to Claflin University; Georgia, $8,- 000 to the Atlanta University; Mississippi pays for the higher education of her colored youths an average of $10,000 a year; the Constitution of Louisiana pro vides for this purpose a sum not less than $5,000 nor How He Makes His Way. 45 more than $10,000 per annum ; Missouri appropriates $5,000 per annum to Lincoln University. And other Southern States aid in a similar way for the education of colored teachers. DR. G. J. ORR'S OPINION. I quote at this place a few sentences from an ad dress delivered by Dr. G. J. Orr, State School Com missioner for Georgia, before the ' National Educa tional Association at Chautauqua in 1880: "Whether the Negroes shall ever be prepared, in mass, for the intelligent, efficient, satisfactory discharge of the du ties of citizenship, is a question. I believe they will, in spite of the mistakes that have been committed, if the States, the General Government, and the various Churches shall do their full duty in the matter. That overruling Providence which has shaped the events of the past will not abandon them or us, if we act like true men and Christians." The best men and women in the South stand on this platform. WHAT OF THE FUTURE? Before leaving this part of my theme I wish to ask: What of the future? The generous Christians of the North have backed their convictions with a great deal of money in trying to educate the Negro. I think they have since 1865 invested more than twenty mill ions in this work. This is a magnificent expression of benevolence. But what of the future? Such a man as John F. Slater, a man who deserves well of the republic and of the human race, understands that we have just begun this work. Wherefore he lays down one round million of dollars, that its interest may go to help in this vast and interminable work 46 Pleas for Progress. for a whole race, when he and the others who be gan it nearly twenty years ago are gone to their re ward. TIIE TEST OF FAITH YET TO COME. At this place and time I feel moved to say: The real test of the faith of the Church of the original free States is yet to come. The triumph of the Un ion arms and the emancipation of the slaves in 1865 combined to create such a conviction and enthusiasm as to a great work of benevolence as the world per haps never saw before. Money was poured out like water, and men and women volunteered by hundreds to undertake the education of the freedmen. Much money was wasted in the first efforts to find the best methods, and many mistakes were made by zeal with out knowledge. Nevertheless a vast work was inau gurated and good results were accomplished. This work has now passed the experimental stage; the period of enthusiasm has nearly ended; a certain sort of romance attendant upon the first movement of this educating army is a thing of the past. We have now come to the point when nothing but the deepest conviction, the most steadfast faith, the most Christ like love, the most patient persistence, the most sys tematic benevolence will win. Few things have more saddened me than expressions of disappointment and weariness from some of the veterans engaged in this work. Good men! They expected too much; they thought to see the more substantial fruit of their la bors too soon. Many of their pupils have disap pointed them in the outcome of their lives. Their hands are weary and their hearts are sad. Now comes the test to them; may they have grace to meet it! How He Makes His Way. 47 THE WORl^ OF A HUNDRED YEARS. Brethren of the North — of the strong and rich and populous North — you have but just begun. You are like the early eettlers in the Western wilderness when their first year's work is over: you have made a little clearing; the work of subduing the wilderness has just commenced. Hear me! The children of this race are born faster thau you are teaching them. The colleges you have planted are without endowments; for a time they must be supported by your contribu tions, and these people are without money. Every year they will heed more money, for the demand upon them increases. My office, as agent of the "John F. Slater Fund," has brought me much information on these matters. Onethiffgl tellyou: What you con sider the best and strongest of your colleges and uni versities in the South are in the greatest need of money. Not because they have been extravagant, but because they have done their work so well that the demands upon them have outgrown tiieir resources. And the demand increases steadily. They must not be strangled in their very cradles. The work upon which you have entered is the work of a hundred years. It cannot go on if you fail. Tou need not depend upon the South, for a time, to take up the v/ork which you have begun in these colleges and higher schools. Without you it will not; without you it cannot.Many in the South, particularly among those who are without money, are ready to do for the Negro, set free, all that he is capable of receiving; but the mass of the people are not ready. Perhaps they ought to be, but they are not, and the North should know what 43 Pleas for Progress. it has to depend on. And the North sliould be pa tient. It is not a very long time since its people were ready to take hold of this work; many of them are not ready now. There were never, in any age or country, such radical changes of opinion in so short a time on questions that had been fought over for fifty years as have taken place in the South in the last twenty years on the subject of slavery and of the Negro race. If they had changed more rapid ly, their sincerity would have been brought in ques tion. THE SOUTH CANNOT. Besides all this, I tell you the South is not able to do this work without large help from the North. Our own colleges were dismantled by the issues of the war; not a few of them have died and been buried — much to the common hurt of this nation. Nearly all of them are crippled now; none of them have the re sources they need to do their work. You must put this work on the same basis you place Missions to the heathen world; it must be done in Christ's name and for Christ's sake, if it takes multiplied millions and the labors of ten life-times. Never in this world did a people assume a heavier or grander responsibility than the people of the North assumed when the Negroes were set free. It will prove a cruel kindness if they are left in ignorance. I believe you will meet the tests of labor and of time. God has given you the means to do it; I know not why, unless you should do a work for God and hu, manity, involving the best interest of two races and two continents, that the South cannot do at this time and tliat you alone can do. How He Makes His Way. 49 THE NEGRO VOTER. I had thought to speak of the Negro as a voter and a factor in local and national politics, but I have not the heart for it to-day. On Monday I may give you some of the cold and naked facts ou this subject. It is enough to say to-day that 70 per cent, of the Negro vote in the South is illiterate. This is all the worse be cause 30 per cent, of the white vote is illiterate. More over, the illiterate vote of both races in the South in creased 187,671 between 1870 and 1880. RESULTS OF HIS FREEDOM. No question is more wrangled over than the ques tion of the effect of emancipation upon the general fortunes and character of the Negro race. Opinion has not settled down. Some things are clear enough. 1. Freedom brought him heavier cares, but freedom was more than worth the price paid. The prisoner has no care in providing the roof that shelters him or in securing his daily bread. But if he be a man, he would rather have the open sky for his roof, and would rather go hungry free, than to be sheltered and yet in prison. Moreover, the very necessity of providing for themselves, as persona, is to them a boon of in finite blessing; only thus can true manhood grow. It is true that many of them are not as well housed or fed or clothed as when they were slaves, but they would rather have it so and be free. So would I. 2. Of xaany of them it is true that their morals are worse than when they were slaves. This is not sur prising. Freedom and ignorance tend to license in any race. Drinking has increased among them. Pro hibition is their hope. In Georgia we have closed the saloons in sixty counties. [In more than one 50 Pleas for Progress. hundred, 1888.— A. G. H.] But this is also true: Wrongs done by them are noticed now that were un noticed twenty years ago. When the court takes the place of an overseer a whole county, a whole State, is informed of a matter that was in old times confined to the plantation. 3. A citizen without property, a voter without qual ification, the Negro in politics has given and suffered trouble that can't be put into words. As a class they do not yet comprehend the duties and responsibilities of free citizenship. How should they? The white people have not yet graduated in this school. But take the question on all its sides and bearings, I do not hesitate in giving it as my sober and assured judgment: The Negro race in the South does make true progress. He is more of a man than he was twenty years ago. The elements of Christian civili zation are more pronounced in their character than be fore. They are beginning to get them humble homes that are their own. As I came through Atlanta I se cured a copy of the last report of the Comptroller- general. The returns of 1882 show that the Negroes own in the state of Georgia property worth $6,589,876, as shown in the tax-lists. Call it $12,000,000 and we will be nearer its real value, for the Negro does not exaggerate when he gives in his returns of taxable property. Neither do white men. He owns in Geor gia 692,335 acres of land. Much of it may be poor, but it is his. Not a little of it is as good as the best. The best of our Negro citizens are those who own their homes. They are not found in mobs or riots; it is a very rare thing to find one of them in a chain-gang. How He M.\kes His Way. I know what is said of petit larcenies among them, and of loose notions and looser practices as to the marriage relation. Much of this is sadly true, but these are not new faults with them, nor are they inci dent to their freedom. Their old life favored these faults. It is not twenty years since the law recog nized their marriages. We must teach them the riglit in all these matters, but we must not declare them in capable of civilization because they fall far below standards which the white race has not reached. The polygamy made possible by easy divorce laws — laws made by white people — does not in itself tend to give them right views of the conjugal relation. Finally, let me say: Mere statesmanship cannot solve this hard problem. It is not given to the wis dom of man; but God reigns, and God does not fail. We are workers with him in his great designs. When we stand by the cross of Jesus Christ we will know what to do. We can solve our problem, God being our helper. But on no lower platform than this — the platform of the Ten Commandments and of the Ser mon on the Mount. Opinions Concerning ihe Freedmen and Tlieir Gondilion. [Report to Boarrt of Trustees of the "John F. Slater Fund," May 18, 18S7.] In February, 1887, I sent out about three hundred circular letters, asking the best judgment of those to whom they were sent, on the matters inquired about. At the time this report Mas written I had received two hundred and thirty-six replies. The circulars were sent throughout the South. Preachers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, county officials, school superin tendents, merchiints, farmers, mechanics, white men, col-, ored men, Church people and people not of the Church, friends to the education of the colored people, and some on 52 Pleas for Progress. record against it, received these circulars. The circulars re quested answers to the following questions: 1. Do colored parents nianifest interest in the education of their children? 2. Are the common schools attended by colored children improving in their character? 3. What are the average wages of common laborers among the colored people ? 4. Are the colored people disposed to buy land? 5. Are there fewer mulattoes (children with one parent white) born now than twenty-tive years ago? 6. Do auy considerable number of colored voters side with the Temperance people in prohibi.ion contests? To the first question one says, "not much;" one, "not generally; " one, " to a limited extent; " one, "not as a few years ago; " one, "spasmodic; " one, "some do, some op posed; " one, " there were only two colored families in my neighborhood, and one moved away to get near a .school;" two hundred and twenty-nine answered, "yes." These an swers were vai-ied only by the strength of the qualifying words. Aboutone-fifthsay, "more than the poor whites." One prominent lawyer says, "so much interest that many white people cannot get the servants they want but do not need." A dozen say, " not so intense, but more intelligent than a few years ago." Manjr speak of the sacrifices these people make to educate their children; one says, "will send to school if they have nothing to live on." Mr. W. H. Baker, the very eflicient Superintendent of Pub lic Schools in Savannah, Ga., says: "I desire to have it known that as a result of my observation, which has been extensive, I am convinced that tlie colored people are ex ceedingly anxious to educate their children. The colored children in the schools of this city are making.rapid progress. They not only show ability for learning what are termed the elementary branches, but seem to grasp without difflcnlty those studies whicli are included in tho curriculum of what is classed as secondary education. I write this because for many years I held a contrary opinion." To the second question twelve answer, "don't know;" one, "slowly;" flve, "slightly, or but little;" six, "pri- How He Makes His Way. 53 vate schools, no; public schools, yes; " one, " ment.allj'-, nat morally;" one, "not as much as desired;" one, " one per cent.;" four, "think not;" two, "little or none — spoiled by political influences; " eight do not answer; one hundred and ninety-six, "yes." In every case where a comment is added to the affirmative answer, the improvement is attrib uted to the better teachers furnished by the colleges and other training-schools for colored people. To the third question the answers vary greatly. Through out the cotton States the average wages for farm laborers — men — is $10 a month, food and lodgingbeing furnished. The majority work for a part of the crop. To the fourth question, sixteen say, " no; " eighteen, " de sire to buy town lots ; " twenty-three, " some do ; " eighteen, "not much;" three, "too poor; " one hundred and fifty- eight, " yes." The affirmative answers are generally followed by comments — as : " when they get it they keep it; " " flock to the towns because gregarious; " " go to towns to get near schools; " "go to towns that the women may find employ ment." One says: "the Negro will buy a kingdom on credit." Another: "any thing on time." Not a few are discouraged because, having bought on the installment plan, they have failed to complete their purchases. In few States do the tax-lists show the property of the races distinctly. Georgia does, and the rejiort of the Comptroller- general shows the following facts as to the colored people — figures for 1881 not within reach when this ^\¦ont to press. Character and Amount op Property Kbturned by Col ored Tax-payers. Years. Number of Acres. Value of Land Town Property. Money and Sol- veut Debts. Furniture. 1880 1881 1882 1883 1885 680,664 060,353692,385666,538788.-B76 $1,522,173 1,754,8001,877,861 2,065,9382,302,889 $1,201,992 1,323,045 1,478,623 1,657,101 2,098,787 $ 80,762 96,39988,018 107,707 98,283 $498,632 600,892679,738676,346 736,170 Years. Live Stock: Farm and other Property. other Property. Ajrgrpfjate Value of Whole Prop erly. 1880 !82.054.787 « 163.086 .