(Hass Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT FROr> THE OLD SOUTH ro THE NEW. HV JACOBUS D. DROKE, A. M. DEC 141895 FROM THE OLD SOUTH TO THE NEW. BY JACOBUS D. DROKE, A. fl. COPYRIGHT 1894 BY THE AUTHOR. DEC 141895 / HARRIMAN, TENN. N^^WASH^?^i^ >^ Progress Printing Co. 1895. Ul5 'v.-. "A land without ruins is a land wiliiout memories. A land with- out memories is a land without liberty! A land that wears a hiurel crown may be fair to see, but twine a few Cyprus leaves around the brow of any land, and be that land beautiless and bleak, it becomes ^^ lovely in its consecrated coronet of sorrow and wins the sympathy of the heart and history. Crowns of roses fade; crowns of thorns endure! Calvaries and crucifixes take deepest hold of humanity. The triumphs of Might are transient; they pass away and are forgotten. The suffer- ings of Right are graven deepest on tlie chronicles of nations. ■ "Yes, give me a land where the ruins are spread And the living tread light on the hearts of tlie dead; Yes, give me a land that is blest by the dust And bright with the deeds of the downtrodden just. Yes, give me a land that hath legend and lays Enshrining the memor}'- of long vanished days- Yes, give me a land that hath story and song To tell of the strife of the right with the wrong; Yes, give me a land with a grave in each spot And names in the graves that shall not be forgot. Yes, give me tlie land of the wreck and the tomb; There's a grandeur in graves — there's a glory in gloom, For out of the gloom future brightness is born And after the night looms the sunrise of morn. And the graves of the dead with the grass overgrown May yet form the footstool of liberty's throne; And each single wreck in the warpath of Might Shall yet be a rock in the Temple of Right." — Father Eyan. The Old South. Amid the vicissitudes of our ever clmnging social system, m.uch interest still lingers around the peculiar customs and distinctive features which characterized the old South, The most conspicuous character and important factor of this period was the Southern planter. He owned the principal wealth, controlled the chief industries, and man- aged the commerce of the country. He also occupied the chief posi- tions of trust in the state and national governoient. He was, in every respect, the ruling power, the controlling element. Descending from the English gentry, he inherited many of the peculiar traits of his ancestors, which, combined with the broader ideas of his new environ- ments, gave to him a peculiar fitness for the position which he occu- pi'^d. Relieved of much of the drudgery of i>hysical toil he found ample time for the cultivation of ids intellectual and social faculties. and became distinguished for his culture and refinement. These ad- vantages, extending as they did through many generations, gave per- manence to grace and dignity, and served to outline and perpetuate the distinctive boundaries of caste. Although courteous and kind to all, regardless of condition or circumstances, he guarded the door of his so- cial circle with a jealous vigilance. No person was allowed to pass into its sacred precincts who did not, in his estimation, possess the intellec- tual and social fitness for tlie same. No degree of wealth or worldly fame could buy for its possessor a position in society to which his re- finement anil culture did not entitle him. Many of the slave holders, therefore, did not lielong to the aristocratic circle^, nor were thc}'^ ad- mit led within the portals of its much-coveted realm To this class be- longed the speculator, the slave driver and the trader. The typical Southern lady was in every respect the equal of her aristocratic lord. In literature and fine arts she was unsurpassed. She excelled in the — G— sweet, small courtesies of life which everywhere mark the perfect lady. Far from being the indolent creature so often presented to the world by those unacquainted with the facts, she was. on the contrary, a woman of much energy and many duties. Upon her rested, mainly, the burden of household economy, the training of servants and the care of the sick. The plantation home was complete in all of its appointments. The buildings were large and stately, with spacious rooms, wide halls and numerous porches. The furnishings were in keeping with the sur- roundings, suggestive of both elegance and comfort. The broad lawn was shaded by native trees and ornamented with shrubbery, vines and flowers In the rear of the mam building were numerous cottuges in which were quartered the plantation slaves. Beyond this lay the broad fields of the old plantation. THE MIDDLE CLASS. In every country, and under all forms of government there has been a class which, though destitute of wealth and social distinction, has nevertheless, contributtd much tx) the success of the age in winch they lived. Much of the glory of the illustrious, whom the world de- lights to honor, is due to the heroic deeds of the obscure. In the set- tlement of the New World the better element of this class from all parts of the European continent were attracted to its virgin soil and vast resources. This homogeneous mass was blended into a race of sturdy manhood which became the bone and sinew of the new repub- lic. Upon them the young nation relied in the dark and perilous days of her uncertain youtliful struggle, and in the peaceful security of riper years they have contributed much to her wealth and power. In the Northern and Eastern States, where the conditions were favorable, they became a great and prosperous people. By means of public education and other favorable insiitutions, they arose to distinction, becoming leaders in society and participants in the affairs of government. In the Southern States the conditions were quite different. Public schools were virtually unknown. Industry was confined principally to agri- culture, and cotton was the chief product. To the wealthy farmer, -7— with his broad acres, tilled by negro slaves, this industry was highly remunerative; but the poor man, cultivating a mere "patch." found it barely sufficient to meet the necessities of life. He was perhaps as energetic, persevering, and economic as was his neitjhbor of the North, but his environments rendered advancement dithcult and well-nigh im- possible. These conditions are not attributable either to the fault of the aristocrat or the failure of the laboring: class, but were the natural outcome of the peculiar form of government under which they lived. Any government in the hands of a dominant class necessarily becomes partial, if not arrogant. Thus, many laws of the old South were favor- able to the few, but oppressive to the masses From his standpoint it was difficult for the average politician to perceive that the common people were entitled to equal rights and privileges with himself, or to discern the importance of popular education. So, while schools, col- leges, and universities for the rich were numerous and well-equipped, little was done toward educating the masses. It was therefore pi ac tically impossible for many of them to obtain even an elementary edu- cation. Submitting to the seemingly inevitable, a majority, stifling their nobler ambitions, sought contentment within the narrow limits of their humble sphere Others, however, endowed with that indomitable will which cannot be daunted, stimulated by that dete mination which tvill achieve, even though the means are inadequate, surmounted these obstacles, and arose to eminence and fame, inscribing their names be- side their more favored brother upon the scroll of human achievement and national glory. THE LOWER CLASS. The world has always been burdened with a class of non-pro ducers. They neither add to the material prosperity of the country in which they reside nor contribute in any degree to the welfare of society in general. Upon the other hand, they are a burden to the industrious class and a tax upon the government. 1 do not refer to the worthy poor, who in every country have a just claim upon the sympathy of the people; but I refer to the class fitly designated the "American tramp." — 8— The South, because of her favorable climatic conditions, has al- ways had a large number of this class. Here, however, they are not only too indolent to work, but too lazy to tramp. They heed literally the scriptural injunction, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat nor what ye shall drink, nor yet for your bodies what ye shall put on." And in this careless, indifferent way they breathe out a misera- ble existence. It is not, as has been erroneously supposed, because of the institution of slavery that this class is so large in the South. It is due to natural conditions, and perhaps, in some degree, to the indul- gence and patience of the better people. They frequent in large num- bers railroad stations and all places of public resort. Having no em- ployment they seek to while away the dull hours of their monotonous lives in idle curiosity and indolent lounging. In political campaigns th< y become the willing chattel of any candidate or party who will pay for their unworthy wares the highest price in the best coin. Thus, they are not only a source of annoyance to the community, but also a detriment to all social and political advancement. How to deal with this class so as to convert them into intelligent, industrious American citizens is one of the great problems which to-day confronts the JNew South. Its solution will require lime and patience upon her part and sympathy and co-operation upon the part of her friends, THE NEGRO SLAVE. Much has been said and written concerning the negro slave, and many phases of his peculiar nature have been fitly described. In some instances, however, he has been greatly misrepresented. He was not a perfect hero as some have represented him, nor was he the incorrigible villain that others have portrayed. He was, taking all conditions into account, a very interesting and remarkable character. His evolution from a state of savage barbarity to that of civilization and Christianity is without a parallel in the history of the world. As a servant he was usually obedient, cheerful and industrious. He loved his master with an unwavering devotion. He felt proud of any honor or distinctions which might be accorded the family to which he belonged. Regard- ing them as a type of the true nobility, he judged others by this stand- — 9— ard. He was quick to detect any little impropriety io his white neigh- bor, and had little charity for such failures For one whom he consid- ered a gentleman or a lady he entertained a profound respect, but had little regard for any who failed to measure up to the requirements of his standard. He was, however, courteous and polite to all. Apt to learn, he readily copied the manners and customs of his master. Music was his chief delight, and he possessed the faculty of waking melody under the most untoward circumstances. He lightened the burden of his toilsome life with frequent festivities and enlivened his daily task with the "old plantation songs." His religion was a mix- ture of superstition, emotion, and reverence. He knew little of the higher virtues, or felt restraint from the lesser vices. He was passion- ate and vain; but was kind and true to his friends, faithful in his duties and patient in affliction. In the perilous days of the civil war, while his master was away lighting to maintain a cause, which if successful, would have bound the shackles of slavery forever upon him and his posterity, he remained a faithful sentinel at home, guarding the lives and pioperty entrusted to his care with an untiring vigilance. Few in- stances are recorded where a trusted slave deserted his post or betrayed the sacred trust committed to his charge. PECULIAR DOCTRINES AND INSTITUTIONS. The Old South was a prime factor of the old Union. She con- tributed to it many able and patriotic citizt^ns, wise, statesmen and brave warriors. She added much to its territorini extent and aided in the upbuilding of its public institutions. There were some distinctive doctrines and institutions which were peculiar to her and are worthy of mention in this connection. The most prominent among these was that of "State Sovereignty." In the confederation «.f the States and the establishment of the national government the question as to what rights and privileges each !$tate should retain and what authority should be vested in the national gov- ernment, was not definitely settled. Upon this point politicians dif- fered. Some claimed that "The National Constitution was simply a compact between the States which for cause may at any time be dis- —10— solved." They also claimed that each state possesses the right under the Constitution to declare any act of the National Congress null and void when the interest of that Commonweulih seemed to demand it. Others contended that " The sovereignty of the nation is lodged in the national government; that the Union is indissoluble; that the highest allegiance of the citizen is due to the national government; that all at- tempts at nullitication and disunion are acts of treason." In the South- ern States the former mterpretation was quite generally accepted as the true meaning and design of the Union. The prevailing sentiment in the North, however, was in favor of the latter rendering of the Consti- tution. Upon this great issue much has been written, and many able and spirited debates conducted. The most conspicuous of which was that between Col, Haynes, of South Carolina, and Hon. Daniel Webster, of Massacliuselts, in the Congress of 1881-2. The former spoke in vindi- cation of State Rights and the latter contended for the supremacy of the national government. But all in vain; the question would not set- tle. The issues were as opposite as the poles, and as resistless as the tide. Their'mighty currents eventually drew into one or the other of these great channels the entire population of the nation, and finally re- sulted in the secession of the Southern States and the outbreak of the Civil War. FliEE TRADE. The question of Tariff has long disturbed the spirit of unity be- tween the North and the South. The Northern and Eastern States have, from the beginning, been engaged largely in manufacturing. They therefore required a high or "Protective Tariff" to guard their industries against the competition of other countries. The people of the South have been devoted almost exclusively to agriculture. Their interests have demanded a low tariff or " Free Trade" in order to give them a better market for their products and to enable them to purchase their supplies as cheaply as possible. Therefore the people of the North favored a protective tariff while those of the South advocated free trade. I'his great issue lias pcci^sioaeii much spirited discussion, -11- and was a pretext upon which South Carolina in 1831 threatened to se- cede from the Union. It is one of the great issues which even the sword has not been able to decide. SLAVERY. In the earlier periods of colonial history African slavery wa«^ toler- ated and protected in all of tlie colonies. The experiment, however proving unprofitable in the Northeastern Stales, their slaves were' gradually emancipated or sold to Southern planters until in 1S40 there were only seventeen slaves in the New England States. In the census of I8o0 none were reported. A sentiment opposing the institution was soon engendered in this locality and grew with great rapidity from 1850 to 1860. In the South, on the other hand, the experiment proved more profitable. Here, broad acres of fertile soil lay open to agriculture The long summers, copious showers and mild winters made it pre- eminently the home of the cotton plant. After the invention of the cotton gin this product became one of the most profitable staples of the country. Its manufacture became one of the leading industries of the nation and swayed the commerce of the world-whitening the ocean with sails and filling the harbors with vessels. Its export brouo-ht mil- lions of gold into the United States and set in motion thousands of spindles and looms across the Atlantic. With this development the value of slave labor increased and the' South became devoted to Uie institution. In 1789 there were in the United States about seven hundred thousand slaves, producing little or no surplus, and in many States were considered a burden In 18C0 this number had increased to more than four milPions, producing a sur- plus of three hundred millions of dollars and representing a value of at least two billions of money. This marvelous growth had convinced the Southern people that if the institution could be made secure, boundless wealth and prosperity were within their reach. In the history of the world there has, proba- bly never been so vast an amount of producing capital consolidated under one power and controlled by so few men. Three generations —12— were taught that slavery as an institution was divinely appointed and linked with every line of duty and progress. It is not strange, there- fore, that they gave to it their heartiest support and defended it by every legitimate means. They looked upon any proposition which tended iu an}-^ way to restrict it as an infringement upon their most sacred rights and an attack upon their most vital interests. CAUSES OF REBELLION. The secession of the Southern States and the outbreak of the civil war, although seemingly the rash act of a moment were, nevertheless, the result of causes which had long existed, and had been gathermg strength through many decades of political agitation . Farseeing states- men of both the North and the South had long discerned the threaten- ing danger and had endeavored to warn the people against the danger- ous issues. The greatest issue between the North and the South, as has been stated, was that of "State Sovereignty" against "National Supremacy." With regard to their constitutions the rights of the several States were recognized, but vv^ith regard to the introduction of slavery into newly acquired territory there was a difference of opinion. The first great conflict upon this issue was in regard to the bill to organize Missouri Territory in 1819, The institution of slavery was already planted in Missouri, Objections were raised in Congress to its system of labor. When a bill was introduced the next year to admit the new State into the Union, the discussion was renewed with great vigor. The debate continued with great intensity and a dissolution of the Union was threatened. On the 16th of February Senator Thomas, of Illinois, introduced a bill in Congress known as the Missouri Com- promise. The principal conditions of the bill were: 1st.— The admission of Missouri as a slave State. 2d. — The division of the rest of the Louisiana purchase by the oar- allel of 36^ and 30 . 3d — In the States formed of this territory sonth of this line the question as to whether they should be free or slaveholding should be determined by the people wiien they came to form their State Consti- tutions. V —13— 4th. — In the States formed of the territory north of this line slavery should be forever prohibited. Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was the chief supporter of this bill, and has since been popularly but erroneously considered its au- thor. The next great conflict occurred during the period from 1828 to 1832, In 1828 C/Ongress levied a tax or duty upon all fabrics made of wool, cotton, flax, silk, and upon the articles manufactured from iron, lead, &c., in order to protect the new manufacturing industries in the Northeast against the competition of other countries. During the ses- sion of 1831-2 these duties were increased. The St)uthern people were opposed to these acts, since they were detrimental to their interests. South Carolina even threatened to resist the collection of these duties by force of arms. The firmness of President Jackson averted the evil of a conflict for the time being. In the following spring Hon. Henry Clay secured the passage of a bill by Congress which provided for the gradual reduction of , these duties, until in ten years the low rate demanded by South Car- olina might be reached. In 1835 that portion of Mexico bordering on Louisiana, — called Texas — threw off the yoke of Mexico and declared itself independent. Its independence was soon recognized bv the United States and the chief powers of Europe, but Mexico opposed the measure. This prov- ince, having been settled largely by Engli.sh-speaking people, sought admission in 1844 into the Union as a State. Tlie North opposed its admission from the' fact that it gave the South a large territory which might become slaveholding. The South favored it upon the same grounds. The Southern people were, however, successful, and on the 1st of March, 1844, the Lone Star took her place among her sisters as a State of the Union. This act precipitated the nation in a bloody war with Mexico, which cost the government more than fifteen millions of dol- lars and the lives of many of her noble, valiant sons. She gained, how —14— ever, a valuable tract of land and extended her domain to the Paciric Coast. A new government had been formed in California. In 1849 a pe- tition was presented to Congress asking for her admission into the Union as a state. Their constitution had been formed containing a clause prohibiting slavery. The pro slavery party objected to the bill upon the grounds that in the territory lying south of tiie line provided by the Missouri Compro- mise the National Congress had guaranteed the right of slavery, and a part of the territory embraced in the new State lay south of this line. The anti-slavery party claimed, on the contrary, that the Missouri Compromise applied only to the territoiy included in the Louisiana purchase. Another agitation of the old issue was the result. Other questions entered into the discussion. Texas claimed New Mexico as a part of her territory. The people of Santa Fe resisted the claim and demanded a separate government. The Southern slaveholders complained that the people of the North were aiding fugitive slaves to obtain their freedom. The anti-slaverv party demanded the abolition of slavery from the District of Columbia. The whole debate was violent and full of spirit. At length a c<^m- mittee of thirteen was appointed to consider the matter. The illustri ous Henry Clay, the nation's great peacemaker, was the chairman of the committee. He presented a report on behalf of the committee, which is known as the Omnibus Bill. Its provisions were: 1st— The admission of California as a free State. 2d — The formation of new States, not to exceed four, of the terri- tory of Texas; said States to be either free or slaveliolding, as the peo- ple should decide when they framed their constitutions. 3d — The organization of territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah without conditions as to slavery. 4th — The establishment of the present boundary line between Texas and New Mexico and the payment to the former, for surrender- ing the territory of the latter, ten millions of dollars from the National treasury. —15— 5th — The enactment of a more rigorous fugitive slave law. 6th— The abolitiou of slavery from the District of Columbia. lu January. 1854, the struirgle was renewed with more viiror than ever, perhaps, by a bill introduced by eenator Douglas, of Illinois, for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Neb-aaka. A^s' the Missouri Compromise had been repealed by the act which admitted California as a free 8tate, xMr. Douglas urged that these two territories should be organized without conditions as to slavery; that the people of each should decide as to whether they should be free or slaveholding States when they came to frame their respective constitutions. The anti-slavery parly opposed the bill. The discussion continued until May, when the bill was finally passed. The queslion of slavery having been left for the citizens to decide when they framed their State con- stitutions, each party sought to gain a majority of voters Emigration boards were formed both in the North and the South. Emigrants were sent, in great numbers, into Kansas especially. In the election of 1854-5 the pro slavery party had the majority in Kansas. They established their State governmeni at Lacompion with a constitution permitting slavery. The anti-slavery party claimed that the election was carried by fraud. They therefore assembled at Topeka and organized a government with a constitution prohibiting slavery. Thus two rival governments were established in the new State. A civil war between the contending factions was the result From the antumn of 1855 to the coming summer Kansas was the scene of battle and strife. In September, however, the President appointed John W. Gerry of Pennsylvania, Military Governor of Kansas, with full power to. re- store peace. He soon succeeded in putting un end to the strife. But the whole country was aroused to the most intense excitement. Five years later its gathering fury burst upon the nation in the out- break of the Civil War. The passage of the Omnibus Bill in 1850 by which the Missouri Compromise of 1820 w^s repealed gave rise to the organization of a new party called the Republican or Free Soil party. They claimed that all the Territories ought to t)^ free. This party was —16— composed of the more agi^ressive members of both the other parties, and soon gained tlie favor aud support of the masses of the North and the mcnmtainous districts of the Central South. The passage of the fugitive shive hiw in 1850, which granted to the slaveholder the right to recover, his slave wherever found, and the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, which guaranteed the right of slavery in all the territories, were quite offensive to the people of the North. As a retaliatory measure they passed, in some of their State legislatures, acts known as Personal Liberty bills, which served to nullify the Fugi- tive Slave law. This action incensed the Southern people, as these acts were a vio- lation of the laws of the National Congress, and in defiance of the de- cision of the Supreme Court, they demanded their repeal. The North- ern politicians replied that the Fugitive Slave act, being a seditious law, ought not, and could not, be enforced The politicians of the South urged that this act is no more repulsive to the North than were the Tariff laws of 1828 and 1832 to the people of their section. And as these laws had been sustained and enforced by the National Govern- ment in the interest of the North, they had equal right to demand the same protection of their interests from that body. The excitement grew so intense that extreme parties, both in the North and in the South, advocated a dissolution of the Union. The campaign of 1860 was perhaps the most exciting in history of the nation. Violent speeches, full of rash threats, were made on both sides. The triumph of the Republican party was a significant fact to the South- ern statesmen. One of the prominent features of that party's platform had been the abolition of slavery. They therefore expected a speedy attack upon that institution. The Northern Democrats entertained the same opinion, and bitterly denounced the policy of the Abolition- ists. Mr, Buchanan's message to Congress in December, 1860, very clearly stated the situation of afTairs in the South. In this message he said : "The long continued and intemperate interference of the North- ern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States has at last produced its qatural result. The time so much dreaded by the —17— Father of his Country has come when hostile geographical parties have been formed." He declared that he had long foreseen aud forewarned his fellow-countrymen of the impending danger. Referring to the action of the people 61 the Northern States in pass- ing enactments known as Personal Liberty bills, he declared Ihat, "The danger does not proceed solely from the attempt to exclude slavery from the territories, nor from the attempt to defeat the execution of the Fugitive Slave law. Any or ail of these might have been endured by the South, trusting to lime and reflection for the remedy, but the immediate peril arises from the fact that the long-continued agitation in the free States has at last produced its malign influence on the slaves and inspiied in them vague ideas of freedom. Hence, the sense of security no longer exists around the family altar. The feeling of peace at home has given place t(^ appiehensions of civil insurrection. And many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before morning. I am per- suaded that if this apprehension of domestic danger should extend and intensify itself, dissension would be inevitable." Having thus briefly summarized what he believed to be the griev- ances of the South, he suggested a few reasons why the South ought not to secede from the Union. He said, '"I he election of any one of our fellow-meu to the oflnce of President does not of itself afford a just cause for the dissolution of the Union. Especially is this true if his election has l)een effected by a mere plurality and not a majority of the people; and has resulted frcnn transient causes which may never occur again." Reciting the statutes which he considered hostile to the c 'ustitutional rights of the South, and urging their rnmediale and un- conditional repeal, he added. "The Soutiiern States, standing on the basis of the Constitution, have a right to demand this action from the States of the North. Should it be refused them, the Constitution to which all the States are parties, will have been willfully violated by one portion of them in a provision essential to llie domestic security of the remainder. In that evet;t the injured State, after having used all peaceful, constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justifiable in —18- rc'volntionary resistance to the government of the Union." Thousands of men in the North shaied the same convictions, and publicly declare(i that ihe policy of liie Republican party was hostile to the liighest in- terests of the South and of the Nation as well. That the South would bo justifiable in withdrawing from the Union . Thus stimulated, meu who, under ordinary circumstances, would have refrained from taking aggressive steps against the National Government, were forced into positions of hostility. This conviction, however, was not unanimous throughout the South. The loyal mountaineers, and a small but reso- lute faction in all the Soulhern States opposed secession. Alexander Stephens, who afterwards became Vice President of the Southern Con- federacy, stubbornly opposed the measure and endeavored to restrain the people of his native State from joining in the rel)ellion. But, find- ing ihat the issue wjis iMevital)le, rather than desert his brethren, he went with them into the s;i uggle. Thus llie current swept thousands of men into its great channel, \\ ho would have preferred to remain in the Union. A numb'M- of the Nation's greatest statesmen, whose mature judg- ment and wise counsels had contributed mucli toward the amicable ad- justment in former agitations, were no more. The place of Clay, Cal- houn, or Webster, would be difficult to fill in any period of our Na- tion's history — especially were they missed during the turbulent excite- ment of the 'oOs. There were a number of wise and noble statesmen in tiie National Congiess at this time, t)ut few had sufficient experience 10 enable them to deal successfully with these great issues. In truth, the compromises had served simply as a temporary postponement of a final settlement of ihese great questions, A conllicl was inevitable. The sword was the only arbiter. God was in the movement. It was his great opportunity to lift the .«ihackles from the negro slaves, to bind and cement the N'ation in b )nds of union which cinnot be severed ; and to lay, deeper and broader, ihe foundati<^ns of a government whose power, wealth and glory shall eclipse by far the nations of the earth. From the l)lood of tlu! noble heroes in both the blue and the gray has arisen a race of patriotic American citizens, in whose hands her inter- —10— ests shall be sacredly guarded, her resources developed, and all of her noble aims prosecuted to a successful isnd providing for the assemblage of a convention of loyal m^n in each of the seceded States, which should frame a Constitution and organize a State government which would be recognized by him as a member of the Federal Union. Toothing was said in regard' to the old State Constitutions in these States, but each State was to comply with the following conditions, and to construct its State Constitution in accordance with the same: 1st. The abolition of slavery and the ratitication of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the UiVited States. "2nd. The repu'liation of all debts made by each State in main- taining the Southefii Confederacy." Both of these conditions were approvec^ by the several State con^ -40- ventious and promptl}' incorporated into their new State Constitutions. On tbe 24th of June all restrictions upon trade and intercourse with the Southern States were removed by proclamation of the Presi- dent. By the I8th of July the work of reconstruction in all the se- ceded Stales was completed with officers duly elected and installed in their respective positions. The work thus far had been done by the loyal men and those of the Confederates who had been pardoned by the President under the proclamation of May the 29th. On the 7th ot September the President issued another proclama- tion in which all persons who had upheld the Confederate cause, ex- cept the leaders, were unconditionally pardoned. Each State pro- ceeded to elect members of Congress and Senators to the National Leg- islature. On the 29th of November General U. S. Grant, at the instance of the President, began a tour through the Southern States. He visited Raleigh, Charleston. Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, and other prominent cities of the South. In his report to the President, among other things, he said : "I am satisfied that the mass of the thinking men of the South ac- cept the present situation in good faith. The questions which have hitherto divided the sentiments of the people of the two sections — slavery and State Kights — or the right of a State to ,«ecede from the Un- ion, they regard as having been settled forever by the highest tribunal — arms — that men resort to." In theory, the President's policy was just, wise and complete. It manifested a most magnanimous spirit toward his conquered enemies. Bold, rash, and even defiant, as Mr. Johnson was in war, he was as kind and tender as a father in time of peace. Whether in its practi- cal application this policy would have met the exuigency of the times is an open question. Unbiased, thinking people will, I believe, accord to Mr. Johnson and his advisors an honest puipose and an earnest de- sire to do the right. That the Southern people in their conventions and at the polls accepted the conditions and complied with all the re- _41— quirements of- reconstruction in good faith, no one acquainted with the facts can question or doubt. They carried out to the best of their ability the provisions of the plan. There were, however, matters not comprehended in this plan whicli demanded immediate attention. Trcminent among these was tlie adjustment of tlie ''race problem." The right of franchise had not been accorded to the free negroes in the Northern States Few of the most aggressive politicians had advocated such a measure and the proposition had met vvitli general disfavor among the masses. It is not at all probable that such a measure was at this time considered possible by the Southern people. The only propositions that had really been presented to them thus far were, the freedom of the negro to enter all lines of industry and trade, to compete with white labor in these lines, to educate his children and to exercise such other privileges as belong to free moral agents If the white people of the South were slow to grant these privileges to the negro, as in fact they were, they only man- ifested the dominaliQg disposition peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race. An editorial taken from Scribner's Magazine for December, 1880, presumably from the pen of Dr. J. G Holland, may well illustrate the worst case of Southern prejudice and shows that this Anglo-Saxon race, wherever found, is capable of wicked and gross injustice when actu- ated by strong prejudice. In the "Topics of the Times," the Doctor states : "We have a lesson at hand which may, perhaps, give our Northern pe-^ple a charitable view of the Southern sentiment and inspire them with hope of a great and radical change. We draw this from a work recently issued by the author. Miss Ellen D Larned, which seems to be a carefu', candid and competent history of Wiu'lham count}', Connect- icut. It appears that in 1881, Miss Prudence Crandall, a spirited, well- known and popular resident of the county, started a school for girls at Canterbury Green. I he school was popular and was attended not only by girls from the best families in the immediate region, but by others from other counties and other States. Among these pupils she re- ceived a colored girl. She was at once told by the parents of the -42— white children that the colored girl must be dismissed, or that their girls would be withdrawn from her establishment. Aliss Crandall must have been a delightfully plucky woman, for she defied her pat- rons, sent all their chihlren back to them and advertised her school as a boarding school for youug ladies and little misses of 'color.' Of course the people felt themselves to be insulted, and they organized resistance. They appointed a committee of gentlemen to hold an interview with Miss Crandall and to remonstrate with her. But that sturdy person justified her course and stood by her scheme, as well she might. The excitement in the town was without bounds. A town meeting was hastily summoned 'to devise and adopt such measures as would ef- fectually avert the nuisance, or sj)eedily abate it, if it should be brought into the village.' In 183.'i iMiss Crandall opened her school against the protest of an indignant populace, who, after the usual habit of a Yankee town called and held another town meeting at which it was resolved 'that the establishment or rendezvous falsely denominated a school, was designed by it^ projectors as the theater * * to promul- gate their disgusting doctrines 'of amalgamation and iheir pernicious sentiments of subverting the Union. These pupils were to have been congregated here from all quarters under the false pretense of educat- ing them, but really to scatter firebrands, arrows, and death among brethren of our own blood.' "Let us remember that all this ridiculous disturbance was made about a dozen little darkey girls, incapable of any seditious designand impotent to do any sort of mischief. Against one of these little girls the people leveled an old vagrant law, requiring her to return to her home in Providence, or give security maintenance, on penalty of being 'whipped on the naked body.' "At this time, as the author says: 'Canterbury Green did its best to make scholars and teachers uncv)mfortable. Non-intercourse and em- bargo acts were put into successful operation. Dealers in all sorts of wares and produce agreed to sell nothing to Miss Crandall, the stage driver declined to carry her pupils, and neighbors refused a pail of fresh water, even though they knew that their own sous had filled her —48— well with stable refuse. Boys and rowdies were allowed, unchecked, if not openly encouraged, to exercise their utmost ingenuity in mis- chievous annoyance, throwing real stones and rotten eggs at the win- dows, and following the school with hoots and horns if it ventured to appear on the streets. "Miss Crandall's Quaker father was threatened with mob violence, and was so terrified that he begged his daughter to yield to the de- mands of popular sentiment; but she was braver than he, and stood by herself and her school. Then Canterbury appealed to the Legislature, and did not appeal in vain. A statute, designed to meet the case, was enacted, which the inhabitants received with pealing bells and booming cannon and 'every demonstration of popular delight and triumph.' This law was brought to bear upon Miss Crandall's father and mother in the following clioice note from two of their fellow citizens: '' 'Mr.C'kandall: — If you go to your daughter's you are to be lined $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second, and double it every time. Mrs, Crandall, if you go there you will be fined, and your daughter. Al- mira, will be fined, and Mr. May and those gentlemen from Providence, (Messrs. George and Henry Benson) if they come here, will be fined at the same rate. And your daughter, the one that lias established the school for colored females, will be taken up the same way as for steal- ing a horse, or fi;r burglary. Her property will not be taken, but she will be put in jail, not having the liberty of the yard. There is no mercy to be shown al)Out it ' "Soon afterward, AHss Crandall was arrested and taken to jail. Her trial resulted in her release, but her establishment was persecuted by every ingenuity of cruel insult. She and her school were shut out from attendance at the Congregational church, and religious services held in her own house weie interrupted by volleys of rotten eggs' and other missiles. The Iiouse was then set on fire. The fire was extinguished, and in 1S34, on September the !)lh, just as the family was going to bed, a body of men surrounded the house silently, and then, with iron bar.*, simultaneously beat in the windows. This, of course, was too much for tlie poor woman and girls. Miss Crandall herself quailed before —44- this manifestation of ruffianly hatred, and the brave woman broke up her school and sent her pupils home Then the people held another town meeting and passed resolutions justifying themselves and praising the legislature for passing the law for which they had asked. "All this abominable outrage was perpetrated in the sober State of Connecticut within the easy memory of the writer of this article. It reads like a romance from the Dark Ages. Yet these people of Can- terbury were good people who were so much in earnest in suppressing what thej^ believed to be a great wrong, that they were willing to be cruel towar.i one of the best and bravest women in their State, and to resort to mol) violence to rid themselves of an institution whose only office was to elevate the poor black children who had little chance of elevation elsewhere. Now this outrage seems just as impossible to the people of Canterbury today as it does to us. The new generation has grown cle;in away from it, and grown awa}'^ from it so far that a school of liitle colored girls would, we doubt not, be welcomed there now as a praiseworthy and very interesting institution. The Con- necticut girls who go South to teach in colored schools should re- member or recall the time when they would not have l)een tolerated in tiieir work in their own State, and be patient with the social pro- scription that meets them today. When th6 white man learns that a 'solid South,' made solid h\ shutting the negio from his vote, makes always a solid North, and that the solid North always means defeat, it will cease to be solid, and Ihe Negro's vote will be wanted by two parties, and his wrongs will be righted. In view of the foregoing sketch of Northern history, we can at least be charitable toward the South, and abundantly hopeful concerning the future." 1 have made this quotation not to cast any reflection upon any sec tion of the North, or upon the Northern people, nor to, in any degree, atone for the sins and crimes of the people of the South But that the candid reader may see that the depravity of human nature is not confined to any one section or class. What the people of Canterbury Green did when actuated bv the prejudices of a lifetime, th*; people of the South have done impelled by the same feelings intensified by —45- the circumstances and conditions under which they were placed. Such conduct would not now be tolerated in the South, any more than in the North; yet, as Dr. Holland says, these were good, honest people who felt at the time that they were acting in self defense and protecting their families from an impending danger. The situation in the South was peculiarly trying. Four millions of suddenly emancipated Negroes were in idleness and utter destitution. Many among them were vicious and unscrupulous. Life and proi)erty were insecure and the people seemed unable to protect themselves or to restrain these droves of half-savage human beings. In this emergency they sought relief by enacting a system of laws which have been styled "the black codes." These laws were extreme and unjust. They created an intense prejudice in the North against the Southern people and gave rise to a party of extremely radical sentiments by whom the President's policy was severely criticised and strongly denounced. In the elections throughout the Northern States in the Fall of 18G5, the Republican party was victorious in almost every State. When the Thirty-ninth Congress convened in December the acts of the Southern States in reorganizing their governments under the President's plan of reconstruction were declared to be illegal. The Congressmen and Sen- ators were not allowed to take their '^eats in the National Congress. A. committee of tifteen — nine members from the House and six from the Senate — was appointed to inquiie into the condition of jiffairs in the so called Confederate States, and to report by bill or otherwise. It was agreed that until the report of the committee should be received and acted upon by both houses of Congress, that no member from said States should be received by either House. On the 18th of March, 18(56, Congress passed a bill known as the ''Civil Rights Hill," which conferred upon the Negroes the same civil rights enjoyed by white men, except the right of suffrage. This bill was vetoed by President .Johnson but was afterwards adopted by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress and became a law. It had become evident that the President's policy would not be sustained by Congress. But Mr. Johnson was firm and unyielding. He adhered —46— to his policy with tenacity. The relatious between him and Congress became so stiaiued that an open rupture was imminent. His course probably intensified the bitter feeling existing between the two sections and stimulated ihe Southern leaders to greater obstinacy. On the 30lh of April, rion. Thaddeus Stephens, Chairman of the committee to investigate tiie affairs in the Confederate States, submitted a report on behalf of his committee, which, after being slightly amended, was adopted. The President opposed the bill, but it finally passed by the required two-thirds vote and l)ecame a law. The follow- ing is the act known as the X[V Amendment to the Constitution: ''Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law wiiich shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or properly without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. "Sec. 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such Stale being twenty-one years of age and citizen of the United States, or in any wa}'^ abridged, except for participating in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the pro portion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of m lie citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. "Sec. a. No person shall be a Senator or representative in Con- gress, or electoi" (»f President and Vice-President, or bold any office, civil or military, under l\\e United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United Stutes, ox us a member of any Stnte J^egislature, —47— or as an executive or judicial of any State, to support the (Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof ; but Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House remove such disability. "Sec. 4, The validity of the public debt of the United States au- thorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions, and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States, nor any State, shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United Stales or any claim for the loss or emanci- pation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. ''Sec 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of the Article.'' The committee at the same time reported a bill declaring that : "Whenever said amendment shrdl become part of the Constitution of the United States and any State lately in insurrection shall have rati- fied the same and shall have modified its Constitution and laws in con- formity therewith, such State shall be reinstated in the United States and be entitled to representatives in Congress." Tennessee was the only one of the seceded States that promptly complied with these conditions. On the 19th of July her legislature ratified the Fourteeqth Amendment to the Constitution and was duly ad- mitted into the Union. The remaining Southern Stales opposed the amendment by a large majority in their respective legislatures. When Congress assembled again in December, 1806, the conduct of the Southern States which had refused to comply with tlie conditions of the plan of reconstruction as prescribed by Congress was considered as a defiance to that body. In order, therefore, to compel them t(t sub- mit to these requirements these States were declared to be in a state of rebellion. They were divided into five districts, over each of which was placed a military officer. All State officials, executive, legislative. —48— and judicial, were removed . The writ of habeas corpus was suspended, aud the people were placed under absolute military rule. Military governments were soon established in these several dis- tricts, with armed troops stationed at convenient centers. The work was tedious and trying and was retarded by various causes. In the first place the Southern people were stubborn and did not submit to these humiliating conditions very gracefully. Immediately after the close of the war a number of Northern men came South in the hope of gaining a fortune by raising cotton, which at that time commanded an enormous price. Failing in this endeavor, the more ambitious among them sought political honors under the new conditions. They formed an al- liance with the Negroes and white Republicans, and by their united support were elected to the positions they sought. Some of these were honest, well-meaning men, but many were entirely void of the first principles of honor. Their acts were very offensive to the Southern people, wlio in derision, called them "carpet baggers," from the sup- position that the}' carried all their earthly possession with them in a carpet bag. No class of people are held in greater contempt by the masses in the South than the so-called 'carpet bagger '' Under his misrule and oppression many loyal men who had always supported the Union and had fought through the war under the Stars and Stripes," forsook the ranks of the Republican party and have since affiliated witii the Democrats thus constituting the "Solid South," The controversy between President Johnson and congress became more serious, and on the 3rd of March, 1868, articles of impeachment against him were prepared by the House of Representatives and the cause was remanded to thf^ Senate for trial Proceedings were begun before that body on the kord of that month, and continued until the 26th of the following May, when the President was accndt ted. At length, realizing that there was no alternative, and that the Military Authority would remain in force until the conditions required by con- gress were complied with, and their civil governments were established, the people of these states undertook the task imposed upon them. Con- ventions were held in all of the Southern states, elections were conduc- —49— ted according to the law, constitutions were framed, submitted to the people, voted upon and approved. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in each state, and all the requirements of the Reconstruction act were complied with. The first to seek admission into the Union was Arkansas. A bill to admit this State to representa- tion in Congress was submitted on the 7th of May 1867. The bill passed both Houses with this condition attached: "The Constitution of Arkansas shall never be amended or changed so as to deprive any citizen, or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote, who are entitled to vote by the constitution herein recognized ; ex- cept as punishment for swch crimes as are now felonious at common law, whereof they shall have been duly convicted under laws equally applic- able to all the inhabitants of said State." The act admitting Arkansas was soon followed by similar ones admitting North Carolina, South Carolina. Louisiana. Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, which were passed with all the above conditions. These bills were promptly vetoed by the President, but his veto was overruled by a very large majority in both houses. Thus eight of the rebellious states were remstated in their former positions in the National Grovernment. The readmission of Virginia, Mississippi and Texas was, by their own conduct, postponed until the winter of 1870 Virginia was ad- mitted the 26th of January, Mississippi on the 23rd of February and Texas on the 30th of March. In the reconstruction of Georgia after her legislature had complied with the requirements of Congress they decided that JNegroes were not entitled to serve as legislators or hold any office in that State. They accordingly expelled them from their seats and elected white men to fill the vacancies. The newly formed legislature then rejected the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Congress on the 16th of December, 1869, passed an act declaring "That expulsion of any person from the legislature on the grounds of race, color, previous condition of servitude, is illegal and revolutionary an^/s hereby prohibited." The Senators and Representatives from Georgia were not allowed -50— to take their seats in the National Congress until her legislature had ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Accordingly on the 20th of February, 1870, her legislature reas- sembled, the colored members resuming their seats. The Fifn-cnth Amendment to the Constitution was duly ratified and the Stale v\as finally admitted on the 15lh of July, 1870. Thus the great struggle which had continued for ten years was ended. The Race Problem. There are at present about eight millions of negroes in the United States, most of whom are in the South. They constitute nearly half of the population of this section, and in some of the States are in the majority. What is to be the future of this race and what relations are to exist between it and the white race are questions which today con- front the South and demand the attention of the thoughtful people of the nation To carry in peace upon the same soil two dissimilar races of equal civil and political privileges and of nearly equal numbers seems in the light of past history an impossibility. Seventy years ago Thomas Jefferson predicted that the slaves would be free, at the same time declaring that in his opinion the two races could not live together in peace. Mr. Everett, Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster entertained the same views, and declared that colonization alone could save the negro. They probably had in contemplation the gradual emancipation of a much smaller number of slaves. How much more complicated is the problem when we consider the fact that four millions of slaves were suddenly emancipated upon the receding wave of a prodigious civil war, and the freedmen immediately elevated to citizenship? Such a revolution, ai any time and in any country, would necessarily produce some evil results, temporarv if not permanent. The wonder is, that under the conditions then existing, it did not involve the nation in anarchy and ruin. The great danger to any people or cause is from the over zeal of friends or the hostility of enemies. Unfortunately for the negro, he has been exposed to the woi-Ft effects of both. Over-zealous and misguided friends instilled into the mind of the recently emancipated and enfranchised negro many erroneous and dangerous ideas. He was told that his labor had made the wealth of his master and that he was therefore entitled to at least a part of this property; that it —52— was the purpose of the government to apportion the same among them; that each negro man twenty-one years of age and over would receive about forty acres of land, a year's provisions and a mule. The ruling class being disfranchised, the negro was placed in au- thority. Within twelve months after his emancipation he dictated from the legislative halls the policy of twelve commonwealths. He was simply a child. He had little real appreciation of his freedom or just conception of the great responsibilities it laid upon him. He was, therefore, the tool of designing and unscrupulous white men, and soon became indolent, insolent and arrogant. Instead of the respectful de- meanor formerly manifested toward his old master and the white peo- ple m general, he now looked upon them as inferiors and treated them with impudence. Ladiies were even compelled to give up the side- walks and make their way as best they could through the muddy streets. Congregating in public places, they indulged in the most foolish and extravagant statements, made in boistorous tones, as to the privileges they were to enjoy and the wealth they were to possess. In his poetical nature these crude ideas were soon woven into rhymes, which became popular songs, and were sung by large congregations in their own peculiar melody. The Southern people are proud and impulsive. Notwithstanding their defeat and humilatiug poverty, they would not long submit to negro supremacy. I'heir tirst attempt at relief was by legal enactment. As one extreme usually follows another, these laws were unjust and even oppressive to the negro. The National Congress interfering, these laws were repealed, and the legal rights and privileges of the negro were re- stored. Chagrined by another defeat, and embittered by the taunts of their enemies and the insolence of the negroes, the more reckless among them were driven to desperation to save, as they felt, their liberty and credit Finding no redress in law, they resorted to the shameful and wicked device of Kukluxism. These Klans were organized in all of the SouthfM-n States, and in their secret raids, they committed many crimes and outrages, which all good people condemn and heartily de- —53— plore. So thoroughly was this institution organized, that, for a time, it delied both the military power and the laws of the government. At length the Federal government, aided and supported by the better ele- ment of the Southern people, put down this violent mob, and restored law and order. In the meantime, a majority of the white men of the South, regardless of political differences, mutually agreed that the intel- ligent and responsible class of citizens shall govern the affairs of their commonwealths. This is a brief statement of the problem with some of its complica- tions. What of its solution? Shall we deport these eight millions of ne- groes to Africa? If that were possible, it would probably be the 'sim- plest and quickest way of disposing of this responsible charge. But is it possible? And would it be right? In the first place, the negro is now a free moral agent and an American citizen. One of his inalienable rights is to reside where he pleases, so long as he obeys the laws of the government. The majority of them would not consent to this wholesale exodus. But suppose they were willing to go, it would bankrupt the nation to provide for tlieir passage, to colonize and maintain them, and besides, they are born faster than our ships could take them away. If, however, these difficulties could be overcome, Africa does not belong to us. What right have we to colonize a part of our citizens upon her soil? And how could we maintain and protect them if they were there? Without such maintenance and protection, they would either perish, be annihilated by savage tribes, relapse into the barbarity from which their ancestors were taken, or die of internal feuds. It is evident, therefore, that, under the existing circumstances, this plan is not to be considered. Shall we colonize them in some part of our own country? Tliose of us, who are at all familiar with the history of the American Indians, do not look upon this plan as a very feasible one. If we h.ive failed either to govern or protect a few thou.<3and Indians, wlio are constantly decreasing in number, what could we do —54— with eight millions of negroes, who double their population every thirty years? If their lands were of any value, unscrupulous white men would take them from them; if they were worthless, they would starve upon them. The moral force of the better element among them is not sufficient now, with the aid of the while people, to suppress and regu late the vicious and lawless among them. If left to themselves, they would be overwhelmed by the vagrant, indolent and vicious classes. If these eight millions of negroes could be diffused throughout the nation, the solution would seem easier, since there would not be enough of them, in any community, to form any appreciable faction in politics, nor disturb, seriously, the social relations of the people. The burden of their education would thus devolve upon a larger number and be easier borne. The people of the nation would be come better acquainted with their peculiar temperament, habits and needs, and thus be able to deal with them more intelligently and sue cessfully. But the negroes do not go West and I^orth in any very great numbers, for two reasons: First — the climate is too cold; second, the people work too hard. The great majority of them are in the south, and, from present indications, they will remain there. He and his white brother must solve this great question. Will they be able to meet it, and to deal with it in a wise and successful manner? God alone knows; the wisest of us cannot tell. But the weakest of us know^ full well, that they cannot do it without anything less than the confidence, s} mpathy and co-operation of their brethern of every section. To them, at present, the conditions are rather favorable : First — They understand each otlier's disposition and tempera- ment; for two hundred and seventy five years, they have been morein- timately associated than any two races have ever been. Second — Between them exists a friendly relation, which must be maintained and cultivated, for discord means ruin They must settle this question justly, wisely and righteously. To this great duty they are committed by every tie of honor and gratitude. There must be a just recognition of the services and obligations of each to the other. —55— The institution of slavery cannot be defended either upon economic or christian principles. But the blessings which came to the negro, either by virtue, or in spite of this institution, we must appreciate. Indeed, all the good there was in the institution, was for him. Concerning the ancestors of the American negro, there is, perhaps, less known than of any people in the world. Of various tribes, nation- alities and characteristics, as diverse, perhaps, as the various peoples of the European continent. Despite all the exploration and study in this direction, very little is known of the people of the " Dark Continent." Of those brought to America and sold into slavery, the great majority were bought or stolen from bondage in Africa. Their condition in their native country, was most wretched and hopless. Their savage masters were the most cruel and inhuman of any whose deeds have ever been recorded. Livingston says of African slavery, "It is the sum of all villanies. It is the open sore of the world," But how came the negro here, and why? I answer: First, — by the avarice of wicked men, who saw in this unholy traffic the promise of gain. Second, — in the providence of God, not sanc- tioning the deeds of these unholy men, but over-ruling their avar- icious greed to his glory, and the redemption of Africa's millions from pagan barbarity to civilization and Christianity. The only people in America, who are not, in any way, responsible for the introduction of slavery into this country, are the negroes themselves. That our fathers,, both in the North and the South, bought these poor victims from the English and Dutch slave dealers, and held them in bondage, is a fact, which, however much we may deplore, we cannot obliterate. But no one of us is directly responsible for the institution. It was established in this country nearly two hundred years before the oldest inhabitant, now living, was born, and was abolished while the present generation were yet in their cradles. It was, evidently, a great detriment to the white people of the nation. Especially is this true of the South, which sufP'TS, today, in many ways from the blight of its withering curse. That the North was saved from these disastrous re- sults, by an earlier abolition of the system, we all rejoice. —se- lf the whole nation had suffered from this institution, as has the south, what an incalculable loss to the world! How it must have re- tarded the progress of civilization! Moreover, if slavery had proven as profitable in the northern states, as it did in the South, the probability is that, in the frailty of our hu- man nature, we would not have been able to exterminate the evil from our great national system. The doom of slavery was sealed in the south, the moment it was banished from the North. But of the crime of slavery, the sins of bad men who introduced it mto this country, or of the mistakes of our fathers, who perpetuated and handed it down to their children, we Have not to deal. God, in his divine wisdom and in his own time, placed upon it his eternal edict, which not only ban- ished it from our own land, but must, sooner or later, drive it from the face of the earth. With the dead issues of the past, let it rest in its grave. The questions which concern this generatiou lie this side of 1S()5, We shall, however, be incompetent to deal successfully with the questions which concern the negro, without some knowledge of his for- mer history, and a just recognition of the providence of God in dealing with him during the years of his tutelage and discipline. In the history of the world, no nation has ever sprung, at a single bound, from barbarism into civilization, or been permitted to come into the enjoyment of free and successful government, without tirst being subjected to a period of discipline and tutelage. We read in the old Bible, the early history of a race, which is, to- day, the wonder of civilized men. For two thousand years, without a country or government, scattered to the four quarters of the earth, persecuted by every people, yet they have preserved their identity, main tained their faith and adhered to their doctrines. The foundation of this nation was laid in the deep humiliation and painful servitude of Egyptian bondage. The tutelage of four hundred years in this slavery has made the Jews a distinct and peculiar people for all time. Again, to the Puritan Fathers, belongs, in a large measure, the suc- cess and glory of the new world. Their loyal patriotisni and phristiaa —57— fidelity stamped upon this governmeat the characteristics which have been the elements of its success. These noble elements were born in adversity and developed through generations of persecution in the old world. American slavery was a charity school, contrasted with the awful desolation and decimation of the centuries of war and grinding tyranny, by which every European people has come up to its present status of civilized life. Less than three hundred years ago, the ancestors of the American negro roamed as pagan savages in the jungle of Africa. What a pro- digious change has been wrought in him, durmg this brief period! At the end of two hundred and seventy-five years, he was found farther out of the woods of barbarism, than any other race at the end of one thousand years. Tiiis marvelous growth can only be accounted for by the fact thai, during these years, he was not only sheltered from the sword, famine and pestilence, to which every other civilized people have been subjected during the period of infancy and youthful develop- ment, but was also brought in contact with ihe upper strata of a high- ly civilized people. In this relation, he learned the four fundamentals of civilization: First, — The art of systematic labor. No civilized people can live without industry. The science of industry can only be mustered, and its arts acquired by steady application. His servitude afforded the ne- gro the opportunity of developing both. By this knowledge, he is able to subdue forests, build houses, cultivate fields, sow, reap, and store away for future use, the products of his labor. Second,— {Self restraint and the customs of civilized life The dis- cipline of his master taught him the meaning of law and to respect ati- thority. He came in contact with civilized life under the very best conditions, his master and his family representing the best civilization, the highest culture and the truest refinement. And since the negro was of great value, it was to their interest to guard his physical and moral nature against all possible harm. He, therefore, not only readily adjusted himself to the delicate and difficult requirements of civilized —58— life, but, under these conditions, developed a stronger physical consti- tution and .was comparatively free from dissipations. Third, — To speak the English language — the language of hope and liberty, the language of the best civilizition, tlie best system of science, the best literature, laws, and religion of the world; a language which is destined to dominate the world; in which is to be embodied and pre- served, the best thought of the past, present and future inventors, dis- coverers and investigators; a language in which the christian world is to teach, preach, sing and pray as long as time endures. To be able to speak this language, is a- long step toward civilization. He was thus fitted to enter the .school of higher study, the day he was emancipated. Fourth, — And, greatest of all, he learned to understand ( in a meas- ure, at least,) and to apply to his nature, the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew little of dogmas and doctrines, but he understood and enjoyed many of the practical benefits of this religion. In iiiany homes, he joined the family in their daily worship and attended, with them, the public service at the church on the Sabbath. The pastor of the master's family was not unmindful of the slaves on the plantation. More than a half million of them were enrolled as members of the var- ious religious denominations, at the beginning of the war. It is claim- ed, upon good authority, that among the four millions, there was not an infidel nor a skeptic. At the end of their bondage, they knew more of civilization nnd Christianity than the two hundred millions of Africa know today. Ex- cept in Louisiana, and a few of the larger cities, they were devoted to the protestant faith. The religious conviction of the negro was the great secret of his fidelity to the defenseless women and children of the South, during the perilous years of the eivil war. There were often as many as five hundred negroes to a single white man. Without master or overseer, these black batallious marched to and from the fields, slept at night as faithful sentinels at tlie door of the mansion, nursed the children and the sick, and, through these dusky ranks, the unprotected women and children \valked 'in perfect safety. Such devotion and fidelity are unparalleled in the history of the world. Had '• Uncle —50— Tom's Cabin" portrayed the rule, rather than the exception, this could not have been possible. For this untiring devotion, this heroic tidelity and this christian kindness, the South owes to the negro a debt of everlasting gratitude. When the negro had ieained these tour funda- mentals, viz: First, — the art of systematic labor; second, — self re- straint, and the customs of civilized life; Ihird, — to speak ihe English Imguage; fourth— the pruiciples of Christianity, God opened unto him a broader door and laid upon him graver responsibilities. But ihe mission of the Aif.erican people, to this child of the sun, did not cease with his emancipation. In fact, it had just begun. His former teachers — tlie old masters — were too poor to give him any fur- ther assistance. Their property was swept away, as with a flood, their homes were in ashes and their educational S3^stem was entirely wrecked. They were not able to educate their own children. If it be urged that they had little disposition to educate the children of their former slavt^s, I answer, — they could not, at that time, realize the importance of such a duty. I doubt if any people, trained and situated as they were, would have acted differt^ntly or have manifested a better spirit. The experi- ment has never been tried — history affords no parallels. The people of the North, however, were richer at the close of the war than when it began Fortunately, they were as willing as they were able to take up tiiis great vvoriv where their brethren of the South had laid it down. Happy would it have been, if each could have understood the other and if both could have looked upon the great work before them in the calm, unbiased light of reason and christian charity. Few of the Northern people were able to realize that the people of the South had done any- thing toward enlightening and christianizing the ue^ro. Moreover, the great mass of them overestimated his iutL-lligence and ability. They sought to promote him to positions for which he was in no way fitted and to enforce upon the white people conditions and relations to which no Anglo-Saxon peop'e would willingly submit. The Southern peo- ple, in their humiliating condition, were illy disposed to give the negro justice or to recognize the christian philanthropy of their breth- —00— ren of the North. Many of the missionaries sent by the Northern churches to teach the negroes of the South, were noble men and women whom the Southern people would h.ave been glad to welcome nnd en- courage. But among them, unfortunately, were some who were wli I'y unworthy of the noble ciuse which they championed. Tlieir conduct was very unbecoming, uncivil and unwise. They grossly misrepre- sented those who sent them and did themselves, their friends, the cause, the nation and the negro, unspeakable harm, which it has required good men and women many years to overcome. The Southern people were not without fault m the matter. They were hasty in their conclu- sions and withheld their sympathy and support from many who were worthy of both. In fact, neither parly manifested a very great degree of forbearance or christian charity; and as Bishop Haygood has filly said: — ''We have gone on throwing mud at each other to the wrath of God, the disgust of good men and the delight of the devil." But a better day has dawned. The missionaries have learned wis- dom by experience The Southern people have learned discrimination by broader knowledge. Both have learned many important and useful lessons from the experience of these year.<5. Among them is: — First, that while the negro is entitleil to all the rights and privileges of Amer- ican citizenship, he is not fitted for the high positions of statesmanship, and has, as yet, little place in politics He is too young and has had too little experience to be succe.esfnl in this great field. He has little claim upon the people in this direction. The white people own ninety-one per cent of the wealtli of the South and are at the head of all the indus- trial and commercial enterprises of the country. It is but natural that they should feel that they are entitled to rule the affairs of their com- monwealths. Every effort upon the part of the negro to assume the reins of government will be stubbornly opposed by the white people, and will intensify prejudice against him. He is well situated and enjovR higher privileges than any alien race ever enjoyed among an enlightened people. As a kind Providence has led him through the dark and humiliating periods of his history he may well trust that Providence for the future. He has before him a broad field of useful —Gl- and remunerative employment He must be content to grow in the natural way. To this conclusion, thinking people, irrespective of party or locality, have arrived. Whether the over-zeul of his friends, the hostility of his enemies, or the conduct of the negro himself has contributed most to this conclusion, is a matter of conjecture. I am here reminded of a little incident which illustrates this fact : A negro man had bought a bushel of corn from one of his white neighbors, for which he agreed to pay in work the next day. Another neighbor, however, offering him the money for his labor upon that particular day, he went and worked for him. Neighbor number one meeting him shortly afterward, accosted him with, " Say, Willis, didn't you promise to come and work for me last Wednesday ?" "Yes, boss; but you see Mr. Smith sent for me, and I went and ho'ped him " '"But was it the honorable thing to do, after having promised to work for me ?" " No, sah, don't think it was, zackly." '• What made you do it. then V " You see, boss, I wasn't the man I tuck myse'f to be." The fact is, the negro is not the man that any of us took him to be. Whatever else he may become, he can never be an imitation white m in. He must develop upon original lines; he must be himself; he has a mission and a destiny; in time he will tind both. He has developed faculties, manifested foresight, and practiced industry and economy, of which his former master thought him incap- able. He is beginning to buy lands, to build homes, to accumulate property and to educate and train his children. This is one of the most hopeful features of the problem. It will, identify him with the community and make liis interests common with those of other men. It will make him a more patriotic citizen, and lend to greater discrimi- nation in casting his ballot. It will constitute him the strongest police against the vicious and vagrant of his own race. It will enable him to provide, in some measure, for his own poor and helpless, instead of allowing them to become a tax upon the community. It will greatly —02 — promote in him virtue, industry, ambition. Tlie land owner in any community, wluilcver his color, is a more desirable citizen than a tenant. The negro himself has 'earned that the only bounty he can expect is that which comes as a reward of honest endeavor. He no longer indulges tlie fond illusion of " Forty acres and a mule.' He is begin- ning to learn that from neither political party is there reason to hope that he will receive any great amount of the spoils. He is, therefore, coming to place loyalty to the government above loyalty to party; patri- otism above parlisanism. Second. — All have learned that the time ele- ment is a prime factor in this problem. The convictions of a life time are not uprooted in a day. The change in the opinions and sentiments of the Southern people within the last thirty years is one of the marvels of history. The growth of these new ideas has been slow; but the general analogy of nature shows that fine growths often require much time to mature. If this growth had been more rapid, the fruits might not be so permanent nor the convictions as deeply rooted The light of knowledge and the warmth of sj'mpathy have accomplished far better results than power and force could have wrought. Instead of opposing this work, the Southern people are now giving to it their heartiest support. As early as 1882 in (.'harleston, S. C, the largest public school for colored children, with its fifteen hundred students, was officered by a Southern brigadier, with a full corps of women teachers of native birth, representing good families in that city. In many of the Southern cities, largely in Balti- more, Richmond and New Orleans, the higher public schools for negro children are taught by women of Southern birth and training. Finally we have learned the absurdity of insisting upon either ne- gro supremacy or negro suppression, and haVe come to recognize in the broader and wiser policy of negro education, the true formula for the sohuion of this great problem. The education of the negro involves ihe whole question of republican civilization. Upon it depends the success of free labor, free government and the higher questions of social, mental and religious progress of the whole nation. If within the next quadrenuium he can be rei^sonably trained, in the education of th^ —68— bead, the hand and the heart, he will find his own place in our great re- public, and will no doubt be instrumental in some way in civilizing and christianizing Ethiopia's helpless millions. Otherwise the thinking peo- ple of every section must have a profound concern for the woes that threaten every interest of our great nation. The work of education among the negroes was properlv begun by the Northern people early in the sixties. There had been a movement inaugmated by them in Washington thirty years before the war. Enrly i i the war the national forces came in possession of a large district along the Southern Atlan- tic Coast, the city of New Orleans, the valley of the Mississippi as far up as Vicksburg, and a portion of Tennessee. Into the.=e districts a number of vagrant negroes was collected which greatly encumbered the military operations at these critical points. As early as September, 1801, the American Missionary Association, repre- senting the Evangelical Congregational Church, opened a school for the contrabands at Hampton, Va. Others were soon organized at Hilton Head and at Beauford, S, C. In June, 18(i2, Uiere were eighty- six teachers — sent principally from Boston and New York -at work in these districts. General Rufus Saxton was appointed general superin- tendent of the work in the Carolinas. In March, 1802, the American Tract Society opened a school at Washington, D. C, wiiich grew rap- idly'. In 1864 it had enrolled more than two hundred students. Early in 1862 teachers were sent into Tennessee. The work had assumed such proportions in 1863 that General U S. Grant appointed the Rev. John Eaton, of New Hampshire, a teacher of experience and of great executive ability, to the general superintendency of tiie work among the colored people throughout the operations of the Federal army. He had at his disposal a number of teachers and assistants. In 1866 there were enrolled in these schools, in four state.'*, seven hundred and sev- enty thou.«;nnd students of various ages. The work was maintained in part by the National Government. The negroe* paid of their own scanty earnings nearly a quarter of a million of dollars for the education of themselves and their children. The churches of the North contrib- uted largely to the work both in money and teachers. —64— In 1865 the government organized a " Freedman's Bureau," which for seven years with General O. O. Howard as superintendent, was the central agency through which the government and the various organiz ations in the North and in foreign lands contributed to this great work. Between January the 1st, 1865, and August the 31st, 1871, this Board expended in this work $3,700,000 of cash, and $1,500,000 of other do- nations, making a total of $5,200,000. W'iththe close of this Board the direct aid of congress in this work ceased, A number of appropriations in the way of government lands, military property, etc., have been made from time to time. Since 1870 the various religious denominations in the North have given largely to this work. Also a number of individual philanthropists, among whom are Mr. Peabody, Mr. Slater, Mr. Gammond, Mr. Hand. Mr. Philander Smith, Mrs. Heraenway, Senator McMillan, Mr. Rocke- feller, and many others whose names are familiar to the reading public. In all the nation, various boards, churches and individuals have given to this great work about $20,000,000, an amount worthy of a noble people. The amT)unt contributed directly to this work by individuals and societies in the South has not been so large. In the first place the people have not been able, and in the next place they4iave been struggling to rebuild their institutions, to redeem their homes and to educate their own children. Since 1868, however, the South in maintaining the sixteen thousand public schools for the education of the colored children, has expended about $50,000,000, or more than twice as much as all other agencies combined. The colored people are doing what they can to educate themselves. They now support seven colleges, seventeen academies and fifty high schools, in which are enrolled thirty thousand students. There are at present one million and five hundred thousand of their children in the public schools. Two millions five hundred thousand of them are able to read. Despite all that, has been done it appears that less than one third of the negroes of the United States are able to read. The statistics show that illiteracy is actually increasing among them. We are now enter- —65- ing upon the most critical period of his education. As is the case In the education of every illiterate people wants accumulate more rapidly than the capacity for supplying them is developed. He needs most of anything now to increase his producing faculties the ability to earn suf- ficient to meet his ever-increasing wants. He must learn that every good man is not called to preach; that every educated man may not be competent to teach Neither may every shrewd and logical debater win success at the bar. Instead of pressing his way into these over- crowded profe>sions, in which his chances of success are but meagre, he might turn his attention toward the diversitied mdustries in which a broad and remunerative tield awaits him. Thus far his education has not been of the practical benefit to him that his friends had anticipated and hoped for. While there is in the South a growing demand for skilled labor, few of the negn)es have developed a capacity for those positions. They constitute only one-tenth of tlie skilled workmen of the South. They therefore crowd the ranks of common labor, reduc ing wages and leaving many unemployed to become idle, vagrant and criminals. To them every line of traeie and industry is open. Social pn'judice, race inequality and kindred questions form no barrier in this way in any of these lines In fact, in every line of industry or business they receive such sup- port and patronage from the best class of white people as their merits de- mind. Although the Southern people do not accept the social equality theory, they are willing to accord to the negro equal rights and privi- lege in all lines of business and enterprise. No class of people have a deeper interest in their welfare or more patience with their vices and shortcomings. Dr. Mayo, of Boston, who is considered the Horace Mann of this qiiadrennium, having spent the last twenty years in travel and study in his ministry of education in the sixteen Southern States, sajs upon this subject : •' I am struck with this feature of southern society. The constant working together for good of the better classes of both races in all com- munities. The outrages of a drunken rabble upon a negro settlement —66- Is published to the world, while the Constant intercourse of the better classes of men of the two races that prevents a thousand such outbreaks and makes southern life on the whole, orderly, like the progress of the seasons and hours, goes on in silence. It is not necessary to project the social question into the heart of communities in this state of transition. The very zealous brethren of the Press and the Political Fold, who are digging this last ditch of social caste away out in the wilderness, half a century ahead of any emergency, may be assured that nobody in the United States will ever be compelled to associate with people disagreeable to him. "And as Thomas Jefferson suggested : 'If we educate the children of to-day, our descendants will be wiser than we, and many things which seem impossible to us, may be easily accomplished by them.' " But the question is ofcen asked : * Have the negro's morals im- proved in proportion to his intellectual development ?' In the great mass of negroes, morality is at a very low state. Honesty, truthfulness and industry are far more prevalent among the older negroes than in the younger generation. While crimes which were entirely unknown among the slaves, and are quite rare among the older negroes, are alarmingly common among the j'ounger class. To use the language of Aunt Racha<"l, an honored domestic in our family : ' Heap of dese young niggers mighty triiliu'.' The great crime of crimes for winch so many unfortunate wretches have been lynched in the South during the last few years is increasing at an alarming rate." This is the most perplexing phase of the Race Problem. As Hon. Chas. H. Smith, in the "Forum,'' for October, 1893, very forcefully says: " This is the great National Problem; more vital than silver or gold, or the tariff." Terrible as has been the punishment for this crime, it has not lessened, in any degree, its occurrence. Wicked and dangerous as mob violence is, and worthy of the strongest denuncia- tions, the indiscriminate censure of platform and press, w})ile intended to assert that one crime, however heinous, does not justify the commis- sion of another, has without doubt, been construed by this class of ne- groes as an expression of sympathy for the victim, without any con- — G7— demnation of his crime. With our present jury system it has been very difficuU to convict a vicious negro of any heinous crime since his allies combine and testify in his favor. Our courts must be reformed; the ISiW must be enforced; the testimony of such a character, be be black or white, should not be weighed against that of a virtuous woman or an honest man. Bishop Haygood has suggested that in his opinion, the best remedy for this evil is the education of the negro, since the better educated are rarely guilty of this crime. I most heartily endorse the Bishop's remedy and am persuaded that the education must be upon a different line from that pursued during the last twenty-five years. Thus far little success has been achieved iu developing the negro's moral nature, without which his education has proven a curse to him. This education in many instances has not made him a more industrious and competent laborer, but, upon the other hand, has created in him an aversion to manual labor. He has, there fore, become first a "dude," then a vagrant, and lastly, a criminal — taking with him in this downward course many others, for the edu- cated young man has a great influence over his comrades and friends. He*needs belter teachers of his own race, trained for their work iu Nor- mal schools. Also Industrial schools for the training of the hand in all useful trades and arts, and to cultivate the spirit of industry and a res- pect for manual labor. There should be cooperation of the better element of both races in suppressing crime and the proper enforcement of law. There should be better regulations in state prisons. The present lease system of convicts should be abandoned. Reformatory schools and houses of correction should be established and maintained with proper regulations instead of sending young criminals to prisons with old and hardened offenders, where they soon develop these evil tendencies and become hopeless wrecks. There should be less sectional spirit, political strife and denomina- tional prejudice on the part of the people of the whole nation. A more systematic and thorough co operation among all the workers. Let the people of every section, the North, the South, the East and the West, -68— laying aside all political and sectional jealousies, arise in the disunity of their manhood and womanhood, and brim? to this great work of build- ing up this race, which, God in his providence, has commilted to our care. And let the Nation from its great treasury assist in plHiiinir and maintaining institutions for the education and development of these eight millions of citizens, and thus fit them for the high position to which it has exalted them and to qualify them for the great responsi- bility of American citizenship. To this great work we are committed for the s fety of our people and the success of our institutions. Let the negro realize that the ultimate success of this great work must depend upon his own endeavor. No one can do for him what he can do for himself. Let him seek to improve his condition rather than to elevate his position. Let him write Negro with a capital N, 8nd endeavor to make it the name of a race that shall be worthy of respect and honor throughout the world. Let him remember that God has placed between the races a disiinction which cannot be bridged by the statutes of men. That in accordance with this Divine ordinance, each must walk in that integrity of race in which God has created him. And while each must enjoy equal civil and religious rights, and the protec- tion of personal property, to the Anglo-Saxon, at present, belongs the right ro rule. For two thousand years his march has been onward. In every con- flict with an alien race, his supremacy has been established. During the centuries of agitation and strife which have convulsed the Old World, his achievements have gilded the pages of history, and given triumph to truth and justice. From the time of Alfred the Great he has been developing the elements which have enabled him to construct upon the virgin soil of the New World a theater for his grandest achievements, and to build here a Republic which is to-day the wonder and admiration of the civilized world. Can a race with such a histDry, having bought its liberties at such a price, and having reached its pres ent state of development through so many centuries of patient struggle; can a race so constituted surrender its supremacy or give away its birth- right to an alien race ? If gijcU a thing were possible, the Providence —69— of God in so dealing with it would be in vain; the history, experience and achievements of its noble ancestor would be of no value. And it would be unworthy of respect and justly merit the condemnation of the world. This is not a sectional question. It is a question of races. From the pine forests of Maine to the Everglades of Florida; from the placid shores of the Pacific to the storm -swept coasts of the Atlantic, its claims have been asserted and its truth heroically defended. Never before has the white race been divided upon the rights of an alien race. The In- dian — the rightful owner of this soil— the Chinaman, with his oriental civilization and culture, have been compelled to give place to this dom- inating Anglo-Saxon race. To the negro, and to him alone, has been accorded the right to re- main and C'ljoy with us the inheritance which we value above every other gift. To him we open wide the door of our richest treasures. To him we guarantee the full and free enjoyment of all the rights and priv- ileges which are ours. We pledge to him equal justice and full protec- tion under the laws of our government. To all of these privileges and conditions the South cheerfully assents and pledges to their fulfillment the honor of her citizens. But in so doing she msists that she shall be regarded as a loyal factor of this great nation, and that her citizens are worthy and honorable members of this great Anglo-Saxon family. That while she is striving with honest motive, inadequate means and despite all the precedents of history to solve the greatest question ever laid upon human hearts; wiiether she succeed or fail in this endeavor, she shall be assured of the confidence, sympathy and approval of her brethren of every section. The New South. Imagine a country of evergreen mountains, verdant hills, broad valleys, gurgling springs, crystal streams, wide plantations of fertile fields, waving with golden grain or white with fleecy cotton palatial homes, elegant churche-, schools and colleges, inhabited by an intelli- gent, cultured people, endowed with every comfort and luxury that civilization can demand or wealth can buy, and you, in dim outline have s-me idea of the "Ante-Belhim iSouth." Turn into this country three millions of armed soldiers, with all that pertains to an army, let them be arrayed into hostile battle lines to kill, burn and destroy with general havoc. Convert these verdant hills into forts, these plantations into battletields, and these beautiful valleys into sepulchres for the dead. Crimson these crystal streams with human blood, and strew their banks with the bones of men, who, in childhood's happy hours had gathered wild flowers along these self same verdant turfs, reduce the^e palatial homes to ashes, leaving their tall and blackened chimneys to tell the woeful tale of desolation and ruin; strip this cultured and refined people of their wealth and turn them out into this desolate and wasted land to begin in poverty the struggle for existence. This in turn is a true picture of the South when General Lee surrendered his forces at Appomatox. The whole country was in a state of ruin. Cities were vast heaps of ashes and charred rubbish. Plantations were houseless and fence- less. Every line of industry and business was prostrated. The actual loss of property at a very low estimate exceeds five billions of dollar>, or more than twica the amount expended by the National Government. Before the war the South was considered the richest section of the Nation. At its close it was bankrupt. In her extreme poverty the South had to maintain and deal with four millions of emancipated and recently enfranchised negroes under the most embarrassing conditions. -72- In the legislative hall of each of these States, laws were eDacted by men, who, only a few months previous had toiled as slaves upon their plan- tations. Armed soldiers, many of whom did not manifest a very chris- tian spirit toward their conquered enemies, were stationed at couvenient centers to see that these laws were enforced. This unwise policy created amoDg the iSouthero people an intense prejudice against the negro and his political advisers, which culmiiialed in the (trganizHtion of Kuklux Klans, whose depredations and outrages added confusion to the existing embarrassment. In rebuilding court houses, jails and other public property, States, counties, cities and towns were compelled to incur heavy debts, which increased their taxes and added to their heavy burdens. The farmers were utterly destitute. In order to stock their farms and to obtain supplies they were compelled to mortgage their future crops to the merchants. The few bales of cotton produced in the South at the close of the war were sold ia the markets at an enormous price. This stimulatfid the farmers to plant their entire acreage in this crop, and gave the local merchant a large bill of credit in the East. But the price of coiton rapidly declined, while the cost of supplies greatly increased. The farmer, having once mortgaged his crop to the merchant, became virt- ually his slave. The decline in the price of cotton so lessened his reve- nues that, he was unable to pay for the supplies already consumed. He was, thefore, compelled to renew the mortgage from year to year, the merchant charging him an unreasonable rate of interest. When the farmer awoke to the realization of his situation, and saw that his only salvation lay in raising his own supplies, he was coolly informed that any reduction in the acreage of his cotton crop would lessen in the same degree his line of credit. Under these embarrassing conditions the farming interests of the South have recuperated very slowly. How did they get out of this pre- dicament ? Those who got out at all, did so barely "by the skin of their teeth." By cutting off every expenditure that could- possibly be dis- pensed with, by resurrecting the spinning wheel and the loom, men, -73- women and children wearing home-spun clothing, dyed with bark, by planting here and there a patch of wheat or corn, as the conditions of their credit would allow, by every man doing the work of two, and by the farmers combining their meagre fund.« in judicious and co-operative buying, thus reducing the price of supplies and saving the heavy inter- est. Thus, step by step, they have gradually climbed up the steep hill- side until many of them are able to pay off tiieir mortgages and to raise their own supplies. The majority of Southern farmers now raise their own supplies, and are exporting large quantities of grains, fruits, vege- tables, poultry and eggs. Their cotton crop has also increased from 4,352,317 bales in 1870 to 9.850.000 in 1894. Notwithstanding this general prosperity many of the farmer? of the South are virtually Peons of the merchants. This condition is not the result of either indolence pr incompetency so much as of the circumstances and disadvantages under which they have labored. Perhaps no class of men have been less understood or more unjustly criticised. POPULAR EDUCATION. The subject of Popular Education was not a popular theme in the Old South The matter was often discussed by tier leading citizens. Thomas Jefferson was the most prominent advocate of tliis policy. As early as 1820 he submitted to the people of his native state a plan whtch embraced a complete system of Common Schools and Academies, with a Universit}^ as a crowning feature. He failed, however, to carry out any partof his excellent plan except the University. Very little opportunity was therefore afforded the masses of obtaining even a moderate educa- tion. The four years of war completely wrecked the existing school system, and during this time the children of all classes were practically without school facilities At the close of the war every line of industry was so completely prostrated that it seemed impossible for the people in their poverty to save their children from the doom of ignorance. The majority of Southern men were so absorbed by the problems of self- support, the adjustment of industries and the humiliations and exasper- ations of reconstruction that they could give Jiltle attention to any thing else. When General Robert E. Lee bade farewell to his men at Appo- tnatox, saying, " Let us go home and cultivate our virtues,'' and v^^hen he quietly assumed the presidency of Washington College and began to labor for the education and upbuilding of the ymith of his State, he touched the key note of higher civilization in these sixteen states, and became an illustrious object-lesson of the great need of his country. Many of the surviving military men all over the South followed the example of their noble and venerated commander. They were gradu- ates from West Point or other leading colleges, and were found every where from Deleware to Texas as lea-lers of the new educational move- ment. But the great burden of this work rested upon the educated wom- en, many of them the widows, sisters and daughters of the most eminent men of the Old South. They now came to the front to take charge of the schools for the education of the masses No class of excellent women ever more readily adjusted themselves to the situation or more wortiiily met the demands upon them than did these noble women in the school rooms of the South during these years of trial and struggle. At length, however, the men of the South, recovering themselves from the confusion and humiliation of defeat, stimulated by tlic heroism of a few leaders and this company of faithful women, began to rebuild their institutions and to redeem their country from the ravages of war and the perils of ignorance. A complete system of public schools was organized in all of these States, taxes were levied and the funds used in educating the white and colored children, without distinction. Although the white people pay ninety one per cent, of the taxes, in each of these States the children of both races share equally the public fund. Thus a fund wliich would be ample for a ten months' school for one race is barely sufficient for a five months' terra for two. Never did the people undertake a more prodigious task with so little means; their school population has more than trebled since 1800, wliile the census of 1S!)0 shows that after thirty years of recuperation their taxable property is barely wliat it was at that time. The better classes can well take care of their own children, but they must also pro- — to — vide for the great mass of non-tax-pay iog white people and the millions of negroes. Such a mass of people left to grow up in ignorance would curse any country and blight the prospect of any people. Tlie burden is lieavy and the leverat^e is short, but its poudei'ous weight must be carried. The work of educating the masses is no little undertaking in any country, jMassachusetts began to educate her people two hundred and tifty years ago, and has stuck to it more persistently than any other Stale in the Unioo, yet the statistics show that in 1S80 there were one hundred thousand people in that great commonwealth who could not read and write. Public education began in the South less than twenty- five years ago. Its fruits have not yet had sufficient lime to develop and mature. DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES. When we compare the existing curreats of thought and action of the New South with that which prevailed in this section before the war, we see that, although the dealings of Providence have been mysterious, and at times trying, yet in them a'l there has been the kindest mercy and the most bounteous goodness. Never in ihe liistory of the world did an enlightened, intelligent people suffer a greater humiliation or a more complete overthrow than did the people of the Southern States during the past great revolution. Never did a people endure with greater fortitude and christian resignation such piivations and trials. And never did a people arise from their poverty and loss with more rapidity and success. In the convulsions of war the Old South was slain and was buried amid the devastations of the battletield. Her tomb was shrouded with a pall like the gloom of midnight. Her few surviving children were too poor to provide spices with wliich to embalm her body or flowers with which to deck her grave. Willi a filial devotion they anointed her life- less remains with the tears of simple grief and inscribed her noble epitaph upon the enduring tablet of memory's fadeless page. But death is not an eternal sleep. The grave is not the goal of life. Nations swept from the face of the earth centuries ago, live to bless the world to-day. Achievements, locked in the buried ruins for ages, -7G— come forth to teach the men of this generation the beauties of sculplnre, the wonders of art and the sublime possibilities of man; so it was with the Old South. When the mountains ceased their swaying from the great commotion which convulsed all nature; when the deep mutterings of the cannon, like the echo of distant thimder, had died away; when the su.oke of battle bad gone up to form the clouds ancl to become the bearer of refrc-shing showers of life-giving vigor, instead of missiles of death; when the golden beams of sunlight began to kiss the mount- ain's side and to fade the crimson blood stains from the silent battle- fields; when the delicate vine began to twine about the blue and gray — torn from the valiant heroes in their hand to hand struggle witli sword and bayonet— and now beaten into the soil by the rain from heaven; when the beautiful flowers burst forth their little petals to kiss the golden down and to pour out their sweet odor to perfume the morning breeze; when the songs of birds made the shattered forests ring with sweetest melodies; when devoted matron and maid, turning from the new made graves, which they had baptized with their uubidden tears, catching the radiant splendor of nature's new attire sent a halo of light, a beam of hope, to the hearts of disconsolate and despairing sons and brothers, which rekindled in them the divine ambition of manhood; then it was that tlie Old South, bursting the bands of death and shaking off the fetters of the grave, came forth with a new body and a renewed spirit. tfjinunoning her best energies, stimulated by that divine element which supported our nob'e ancestors when they signed the Declaration of In- dependence and sustained them when they laid the foundations of this great Republic and sealed the heritage with their own precious blood, and which has made the name of Americans illustrious, and has placed its statesmen and warriors in the front ranks of the world's great and noble heroes. This noble spirit was kindled afresh in the hearts of fath- ers and sons, and they began under the most trying circumstances to lay the foundations of a New South which shall add greater lustre to tlie already glorious Ilepublic. The first fifteen years of the New South were spent in exploring, investigating, experimenting and adjusting. As a result she found that in her broad fields, which had hitherto been consecrated to the cotton phml, cereals, grasses and fruits of every variety, found a genial soil. In Georgia the melon crop alone now yields more than a million dollars per year. The largest peach orchard in the world is in that state, and from a single county in Georgia, which formerly imported all of its butter, is now shipping eacli year one hundred thousand pounds of Jersey butter. From Chattanooga, Tennessee, trains laden with choice strawberries, vegetables, grapes and peaches run to all the markets of the North and East. In Greene county large tracts of formerly non- productive, pine and chinquapin lands have been made to pay a hand- some return in the cultivation of tobacco. From eight hundred thousand to one million pounds of which are manufactured by the factories of Greeneville, while large quantities of leaf are sold annually both in the home and foreign markets. From every section of Tennessee daily shipments of poultry, eggs and live stock are made. In Middle and Western Tennessee farms, which had been exhausted in the production of cotton, now yield a profit of from $300 to $500 per acre in choice strawberries and peaches, which are shipped to the Northern markets. Liberty Flouring Mdls, of Nashville, Tenn., sold last year in the mar- kets of Europe, one hundred thousand barrels of flour. And Mr. An- drews, the Secretary of these mills, slates that the older members of the European trade who have bought wheat from Tennessee, consider it the best winter wheal grown. Florida produces over fifty varieties of the orange; the annual crop is about two hundred and fifty thousand boxKS. This state is also becoming noted as a successful pine apple producing section. Nine millions of pines were shipped from the In- dian River section to New York during the year 1898, besides what went to other American and European markets from this and other parts of the State. In Louisiana sugar and rice are important indus- tries; the crop for 1894 was the largest ever produced in that State. Recent experiments have proven that tiie Gulf Coast of Texas rivals California in the production of fruits, especially pears, peaches and strawberries. Fruits i ipen in this section three weeks earlier, and are one thousand miles nearer the principal markets. In Galveston, Charleston, —78— Savannah, Norfolk and other Southern ports ships are loaded with eajiy vegetables and fruits for the Eastern market. In fact, every section of this New Southland, is putting on a fresh attire and teeming with new industries. Here amid liiese hills and valleys, these mountains and plains, these gurgling springs anil crystal rivers, with gentle zephyrs from the Gulf and refreshing breezes from the mountains, lies the fairest domain of Gods beautiful earth. Here are centered the conditions for which men in ail ages have sought— a fertile soil and a perfect climate, which yield to the hu>bandmdn every product of the temperate zone. But no country can be truly prosperous which Is confined wholly to one' industry, even though that industry be agriculture. The South, highly favored as she is, with her inouoply of cotton, which has out- stripped every other f'tuple of the world in its manufacture and com- merce, her vast acreage of cereals and grasses, her vegetables and fruits, in demand in every market and her many products in which she is able to compete successfully in the markets of the world, even she cannot attain unto that excellency and dignity unto which she aspires and unto which she is destined — by agriculture alone. And why should she, when God has given unto her every facility of becoming a part of the greatest manufacturing and commercial district in the world? MANUFACTURING. Hitherto the product of the Southern cotton fields has gone to en- rich the sections beyond her own horizon. Prosperous cities have sprung up and great corporations have grown rich in the manufacture and exportation of this staple In the August, 1894, number of the North American Review, Hon. Hoke Smith, in writing of ' The Resources and Development of the South," after speaking of the advantages which exisr, in the South for the manufacture of her own cotton, adds that it]|would change the value of the crop grown annually from $800 - 000,000 to $1,000,000,000. Hon. W. A McCorkle, Governor of West Virginia, appealing to the men of the South, uses these forceful words: "Men of the South, why should your cotton go to Fall River to be wrought into cloth? Thousands of you know of better water power, the very mist from whose falls moistens the bursting cotton bolls. —70- More than that, there is not a cotton field in the South more than twelve hours from the best coal in the world. By every canon of good business sense the smoke from our own manufactories should cloud our bright skies and tlie grime of our own chimneys should mingle witii the soil from which spring the" cotton boll, the hemp and the flax."' Grad- ually the young men of the South are learning to catch this great cur- rent of wealth at the edge of the cotton field and turn its enriching tiood back upon the fields of their own section. In 1804 the South, with its own mills consumed 800,000 bales; but this was hardly a be- ginning. The product of that year was 9,850,000 bales, which was nearly three-fourths of the entire cotton crop of the world. The ill us trious and lamented Henry W. Grady, who was one of the New South's greatest apostles of progress, gave through the New York Lodger m the last year of his life (1889) these remarkable figures: " Cotton is a plant worthy of homage. The soil has not yet given to the hand of man its equal. Let us see— this year's crop, 7 500 000 bales, will furn- ish 3,000,000,000 pounds of lint, which would clothe in a cotton suit every human being on earth, and yield to the Southern farmeis $350,- 000,0!*0 in cash. The lint sold, there will be left 3,750,000 tons of seed. This will supply 150,000,000 gallons of oil, which, sold at forty cents per gallon will bring $60,000,000; or it may be reduced to lard, when it will produce 1,125,000,000 pounds of edible fat. This grease, healthful and nutritious, is equal in pounds to 5,250,000 hogs of 200 pounds each. Allow 200 pounds of edible fat to one person per an- num, and this would keep in meat 5.025,000 citizens. But this won- derful plant is not yet exhausted; after the seeds are stripped of the lint and the oil pressed from the seed, there remain the hulls and the meal. Of each ton, the oil takes 250 pounds, leaving 1000 pounds of hull and 750 pounds of meal. This is unequalled as a fertilizer, of which we should have left 3,000,000 tons; but it is also the very best food for cattle or sheep. Fed to either it will first make meat or wool and then as animal manure go back to enrich the soil. Of stock food it will furnish 6,508,500,000 pounds— enough to stallfeed 1,175,000 beeves for one year. These, in turn, would furnish meat for 0,000,000 —so- more of people. . Such are some of the possibilities of this royal plant." Were Mr. Grady liviug today, he would be able to extend the list of the products of this wonderful plant. Large quantities of cotton seed oil were formerly shipped to Italy and France to be bottled as olive oil, and from there distributed throughout the world. The Ital- ian government has recently cut off the demand from that country by imposing a heavy import duly. The increased uses of the oil for other purposes has, however, compensated fortius loss. From this oil is now made: Summer yellow cotton seed oil, winter yellow cotton seed oil, summer white cotton seed oil, salad oil, miners' oil, blown oil, rape oil, sardine oil, a dye stuff, soap, adulterants of olive oil, adulterants of linseed oil, adulterants of castor oil, adulter- ants of lard oil, adulterants of sperm oil, cotton seed stearine (used to make candles and adulterate tallow), a basis of lard, a basis for cheese, coltolene (cotton seed oil and beef suet), a basis for medicinal ointment and a basis for butler. From the hulls is now manufactured a fiber which comes next to the best of linen in the quality of paper it pro- duces. The stalk produces an excellent fiber from which a good qual- ity of bagging is manufactured. There were in 1893 two hundred cotton seed mills in operation, which crushed 1,100.000 tons of seed — about one-half of the available crop— producing 45,000,000 gallons of oil, of which 11,131,500 gallons were exported. This industry in its various forms is adding annually more than forty millions of dollars to the wealth of the South. The American Cotton Oil Company, devoted exclusively to themanufticture of the various products of cotton seed, is one of the largest corpora- tions in the world. It owns seveiUy-lhree crude oil mills, (distributed throughout the country), fourteen refineries, four lard and coltolene plants, nine soap factories, fifteen cotton gins, four compressors and eight fertilizer mixing establishments. Its foreign headquarters are at Rotterdam. To expedite its business and to enable its shipments to be made at a minimum cost it has built a tank steamer to ply between New Orleans and Rotterdam. —SI- TIMBER. The South possesses untold wealth in her forests. Of the four huti- dred million acres of woodland in the United Slates, more than halt lies South of the Ohio River. The Southern States are the most heavily wooded section on the globe — forty one per centum of their area being in forests. It is estimated that there are eight hundred billions of feet of lumber now standing in the forests of the South, which is worth in its crude state, at present prices, ten billions of dollars. These forests embrace seventy-five varieties of valuable woods. The most important being pine, poplar, ash, cypress, walnut, oak, hickory, chestnut, cedar, maple and cherry. Louisiana and Fl rida also produce considerable quantities of mahogony, lignum vi(?e, mastic crab wood and other tropical woods. The South cannot afford to dispose of this vast wealth in Its crude stale; she is rapidly converting it into building materials, implements, furniture, etc., in her own mills, shops and factories. Thus its value is increased many times. IRON. Before the war the sleepy negro basked in the sunshine on the top of iron mines, whose value was not even suspecled. But the scene has changed. This hidden wealth has been uncovered and its value is being realized. The roar of the forge and the hum of industry are heard upon every hand, and old Pennsylvania trembles in her boots as she surveys her vigorous and daring rival. But the influence of this section is not confined to Pennsylvania. The revolution of the iron industry here being wrought, will be felt throughout the world, And the day is not far distant when Southern steel manufactured from Southern iron will be felt in like manner. The accessibility of iron ore, clo.se proximity of coal, facilities for transportation and cheap labor enable the Southern furnaces to manufacture iron and steel cheaper than can any other sec- tion. The South, therefore, will not only control the iron markets of the North, but of England as well. Mr, Abram S. Hewitt, who is largely interested in Southern furnaces, says of Alabama : " This will be a region of coke-made iron on a grander scale than has ever been wit- nessed on the habitable globe.'' -82- COAL. One third of the ooe hundred and ninety one thousand square miles of coal area in the United States is located in the South. The great value of this possession is seen by comparing it with that of Great Britain, whose coal measures, though only nine thousand square miles in extent, was, until recently, the largest coal producing section in the world. In the Southern Stales there are over sixty thou-and square miles of coal measures, or nearly seven times as much a** in Great Britain, and more than in Great Britain, Russia, Germany, France and Belgium ct)mbined. Within the last ten years the South has made great progress in utilizing this immense source of wealth. " In 1880 the output was three millions of tons. In 1890 it was twenty-five millions of tons, which was 50% more than was produced in the whole United States in 1860. This exhaustless and cheap supply of fuel will be a powerful factor in developing the manufacturing industries of the New South Experience has demonstrated that the Southern mines can and do produce coal cheaper than those of any other section of our country, and atone half the cost of those of Great Biitain. But to even men- tion, much less adequately describe the various resources of the South and her diversified industries, would over-tax the limits of this little volume. Of marble, Tennessee alone produces more than fifty varieties, while gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron, coal, mica, phosphates, gyp- sum, salt and many other minerals are found in paying quantities in many sections of the South . The industrial development of the South is progressing quite rap- idly and satisfactorily. These enterprises represent the brain and capital of business men both iVTorth and Soutii, while English capitalists are largely interested in iron industries. In spite of the hard limes there were inaugurated in the South during 1893 two thousand five liundred and fifty-one new industries, most of which have continued their oper- ations during the panic and new industries have been added to the list each month. During the second quarter of 1895 (ending July 12th) there were reported as being inaugurated 664 new industries, which is —83— the largest number reported for one quarter since 1802. Within the hist six months, ending July 1st, 1895, great interest has been mani- fested in the establishment of textile mills in the South. The report shows that during this time 207 new cotton, woolen and knitting mills have been organized. Of the?e North Carolina having twenty nine and South Carolina twenty-live. Tho most satisfactory feature of this movement is that it is one that is being fostered and supj)orted largely by local capital and enterprise. The statisiics credit the Southern States with 412 cotton and woolen mills, the majority of which are owned by Southern men. Al- though most of these mills are small in comparison with those of New England, they have proven quite successful, and their capacity is being rapidly increased. Mr. Wm. E. Curtis, staff correspondent of the Chicago Record, writing from the South concerning the advantages of this section in the manufacture of cotton, says: "The average rate of wages paid mill operatives in Korth Carolina is $188 a \ear; in South Oarohna, $207; in Georgia, $225; in Alabama, $209; in Tennessee, $222. While in Massachusetts the operatives in similar mills receive an average of $344 a year. There is an average difference of one cent a pound in the price of cotton delivered at the mills in the South and in New England, which of itself represents from 15 to 20 per cent, in the total cost of material. Coal, which is the principal fuel, can be purchased for from $2.00 to $2,75 a ton in the mill centers of ihe South, while in Providence, Boston, Fall River, Portsmouth, N. H., and niher New England sea- ports, it costs from .$4 00 to $4 50 a ton. I am informed that there are two mills of equal capacity owned by the sa'me stockholders, one in South Carolina and the other in Massachusetts, where the difference in the cost of fuel last year was fGO.OOO; in labor, $72,000; in cotton, $108,000; while the value of products of each mill was about the same, " 'I'axes in the South on manufacturing industries are very low. Many factories are entirely exempt from taxation under inducements offered for location, while in Massachusetts they are very high and —84— represent a dividend of three quarters of one per cent, year after year. " A gentleman from Massachusetts tells me that a mill in which he is interested paid $00,000 a year taxation. He had found during bis tour through tlie South that similar mills in that section paid only a trifle — $3000 or $4000. The difference would cover all insurance, clerk hire and other expenses of administration. " But," continues Mr. Curtis, "everybody seems to agree that the absence of labor organizations in the Soutii and restrictive legislation is the most important advantage the mill men of that section enjoy," This is, indeed, a very important item. The Southern white la- borer is far more reliable and etficient when developed and is more amenable to discipline than the foreigners who constitute the majority of operatives in the Northeru mills The colored laborer, though not quite so skillful and apt, is quite as faithful and trustworthy. Strikes in llie South are by no means as frequent as in the North and East. The ratio within the last few years has been that of one to four in favor of the South. COMMEUOE Previous to 1S()0 the harbors of ihe South were crowded with ves- sels, which laden with her products went forth upon every sea to dis- tribute her treasures in all lands Charleston alone shipped more pro- duce than the. ports of New York and New England combined. Under the dark war cloud these Southern harbors were closed. The enterprising men of the Northeast transferred the mouth of the Mississippi to the bay of New York, and made the current of the Am- azon to flow into the harbor of Boston. Id their [poverty and embar- rassment the Southern people were compelled to allow these great channels to thus continue enriching another section at t4ie expense of their own. These wise old men of the South and their worthy sons have not. as some one has fal.sely said, been idly looking out from their broken porticoes, like the Hidalgoes of Spiin — watching in vain for the return of their lost "Armada," but in sunshine and storm, in the face of obstacles hard to surmount, they are building an Armada more —85— invincible. The iiudertaking is a large oae and tbe means are not ade- quate, but by patient endeavor the work is pr.)gressing. The first need was deei)er water-ways to meet the demands of larger sea vessels. The forces of nature had blocked the mouth of her great river system. Olher harbors were found to be inadequate. Jellies must be built and cliaunels deepened. This work is being accom- plished by the government aided by the contributions of enterprising capitalists. Next was railroad facilities. In order to gather up the cotton, grain, fruits, and other commodities for export., and to disti'ibute goods imported there must be lines of communication with the great trade centers and the inierior districts. The great Northern lakes, the Erie canal and our great trunk lines of railroad had hitherto directed com- merce toward the Northeastern ports. Although the Southern harbors are hundreds of miles nearer the chief centers of agricultural and min- eral products than are Boston, New York, or Philadelphia; and also in more direct line with foreign ports they were not in a situation to com- mand trade without railroad facilities. For the past ten year? great improvement has been made in this regard. h- est development. Here, merchants Jof the South and West, are em- pires for trade and kingdoms for gain. Xever had merchants spread —87— before their eyes more alluring fields for commerce. Here are all cli- mates, all soils and all zones. Here are illimitable plains of rich and alluvial lands, houndless forests of rich and ornamental woods, moun- tains of copper ore and quicksilver, mines of gold, silver and lead, diamonds and precious stones, dyes, rich spices, rare gems, indigo, quinine, drugs, wool, hides, fiber, India rubber, coffee, sugar, cocoa, tobacco and fruits. " In studying this great question a few days since 1 was amazed to learn from Commodore Maura}'-, that great master of ocean currents, what the laws of nature have done to aid commeicial trade between South America and the Southern and Middle Atlantic ports of our coniinent The Amazon is the great river outlet for South America as the Mississippi is the outlet for Central North America, The great re- ceptacle for these rivers is the basin of the Gulf of Mexico aud the Carribcan Sea The equatorial current and the gulf stream make the real mouth of the Amazon, just outside of the southern coast of the United States. By the influence of the Gulf Stream a vessel sailing from the mouth of the Amazon to Europe must pass by the shores of of the Southern States and through the waters of the Southern ports. With the opening of the Nicdragu-i Oaual across the Isthtnus the whole commerce of the North and of Europe must pass right by the Southern Atlantic ports to get to China or the East Indies By reason of the Trade Winds and currents of the Atlantic these ports ir.ust be half-way houses from the Gulf to New Yoi-k, to E urope and to the ports of Africa, South America aud India." One of the greatest difficulties now in the way of our foreign trade is a want of ships to carry our freight. We should have lines of fast freight steamers plying between our Southern port-; and South America and the West Indies. These lines should receive such subsidies from our government as will enable them to compete successfully with English and German lines which receive such subsidies from their governments. These lines now carry freights three times the distance we have to pass for less than one-third the rate our vessel* are com- pelled to charge Their producers and manufacturers are thus able to control this trade, which ought to'belonff to us. —88— Another market now being opened to us is Ihat of Mexico and Central America. A new era of development is beginning in those countries, and they are even now calling for our coal, coke, iron, steel, farming implements, machinery, textile antl other products. This trade should be encouraged by all possible means. Our manufacturers and merchants should study assiduously their wants and employ all legitimate means of supplying them. THE ARENA OF FUTURE INDUSTRY. Within the near future the great empire of the world's manufactur- ing must be located in the South and the West. The great abundance of raw materia], cheapness of fuel, advantages of chniate and locality, inexhaustible water power and superior facilities for transportation must make this regi(m the arena of the world's great activities. To quote the stirring language of Gen. E. P. Alexander : " There is not elsewhere upon the globe a territory open to the Anglo-Saxon race with such varied and great resources and such propitious conditions of life and labor; so abundantly supplied with rivers and harbors and with lines of railroad transportation, or so well located to command the commerce of both hemispheres. The prophecy of what the people will make of these advantages in the struggle for commercial supremacy among the nations of the world is but faintly written in what has already been done under adverse conditions by each section working alone. Now their united strength will be brought to bear upon the easiest part of the problem. The most progressive race on earth, the leaders of the world in science, in invention, in energy, in wealth and in enterprise will here develop the greatest material resources under the most favorable conditions possible." Such a eulogy from so worthy a source must stir the noblest am- bition in the heart of every inhabitant of these high)}'- favored sections. Snrely the hand of Providence, with lavish kindness, has opened to us the greatest opportunity ever enjoyed by any people. We are not only 'the richest people in the world in natural resources, but we have the very best facilities for developing and distributing our treasures abroad. To us is open a highway both to the Occident and the Orient, while — so- South America, Mexico and the islands of the sea wait to pour into our coffers their richest treasures in excliani^e for the products of our indus- tries. If our wheat languish upon the Eastern exchange let us convert it into breadstuff and send it out to feed the nations of the world. If our cotton decline upon the market, let us manufacture it into cloth and send it abroad to clothe the human race We possess every means, resource and condition to make us a suc- cessful and prosperous people. The E;ist has grown rich througli man- ufacturing and commerce. These same articles tiie South, and the West can manufacture cheaper and to better advantage than can she, while a more direct route to the markets of the W(>rld lies through our own channels. When I refer to the South and the West, I do uoi mean to he partisan or unpatriotic God forbid that geographical lines or party sectionalism should ever again disturb the tranquility of our uition. Every true American glories in the prosperity of New England. She was the home of the Puritans, the foster-mother of popular education, and the cradle of liberty and patriotism. We cherish the memory of her noble deeds and honor the men who achieved them. Hul New England is only a part of our national domain. Her prospeiity and industry cannot suffice for the whole nation. Each section has its own peculiar resources and advantages which it must develop and improve if the full measure of our national independence and prosperity is to be realized. THE TYPICAL AMERICAN. Upon the broad prairies of the West, with their teeming herds of cattle and fields of waving grain, sheltered by their lofty mountains draped in their spotless garments of eternal snow, and holding within their bosoms rich and exhaustless treasures; and amid the fertile valleys of the sunny Southland, white with fleecy cotton or golden with ripen- ing grain, fanned by gentlest zephyrs, laden with the perfume of fruits and flowers; within these two sections, bound together by the common ties of commerce and trade, shall be located the theater of the world's greatest achievements Here at last shall be realized the fond dream of American independence and the acme of her glory. Here shall be born the typical American citizen. —00— From t!jo mitigling of the hhwid of Puritan and Cavalier shall be born a race^ superior to cither, with broader idei'J, more comprehensive vision, deeper insight and more generou-s natuie, by whom achieve- ments liitherto impossible may be easily wrought. Of this future American Professor Woodrovv Wilson, of Princeton College, says: " We shall not in the futan; liave to take one type of Americanism at a time The frontier is gone— it has reached the Pacific. The country grows rapiilly homogeneous. With the same face it grows va- riou'* and multiform in hU its life. The man of the simple or local type cannot a.iy longer deal in a great manner vviih any national prob- lem The great men of the future mu«t be <>f the cotTiposite type of greatness, sound hearted, hopeful, confident of the validity of liberty, tenacious of the deeper principles of xliuericin institutions — but the ome d 'y we shall be (►f one mind, our ideas tixe