THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 ENDOWED BY THE 
 
 DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC 
 
 SOCIETIES 
 
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 This book is due at the WALTER R. DAVIS LIBRARY on 
 the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it 
 may be renewed by bringing it to the library. 
 
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AN 
 
 Appeal to CLesar 
 
 By 
 
 ALBION W. TOURGEE, 
 
 Author of "A Fool's Ekkand," "Bricks Without Straw," Etc. 
 
 " (Hnio Catsar sfjalt ttiou go."— Acts, xxv. 
 
 ^ The Library 
 the University cf North Carolina 
 Chape! Hill 
 
 New York:- 
 FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT. 
 
 1SS4. 
 
Copyright, 1884, 
 By ALBION W. TOURG^E. 
 
To all those who in mine adversity 
 showed kindness, this book is gratefully 
 inscribed. 
 
 A. W. T. 
 
 \3 
 \ 
 
Preface. 
 
 A N upas-tree had taken deep root in the vir- 
 *** gin soil of the New World. A free people 
 hacked it down with the sword. It cost more 
 than a million lives and five billions of dollars to 
 accomplish the task. The roots were left to 
 gather strength for other harmful growth. The 
 Nation was so elated with its achievement that 
 it forgot all about the source from which the evil 
 sprang. Already the new growth has borne fruit 
 of Violence and Misrule. Can we afford to allow 
 the roots to remain ? How much can we afford 
 to pay to have them digged up ? How can this 
 best be accomplished ? 
 
 These questions this little book is designed to 
 help every thoughtful and patriotic freeman to 
 answer for himself. 
 
 The AUTHOR. 
 
 New York, July, 1884. 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Pledge in Mortmain g 
 
 A Retrospect 21 
 
 A Forgotten Chapter 37 
 
 Some Queer Notions Plainly Stated 49 
 
 A Bit of Personal History 55 
 
 A Shattered Idol 6S 
 
 A "Treason of the Blood" SS 
 
 Too TruiT an Evil 10S 
 
 To-Morrow in the Light of Yesterday 118 
 
 A Macedonian Cry 136 
 
 Accounting for Strange Things 155 
 
8 Contents. 
 
 TAGE 
 
 The Other Side of the Picture 171 
 
 The Black Republics 185 
 
 Divide and Conquer 199 
 
 A New Complication 225 
 
 "Am I my Brother's Keeper?" 239 
 
 Wisdom Becometh a King 260 
 
 Is Education a Specific? 267 
 
 A Pharmacopoeia 286 
 
 Who Shall Apply the Remedy ? 301 
 
 The Method of Application 314 
 
 Objections Considered . ... 349 
 
 From Different Standpoints 382 
 
 Will Cesar Hear ? 408 
 
 What can Cesar Do ? 416 
 
A Pledge in Mortmain 
 
 TT was an afternoon in early June. Two men 
 
 ■*■ sat in the wide embrasure of a window of the 
 White House at Washington. On a table near 
 them were a few books and a set of diagrams, to 
 which they now and then referred in the course 
 of their conversation. The sultry summer day 
 was drawing to a close. Long soft shadows 
 stretched across the lawn, out of which bright- 
 hued blossoms looked up as if to welcome the 
 coming coolness. The gray walls of the Treasury 
 building took on a yellowish gleam in the light 
 
io Jin Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 of the setting sun. The cool evening breeze that 
 came in through the open window was freighted 
 with the scent of honeysuckle that clambered 
 over the trellis below, vexed and thwarted by 
 overmuch effort to compel it to obedience. 
 
 One of the men was the President of the 
 United States. The other was a citizen, sum- 
 moned to his presence by a telegram, which read, 
 " Come on Saturday, when I shall be at leisure." 
 It is treasured now as a priceless memento. 
 They were not strangers. Even in the boyhood 
 of one, their lines had crossed. Afterward they 
 had been fellow-soldiers, divided in rank by a 
 great gulf, yet greeting each other when they met. 
 
 When the conflict was over their lives drifted 
 even further apart. One of them had joined the 
 legislative molders of the nation's destiny ; the 
 other was hidden in the oblivion of a great 
 national experiment. The one had helped to 
 shape the legislation that was intended to recon- 
 struct, out of the chaos that war had left in its 
 train, a new civilization. The other had watched 
 upon the theater of its operation the resultant 
 effects of this legislation. As a consequence, per- 
 haps, while in purpose and sentiment they had 
 grown nearer to each other, yet in their convic- 
 
A Pledge in Mortmain. 1 1 
 
 tions as to policy and methods they had drifted 
 very widely asunder. 
 
 The one had been disappointed and chagrined 
 at the failure of measures, which he had heartily 
 supported, to accomplish a tithe of the results he 
 had anticipated. He could not doubt their jus- 
 tice. He could not understand their failure. 
 Had he dared to question the universality of the 
 principles of freedom on which they rested, he 
 mi°*ht have doubted whether the nation had not 
 gone too far. He did not doubt. He only won- 
 dered why good seed planted with blood and 
 tears, " with malice toward none and with charity 
 for all," should yield such meager sheaves of 
 good and such an abundant harvest of evil. He 
 had applied a specific remedy to a certain state 
 of facts. The results had not been in accordance 
 with his expectations. He was seeking earnestly 
 for the malign influence — the immediate ex- 
 traneous force which had prevented the opera- 
 tion of causes whose efficacy he would not 
 permit himself to doubt. 
 
 The other, with less interest perhaps in the 
 success of these specific measures, had been a 
 keen observer of their operation. His lot had 
 been cast among people whose daily lives had 
 
12 An Appeal to Ctesar. 
 
 been colored by their influence. To him, the 
 measures from which his companion had hoped 
 so much and in which he could not yet abandon 
 faith had come to seem so crude and ill-digested 
 that, instead of wondering at the evil results 
 which had followed hard upon their adoption, he 
 was amazed that infinitely worse things had not 
 occurred. Casting about to discover the reason, 
 he perceived that the President and his political 
 associates of a previous decade had legislated 
 with only a superficial knowledge of the life they 
 sought to shape, omitting from their considera- 
 tion some of the most important and difficult 
 elements of the problem they undertook to solve. 
 It was not surprising that they did so. The 
 situation in which they found themselves was a 
 strange one, and only the outer form of the 
 social fabric they sought to rebuild was known to 
 them. They had peopled the conquered territory 
 with an imaginary life so like and yet so unlike 
 the reality that it was not strange that a half- 
 knowledge noted the resemblances and that a 
 fuller intimacy recalled the discrepancies. 
 
 The two had met at this time to compare their 
 views upon these questions. 
 
 It was not the first time it had been mooted 
 
A Pledge in Mortmain. 13 
 
 between them. Before the Legislator had be- 
 come the President, the citizen had more than 
 once pressed his own views upon him, urging a 
 consideration of the remedy lie proposed. Ap- 
 parently his insistence was without result. Al- 
 most in despair because those who stood at the 
 head of affairs would not listen to what he de- 
 sired to say, he appealed to a larger audience, 
 and spread his views before the whole people. 
 The popular verdict which he had thus secured 
 had brought his theories again to the attention of 
 the Legislator now become President. They had 
 impressed that officer so deeply that he had given 
 up a considerable portion of his inaugural address 
 to their consideration, and had sought this op- 
 portunity for consulting personally with the 
 author. 
 
 For more than two hours they had been in 
 close conversation, sometimes walking back and 
 forth in the room, as was the President's frequent 
 custom when deeply interested, sometimes refer-, 
 ring to the books and diagrams upon the table, 
 and sometimes sitting by the window ; but always 
 pursuing the same theme. The room was full of 
 historic memories, but neither had time to think 
 of them. Now and then a clerk came and held 
 
14 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 a brief consultation with the Chief Executive. 
 Once or twice a visitor, resolute and importunate, 
 was admitted to a hurried interview. But always 
 the two talkers came back to the same topic, and 
 as the shadows grew dim upon the lawn their 
 conversation drew to a close. They found that 
 they agreed upon many things and disagreed in 
 regard to a few. As to the evil and the danger 
 there was no difference. Of the failure of what 
 had been done there could be no denial. As to 
 the remedy there was divergence. 
 
 " I see," said the President, laying his hand 
 heavily on the other's shoulder as he stood beside 
 him, " I see all that you urge, and admit that it 
 seems reasonable ; but it will take so long — so very 
 long." 
 
 " It will require a long time," replied the other, 
 seriously. 
 
 " How long, do you think — ten years ?" asked 
 the President as he turned away and began to 
 pace hurriedly to and fro in the narrow room. 
 
 " Suppose it should require a century?" 
 
 " You do not mean to say that it will take that 
 time to cure this evil?" 
 
 " I do not say it will require a decade or a 
 century. I only know that it is the growth of 
 
A Pledge in Mortmain. 15 
 
 centuries and cannot be extirpated in an hour. 
 Peoples — races — change only by the slowest of 
 processes ; a little in one generation and a little 
 more in another." 
 
 11 But it cannot be. God will not permit it to 
 take so long a time !" 
 
 " What has God to do with time ? If he puts a 
 task before us, shall we not undertake it because 
 we may not live to see the end ?" 
 
 " No, no ! But is there not some quicker 
 method — some shorter way to the end ?" 
 
 " That is what you gentlemen who used to 
 meet at the other end of the Avenue tried so long 
 to find. Already we have spent a decade and a 
 half in trying to invent a nigh-cut — a shorter way 
 from Slavery to Freedom. Has anything been 
 accomplished of which we may be proud ?" 
 
 " Ah, no ! Where we expected success and 
 honor, we have met with failure and shame." 
 
 " Simply because we were in too great haste." 
 
 " Why should we not be ? Did we want the 
 settlement — the matters arising out of four years 
 of war — hanging over us for a generation ?" 
 
 " That is it exactly," said the other. " It was 
 not the settlement of the issues of war that we 
 attempted, but the tearing down of a social edi- 
 
1 6 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 fice that it had required centuries to build up, and 
 the erection of another in its stead." 
 
 "Yes," assented the President, thoughtfully, 
 " you are right. But who could have foreseen 
 what has occurred ? Perhaps we all ought to 
 have done so. We ought at least to have known 
 that such changes cannot be made instanta- 
 neously. How did you come to work out the 
 problem as you have done there ?" He pointed 
 to a book lying on the table as he spoke. 
 
 " Simply because its elements were before me 
 all the time, and I thought of it day and night. 
 Any thoughtful man would have done the same." 
 
 " I doubt that," said he, with a pleasant smile ; 
 " but I must admit that I can find no fault with 
 your conclusions. Whatever may be the merits 
 of the remedy you propose, there is no doubt 
 that you have correctly diagnosed the disease. 
 But it is such a weary time to wait ! I could 
 hardly expect to see positive results, if I should 
 begin the work at once." 
 
 " How much greater is the honor to him 
 who sows the seed than to him who reaps the 
 harvest !" 
 
 The President paced thoughtfully up and down 
 the room once or twice. Then, as a mutual 
 
A Pledge in Mortmain. iy 
 
 friend entered, he referred jocularly to the subject 
 of the conversation, and, quoting a flattering sen- 
 tence from " Ben Hur," a work then fresh from 
 the press and a prime favorite with him, he took 
 the other's hand in his strong grasp and said : 
 
 " You are right. There is no other way. We 
 must begin — at the beginning. Write out your 
 views of what is possible to be done and let me 
 have them — or, better still, put them into a book 
 and I will study it. Of course, I must find my 
 own way in this matter, but you can help me. 
 No one else has studied the subject in the same 
 way or from the same stand-point that you have 
 occupied. I have a great deal to do. I am al- 
 most worn out now, and I have just begun. You 
 must help me in this matter." 
 
 The desired promise was given. The friend 
 who stood by laughingly witnessed the compact. 
 When next we looked upon that face, then lighted 
 up with almost boyish enthusiasm, the shadow of 
 the pall rested upon it. 
 
1 8 An Appeal to Cczsar. 
 
 This book is the fulfillment of that promise. 
 It has been delayed by many unexpected things. 
 The death of him from whom so much was ex- 
 pected brought discouragement. Engrossing 
 occupation distracted the author's attention. It 
 seemed a thankless task to begin where he had 
 begun so many times before, and go wearily over 
 the old ground, perhaps for naught. There came, 
 too, the foolish idea that he had done enough. 
 The pressure of his surroundings had ceased to 
 impel him so urgently in that direction. He 
 dreaded the labor and the conflict — the odium 
 and hostility that come to one who ventures be- 
 yond the beaten track of political thought. 
 
 Besides that, he saw others working in a sim- 
 ilar direction. They were many and he was 
 alone. A great party had given its solemn 
 pledge to do what needed to be done. Then, 
 too, he thought he might be wrong. Congress 
 seemed to be working toward the matter. Per- 
 haps it would be wiser for him to leave the task 
 in other hands. He was not silent or entirely 
 inactive ; but he neglected fully to set forth the 
 idea which had so long possessed him, until he 
 came to despair of all hope for action from the 
 Congress which has just adjourned (July, 1884). 
 
A Pledge in Mortmain. 19 
 
 And now, in prep'ari ng the work, he feels that 
 he has fulfilled a vow to the dead as well as a 
 duty to the living. The appeal is made not to 
 the dear, dead Caesar, whose great heart was just 
 awakening to the task before him, but to that 
 other and greater Csesar whom none so devoutly 
 revered— the AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 It is not claimed that this work represents the 
 views of President Garfield upon the subject 
 treated. The above-related conversation was 
 -written out from notes which were made imme- 
 diately after it took place. One or two letters 
 which the author has in reply to more or less 
 complete expositions of the subject are of the 
 same tenor. The author does not believe that 
 the President had decided upon any particular 
 course of action in regard to the matter, but does 
 believe that he considered it the most im- 
 portant question that was to receive attention 
 during his administration. On one occasion he 
 expressly stated that he regarded it as a provi- 
 dential thing that " the national prosperity is 
 such as to permit appropriations for this purpose 
 that would otherwise be deemed onerous.' 1 
 
20 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 What would he not have said had he lived to see 
 an annual surplus of more than a hundred 
 millions in the Treasury ! 
 
The White Spaces Show Proportions. 
 
 A Retrospect. 
 
 r I ^H£ simplest things not unfrequently come to 
 -*■ seem the most intricate and really are the 
 most inexplicable. Nearly all the great convulsions 
 history records seem to have turned upon the 
 slightest misunderstandings. The construction of 
 a single sentence has more than once been ac- 
 counted a good enough cause for years of war- 
 fare. The meaning of a single word set the Chris- 
 tian world by the ears for centuries and made 
 martyrs by wholesale. The path of reconcilement 
 between two opposing forces may be as broad as 
 
22 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the king's Highway to an unprejudiced mind, and 
 yet neither party will consent to walk therein. It is 
 not because men are incapable of seeing both 
 sides of a question that such apparently insignifi- 
 cant differences become of so great consequence, 
 but because they will not believe that those who 
 think differently from themselves are as honest as 
 they know themselves to be in their opinions: 
 thus it is that difference once begun ends only at 
 the antipodes. 
 
 The story I desire to tell is so simple in its ele- 
 ments that it seems almost absurd to treat it as 
 one demanding serious exposition. There were 
 two peoples who dwelt together as one nation. 
 Nominally, they had been united for three quarters 
 of a century only. In reality common interests 
 and common dangers had bound them more or 
 less closely to each other for three hundred years. 
 When they were merely isolated colonies they 
 spoke of themselves under a common name. 
 They had very many other things in common. 
 They boasted a common origin, though this was 
 justly subject to modification. They spoke the 
 same language, worshiped the same God in a like 
 multiplicity of forms, and, in general, professed to 
 revere the same ideals. Nominally the same gov- 
 
A Retrospect. 23 
 
 ernment extended over both, though in truth it was 
 only a common form that lent itself to hide the an- 
 tipodal ideas that underlay the one and the other. 
 These two peoples never noted or admitted the 
 inherent differences that existed between them. 
 When they spoke of themselves collectively they 
 said, " We, the People," as if they were but one. 
 Yet each one accounted its own distinctive 
 differences as its chiefest excellences. Instinct- 
 ively, they knew that a great gulf lay between 
 them. Year after year they bridged it with mutual 
 falsehoods. Year after year they swore to all the 
 world that it did not exist. Yet year by year it 
 grew wider and deeper, and generation after gen- 
 eration the impulse gained to regard themselves 
 as dissimilar in all respects but one — that of a 
 common nationality. To this fiction they both 
 clung with a faith that would have been ludicrous 
 had it not been so sincere. They were like two 
 families dwelling in one house, each pursuing its 
 distinct avocations and nourishing its own inter- 
 ests, yet holding under one lease and constituting 
 one possession. To the world they were one 
 country; to themselves, two peoples. To the 
 world they were" The United States;" to each 
 other they were " The North" and <k The South." 
 
24 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 The differences of thought, sentiment, life, 
 were world-wide and irreconcilable. Looking 
 backward on them now, every thoughtful mind 
 must wonder that the lava did not sooner break 
 through the thin, bridging crust. It is strange 
 indeed that the fiery elements did not sooner 
 burn up and destroy the flimsy pact that bound 
 them together. After all it was not the pact that 
 held them. The Constitution they professed to 
 revere was only another name for instinctive fear. 
 Neither one dared face the world alone with the 
 other as a foe upon the flank. Straight as an 
 arrow through the land ran the line of demarka- 
 tion. There was no visible trace. No marks and 
 pointers showed where the one people ended and 
 the other began. No natural cleavage of the land 
 was followed. On this side of an imaginary line 
 was light, and upon that darkness. Here a people 
 worshiping one ideal, there one blindly hostile to 
 it and fanatically devoted to its antagonistic ex- 
 treme. The wall which separated them could not 
 be seen or felt, but its parapet divided Heaven 
 and its foundations were laid in Hell. The antag- 
 onisms on which it was based were structural, not 
 incidental. The division affected not merely in- 
 stitutions and the forms of society but entered 
 
A Retrospect. 25 
 
 into the household, modified the beliefs, and 
 marked off the whole structure of society. 
 
 On the one side of this structural cleavage the 
 basic ideal upon which society was founded was 
 individual liberty as a divine right. Neither race 
 nor color ncr creed, save in limited and constantly 
 decreasing degree, was allowed to restrict the do- 
 main of individual action and power. Society 
 there was, without established grades or classes. 
 Because he was a man, each one was peer of every 
 other. The unit of government was the indi- 
 vidual. Power went from the circumference to 
 the center by progressive delegation that was un- 
 shackled. Religious belief was unrestricted. A 
 man might utter whatsoever dogmas he chose 
 without restriction and usually without fear save 
 in one queer instance. He was not allowed to 
 speak ill, no matter how truthfully, of his 
 strangely assorted neighbors beyond the wall of 
 separation. So great was the terror of ultimate 
 dismemberment that for many years it was 
 scarcely permitted to any one to intimate that 
 absolute harmony did not exist. Upon this point 
 alone was denied the right of individual belief. To 
 assert the existence of conflicting elements in the 
 national domain was the act of a public enemy. 
 
26 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 The highest treason was to declare that the paper 
 bond which united the twain was not indissoluble. 
 Every one knew that if the hostile ingredients 
 were once intimately blended the union would 
 melt like wax. Each one dreaded the day of evil 
 and prayed that in his time it might not be. So 
 they sought to avoid conflict by a fierce denial of 
 estrangement. They burned with a mad rage 
 whenever one, too true to be silent, lifted a little 
 way the veil that hid the facts — the facts which 
 were doubted all the more fiercely because they 
 could not be denied or amended. Because they 
 wished not to know the truth they blindfolded 
 their souls and declared that it did not exist. In 
 all other matters they were restless investigators. 
 Individual opinion met no barrier in any other 
 direction. Science and art flourished among them 
 in unprecedented degree. Knowledge erected an 
 altar in every home. Ambition set up its lure on 
 every hearthstone. They hunted out and de- 
 stroyed every vestige of privilege. They spread 
 themselves over the land and consecrated to free- 
 dom every foot of the soil they possessed. They 
 built a school-house in every village. Each one 
 was free to pursue what trade or avocation he 
 might prefer. Commerce lined their shores with 
 
A Retrospect. 27 
 
 cities. All forms of industry filled the land with 
 bustle. The rivers yielded to their mastery. The 
 mountains shed their leafy covering, and groan- 
 ingly gave up the treasures hidden within them. 
 This people extended their hands to those who 
 dwelt beyond the seas and welcomed mind and 
 will to the ranks of those who wrought and 
 thought. Their land became the highway of the 
 world's life. The nations of the earth thronged 
 in at the front door and poured out at the back. 
 The overcrowded Orient sent its millions to take 
 and hold the unfilled Occident. Their life became 
 a hodge-podge to which the world added daily 
 some new ingredient. So great was their power 
 .of assimilation that the stranger forgot the land 
 of his nativity almost before he had time to teach 
 his children the traditions of the land of his adop- 
 tion. What they demanded for themselves they 
 yielded freely to others. Asserting each man's 
 right to rule, they required none to obey. Those 
 who were at first called rulers among them came 
 very soon to be only their agents and attorneys. 
 In governmental form they carried democracy to 
 its utmost limit. Every State was but an infinity 
 of lesser republics ; every county only a group 
 of self-governing units. They did everything for 
 
28 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 themselves. The commune builded and directed. 
 The school-house and the ballot-box were under 
 the control of the vicinage. Manhood was the 
 sole test of privilege. " We, the People" meant 
 to them neighbors in council assembled. 
 
 On the other side the wall of separation, the 
 differences of growth were not striking but 
 irreconcilably hostile to those we have traced. 
 There society was based not upon equality but 
 inequality of privilege. Caste took the place of 
 individual law. A man was nothing save under 
 specific conditions. The fact of manhood carried 
 nothing with it of right. Instead of being vested 
 with power, men were born here subject to an- 
 other's will, even for the privilege of life. One 
 man was born to rule ; another to serve. One 
 class was born to possess ; another branded in 
 the womb to servitude. Individual freedom was 
 a privilege, not a right. Power centered in the 
 hands of the few. The necessities of a class con- 
 trolled the conditions of the whole. For the pro- 
 tection of the system the world was excluded. 
 The stranger was looked upon with distrust, and 
 the world was warned away from their borders. 
 Because intelligence was a dangerous weapon in 
 the hand of the slave the avenues to its posses- 
 
A Retrospect. 29 
 
 sion were rigidly closed against him. Under the 
 forms of democracy here there existed only an 
 oligarchy. Instead of governing themselves, the 
 people were ruled from within. That slavery 
 might be secure the poor were degraded. The 
 power of the ballot was made conditional even 
 among the dominant race. Slavery held the 
 power of the State, it mattered not what party 
 was uppermost, because no one was allowed to 
 question its sanctity. The priest who stood at 
 the altar defended the relation of master and slave 
 and wove it into the religion which he taught. 
 Every relation of life was colored by its necessity. 
 Whoso dared to speak against it became at once 
 a public enemy. The laws were pledged to pro- 
 mote its weal. The statute-book became its bul- 
 wark. Commerce was excluded lest it should 
 bring peril. Variety of industry was discouraged 
 because the slave could not compete therein. The 
 life of the highest and of the lowest, of the richest 
 and the poorest among all this people were shaped 
 and squared in every relation by the needs of 
 this one peculiar institution. So while the rich 
 grew richer, the poor grew poorer. While the 
 master grew more cultured, the slave became 
 more degraded 
 
30 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 While, then, the North became freer and more 
 intelligent day by day, the South became more 
 and more the abject creature of the one institution 
 which had put a stamp upon its life. In political 
 organization the most apparent difference lay in 
 the fact that the little republics which constituted 
 the counties at the North were unknown at the 
 South. Those public servants whose duty it is 
 to manage the details, those who controlled the 
 school and the ballot-box, instead of being chosen 
 by the men of the vicinity were appointed by the 
 central authority of the State. In every respect 
 save in identity of form the political constitu- 
 tions of the two sections were utterly at variance. 
 Legislators at the South, it is true, were chosen 
 by the people, but in all cases the choice was 
 limited to those possessing certain qualifications 
 which predisposed them at once to the guardian- 
 ship of slavery. There was no opportunity for 
 liberty to take root. Freedom of individual 
 opinion had no power to make itself felt either 
 in society, in the church, or in the government. 
 The whole structure of the community was so 
 utterly different from that which lay just beyond 
 the mystic line that it seems strange now that 
 any one should have supposed for a moment that 
 
A Retrospect. 3 1 
 
 they were identical. They spoke the same lan- 
 guage, but they did not think the same thoughts. 
 The ideal of the one was liberty; the corner-stone 
 of the other, servitude. Humanity was the pass- 
 word in one ; mastership was essential to author- 
 ity in the other. The one made intelligence the 
 right hand of liberty ; the other accounted knowl- 
 edge its chiefest enemy. For this reason it was — 
 because both of the inherent differences existing 
 between these peoples, and irrepressible antagon- 
 isms between their respective ideals — that not 
 only did they fail to commingle and understand 
 each other, but by degrees distrust grew up be- 
 tween them. The aggressive thought and enter- 
 prise of the one was a constant menace to the 
 peace and security of the other. Wherever they 
 touched each other, dissension followed. The 
 lamp of knowledge was to slavery worse than the 
 torch of the incendiary. It showed to the slave 
 his fetters, to the poor man his degradation. 
 
 Added to these essential differences in the 
 constitution of society was the accident of color. 
 The boundary-line of servitude marked also the 
 distinction of race. Only the white man had the 
 right to freedom in the South. If by chance the 
 colored man obtained it, the instances were so 
 
32 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 rare, and even then it was fettered with so many 
 harsh conditions and attended with so little of 
 the real privilege of the freeman, that the ex- 
 ceptions served only to mark and emphasize the 
 rule. The man whose skin was black or even 
 tinged with trace of color stood before the law 
 a slave until proved otherwise by irrefragable 
 evidence. This fact — while it alone rendered 
 the continuance of slavery possible, while it per- 
 mitted the lines to be drawn, while it shut out 
 the slave from knowledge and opportnnity, while 
 it made the poorest white man the bitterest 
 enemy of the slave himself — produced in the 
 South also a strange, almost incomprehensible 
 element of hostility and aversion toward that peo- 
 ple of the North with whom they were formally 
 bound and among whom no such distinction pre- 
 vailed. In their minds the absence of slavery 
 meant the degradation of the dominant race. 
 Liberty for the black meant subjugation for the 
 whites ; and not subjugation alone, but depriva- 
 tion of that right which every people accounts 
 the highest and noblest — the 'right of domina- 
 tion and control. . When that other people be- 
 yond the invisible wall demanded for the slave 
 the rights which they accorded to manhood, 
 
A Retrospect. $3 
 
 these, who had grown up with other thoughts, 
 could not understand their desire. To them the 
 subject-race had always been a thing. The bar- 
 est shadow of right, if any inhered in him, the 
 right of the creature to serve and exist, was all 
 that they ever dreamed that this other man, this 
 presumptive slave, possessed. Why should any 
 others demand more for him ? They could not 
 realize the spirit of that rushing, eager, open- 
 hearted, open-handed people that dwelt to the 
 northward ; and misconstrued its purpose into 
 one of hate to them. So, there were added to 
 the existing causes of difference two potent and 
 bitter elements : the belief that they were wrong- 
 ed and oppressed ; and that strange, inconceivable 
 sentiment which we term race-prejudice, — the 
 feeling that so often springs up between peoples 
 of different races and contrasting characteristics. 
 
 Thus the distance between the two kindred 
 peoples that dwelt beneath the same roof-tree 
 and called themselves one nation, day by day 
 became greater, and a vague, impalpable senti- 
 ment of mutual hostility hour by hour grew more 
 intense. Each came to feel itself wronged by 
 the other. The one thought Liberty a menace 
 to Slavery ; the other esteemed Slavery a menace 
 
34 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 to Liberty. To the one the extermination of 
 slavery grew to be a divine behest, a sort of holy 
 crusade for liberty. To the other the mainte- 
 nance of slavery became that holiest thing which 
 can inspire a people, the defense of an inalien- 
 able right. It was, they believed, their indubita- 
 ble right, sanctioned by nature and religion and 
 expressly reserved and granted in the pact which 
 bound them to their strange neighbor to the 
 northward, that they should have, hold, and enjoy 
 the rights and privileges of mastership at their 
 pleasure. To them there was nothing strange or 
 anomalous in this relation. Slavery had been, 
 and was. Why should it not continue? To 
 them it was the normal state of society, a part of 
 the religious duty which they owed ; one of the 
 holiest Scriptural precepts, as they construed it, 
 enjoined the care and nurture of those bound 
 to them by the relation of servitude. They 
 called it a " domestic institution," because it 
 touched the home, because it was of the hearth- 
 stone. That any other people should seek to 
 interfere with this institution was to overturn 
 their household gods. The very thought was 
 degradation, not merely degradation to the man 
 but the utmost possible degradation to the wife 
 
A Retrospect. 35 
 
 and the daughter. To free the slave was to put 
 the negro on a level with the white man and 
 to open the door to his entrance as a guest ; to 
 invite him to stand side by side with those who 
 had been masters ; to offer to his embrace, the 
 unspotted daughter. This they verily believed. 
 
 Yet all the while two facts remained ; two 
 strange and unquestionable facts — a part of Yes- 
 terday's history which To-day should not forget 
 if it would secure To-morrow's welfare. The first 
 of these marvelous facts is that during all this 
 time both of these peoples kept on asserting that they 
 were one and inseparable, and the farther they 
 drifted apart in interest, in sentiment, in good-will, 
 the louder both of them shouted and the more 
 fiercely both of them clamored for unity and iden- 
 tity. The twin of this most curious fact is that 
 while both spoke the same language, professed 
 the same religion, and thought they were the 
 same people, neither one comprehended nor respected 
 the motives of the other. The South mocked at 
 the zeal for individual liberty that grew into a 
 crusade against slavery at the North, as hypoc- 
 risy and fanaticism. They could not credit the 
 idea that honest men could honestly believe that 
 the holding of slaves in bondage by millions of 
 
36 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 Christian people could be a crime and a sin against 
 God. The North could not believe that this 
 which they accounted a sin should be by other 
 honest men and Christians sincerely believed to 
 be not only a legal right and natural privilege 
 but a Christian duty. 
 
 So the end came, simply and naturally; the 
 end that a child might have foreseen from the be- 
 ginning : and that end was, war. The two peoples 
 found that they could no longer live as one. An 
 irrevocable destiny demanded that one ideal must 
 prevail and the other fall. No vigor of prevari- 
 cation could longer continue the farce of the 
 dual life. The time had come when the whole 
 land must be made one ; and through the whole 
 of that land must prevail one or the other of the 
 ideals that had heretofore dominated its constitu- 
 ent parts. The country must be " all slave or 
 all free." 
 

 ?/ 
 
 THE SOUTH S.^03,/29 FREEMEN! 
 
 ^4 
 
 A Forgotten Chapter. 
 
 WE have nothing to do with the struggle that 
 followed. History hath already recorded 
 it with more or less of exactitude. It was long 
 and fierce because two brave peoples fought with 
 the desperation of conviction — the one for the 
 establishment of what they deemed a holy prin- 
 ciple ; the other in the defense of what they 
 accounted their most sacred rights. 
 
 It was a wonderful conflict. Neither the world 
 nor the nation has ever yet half appreciated its 
 character and importance. Slavery and freedom 
 
3 8 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 claimed almost equal areas, but the South had 
 only eight millions of freemen to confront the 
 nineteen millions of the North. While her slaves 
 were in one sense an aid to her designs, in an- 
 other sense they were a positive disadvantage 
 from the first. Not only this ; at least two mil- 
 lions of the freemen of the border-States gave 
 no assistance to their natural allies, in the war 
 for secession. So that the odds may fairly be 
 stated as three to one, and that, too, not in a 
 defensive warfare, but with the smaller popula- 
 tion acting on the offensive. The very fact that 
 it required four years of warfare to bring either 
 overthrow or dissolution is sufficient to attest the 
 valor and fortitude of those who ultimately met 
 with defeat. As soldiers they might well claim 
 to rank above their conquerors. In skill and 
 sagacity of leadership they only lacked that phe- 
 nomenal genius which laughs at disparity of num- 
 bers. So close was " the conflict that even the 
 final subjugation was as much a surprise to the 
 victor as to the vanquished. The war's laurels 
 were not unevenly divided. Ending as it did 
 through exhaustion rather than defeat, there was 
 no sense of actual subjugation by the soldiery 
 who went to their homes with much of the same 
 
A Forgotten Chapter. 39 
 
 proud defiance of the enemy upon their lips that 
 had found expression four years before, when it 
 began. 
 
 Yet between the opposing forces there had 
 grown up little of individual feeling. The mo- 
 tives of either side were so different from what 
 they professed that it was almost impossible that 
 much of that rancor and hate which generally 
 attend civil wars should prevail. The South pro- 
 fessed to fight for the right of Secession : in fact, 
 her contest was to hold and preserve the right of 
 enslavement throughout her territory. The 
 North professed to resist simply the right of a 
 State to secede : in truth, its efforts were in the 
 main directed against Slavery, and the real rally- 
 ing-cry of her hosts was an appeal for liberty to 
 the oppressed and freedom for the slave. The 
 question of comparative power was settled by the 
 conflict. The question of comparative prowess 
 was left undecided. 
 
 The very first note of war disclosed the diverse 
 characters of the two peoples. The line of 
 cleavage ran sharp and clean along the borders of 
 the Slave States. In not one of the Free States 
 was there an attempt to organize rebellion. In 
 only one of the Slave States, and that one in 
 
40 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 which the slave system had almost expired, was 
 there an absence of such attempt. The two sec- 
 tions fell apart, not as a result of any organized 
 conspiracy, but as a consequence of antecedent 
 development. The root of secession was not in 
 the Constitution, nor in the teachings of states- 
 men, nor in the breath of conspirators, but in the 
 hearts of the people. The very nature and char- 
 acteristics of the struggle should have taught 
 every one this fact. The Confederacy was full- 
 grown in an hour. The organism that to-day 
 owed allegiance to the stars and stripes, to-mor- 
 mor flew the stars and bars without any inter- 
 regnum. The two peoples slipped away from 
 each other without any impairment of the au- 
 tonomy of either. Only the grip of an armed 
 hand held a foot of slave territory in unwilling 
 subjection to the national authority. This fact 
 alone should have taught the people of the North 
 the lesson of pre-existent difference ; but it did 
 not. 
 
 When the war was over there was no change of 
 sentiment on the part of the Southern people. 
 The distinctive differences between them and the 
 North were a little emphasized : that was all. 
 There was none of that personal animosity which 
 
A Forgotten Chapter. 41 
 
 sets a man's hand against his neighbor, except in 
 a few regions of limited extent. Even this was 
 soon swallowed up by the more general feeling of 
 collective antagonism. It was rare indeed to find 
 one upon either side after the close of the war 
 who had a personal antipathy against those who 
 had borne arms against them. All personal ma- 
 lignity was swallowed up in the antagonism that 
 divided the two great peoples like a gulf. If the 
 Southern man had an antipathy against a North- 
 ern man who sought to become his neighbor, it 
 was not because the new-comer had fought 
 against him, but because he represented the ideas 
 and civilization of the North against which the 
 South had waged war. Indeed, the war had 
 scarcely any of the characteristics of a civil war 
 at all. Our armies were almost as much in a 
 foreign country after they crossed Mason and 
 Dixon's line as a French army would be in the 
 heart of Germany. It may even be doubted if, 
 for the purposes of information and military 
 guidance and assistance, aside from the colored 
 race, the population of a foreign country would 
 not have been more serviceable to an invader. 
 In their theoretical construction of the Constitu- 
 tion, the South before the war was divided into 
 
42 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 parties. In their opposition to the action and 
 demands of the national government, perhaps no 
 people were ever more unanimous than the white 
 people of the South. It is true that in Eastern 
 Tennessee and Western North Carolina certain 
 regiments were raised for the Federal Army ; but 
 every one who knows anything about the com- 
 position of those corps is well aware that they 
 were very largely made up of men belonging to 
 Northern States. By reason of this, the fact of the 
 existence of such corps greatly magnified the ex- 
 tent, though not the intensity, of feeling against 
 the Confederate cause which existed in the 
 mountain-regions of the South. 
 
 So far, therefore, as a consideration of the exist- 
 ent differences between the North and the South 
 are concerned, the war may almost be left out of 
 sight. It was a consequence of difference, and 
 not to any material extent a cause. It modified 
 the form of society in the South, but not its 
 essential attributes. It is worthy of study as one 
 phase of the incongruous development which 
 made the inhabitants of the North one people 
 and the dwellers of the South quite another 
 people, but the war itself was not half so much a 
 civil war and did not leave half so many heart- 
 
A Forgotten Chapter. 43 
 
 burnings and animosities among the people as 
 did our war with the mother-country for inde- 
 pendence. When the conflict was over, each of 
 the hostile forces retired to its own country. 
 The soldiers of the North returned to their own 
 homes, and the warriors of the South to theirs. v > 
 The two peoples mingle hardly more to-day than 
 they did in i860. It would be almost impossible 
 that they should mingle less. It is not necessary 
 for our purposes to awaken any of the antipa- 
 thies or prejudices of the war. No appeal to 
 passion or hate is intended or will be made. 
 Only plain hard truths — given not in blame but 
 in explanation of events that have occurred and 
 of facts that now exist — will be found in this 
 volume. The war, with whatever animosities it 
 engendered, may well be laid aside as having no 
 bearing in itself upon the present or the future. 
 
 Whether a man was Confederate or Federal in 
 the war for the preservation of the Union, the 
 overthrow of secession and the freedom of the 
 slave, is of very little consequence at this time. 
 Why he was the one or the other is worthy of the 
 most earnest thought, simply because it bears 
 upon the questions " What is he to-day?" and 
 " What will he be to-morrow?" All that it is 
 
44 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 needful for the citizen and the statesman of to- 
 day to remember of the great war of yesterday is, 
 not the battles, the marches, the conflicts, — not 
 the courage, the suffering, the blood, but only the 
 causes that underlay the struggle and the results 
 that followed from it. We are right to speak of 
 forgetting the war, its animosities, its sufferings, 
 its sad memories ; but only fools forget that 
 which causes war ; and they are worse than fools, 
 they are enemies of all mankind, who forget to 
 study and to note the results of war and the 
 duties and responsibilities arising therefrom. 
 The lessons of war pertain not to the conflict but 
 to its causes. If those who have stood face to 
 face as enemies have not learned better their re- 
 spective duties towards each other thereby, then 
 war has been in vain. Blood and hatred must be 
 forgotten; duty and the truths which- underlay 
 the dissension should never be lost sight of. 
 Because an opponent is honest it does not follow 
 that he is right, nor is it certain that because 
 he was overthrown he was in the wrong. The 
 wager of battle is no longer accounted an un- 
 erring test of righteousness. Because a people 
 battle manfully for what they believe to be right, 
 it does not follow that when the conflict is ended 
 
A Forgotten Chapter. 45 
 
 the cause of difference should be forgotten. The 
 old life cannot be taken up again, much less the 
 old lie. The two peoples that could not be made 
 one by a century of persistent asseveration can- 
 not become identical in the twinkling of an eye. 
 What is needful for the present and the future 
 can only be ascertained by the closest study and 
 the most perfect apprehension of all the elements 
 and influences of the past. 
 
 The Northern ideal prevailed ; the Southern 
 ideal was destroyed. Slavery, the great object of 
 attack and offense, was obliterated. The victory 
 was complete, the surrender unconditional. The 
 conquering power made their own terms with the 
 conquered people. Strangely enough they went 
 back to the old fault. They uttered again the 
 old delusive cry, " We are one '" They said to 
 the South, " The only thing that divided us is no 
 more. The slave is free. We will make him a 
 citizen. We will give him power. He shall be 
 as one with us. He shall dwell with you on 
 terms of peace and equality. Now there is noth- 
 ing to distinguish us. As we are, so are you. 
 We will take up the thread of our united life 
 where it was broken off. We will live together 
 and be one people. W T e will forgive and for- 
 
4 6 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 get ; nay, we have forgiven and forgotten 
 already !" 
 
 Fools ! As though two giant trunks become 
 one simply because the hurricane has lashed their 
 inlocking branches together for an hour. 
 
 The Southern people did not respond heartily 
 to this effusive greeting, simply because they did 
 not believe in its sincerity. They felt themselves 
 wronged and crushed. They could not forget, 
 and they found it hard to be forgiven. What 
 the North accounted an act of grace and mercy 
 was to them far more humiliating than defeat. 
 The blow that followed war was a thousand 
 times worse than war itself. The abolition of 
 slavery was nothing in their eyes when compared 
 with the enfranchisement of the freedman. De- 
 feat might have been endured bravely ; the loss 
 might have been forgotten ; but the humiliation 
 that came through the enfranchisement of the 
 negro was a new aggression, an inconceivable 
 insult and degradation, the shame of which no 
 words can tell. 
 
 The North, its purposes accomplished, clapped 
 its hands gleefully and boasted of its magna- 
 nimity, its Christian kindness, its sagacity, its 
 shrewdness. No blood had been shed ; no 
 
A Forgotten Chapter. 4; 
 
 punishment meted out. No rebel life had 
 been required in expiation for the crime of trea- 
 son. No man's goods or chattels had been- 
 taken, so they said. No misguided leader had 
 been expatriated. There had only been grace 
 and mercy ; and in a little while, a very little 
 while, we should have peace. Yet the years went 
 on, and peace came not. All the objects of 
 Northern desire had been achieved. The slave 
 had been made free. The freedman had been 
 made a voter. The forms of Northern society 
 had been imposed upon the life of the South. 
 There was nothing more to be done. All that 
 patriotism, humanity, and the highest Christian 
 sentiment could demand had been performed.- 
 We had forgiven our enemies, freed the slave, and 
 shown master and servant how they might dwell 
 in peace together. Nay, we had gone farther 
 still. We tore from our banners the names of 
 battles where our brothers had been our foes. 
 From the captured cannon we erased the inscrip- 
 tion that told from whom it was wrested. We 
 put away the trophies of victory that they might 
 molder unseen. From the register of our army 
 we obliterated every word that could offend. 
 Surely we had done ail our duty — and a little 
 
48 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 more. Not only grace and oblivion had we ex- 
 tended to our enemy, but greeting and congratu- 
 lation also. Years went on ; and yet the peace- 
 able fruits of our righteousness did not appear. 
 Despite all that the North has done, despite the 
 freedom of the slave, the emancipation of the 
 freedman, the destruction of the old " corner- 
 stone," the South remains — the South ! The 
 affinity between it and the North has hardly 
 grown stronger than it was a quarter of a century 
 ago. Can it be possible that anything is wrong ? 
 Is it conceivable that in our work of reconstruc- 
 tion we have left undone anything that needed to 
 be done ? Can the wisdom, the patriotism, the 
 sentiment of the North by any possibility be at 
 fault ? Is there any further thing needful for us 
 to do ? After twenty years, when half of those 
 who saw the end of conflict have already 
 passed away, it would be well if we could stop 
 and ask ourselves these qestions, and answer 
 them calmly in the light of the facts of history. 
 Can we do it ? Will we do it ? We shall see. 
 
The White Spaces Show Proportions. 
 
 Some Qjjeer Notions Plainly 
 Stated. 
 
 FOR himself, the author has become impressed 
 with the truth of certain propositions ; some 
 of which persons much wiser than he may deny, 
 and others of which they may doubt. Some there 
 certainly are who will reject them. There may 
 be those who, having assented to what was done 
 when it was done, are now so sure that what they 
 then did was in all respects perfect and complete 
 that they do not deem it worth their while to 
 work out the reckoning anew. Such will, of 
 
50 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 course, find nothing in these propositions worthy 
 of consideration. There are some who will at 
 once accept a part of them and reject the others 
 without consideration. Of those, however, who 
 believe that even Wisdom may sometimes err, 
 there are probably very few who will not find in 
 them abundant food for very serious thought. 
 
 The propositions are these : 
 I. — The real object of Reconstructionary legisla- 
 tion was to eradicate all irreconcilable dif- 
 ferences between the North and the South, 
 and thereby avoid future conflict, establish 
 homogeneity of sentiment throughout the 
 country, and make the nation ONE 
 PEOPLE, not merely in form, but also in 
 fact. 
 II. — The legislation which followed the close of 
 the war, and which has generally been 
 termed Reconstructionary, was utterly 
 insufficient to accomplish such results, 
 either immediately or ultimately, — in a de- 
 cade or in a century. 
 III. — This Reconstructionary legislation, whatever 
 its other merits or defects, whether of princi- 
 ple or detail, lacked some essential element 
 and must be and remain a failure, if not a 
 
Some Queer Notions Plainly Stated. 51 
 
 farce, until that element is in some manner 
 supplied. 
 
 IV. — Every hour that we delay to ascertain and 
 apply this supplementary remedy for the 
 evils of the past is fraught with a danger 
 which cannot be measured and can hardly 
 be estimated by any examples which History 
 has furnished. 
 
 V. — If such remedy is not speedily applied, the 
 evil that must result will be far greater than 
 would have been likely to arise from the 
 continuance of slavery. 
 
 VI. — To give the slave his freedom, and impose 
 upon the freedman the duties and responsi- 
 bilities of the citizen, without providing for 
 his instruction in those duties or securing 
 him in their exercise, is not only a more 
 perilous thing to the nation, but just as in- 
 human a thing to the slave as to have left 
 him still in bondage. 
 
 VII. — On the one hand, to free four millions of 
 slaves, not one in a hundred of whom could 
 read or write, and not one of whom had the 
 means for providing himself with to-mor- 
 row's bread ; to give those freedmen an 
 equal right with the other citizens of the 
 
52 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 several States in determining the policy and 
 destiny not only of those States but also of 
 the nation : and, on the other hand, to make 
 no provision for their enlightenment, but to 
 leave their instruction entirely to communi- 
 ties impoverished by war and predisposed 
 by antecedent development and the preju- 
 dice of race and caste, as well as by the 
 method and attendant circumstances of 
 emancipation, to do but scanty justice to 
 the negro — to do this thing and to leave 
 the other undone, was not only an act of 
 folly but of cowardly oppression to our foes, 
 and of the basest treachery to our allies in 
 war. 
 
 VIII. — So thoroughly have the conscience and 
 intelligence of the North apprehended these 
 facts that, while the nation has done noth- 
 ing, they have given in private charity 
 intended to remedy this evil, nearly a million 
 dollars a year for nearly twenty years. This 
 is the instinct of a people versus the stupid- 
 ity of her legislators. 
 
 IX. — The turpitude of doing nothing is, in this 
 case, only equaled by the folly of leaving 
 the method of action to the determination 
 
Some Queer Notions Plainly Stated, 53 
 
 of those who are, a priori, least favorably 
 inclined to the results necessary to be 
 achieved. 
 X. — The chief reasons why, with an overflowing 
 treasury, nothing has yet been done in this 
 direction are the following: (a) No party 
 has yet laid its imperative behest upon its 
 servants that they should do this thing at 
 the peril of disapproval for neglect ; (b) No 
 party has yet discovered any means by 
 which it may utilize such a piece of states- 
 manship to enhance its chances in the next 
 election by an appeal to the self-interest of 
 the voters ; (c) No method has yet been 
 devised by which the same unity of senti- 
 ment can be obtained for such a measure as 
 for the River and Harbor Appropriation— 
 that is, by making it an engine for the elec- 
 tion of a Republican in one district and a 
 Democrat in another. 
 
 Any one who agrees with these ten proposi- 
 tions does not need to read this book. To one 
 who agrees with none of them its perusal would 
 be a useless waste of time. To those who believe 
 
54 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 a part and doubt or deny the rest, it is hoped 
 that it may suggest some things that shall serve 
 either to confirm or remove the doubt, and 
 thereby assist them in determining upon the duty 
 they have to perform. Whether the Nation shall 
 seek to avoid evil or wait supinely until evil 
 comes, it is well that the PEOPLE, who are its 
 rulers, should decide with open eyes upon their 
 duty and the behests they will lay upon their 
 servants. 
 
A Bit of Personal History. 
 
 THAT the reader may fully understand how 
 the author came to entertain the views set 
 forth, it may be proper to understand the circum- 
 stances under which he has studied the facts 
 on which he conceives these conclusions mainly 
 to rest. This makes it necessary to refer to his 
 own life, only so far, however, as it was connect- 
 ed with, and liable to be affected by, the public 
 events of the Reconstructionary period. 
 
 When the war of rebellion ended he was yet 
 a young man. He had been a soldier in the 
 
56 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 Northern army. War and wounds had told some- 
 what on his chances of life. A milder clime was 
 commended to him. He hailed the dawn of 
 peace and the opening to quiet occupancy of the 
 region over which war had swept as a godsend. 
 He knew nothing, thought nothing, of the pros- 
 pects of the future. He was an American, a fair 
 average representative of Northern thought and 
 education. To him the war through which we 
 had just passed meant hardly more than a sudden 
 quarrel with a boon companion in his boyhood. 
 He realized that there had been a war, a long and 
 bloody one ; but he said to himself that the war 
 had been caused by slavery : slavery was at an 
 end, peace had come ; and that was all. \He ex- 
 pected the future to be as bright and busy with- 
 in the conquered territory as it had been along 
 the ever-advancing frontier of the West. He 
 thought a new life would come, a new purpose 
 spring up. Of the true character of the South, 
 he was, like all his class, profoundly ignorant ; 
 almost as ignorant as the men who made the 
 Nation's laws. If he thought anything at all 
 about the previous development of ideas and 
 civilization in that region, he simply expect- 
 ed them to be overturned and absorbed bv 
 
A Bit of Personal History. 57 
 
 the more active and aggressive ideas of the 
 North. He expected the whole region to be 
 transformed by the power of commerce, manu- 
 factures, and the incursion of Northern life, 
 thought, capital, industry, enterprise. To his 
 imagination the South which had been devas- 
 tated by war was to blossom like the rose almost 
 within an hour. Peace ; he never dreamed of 
 anything but peace. He supposed, of course, that 
 there might be isolated acts of crime committed 
 by the debris of disbanded armies ; that private 
 violence would follow in the track of war for a 
 few months, possibly for a year. Such he be- 
 lieved to be the universal fact of history, and it 
 gave him no apprehension. That there should 
 be anything of bitterness or hostility between 
 classes or races that should materially delay the 
 coming of that millennium the dawn of which 
 seemed to be gilding the horizon, he did not even 
 imagine. Of course, the question occurred to 
 him as to all others who looked upon those 
 events, as to what would be the relations of the 
 slave to his former master — whether the slave- 
 holder would readily and cheerfully recognize 
 the freedman as a self-directing integer ? Yet he 
 knew so little of slavery, he so utterly failed to 
 
5 8 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 comprehend the strength and vigor of Southern 
 civilization, that he had no doubt in regard to 
 the matter. To him slavery was a mere form. 
 Yesterday the Southern planter had owned his 
 laborer ; to-morrow he would pay him wages : 
 that was all. He had known only the wage- 
 system himself. He had lived in a community 
 where there was practically but one race, and 
 the few representatives of another were almost 
 undistinguishable by lack of right or privilege. 
 To him these extraneous relations seemed so 
 very easy of adjustment that he had no doubt 
 but the year which followed the folding away 
 of the battle-flags would bring not only perfect 
 peace, but an era of most unprecedented pros- 
 perity. 
 
 He had, too, the Northern man's unfailing 
 faith in the healing efficacy of trade. He thought 
 the plaster, of profit laid upon the sores of war 
 would work a miraculous cure. It was not 
 strange. Industry and enterprise had transform- 
 ed the North from a wilderness into a teeming 
 hive. All the obstructions that nature interposed 
 between the Orient and the Occident had been 
 overcome by the magical inspiration of greed. 
 Wherever opportunity for advantage offered, 
 
A Bit of Personal History. 59 
 
 there the keenest and strongest spirits had made 
 haste to congregate. Kingdoms had been con- 
 quered from barbarism and barrenness almost in 
 the twinkling of an eye. The cabin of the pio- 
 neer had given way to the palace of the merchant- 
 prince almost before the moss had time to grow 
 upon its shingles. Miracles of this sort, more 
 marvelous than any that history has recorded, 
 had been wrought day after day before the eyes 
 of his generation until they had come to be 
 thought almost the normal facts of life. He hon- 
 estly believed that a like transformation would 
 soon occur at the South. Already, in his imagi- 
 nation, her watercourses yielded up their power; 
 her forests drew back before the axman's hand ; 
 her fields teemed with free competitive labor ; 
 cities rose ; palaces were builded ; the spirit of 
 the North brooded over the new domain, merged 
 itself with the existent life, and hoisted above the 
 mountain-peaks the flag of a world — defying com- 
 petition. Intelligence and enterprise transformed 
 the land without rancor, without thought of the 
 past, but by sheer force of the busy purposes of 
 to-morrow. He saw people press on and on, in 
 what was to him the race of progress and the 
 path of civilization. He had no apprehension, 
 
60 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 much less fear. He had not even doubt. He 
 did not dream that the era to which he looked 
 forward with such glowing anticipation might be 
 put off from year to year, aye, even from century 
 to century. 
 
 Because he thought he bore a shattered life he 
 sought a milder clime. He took his young wife 
 with him, and they builded there their first home- 
 nest almost before the smoke of battle disap- 
 peared. Where he had been a soldier he became 
 a citizen. His first object was restored health : 
 his next, desire to share the general prosperity. 
 The brightness of the future of which he dreamed 
 softened all the little asperities of the present. 
 Like all those his brethren of the North, he was 
 proud of what had been done, and believed that a 
 few months — the first full harvest at the farthest 
 — would bring the people of the South to rejoice 
 also in the prospect of a bright and golden future. 
 He knew the North had been right, gloriously 
 right, nobly right : no man of the North ever 
 doubted that. And because they had been so 
 absolutely right, so free from fault or blame, so 
 void of guile or animosity, so unswayed by self- 
 ishness, so inspired by love of liberty and justice 
 for all — because of all these admitted postulates 
 
A Bit of Personal History. 6 1 
 
 of our Northern life and national struggle, he 
 thought, — and every Northern man believed, — 
 they could not doubt, the wisest of their wise men 
 assured them there could be no doubt — that in a 
 few brief days, a month or two, within a year at 
 the farthest, all their sometime enemies, every 
 dweller at the South, black and white, high and 
 low, would rejoice in the new fellowship of liberty 
 and the wonderful impetus that free thought 
 and free labor should give to enterprise and pros- 
 perity. Of course he did not formulate these 
 things to himself ; neither did his brethren, the 
 people of the North. They could not have done so 
 then. But throughout the North the people felt 
 them, and he and others acted upon them. So, 
 before the smell of the battle had departed from 
 the brazen throats of the captured cannon, he 
 had builded his home in the theater where war's 
 great drama had been enacted, and before the 
 first summer solstice had arrived had become a 
 citizen of the newly subjugated land. 
 
 He waited undoubtingly. The country waited 
 wonderingly. A month passed by; another; 
 and yet another. It was strange ! The millen- 
 nium had not yet come. The happy period 
 which we all knew to be at hand somehow seemed 
 
62 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 to have been strangely delayed. Looking back 
 from our position of a score of years afterward, 
 those three years of waiting from 1865 to 1868 
 are somehow strangely forgotten. We are apt to 
 think that Reconstruction abutted squarely on 
 the period of war. Because nothing was done, 
 because history was silent, because exultation was 
 giving way to the doubtfulness of hope deferred, 
 we seem simply to have 'lost the power of meas- 
 uring or appreciating the interval that came be- 
 tween. Yet it was not insignificant or unfruit- 
 ful either in achievement or warning, for during 
 that period the forces were gathering which have 
 since faced each other upon Southern soil. 
 
 The South recovered from the stupor of 
 defeat ; the North awakened to a feverish de- 
 mand that something should be done. For three 
 years Northern power and philanthropy domi- 
 nated the conquered territory. The army and 
 the Freedmen's Bureau represented the national 
 authority and Northern sentiment. Both were 
 galling to the subjugated element. As time 
 passed, and they noted the conqueror's hesitancy, 
 their native arrogance resumed its sway, and the 
 terms they had at first been willing to accept 
 with gratitude they were now ready to reject 
 
A Bit of Personal History. 6 
 
 with scorn. The opposition to the Government 
 became as bitter and hostile as when it was 
 united under the banner of rebellion. The long 
 delay had not only permitted the sentiment of 
 hostility to gather new life, but it added nothing 
 to the wisdom or comprehension of those whose 
 duty it was to prescribe the terms of reconstruc- 
 tion. Perhaps the most remarkable period in our 
 legislative history is that from the spring of 1865 
 to the spring of 1867. For two long years the air 
 was full of political pyrotechnics. Our legislative 
 halls were simply the theaters of forensic jubilee. 
 Month after month our orators boasted of what 
 had been done in the past, and of what would 
 be done in the future. A dozen milk-and-water 
 antidotes, excuses for doing nothing, were pro- 
 posed and discussed and laid aside. Wisdom 
 overflowed in an abundance never before paral- 
 leled. Everybody knew just how the task of 
 rebuilding should be performed, but no one 
 had considered it worth his while to examine 
 with any care the foundations on which the new 
 superstructure must be reared. But for the fact 
 of continued military occupation of the subju- 
 gated territory, the spirit manifested by Con- 
 gress in the conflict with President Johnson, and 
 
64 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the evident inclination of the people of the 
 North to put the power of the country into 
 the hands of its great military chieftain, the 
 spirit of disaffection which had been fostered 
 by the long period of delay would unquestion- 
 ably have swept the Southern people again into 
 the vortex of revolt when they came to realize 
 the extent and character of what they deemed 
 the affront which was put upon them by the 
 elevation of the colored man to power. It 
 was this period that really shaped the character 
 of subsequent events. Instead of tending to re- 
 concile the Southern people in any degree to the 
 bitterness of defeat, it only added to the intensity 
 of their chagrin. They not only felt themselves 
 a conquered people, but the emblems of subjuga- 
 tion were constantly flaunted in their faces. If 
 the same plan of reconstruction that was finally 
 adopted had been put in force immediately upon 
 the close of the war, and the Freedmen's Bureau 
 or some modification of it been made a permanent 
 national institution, the history of the South for 
 the past twenty years might have been very differ- 
 ent from that which we now regard with so much 
 of amazement and shame. Or if that period of 
 delay had been employed by our law-makers in a 
 
A Bit of Personal History. 65 
 
 careful study of the work which lay before them, it 
 is altogether impossible that they should have at- 
 tempted to accomplish that task with only the 
 weak and insufficient instrumentalities which they 
 finally employed. 
 
 When the end came and Reconstruction was 
 what we term "an accomplished fact," these 
 things had been achieved : 
 
 The slave had bee?i made free and given the rights 
 and privileges appertaining to independent manhood. 
 
 The freedman had been made a voter and given 
 an equal voice witJi his former master in the direc- 
 tion of public affairs. 
 
 An immense majority of the white people of the 
 South had arrayed themselves against the latter 
 proposition. The freedom of tJie slave was not con- 
 tested, J lis right to enjoy the inherent privileges of 
 independent existence zvas only incidentally denied; 
 but resistance to his right to be a political factor 
 was an indissoluble bond that bound togctJier as 
 if it were an article of religious faith the great 
 majority cf the whites of the South, including 
 almost all of its wealth, intelligence, respectabil- 
 ity, and experience. 
 
 Against this compacted force inflamed by every 
 motive — of pride in a peculiarly brilliant past, of 
 
66 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 revenge for wrongs of long standing culminating 
 in humiliating defeat, of insult forever renewed by 
 the presence and position of the colored man in the 
 political arena, — against this force was arrayed the 
 weak debris of servitude, ignorance, and poverty ; a 
 few iv 1 lite men whose forecast led them to break 
 away from the majority ; some whom patriotic con- 
 viction ruled; and many whom the greed of gain 
 inspired; a few, a very few, whom the North had 
 sliaped by its own peculiar influences, who had cast 
 in their fortunes with the South at the close of the 
 conflict. These two forces stood arrayed agai?ist each 
 other at the close of the period of suspense. The 
 story of what ensued is only the oft-repeated tale 
 of history — aggression by the strong, sullen endur- 
 ance by the weak. It was in watching this con- 
 flict from its incipiency that the author's convic- 
 tions were formed, and the events of every suc- 
 ceeding year only tend to strengthen them; 
 
 The " color-line" which before marked only the 
 distinction of caste, has now become the line of 
 demarkation between hostile forces. Out of the 
 "irrepressible conflict" between freedom and 
 slavery has grown one of far graver portent to 
 the nation and the world. Ignorance, poverty, 
 inherited barbarism, in that transition period took 
 
A Bit of Personal History. 67 
 
 up the conflict for equality of right and parity of 
 authority, against intelligence, wealth, experience, 
 and the bitter prejudice which centuries had en- 
 gendered between subject-black and dominant- 
 white. What will be the outcome of this con- 
 flict ? This is the great question of to-day. Shall 
 it be indefinitely prolonged and a state of feverish 
 uncertainty forever prevail at the South ? Must 
 one of these forces overthrow, subjugate, and 
 forever hold in subjection the other? Or is it 
 possible that the two elements may be reconciled, 
 the two races live peacefully side by side, and 
 equality of right and power be cheerfully accorded 
 to all? 
 
 Because he believes that this might easily have 
 been accomplished then, — and may still be done 
 if the remedy be quickly applied, the writer makes 
 this appeal to that Caesar who alone hath power 
 to compel action on the part of our legislators. 
 
A Shattered Idol. 
 
 THE failure of the Reconstruction Acts to 
 accomplish the results which their authors 
 anticipated from their operation must be ad- 
 mitted by every one. Misrule and violence were 
 their first fruits. The control of the majority was 
 only less shameful than the organized violence by 
 which the minority sought to regain the power 
 which had been wrested from them by the eleva- 
 tion of the freedman to the rank of the citizen. 
 
 The responsibility for this failure rests entirely 
 with the people and the statesmen of the North. 
 
A Shattered Idol. 69 
 
 It is bootless to say that the South has not 
 heartily co-operated with them in the work of 
 progress and rehabilitation. As Northern arms 
 triumphed in the field, so Northern ideas 
 triumphed in the forum. The work of recon- 
 struction was purely and solely the task of 
 Northern legislators. That the South — that is, 
 the elements that constituted " the South" before 
 the struggle culminated in war — did not co-oper- 
 ate willingly in carrying it into effect was only 
 what should have been expected. It was one of 
 the elements of the problem which our states- 
 men had set themselves to solve. Resistance, 
 apathy, every possible species of obstruction 
 should have been foreseen and provided for. 
 The duty which devolved upon the people and 
 legislators of " the North" at the close of the war 
 was the obliteration of those differences which 
 had so long separated the two peoples. The task 
 which devolved upon the victor was to unify the 
 nation in spirit as well as in form. It was a task 
 that could not be shirked. The victory of the 
 North was complete, and the surrender of the 
 South unconditional. The first step in the per- 
 formance of this task should have been to ascer- 
 tain the causes of difference ; the second, either 
 
yo An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 to remove those causes at once or to set in oper- 
 ation such political, social, and economic 
 machinery as should sooner or later work their 
 utter eradication. In other words, the duty of 
 the North was to have made such use of the 
 power of the government, which it absolutely con- 
 trolled, as to bring about this unification. The 
 causes of difference were the causes of war. To 
 remove them was simply to take precaution 
 against after-turmoil. The first of these it was 
 easy to detect and name, — slavery. The cure for 
 it was equally simple, — emancipation, liberty. 
 The half only was accomplished, however, when 
 the war was ended and a constitutional amend- 
 ment declared that institution legally defunct. 
 Slavery as a formal fact was dead. No master 
 could longer assert the right of ownership and 
 control. But slaves and masters are not made in 
 an hour and cannot be unmade by legal enact- 
 ment. Mastery and servitude are not attributes 
 that can be put on and off like a garment. The 
 other chief element of difference was the preju- 
 dice of race, and was a far more difficult and 
 delicate question. Unfortunately it was almost 
 coterminous in its influences with slavery it- 
 self, although it was occasionally manifested in 
 
A Shattered Idol. ji 
 
 some forms at the North also. For this reason it 
 was difficult, except by the keenest analysis, to 
 separate the question of the slave's right to 
 liberty from the colored man's claim to equality 
 before the law. In order to assimilate the struc- 
 ture of Southern society to the model of North- 
 ern life it seemed necessary to do two things : 
 first to make the slave a free man, and second to 
 make the freedman a citizen. The first was very 
 easily done. A few lines upon the statute-book, 
 an executive proclamation, a constitutional 
 amendment : perhaps no one of them was of itself 
 entirely sufficient, but certainly all of them were 
 enough to accomplish what the triumph of 
 Northern arms had already made inevitable. 
 The other, the elevation of the recent slave to 
 the plane of citizenship, was a far more difficult 
 and complicated matter. To accomplish this, 
 three things were necessary : first, to clothe the 
 freedman with the right to exercise the privileges 
 of citizenship ; second, to assure to him the op- 
 portunity for their exercise ; and third, to enable 
 him to apprehend and rightly to perform the 
 duties of the citizen. Perhaps the last should 
 have come first. It is hard to say ; at least it did 
 not. Those who framed the reconstructionary 
 
72 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 legislation and exulted in what they had done, 
 seem not to have accounted this element of 
 citizenship of any importance whatever. The 
 fact that a man was free and had the abstract 
 right to enjoy and exercise the privileges of the 
 citizen seemed to be thought all that was neces- 
 sary to transform a million of unlettered slaves 
 into an equal number of self-governing citizens to 
 whom the power of the ballot might safely be in- 
 trusted. They had forgotten, or they did not 
 know, that something more than liberty is re- 
 quired to enable a man to perform the functions 
 of one of the co-ordinate rulers of a republic. 
 The first element of any task is to know what is 
 to be done. To properly exercise the functions 
 of the citizen a man must first of all things under- 
 stand the nature and importance of those duties. 
 Sumner exulted too quickly when he declared 
 that by giving the ballot to the freedman we had 
 " chained him to the chariot-wheel of American 
 progress." The years that have followed this 
 legislation have proved most conclusively that the 
 ballot to him who knows not how to exercise its 
 power is but a sword in a blind man's hand. So 
 far as any power to protect himself or benefit his 
 race is concerned, the colored man of the South 
 
A Shattered Idol 73 
 
 to-day might almost as well be once more a slave. 
 Ignorance and poverty have proved themselves 
 weak in a conflict against knowledge and wealth. 
 The power which once rested in the master indi- 
 vidually has not yet departed from the race col- 
 lectively. The white race of the South rules that 
 region to-day with as little regard to the right or 
 power of the colored citizenship as if its possess- 
 ors • were simply chattels-real. Whatever the 
 colored man receives of right, whatever he has of 
 privilege, is granted to him simply by the grace 
 of those who were once his masters ; whether this 
 be more or less, whether it be a complete or par- 
 tial liberty, it matters not. It is only important 
 that we bear in mind the fact that race stands 
 against race, the former slave over against the 
 former master, and that the power given to the 
 newly enfranchised is still ineffective either to 
 enforce his rights or secure his legitimate privi- 
 leges. 
 
 It matters not how this error might have been 
 avoided: there are many who believe that enfran- 
 chisement should have been a matter of time and 
 not instantaneous ; that it should have been the 
 reward of industry and intelligence and not the 
 accident of political necessity. There are those 
 
74 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 who believe it would have been better to have 
 allowed the freedman thus to struggle on toward 
 the fullness of liberty, and in that struggle to 
 gain the respect and sympathy of those who 
 had been his masters. There are those who 
 believe that if this had been placed before him 
 as the reward of such effort, the history of the 
 race would have been more peaceful and at the 
 same time been richer in accomplished good than 
 it now is. This we cannot tell. The simple fact 
 is that it was not done. In an instant we 
 gave to a million freedmen the rights, the privi- 
 leges, and the dignity of coequal citizenship with 
 the dominant race. In the brief period of 
 three years, from 1865 to 1868, four millions of 
 people were lifted from the level of the 
 slave to the rank of kings. Not only the priv- 
 ileges but the duties of government were laid 
 upon them. They were required to legislate and 
 to execute. They were authorized to choose and 
 to control. Against them were arrayed the pride, 
 the knowledge, the experience, and the wealth of 
 the white race. A child cognizant of these facts 
 should have foreseen the result. Yet the wisest of 
 our legislators thought them not worthy of con- 
 sideration. 
 
A Shattered Idol. 75 
 
 Left to themselves, these conflicting ideas 
 would naturally produce the very results that 
 have followed. To them is traceable with the 
 utmost clearness all the striking facts of Southern 
 history since the close of the war. First there 
 was wholesale slaughter in the open day, like the 
 massacre at New Orleans, when negroes and white 
 men first met in a public capacity to organize a 
 party of which the negro should be a constitu- 
 ent element. Then we had the Ku Klux Klan, 
 composed of the very best of the white people 
 from Virginia to Texas, as its recent historian 
 tells us, organized into a band of regulators to 
 make the colored people " behave themselves," in 
 the old-time sense of the term ; that is, as slaves 
 and inferiors should " behave." Against this and 
 kindred organizations, such as " Rifle-Clubs" and 
 " Bull-Dozers," there was a sullen though unsuc- 
 cessful resistance — an opposition as remarkable 
 for the courage displayed by colored voters as it 
 was pathetic for its failure. Then came the 
 period of prostration which yet continues, when 
 
 1 yielded to a force 
 y cope with, l ^ugh 
 
 the majority had at lengt 
 
 they could not successful!; 
 
 still smarting under a constant and increa ;,:g 
 
 sense of injustice. 
 
76 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 During all this time, the line of conflict, the 
 picket-line of danger, has been that which sepa- 
 rates the races. The slaughter at Hamburg arose, 
 by all accounts, out of a controversy between a 
 colored militia company and two young white 
 men as to which should occupy the highway. 
 The killing at Danville is said to have been caused 
 by a white man's demand that a negro should 
 give him the sidewalk. Matthews and a score of 
 other white men have been killed during the past 
 few years because they were " organizing the 
 negroes" or " stirring up the negroes against the 
 whites." In half a dozen Southern towns there 
 have been reports that the negroes were " arming 
 against the whites." Troops have been called out 
 to suppress such disturbances several times even 
 during the past year or two. Only two months 
 ago the mayor of a little South Carolina town 
 telegraphed for ten thousand rounds of ammuni- 
 tion to put down the negroes who were " firing 
 on the citizens." Ten days after the Danville 
 riot the press of the country was teeming with a 
 report that " the negroes were rising in North 
 ampton " 
 
 These things are not referred to in order to 
 discuss the right or wrong of the acts themselves. 
 
A Shattered Idol. ?7 
 
 The field is too broad and the matter of excuse 
 or palliation too subtle to be properly considered 
 here. All that is intended by mentioning these 
 is to show that the line of cleavage in Southern 
 life is the line of color. All other interests, 
 prejudices and feelings vanish before the one 
 consideration of race. ' " I am a white man," was 
 the reply of a witness in the Danville investiga- 
 tion, " and stand by my people." He did not 
 claim that he knew anything about the cause of 
 the affray. He did not care to know. On the 
 one side were negroes ; on the other, whites. He 
 needed nothing more to show where he should 
 stand. A similar spirit was manifested by the 
 colored witnesses. They regarded the attack as 
 directed against their race and consequently 
 against themselves. In other words, the line of 
 danger and friction and conflict at the South is 
 where race touches race in interest or in claim of 
 right. Hamburg and Danville were not sporadic 
 cases of riot resulting from local causes. They all 
 have a common cause — the antagonism of race 
 intensified by the hostility of caste. They are 
 not isolated and spontaneous combustions, but 
 are simply craters the eruptions from which give 
 evidence of the ■ molten sea which underlies 
 
;S An Appeal to Cczsar. 
 
 the whole social and political life of the Southern 
 people. 
 
 This is proved not merely by the events 
 themselves, but by the intense and fierce excite- 
 ment that pervades every Southern community 
 upon the rumor of any such disturbance. Only 
 let it be reported that " the negroes are rising" in 
 any little town of the South, and a whole State is 
 thrown into a fever of excitement. Cities a hun- 
 dred miles away rush to arms. Nothing else is 
 thought of. Men and women rave wildly about 
 it as if a savage invader had landed upon the 
 coast. There is nothing to parallel the excite- 
 ment it causes except the red-eyed fury which 
 prevails in a Western mining-camp upon the 
 rumor of Indian outrages at some remote ranch 
 on the frontier. They are similar in character 
 because they spring from a like source. Both are 
 instinctive manifestations of rage against the pre- 
 sumptuous violence of what are considered com- 
 mon enemies, members of another and an inferior 
 race. Resentment at the presumption of an 
 inferior mingles with apprehension and the desire 
 for revenge. It reminds one who has witnessed 
 it of the indignant terror which fills the breasts of 
 English residents in India at the rumor of rebel- 
 
A Shattered Idol. jg 
 
 lion among the " niggers" which the few thou- 
 sands of British subjects hold in check in their 
 Oriental empire. In short, it is the feeling which 
 has universally prevailed, in a more or less intense 
 form, between two races of distinct and unassimi- 
 lable characteristics occupying the same territory. 
 In this case, both color and caste prevent the uni- 
 fication of the people. Practically considered, 
 there have been but two parties at the South 
 since the close of the war. From the nature of 
 the events by which they were surrounded, these 
 parties were in a sense social as well as political. 
 Their line of cleavage, while it did not always 
 follow the line of race, received its direction from 
 that and became thus a distinction of caste. 
 These classes are : 
 
 I. — The great mass of colored people of the South. 
 It is not at all probable that by proper and 
 legitimate methods as much as one per cent 
 of this race have ever been induced to act 
 against their fellows upon any political issue. 
 This class included also all of those white 
 men resident at the South who from what- 
 ever motive espoused the political cause of 
 the negro as set forth in our reconstruction- 
 ary legislation, and acted with him to obtain 
 
So An Appeal to Cczsar. 
 
 for him equality of right and power in every 
 State of the South. 
 2. — The other class was composed of those who, 
 whatever might be their individual feelings 
 toward the colored race, were united in this 
 one sentiment, to wit, that a majority com- 
 posed of a considerable preponderance of 
 blacks should not exercise the power of the 
 States in which they dwelt. 
 These classes were separated by some very 
 peculiar but powerful considerations, which must 
 be modified or removed before they can be recon- 
 ciled or harmonized to any considerable degree. 
 Some of them had existed so long that they may 
 almost be termed innate ideas. Only the least 
 important of them were of recent origin or the 
 outgrowth of recent events. The chief of these 
 elements of antagonism are : 
 
 i. — The almost ineradicable belief of the white 
 people of the South that the Negro is an in- 
 ferior species of the human family and not 
 fit or capable to exercise joint-sovereignty 
 with the white race. 
 2. — An equally firm conviction on the part of the 
 colored man that Slavery was a flagrant 
 wrong to the slave, and that those who per- 
 
A Shattered Idol. 8 1 
 
 petrated that wrong for centuries and waged 
 war for its continuance are unfit to be the 
 judges and guardians of the Negro's rights 
 as a man and as a citizen. 
 3. — The Southern white man regards the law which 
 confers upon the Negro equal political power 
 with himself as an affront to him and all his 
 race. 
 4. — The Negro regards the defeat of his political 
 right by fraud or violence as a continued 
 oppression and a constant menace of greater 
 evil to his race. 
 This line is not likely to be blotted out or to 
 become difficult to trace in centuries, if indeed it 
 ever becomes indistinct. Tradition and the law 
 both forbid intermarriage between the races. As 
 a result the mulatto is stamped in his very birth 
 with the mark of degradation, and his social rela- 
 tions are restricted to the inferior race. One 
 eighth of colored blood makes a negro, with the 
 presumption against him. 
 
 In like manner the individual who asserts the 
 claims of the colored race to equality of right and 
 privilege becomes at once associated, in the minds 
 of the whites of the South, with the formerly sub- 
 ject-race. He is regarded as a renegade and trai- 
 
82 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 tor to his race and color. He may be tolerated, 
 but he is never forgiven. In quiet, peaceful times 
 his offense may seem half-forgotten, but just as 
 soon as the least friction is developed between the 
 races he must stand with one or the other. It 
 matters not which may be right. The fact of 
 color is the only touchstone. Perhaps no better 
 illustration of this could be given than the well- 
 known fact that the press of the South always re- 
 fers to the Republican Party as " the Radicals," 
 which is accounted there a term of reproach and 
 derision. To withstand the torrent of detraction 
 which is sure to be turned against him, such a 
 man must be either very strong in his convictions 
 of right, or very callous in regard to the opinions 
 of his fellows. Especially will this fact be appar- 
 ent when we consider that the infamy of the hus- 
 band or the father attaches with peculiar intensity 
 to the wife or the daughter. To uphold any right 
 of the negro against any general policy favored 
 and maintained by the bulk of the white race is 
 to invite the hostility of " his own people," and to 
 cover all of his family with the odium of his act. 
 In other words, the white man who at the South 
 advocates any right of the negro which the mass 
 of the white race is not willing to allow becomes 
 
A Shattered Idol. &$ 
 
 thereby tainted, more or less deeply, with the 
 odium attaching to what is deemed a hostile, pre- 
 suming, and inferior class. If his advocacy is ac- 
 tive and ardent, the hostility evoked thereby will 
 be manifested in almost every relation which he 
 or his family may chance to sustain to their white 
 fellow-citizens. If it is merely passive and theo- 
 retical, very few will believe in its sincerity, and it 
 will, perhaps, be considered more whimsical than 
 atrocious. 
 
 The fact that outbreaks and disturbances occur 
 less frequently than they did a few years ago 
 does not at all tend to show that the line of de- 
 markation between the races is less distinct or 
 the feeling of opposition on the part of the 
 whites to the equal right and privilege of the 
 negro any less intense than it then was. It only 
 shows that the weaker race have yielded for the 
 time to the aggressions of the stronger, and have 
 ceased in a great measure to struggle for their 
 rights. To suppose that they have done it will- 
 ingly is to believe them to be animated by other 
 than human motives. To the negro, emancipa- 
 tion and enfranchisement were mighty strides 
 toward all those things which human beings 
 prize. The first gave to him control of himself, 
 
84 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the blandishments of home and family, and 
 opened to him the possibilities of ease, wealth, 
 and luxury. The second, in effect, enrolled him 
 among sovereigns. It made him the equal in 
 power and privilege with the race which he had 
 envied and feared for two hundred and fifty years. 
 It is useless to claim that such advantages were 
 ever willingly yielded by any people. It would be 
 natural that they should magnify them ; should 
 grow boastful and insolent toward those who had 
 once held them in bondage. They might reason- 
 ably be so proud of their new privileges as to 
 awaken disgust in the minds of those to whom 
 the exercise of like powers had become instinct- 
 ive. They naturally would be inclined to prize 
 them more highly because of their very newness. 
 This is precisely what the negro did. He was 
 from the first punctilious to a degree in the per- 
 formance of his political duties. Young or old, 
 male or female, the duty of citizenship, as 
 they understood it, seemed to be forever upper- 
 most in their minds. The privilege of cast- 
 ing a ballot was one they would no more think 
 of intermitting than the ancient Jew would 
 forget his annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. No 
 difficulty was so great, nor danger so imminent, 
 
A Shattered Idol. 85 
 
 as to deter them from going to the polls and 
 depositing their ballots. Many a man now living 
 remembers when they were accustomed to leave 
 their homes on the day previous and camp in 
 the woods or adjacent fields the night before an 
 election-day in order that they might not miss 
 this greatest privilege they had ever enjoyed. 
 Many thought at the time that it was because 
 they expected marvelous results to accrue to 
 themselves individually thereby. It would not 
 have been strange if in their ignorance that had 
 been the case, yet there were amazingly few cases 
 in which they were not entirely content with the 
 mere fact of victory. There were corrupt and 
 designing ones among them who traded, no doubt, 
 upon actual or supposed influence, just as skill- 
 fully as their more enlightened and higher-toned 
 exemplars of the white race do. But as a rule, 
 the vote of the negro, until it was suppressed by 
 violence or rendered impotent by fraud, w T as cast 
 with more singleness of purpose and less of per- 
 sonal corruption than I have ever witnessed 
 among white men in any part of the country. 
 
 From 1865 until 1879 tne author was a personal 
 observer of the conduct of the negro as a citizen 
 and a voter. He was known as an active and 
 
86 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 prominent advocate of the rights of the colored 
 man, and during much of that time occupied an 
 official position that brought him in contact with 
 all classes, and gave him opportunity to observe 
 the conduct and know the feeling of large num- 
 bers of these people in various localities through- 
 out a whole State. He does not hesitate to say- 
 that during the whole of that time he met with 
 and was cognizant of less corrupt and selfish im- 
 portunity from the colored voters of North Caro- 
 lina than he has met in a single canvass among 
 the white voters of the North. It must be re- 
 membered, too, that these men were poor — al- 
 most too poor for a Northern man to under- 
 stand how little they possessed. They might 
 indeed boast of carrying " sovereignty under the 
 hat," for their hats not unfrequently shadowed all 
 their possessions. To such men the temptation 
 of even the slightest largess was vastly greater 
 than the Northern voter can plead as an excuse 
 for personal corruption. 
 
 That such a people willingly or lightly surren- 
 dered their freedom of action and the privileges so 
 highly prized is too absurd for any one to believe, 
 except such as suppose the negro without the 
 ordinary motives and impulses of humanity. 
 
A Shattered Idol 87 
 
 That since the struggle has become hopeless 
 some of them have bartered the ballots they felt 
 to be powerless for good or evil in their hands is 
 unquestionably true, and this is one of the influ- 
 ences which have tended to make the negro of 
 to-day a more dangerous element of our national 
 life than he has ever been before. The negro has 
 not forgotten either the rights or privileges con- 
 ferred upon him by national legislation. The 
 more completely he is debarred from their exer- 
 cise the more deep and irremovable becomes his 
 conviction that the white race of the South is his 
 enemy. He has, with some exceptions, kept his 
 faith in the white people of the North, simply be- 
 cause it was from the North and through the 
 action of the people of the North that liberty first 
 came to him. He fully realizes that he has been 
 neglected, betrayed, and deceived by the same peo- 
 ple over and over again since his emancipation, and 
 that, of the white garment of liberty then bestowed 
 upon him, only some tattered shreds remain ; but 
 with rare perspicacity he generally attributes this 
 fact, not to a deliberate purpose on the part of 
 the Northern people to deceive and betray, but 
 to the fact that they are themselves deceived by 
 the representations of the Southern whites. 
 
The White Spaces Show Proportions. 
 
 A "Treason of the Blood." 
 
 r T^HE sentiment of prejudice or hostility 
 -■" against the colored race on the part of 
 the whites of the South is generally considered 
 one of those " results of the war" which it is 
 supposed need only to be let alone to cure them- 
 selves. In truth the war had little or nothing 
 to do with the matter. The feeling which is 
 termed race-prejudice or antipathy is not by any 
 means peculiar to the white people of the South, 
 nor is it in any sense dependent upon recent 
 historical events. The failure of the Confeder- 
 
A " Treason of the Blood." 89 
 
 ate cause and the consequent elevation of the 
 negro may have brought into bolder relief the 
 pre-existing characteristics of the contrasted 
 races. So, too, it is unquestionable that the in- 
 discreet exuberance of the African in the first 
 possession of his new-found liberty may have 
 tended to present more sharply to the minds of 
 the Southern white people the difference of race 
 upon which they had always insisted, and which 
 the new political movement that followed the 
 war may have seemed like an attempt to over- 
 throw. It is, however, only that which has 
 always occurred in history when two races, sepa- 
 rated by an insurmountable barrier, have occu- 
 pied the same territory, neither being subject to 
 the other. This feeling of prejudice or antipathy 
 existing between two distinctly marked races 
 who are not only joint occupants of the same 
 territory, but so closely intermingled that each 
 constitutes an appreciable and important part 
 of every subdivision of the community, is not 
 in itself a matter of blame. Nor does its exist- 
 ence imply any lack of moral tone on the part 
 of those who entertain such feeling. It is no 
 fault of the Southern whites that they regard 
 the colored man not only as their inferior at the 
 
90 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 present time, but as radically and irredeemably 
 incapable of the same elevation and development. 
 It is hardly surprising that, judging from the 
 docility of this race in slavery and from the lack 
 of inherent impulses towards civilization and 
 development as manifested by its history, they 
 should have arrived at this conclusion. Indeed, 
 it seems much more remarkable that the peo- 
 ple of the North should have so generally ar- 
 rived at the contrary conclusion. Looking upon 
 the negro as he presented himself to the eye 
 of the ethnologist and historian in i860, it 
 appears now a most remarkable thing that so 
 large a portion of the most intelligent and con- 
 scientious people of the North believed in the 
 capacity of the colored man for self-support and 
 ultimate self-direction. It is not at all likely, 
 however, that anything less than the events of 
 the war, the signal courage manifested by indi- 
 viduals of the colored race, and the marvelous 
 devotion of all of them to the cause and persons 
 of their deliverers, together with the strange and 
 anomalous relation in which they stood to their 
 former masters, would have induced the more 
 conservative elements of the Northern people 
 to consent to their enfranchisement even after 
 
A " Treason of the Blood." 91 
 
 their emancipation had become an accomplished 
 fact. 
 
 The prejudice of race, whether it be a natural 
 instinct or an acquired habit of mind, is a matter 
 of very little importance so far as the result is 
 concerned. Regarded from one point of view 
 it is a disease. Looked at from another it is a 
 natural instinctive feeling. In either case the 
 remedy is the same. If it be an instinct, the 
 highest intelligence is necessary to restrain its 
 manifestation within due and proper limits and 
 to prevent it from endangering the public peace 
 or injuriously affecting the natural rights of those 
 in relation to whom it exists. If it be a dis- 
 ease, the same modicum of intelligence is re- 
 quired not only to limit its manifestations, but 
 ultimately to eradicate and destroy it. So far as 
 this book is concerned it is a matter of entire in- 
 difference whether the prejudice of the white race 
 for the negro is a matter of instinct or of culti- 
 vation. Whether it is an inherent ineradicable 
 animosity planted in the breast of the white man 
 for some inscrutable reason, or whether it is a 
 natural and divine provision to prevent the ad- 
 mixture of the races and carry into effect some 
 mysterious purpose of Providence by which the 
 
92 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 great classes of the human family shall forever be 
 kept separate and distinct, or simply a sentiment 
 engendered by centuries of association in the 
 relation of master and slave, is a matter alto- 
 gether foreign to the subject which we have in 
 hand. In either case it remains a simple fact, 
 a fact for which neither the white man nor the 
 colored man of the South can be held morally or 
 individually responsible, but one which should be 
 carefully and calmly considered in all its various 
 relations in order that serious and dangerous 
 consequences which might otherwise arise there- 
 from shall be duly foreseen and securely 
 guarded against. Whether it be a natural in- 
 stinct or acquired prejudice the remedy against 
 its dangerous manifestation is the same : to wit, 
 the intelligence of the individuals of both races. 
 A clear perception of the perils incident to both 
 the intermingled races from any extended con- 
 flict between them is the only thing that will 
 restrain the superior race from oppression, or the 
 inferior from revolt. We shall consider race- 
 prejudice, therefore, simply as a fact for which the 
 individual affected by it is only in a modified 
 sense responsible, which of itself constitutes no 
 imputation upon his morality, civilization, or 
 
A "Treason of the Bloody 93 
 
 purity of purpose ; but which needs to be recog- 
 nized and understood in all its relations as well 
 by the superior as by the inferior race, in order 
 that serious consequences may not arise from 
 the intimate admixture of the races and their 
 constant exposure to disturbing and inflamma- 
 tory influences. 
 
 No two free races thus distinctly separated by 
 color and by marked natural characteristics have 
 ever yet dwelt side by side without conflict. 
 That they should ever do so is accounted by 
 very many an impossibility. Every Southern 
 writer upon the subject of slavery from the very 
 first moment when the conflict of ideas began 
 to stir the Western world to universal thought 
 upon the subject, has laid it down as a basis- 
 principle that two such races cannot, by any 
 possibility, dwell together in freedom and in 
 peace. 
 
 Upon this subject we quote the words of Prof. 
 E. W. Gilliam, writing from a Southern stand- 
 point and with a strong Southern bias, in the 
 Popular Science Monthly for February, 1883. His 
 views are important, not merely from the terse 
 and epigrammatic form in which they are set, but 
 because they represent clearly and distinctly the 
 
94 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 feelings of a man fully in sympathy with both the 
 future and the past of the whites at the South : 
 
 "The second factor in our argument is the impossi- 
 bility of fusion between whites and blacks. The latter 
 have been, and must continue to be, a distinct and alien 
 race. The fusion of races is the resultant from social 
 equality and intermarriage, and the barrier to this is here 
 insurmountable. The human species presents three grand 
 varieties, marked off by color — white, yellow, and black. 
 One at the first, in origin and color, the race multiplied 
 and spread, and separate sections, settled in different lati- 
 tudes, took on — under climatic conditions acting with ab- 
 normal force in that early and impressionable period of 
 the races 's age — took on, we say, different hues, which, 
 as the race grew and hardened, crystallized into perma- 
 nent characteristics. Social affinity exists among the 
 families of these three groups. The groups themselves 
 stand rigidly apart. The Irish, German, French, etc., 
 whp come to these shores, readily intermarry among 
 themselves and with the native population. Within a 
 generation or two the sharpness of national feature disap- 
 pears, and the issue is the American whose mixed blood 
 is the country's foremost hope. // cannot be — a fusion 
 like this between whites and blacks. Account for it as 
 we may, the antipathy is a palpable fact which no one 
 fails to recognize — an antipathy not less strong among 
 the Northern than among the Southern whites. How- 
 ever the former may, on the score of matters political, 
 profess themselves special friends to the blacks, the ques- 
 
A " Treason of the Blood." 95 
 
 tion of intermarriage and social equality, when brought 
 to practical test, they will not touch with the end of the 
 little finger. Whether it be that the blacks, because of 
 their former condition of servitude, are regarded as a per- 
 manently degraded class ; whether it be that the whites, 
 from their historic eminence, are possessed with a con- 
 sciousness of superiority which spurns alliance — the fact 
 that fusion is impossible no one in his senses can deny." 
 
 The conclusion at which Prof. Gilliam arrives is 
 indisputable, as he says, " by any man in his 
 senses" during any period with regard to which 
 speculation may be properly and reasonably ex- 
 tended. Certain it is that the influences now ex- 
 istent will render his words as true a hundred 
 years from now as they are to-day. What change 
 may possibly be wrought in the tone and senti- 
 ment of generations more remote and under cir- 
 cumstances which cannot now be foreseen, it is, 
 of course, impossible to estimate. Looking at the 
 subject from a standpoint diametrically opposed 
 in every respect both to the intellectual bias and 
 political inclination of Prof. Gilliam, we are com- 
 pelled to indorse his views in this respect almost 
 without the least modification. 
 
 This feeling does not in any sense necessitate 
 or imply a sentiment of hostility, either individual 
 
g6 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 or collective, upon the part of one race toward 
 the other. The Southern white man who says 
 that he feels kindly toward the negro is entitled 
 to the utmost credence, even though it may be 
 shown by irrefragable testimony that he has ex- 
 erted unlawful violence to prevent the negro from 
 the exercise of a legal right. He simply regards 
 the negro as an inferior, with an inherited belief 
 which amounts almost to an instinct, even if it be 
 not actually instinctive. He wishes only good to 
 that inferior ; has no desire to do him harm, to 
 lessen his comfort or prevent his success, within 
 what he deems the proper sphere of his existence. 
 He is a Christian man, and he desires to see the 
 colored man improve in morals, industry, and the 
 virtues of a Christian life. All these things he 
 may most earnestly and sincerely desire for the 
 colored man whom he calls, with effusive and per- 
 haps delusive warmth, " our brother in black." It 
 is only when the necessity arises for considering 
 this race as the equal of the white race in power, 
 in freedom, and in opportunity, that we discover 
 that beneath this sentiment of kindness lies the 
 indefinable feeling that the colored man may not, 
 must not, shall not, stand upon the same level of 
 right and power as the white. It matters not 
 
A " Treason of the Blood" 97 
 
 how good, how kind, how charitable the man may 
 be in an overwhelming majority of cases, you will 
 find that he has, at bottom, an ineradicable hos- 
 tility to the colored man as a political integer, 
 simply because he is a Negro. 
 
 It is not strange that this feeling should exist. 
 The very fact of difference of race and color is 
 not one lightly to be disregarded. There are in- 
 stances in the world's history in which two types 
 of the same race have dwelt side by side for cen- 
 turies, almost, without intermingling of blood. 
 There are cases in which inherited antipathies 
 have been handed down from generation to gene- 
 ration for centuries between two peoples having 
 the same colored skin and similar casts of fea- 
 tures, each preserving their own peculiar lan- 
 guage, customs and habits of life, and maintain- 
 ing between them an almost bottomless gulf of 
 separation. Between the Anglo-Saxon or the 
 Caucasian of the temperate zone and all other 
 races, this feeling of repulsion seems always to 
 have been peculiarly strong. There is hardly an 
 instance to be found in which this color-line has 
 been successfully passed over by either race, no 
 matter how long they have lived in juxtaposition. 
 That the whites should not willingly and volun- 
 
gS An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 tarily disregard this line of demarcation is not 
 strange. It was by no means an inconsiderable 
 impulse at the outset, and has been greatly 
 strengthened by centuries of association in the 
 relation of master and slave, superior and inferior, 
 ruler and worker. It is altogether wrong to sup- 
 pose that, as a rule, the Southern slave-master was 
 cruel to his slave, beyond the mere fact of restrain- 
 ing him of his liberty and depriving him of his 
 rights. Not only the ordinary feeling of kindness 
 which subsists between man and man prevailed 
 with them, but the impulse of self-interest tended 
 in the same direction. The sentiment of race- 
 prejudice or animosity is not at all akin to any 
 feeling of personal hostility or individual dislike. 
 It is only a mutual shrinking away from each 
 other of distinctly marked types — a crystallization 
 about different centers, the claim of peculiar 
 privileges or the reverse, because of distinctive 
 characteristics, common to great masses. It is 
 only that feeling which marks off into two dis- 
 tinct bodies the people occupying the same terri- 
 tory, by insurmountable and invisible barriers. 
 Race-prejudice, if it be possible to overcome it at 
 all, if it can ever be eliminated, will only disap- 
 pear after the lapse not of years but of genera- 
 
A " Treason of the Blood." 99 
 
 tions and centuries. At present it is not likely to 
 diminish perceptibly in strength and influence 
 upon the contrasted cases during any period that 
 may be regarded as within the influences of the 
 present. It may be repressed and its manifesta- 
 tions may be so modified by peculiar influences 
 as to be comparatively innocuous, but there is no 
 prospect of its elimination for centuries, if indeed 
 it be possible that it should ever disappear. 
 
 It is worthy of consideration, too, that this feel- 
 ing has another side which is daily coming to be 
 of more and more importance. The sentiment of 
 the colored man toward the white man according 
 to the theory of slavery was one of filial regard 
 and dependency. According to the theory of the 
 slave it was one of hopeless helplessness and in- 
 eradicable distrust. The colored man since his 
 enslavement in America could not help regarding 
 the white man as having deprived him of certain 
 natural rights. We speak now of the colored man 
 as animated by the ordinary impulses of human- 
 ity. It is not worth while to consider the ques- 
 tion whether the instinct of liberty and the im- 
 pulse of self-control is as strong in the African as 
 in the Anglo-Saxon or not. In a greater or less 
 degree, varying of course with temper and intelli- 
 
ioo An Appeal to Cczsar. 
 
 gence, the two races are and must be controlled 
 by the same general laws. The slave never forgot 
 his enslavement. The colored man, whose man- 
 hood had been stripped away from his life, never 
 forgot that the power which did this was that of 
 the white man. He may have believed, almost, 
 that it was right that he should be thus sub- 
 jugated. There may, possibly, have been instances 
 in which religious feeling was so strongly wrought 
 upon as to produce in the mind of the slave the 
 conviction that God had designed him for nothing 
 but slavery, and there unquestionably were thou- 
 sands of cases in which the attachment of the 
 slave to the master or the master's child was 
 stronger than the instinct of life itself. So, too, 
 the slave would trust implicitly the master's word 
 in all matters that did not touch his own liberty and 
 right. Upon this subject he listened to him with 
 incredulity. Down deep in the heart of the slave 
 dwelt always this one thought : "lam not a free 
 man because the white man has made me a slave." 
 This feeling grew in strength with the inevita- 
 ble increase of the slave in intelligence. Though 
 the spelling-book was a sealed mystery to his eyes, 
 while it was a felony for any one to teach him to 
 read and write, while instruction in the arts and 
 
A " Treason of the Blood." 101 
 
 sciences was forbidden him, yet it was impossible 
 for the American negro to be brought in contact 
 with the wonderful life of the New World without 
 growing unconsciously in strength and knowledge ; 
 so that the slave of the period of the war differed, 
 perhaps, quite as much from his African congener 
 as did the master from the type of Englishman 
 from which he was evolved. 
 
 This feeling was at the root of that wide-spread 
 belief among the slaves that a day of Jubilee 
 would come — that sooner or later God would in 
 some mysterious way work out their deliverance 
 from bondage. Already for half a century, or 
 more perhaps, it had been taking root and spread- 
 ing throughout the whole mass of the colored pop- 
 ulation of the South, leavening the whole body 
 with a hope of something in the future distinctly 
 favorable to the race, as such. When the War of 
 Rebellion began, it had not yet grown so strong 
 as to demand active co-operation upon their part 
 with the Federal power, but as the struggle pro- 
 gressed and they saw in its outcome the possible 
 fulfillment of their hopes, the race attested its 
 manhood, and, under the inspiration of this feel- 
 ing, did worthy battle for that power which prom- 
 ised the accomplishment of their desire. 
 
io2 An Appeal to Ctzsar. 
 
 While it was true that the conflict which re- 
 sulted in their freedom was between two hostile 
 sections of the white race, and that they owed 
 their emancipation to the Caucasian just as cer- 
 tainly as they had previously owed their enslave- 
 ment to that race, there was still this difference : 
 the power which freed was to them a foreign 
 power ; the power which enslaved, a domestic one. 
 That they divided the world into three classes, 
 "white folks, niggers, and Yanks," was by no 
 means unnatural or unphilosophical; and in a great 
 degree the distinction still prevails. The power 
 with which they finally joined hands for their own 
 liberation was, to all intents and purposes, one 
 outside of the life of which they constituted a 
 part. The " white people" to them meant, and 
 must always mean, those by whom they are sur- 
 rounded and with whom the relations of daily life 
 are to be maintained. 
 
 Between these two classes the distance has 
 greatly increased since the. close of the war, and 
 it must continue to increase as the daily lives of 
 the individuals diverge more and more from each 
 other. Slavery was a domestic institution. More 
 or less the master's chattels were a part of his 
 household and became touched with his senti- 
 
A " Treason of the Blood." 
 
 \o 
 
 ments and feelings. The domestic servants were 
 the depositaries of all the secrets of the family. 
 Its most sacred mysteries were unveiled to them. 
 These intimate personal relations served to keep 
 out of sight during the existence of slavery that 
 feeling of race-antipathy which the servile relation 
 was all the time actually strengthening between 
 those affected by these relations. When the 
 freedman began to establish his own home-circle, 
 to build for himself a household about his own 
 hearth, however humble, the distance between the 
 whites and blacks, though in fact very greatly di- 
 minished, seemed to have been as greatly in- 
 creased. 
 
 One of the chief absurdities that marks the or- 
 dinary belief in regard to this matter is the gen- 
 eral impression that in the course of a generation 
 or so the descendants of the American slave will 
 have forgotten all about Slavery. Nothing could 
 be more at variance with the universal testimony 
 of history upon this point. A race which has been 
 subjected to humiliation and oppression by an- 
 other race retains the memory of wrong long after 
 all sense of personal grievance has been lost. The 
 fierce rage of the Israelites against their Egyptian 
 oppressors lasted for centuries after they had es- 
 
104 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 caped from the power of Pharaoh. Even in private 
 life the tradition of wrong done to the father often 
 produces a bitterer animosity on the part of the 
 children than in the mind of the injured party. 
 A hundred years hence the hardships and wrong 
 of slavery will constitute a stronger impulse to 
 united action on the part of the colored race than 
 they do to-day. It would be inconsistent with 
 every principle of human nature if, even after the 
 lapse of centuries, the colored orator and poet did 
 not dwell upon the wrongs of their forefathers 
 with a fervor and intensity that would surprise the 
 recipient of the wrongs described. The colored 
 man who to-day looks back upon slavery with 
 feelings very far removed from unmixed bitterness 
 will have great-grandchildren to whom the wrongs 
 which he has suffered will constitute a ceaseless 
 impulse to concerted action with their fellows in 
 the interests of their race. 
 
 Besides this, it is an inflexible rule of develop- 
 ment that the inferior class when free has always 
 an upward tendency and inclination to rise and 
 become, sooner or later, the dominant power. 
 The slave has nothing to hope for and no impulse 
 to exertion; but no sooner does he become free 
 than the avenues to wealth and ambition open more 
 
A " Treason of the Blood." 105 
 
 or less clearly for him. It may be generations be- 
 fore the race is able to improve its new-found op- 
 portunity. It may be that but one colored man 
 in a State has achieved financial independence in 
 a decade, yet that one man is an example to all 
 others, constantly stimulating them to renewed 
 exertion. It may be that in a whole State but 
 one or two colored men have won their way into 
 the mystic arena of the bar, and even these may 
 be far from encouraging examples of forensic 
 ability, yet never one of them opens his lips in 
 court that his example does not inspire some col- 
 ored boy that listens to do as he has done. The 
 same inclination to stand by each other and to 
 make common cause in matters pertaining to the 
 race, has led the people to associate together in 
 churches of their own, their own lodges and pro- 
 tective unions, and the law has built for them a 
 barrier around the schools. The freedman of the 
 South is distinctly a negro from his birth and in 
 every relation of life. It is the chief element in 
 every phase of his existence. Religion, that is 
 supposed to be the great mollifier of savage in- 
 fluences, has become in his case the promoter of 
 differences. The slave, in the main, went with 
 his master to church. In a city of ten thousand 
 
106 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 people you will find to-day hardly ten colored 
 faces in the white congregations. 
 
 This mutual isolation of the races must of ne- 
 cessity constantly increase. Already there are 
 but two important relations of life in which the 
 negro mingles with the white man on anything 
 like a basis of equality. The one is as a laborer, 
 where, indeed, his position is not equality, but 
 superiority. The negro is par excellence the 
 laborer of the South. The white man is com- 
 pelled to work beside him, and feels himself hu- 
 miliated by the fact. The other place where they 
 are supposed to meet upon the level of right is at 
 the ballot-box, where the white man regards him 
 as an intruder. The colored man, as he goes 
 farther away from the wrongs of slavery with the 
 lapse of time, will feel all the more keenly the 
 disabilities that still remain, and will become 
 rrfore and more suspicious of the race to which 
 he not unnaturally attributes the woes of him- 
 self and his ancestors. The white man, as he 
 watches what he deems the aggressions of the 
 colored man, his acquisition of wealth and power, 
 and his assumption of independent relations for 
 himself and his race, will naturally be impelled 
 still more strongly to maintain his own actual or 
 
A "Treason of the Bloody 107 
 
 fancied superiority by whatever means may be 
 necessary effectually to maintain a " white man's 
 government" and the white man's right to rule 
 throughout every State of the South. 
 
 If, therefore, the existing influences and forces 
 which govern and control Southern life shall con- 
 tinue in their present relations, the point of gen- 
 eral conflict must be reached sooner or later. 
 The negro's struggles for equality of right and 
 recognition as a potent factor in public affairs 
 must some time become organized, general, and 
 irresistible except by overwhelming force. At 
 the same time the white man's resolution to keep 
 him still in an inferior position, growing stronger 
 and stronger by repeated successes, must eventu- 
 ally result in such organized repression as can 
 be met only by organized retaliation. Whether 
 there is any remedy which may avert this catas- 
 trophe it behooves us earnestly to inquire. If 
 something be not done, and done quickly, the re- 
 sult is inevitable. 
 
Too True an Evil. 
 
 r I ^HE imminency of this peril will, perhaps, 
 -*■ be better understood when we consider the 
 physical relations of the two races in that region 
 which we call the South, or those States in which 
 slavery still existed in the year i860. 
 
 The first and simplest view of this subject 
 is that which we obtain from the mere state- 
 ment of the fact that there were in 1880 in 
 the Southern States, including the District of 
 Columbia and the Territory of New Mexico, 
 12460,248 whites and 6,039,657 colored inhabit- 
 
Too True an Evil. 109 
 
 ants. In other words, in these seventeen States 
 there are in round numbers one half as many col- 
 ored people as whites — or one colored to every 
 two white men. This fact, however, is only the 
 beginning of the story. In order to understand 
 the true relations of the races occupying this sec- 
 tion, it is necessary- to consider the proportion of 
 whites and blacks in each of the political com- 
 munities of which it consists. It will be readily 
 perceived that if the proportion which applies 
 to the whole should apply also to each of the 
 States composing the South, and throughout the 
 whole extent of this territory there were the same 
 even ratio between the respective numbers of the 
 races, the question would be greatly simplified. 
 All that we should need to consider then would 
 be the probability of serious collision between 
 the races, or a want of harmonious development 
 and prosperity, resulting from the mutual preju- 
 dice of the two or the aggressions of either when 
 intermixed in the ratio of one black to two 
 whites. If, however, that ratio varies in different 
 States, the question grows more and more im- 
 portant as the disparity in numbers grows less 
 and less, or the numerical predominance of the 
 colored race renders the assumption of a right 
 
no An Appeal to Ctesar. 
 
 to dominate on the part of the whites increas- 
 ingly absurd when tried by the standard which 
 nominally prevails in our republic ; to wit, the 
 right of the majority to rule. 
 
 The following table shows the number and per- 
 centage of each race in each one of the Southern 
 States, according to the census of 1880 : 
 
 TABLE A. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Each Race resident in each of the 
 Southern States in 1880. 
 
 States. 
 
 Total 
 Population. 
 
 1,262.505 
 802.525 
 146,608 
 
 269,493 
 1,542. 1S0 
 1.648,690 
 
 939.946 
 
 934.943 
 i.i3i,597 
 2,168,380 
 1,399.750 
 
 995.577 
 1,542,359 
 L59i,749 
 1,512,565 
 
 6i8,457 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 662.185 
 
 591,531 
 120,160 
 142,605 
 
 52.3 
 73-7 
 81.9 
 
 52. O 
 
 600,103 
 
 210,666 
 
 26,442 
 
 126,690 
 
 725,133 
 271,451 
 483.655 
 
 210,230 
 
 650.291 
 
 145,350 
 531,277 
 
 604.332 
 
 403,151 
 
 393, 3S4 
 631,616 
 
 25.8S6 
 
 47-5 
 26.2 
 18. 1 
 
 47-i 
 47.0 
 16.4 
 
 5i-4 
 22.4 
 
 57-5 
 6-7 
 37-9 
 60.6 
 26.1 
 24.7 
 41.7 
 4.1 
 
 Georgia 
 
 816,906 1 «2.«C 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 1,337,179 
 
 454-954 
 
 724,693 
 
 479.39 8 
 
 2,022.826 
 
 867,242 
 
 39i.!05 
 
 1,13s. 831 
 
 1. 197.237 
 
 8So,8s8 
 
 592,537 
 
 8l. I 
 
 48.4 
 
 77 4 
 41.4 
 
 93-3 
 61.9 
 
 39-3 
 
 73-9 
 75-2 
 58.8 
 97-4 
 
 North Carolina. . . 
 South Carolina. . . 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 West Virginia. . . . 
 
 Total 
 
 18,507,324 
 
 12,420,247 
 
 Av. p.c. 
 67.I 
 
 6,039.657 
 
 Av. p.c. 
 
 32.5 
 
 A- brief examination of this table will show 
 that these States may be divided into two classes, 
 the comparison of which may hereafter prove in- 
 
Too True an Evil. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 structive in connection^with other facts that will 
 be presented. The first of these classes includes 
 those States in which the colored population 
 falls below the general average of the Southern 
 States, or in which, from the operation of natural 
 and existent causes, it may be regarded as un- 
 likely to exceed its present limit for a consider- 
 able period, unless by the operation of some mi- 
 gratory impulse among the colored population of 
 other States. 
 
 TABLE B. 
 
 X umber and Peixentage of Each Race in the States in which the 
 Proportion of Colored Inhabitants does not exceed the General 
 Average of the South, or by the action of natural causes cannot 
 be expected to increase. 
 
 States. Whites. 
 
 Per cent. Colored. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Delaware 120.160 
 
 Maryland 724.693 
 
 West Virginia 502 537 
 
 Kentucky 1,377,179 
 
 81 
 77 
 97 
 Si 
 
 93 
 73 
 
 75 
 
 9 26.442 
 4 210.230 
 4 25,SS6 
 
 1 271,451 
 3 145.350 
 7 210,666 
 
 2 393 384 
 
 18. 1 
 22.4 
 
 4.1 
 16.4 
 
 6-7 
 26.2 
 24.7 
 26. T 
 
 Arkansas 591,531 
 
 Texas 1,197,237 
 
 Tennessee 1.13S S31 
 
 
 
 Total 7,674,994 
 
 Av'age p. c. 
 
 Si.S 1,686,560 
 
 Av'age p. c. 
 16.9 
 
 It will be observed that this table includes all 
 of those States generally known as "Border 
 States." In one of them, Arkansas, the present 
 
1 1 2 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 ratio of colored to whites is somewhat greater 
 than the average in all the Southern States. 
 Certain facts connected with its location and sur- 
 roundings, however, which are to be more fully 
 developed hereafter, render it probable that this 
 ratio can hardly be expected greatly to increase 
 for a considerable period. It has upon the 
 north and south, respectively, the States o-f Mis- 
 souri and Texas, in each of which the propor- 
 tion of colored to white inhabitants is compara- 
 tively small, and in which the influences and de- 
 velopment tend rather to reduction than increase 
 of this proportion. It is in the way, too, of 
 whatever Northern immigration passes down the 
 Mississippi to find lodgment upon its Western 
 bank. It is well known that the roving spirit of 
 the pioneer does not incline him to a permanent 
 settlement in that State which is nearest to his 
 own. As Missouri, despite the great emigration 
 of her own natives, is so rapidly filling up, and 
 as Texas is coming to be regarded as peculiarly 
 the domain of the " cattle-kings," rather than a 
 desirable location for the small farmer, it is but 
 natural that much of the immigration from the 
 North which has hitherto sought these States 
 should content itself with the one which lies be- 
 
Too True an Evil. 
 
 1 1 
 
 tween, and come in and occupy the vacant 
 spaces in this thinly inhabited region of varied 
 soil and abundant resources. It will appear also 
 from some tables that will be submitted hereaf- 
 ter that the emigration to this State from other 
 Southern States lying to the eastward has been 
 very considerable during the twenty years preced- 
 ing 1880, and it is one of the five Southern States 
 having already the greatest Northern population, 
 while the percentage of those of Northern birth 
 within its limits is next to the highest of the 
 Southern States. 
 
 TABLE C. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Each Race in the States in which the 
 Proportion of Colored Inhabitants exceeds the General Average 
 in the South. 
 
 States. 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Virginia S80.858 
 
 North Carolina.. .. . 867,242 
 
 South Carolina 391.105 
 
 Georgia. . . 816,906 
 
 Florida 142,605 
 
 Alabama... 662. 1S5 
 
 Mississippi 479,39s 
 
 Louisiana 454,954 
 
 Total 
 
 i 4,695.253 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 53.8 
 
 61 
 
 9 
 
 39 
 
 3 
 
 52 
 
 5 
 
 52 
 
 9 
 
 S 2 
 
 3 
 
 41 
 
 4 
 
 48 
 
 4 
 
 Av'ag-e p. c. 
 
 50.9 
 
 Colored. 
 
 631,616 
 
 531,277 
 604,332 
 
 725133 
 126.690 
 600,103 
 650.291 
 
 4S3.655 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 41.7 
 
 37-9 
 60.6 
 47-0 
 47.I 
 
 47-5 
 57-5 
 51.4 
 
 Av'apre p. c. 
 4,353.097 I 43.8 
 
 The other class includes all the Southern States 
 not embraced in the above table; to wit, Virginia, 
 
1 1 4 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 
 Alabama, Mississippi,, and Louisiana, as shown in 
 
 Table C. 
 
 From an inspection of these two tables it will 
 be seen that in the States first named (Table B) 
 Si.S per cent of the population is white and 16.9 
 per cent colored. In other words, there is one 
 colored man to every Jive white men. In the sec- 
 ond class (Table C), 51.4 per cent of* the popula- 
 tion is white and 47.6 per cent colored, or one 
 hundred colored to every one hundred and eight 
 white men: showing that of the 6,580,793 col- 
 ored people in the United States, 4,353,097 are 
 found in the tief of States lying between the 
 Potomac and the Mississippi, and have with 
 them as fellow-citizens of these States only 
 4,745,964 whites. This shows an actual excess 
 in 1SS0 of only 392,864 whites in this black 
 belt, which has no doubt already been neutral- 
 ized by the greater reproductive power of the 
 colored race. 
 
 There is still one other classification necessary 
 to complete the view which the intelligent ob- 
 server should take of this joint occupancy of this 
 region by the two contrasted races; to wit, those 
 States in which the colored population already 
 
Too True an Evil. 
 
 ii5 
 
 exceed the white in number, as appears from the 
 following exhibit : 
 
 TABLE D. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Each Race in those States hi which the 
 Number of Colored Inhabitants exceeds the White Population. 
 
 States. 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 39LI05 
 
 479-393 
 464-954 
 
 39.3 
 
 41. 4 
 
 4S.4 
 
 604.332 
 650,291 
 483655 
 
 60.6 
 
 57-5 
 51-4 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,335-457 
 
 Av'age p. c. 
 
 43-3 
 
 lAv'agre p. c. 
 1,738,278 56.4 
 
 From all these data it appears that, in our en- 
 tire population (in the United States) there are 
 6A- whites to each colored person ; among eighteen 
 millions of our population (Border and Southern 
 States), one out of every three is of the African 
 race, is twenty years removed from slavery, and 
 less than three hundred years from barbarism. 
 Among nine millions (Border States), one in every 
 five of the population is colored. Among eight 
 millions more (Southern States) there is practi- 
 cally one colored man to every white inhabitant. 
 
 Seven of the Southern States have an average 
 of 16.9 per cent of colored inhabitants; eight 
 have an average of 47.6 per cent ; and three an 
 average of 56.4 per cent. 
 
1 1 6 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 In order to complete the picture we should 
 bear in mind the fact that these races are more 
 intimately commingled in the ordinary duties and 
 relations of life, and more widely separated in 
 certain other relations, than any two distinct 
 races ever were before in the world's history. 
 Leaving out of consideration the population of 
 the mountain regions, — the slopes of the Appa- 
 lachian range, which offered little inducement to 
 slavery, but along which the white race has shown 
 greater reproductive power than in any other por- 
 tion of the continent, — we may safely say that in 
 every house (including, of course, the curtilage) 
 and on every plantation in eight States there is 
 one colored person living side by side with each 
 white person. Master and servant, mistress and 
 maid, child and nurse, employer and employee, 
 in the shop, on the farm — wherever capital and 
 labor or oversight and service meet. From the 
 cradle to the grave the white life and the black 
 touch each other every hour. Yet an infinite 
 distance separates them ever. In all this there 
 is no equalization, no fraternity, no assimilation 
 of rights, no reciprocity of affection. Children 
 may caress each other because they are children. 
 Betwixt adults fewer demonstrations of affection 
 
Too True an Evil. 1 1 7 
 
 are allowed than the master bestows upon his 
 dog. Ordinary politeness becomes a mark of 
 shame. A caress implies degradation. In all 
 that region no mart would stand in a lady's pres- 
 ence unless uncovered. Yet not a white man in 
 its borders dare lift his hat to a colored woman 
 in the street, no matter how pure her life, how 
 noble her attributes, or how deep his obligations 
 to her might be. 
 
 This is the first phase of the great problem 
 which is before us for solution. How shall these 
 two races, thus closely intermingled, co-exist 
 without conflict or danger? 
 
To-Morrow in the Light of 
 Yesterday. 
 
 1 N order to determine still more clearly the true 
 *- relations of the races in these States, our 
 next step will be to ascertain the ratio of increase 
 of each race within the territory under considera- 
 tion, in the past, and compare that with the growth 
 of the other. We must then ascertain, if we can, 
 whether there exist any influences that may 
 affect the continuance of the same ratio of growth, 
 or are likely to accelerate or retard the action of 
 existent forces tending to promote the numerical 
 ascendency of either race. 
 
To- Morrow in the Light of Yesterday. 1 19 
 
 Comparing the aggregate white population of 
 the United States in 1790 with the aggregate 
 white population in 1 880, we find a gain of 1299 
 per cent. In other words, the white population 
 of the whole country increased, during the ninety 
 years preceding 1880, thirteen times. During the 
 same period the colored race in the United States 
 increased 769 per cent, or eight and seven-tenths 
 times the original stock. 
 
 Compare now the population of the territory 
 occupied by the States recognized as Slave States 
 in i860, at their first enumeration of 1790, with 
 the population of the same area according to the 
 census of 1880. We find the whites within said 
 territory in 1790 to have numbered 1,271,400, and 
 in 1880 amounted to 12,460,248, showing a gain 
 of 880 per cent; or, in other words, that the 
 present white population of this region amounts 
 to nine and four-fifths times the white population 
 which it had ninety years before. The same area 
 contained in 1790 a colored population of 689,882, 
 and in 1880 of 6,039,657, showing a gain of 775 
 percent, or eight and four-fifths times the original 
 number. From this it would appear that while 
 the relative increase of the two races in the whole 
 United States has been about thirteen to 7iinc~\n 
 
i2o An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the Southern States the white race has increased 
 only in the ratio of nine to eight of the colored. 
 
 This method of regarding the relative growth 
 of the two races, however, is very delusive. 
 While the colored population of these States re- 
 ceived but very slight accessions from without, 
 after the period of the first enumeration, some of 
 them, especially those upon the northern border 
 and the newer States of Missouri, Arkansas, and 
 Texas, received very considerable accessions to 
 their white population from Northern immigration. 
 There has also been a small but steady increment 
 of foreign emigration coming into and strengthen- 
 ing the white population of the South. It is not 
 probable that the importation of slaves into this 
 region at any time equaled the loss of colored 
 population by the escape of fugitives during the 
 period previous to i860 and the emigration of 
 colored people from the South to the North since 
 that date. It is necessary, therefore, in order to 
 obtain a correct idea of the reproductive energy 
 of the colored and white races under the condi- 
 tions now presented in the different States of the 
 South, to separate what may be denominated the 
 " Border States" from the older " Slave States" 
 constituting the belt extending from the Potomac 
 
To- Morrow in the Light of Yesterday, i 2 1 
 
 to the Mississippi. The following tables show 
 the numerical increase and the per cent of gain of 
 each race in each State of these two groups : 
 
 TABLE E. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Gain of the White Population of the 
 Border States since the first record of them in the Census down 
 to 1S80. 
 
 States. 
 
 Date. 
 
 White 
 
 Pop'lation' 
 
 at date 
 
 given. 
 
 White 
 
 Population. 
 
 1880. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Delaware .... 
 
 1790 
 
 46,310 1 
 
 120,100 
 
 73.S50 
 
 x 59 
 
 4 
 
 Maryland . . . 
 
 1790 
 
 208,649 
 
 724,693 
 
 516,044 
 
 247 
 
 
 
 Kentucky. . . . 
 
 1790 
 
 61,133 ' 
 
 1,337-179 
 
 I.276.046 
 
 2087 
 
 3 
 
 Missouri 
 
 l8lO 
 
 17.227 | 
 
 2,022,826 
 
 2.005,599 
 
 1 1 642 
 
 1 
 
 Arkansas .... 
 
 1820 
 
 12.579 
 
 59!.53i 
 
 573,952 
 
 4602 
 
 5 
 
 Tennessee . . . 
 
 1790 
 
 3i,9i7 
 
 1.138,831 
 
 1.106,914 
 
 3468 
 
 6 
 
 Texas 
 
 1850 
 
 154,034 
 
 1. 197. 237 
 
 1,043.203 
 
 617 
 
 2 
 
 Total. .. 
 
 53i, S49 
 
 7,132,457 
 
 6,600,608 
 
 1244 
 
 3 
 
 TABLE F. 
 Number and Percentage of Gain of Colored Population in the 
 Border States since the first ?-ecord of them in the Census down 
 to 1S80. 
 
 States. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Colored 
 
 Pop'lation 
 
 at date 
 
 given. 
 
 Colored 
 
 Population, 
 
 1880. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Delaware . . 
 Maryland. . 
 Kentucky. . 
 Missouri . . . 
 
 
 1790 
 1790 
 1790 
 1S10 
 1S20 
 1S50 
 1790 
 
 12.7S6 
 111,079 
 
 12.544 
 3,6iS 
 1,676 
 
 5S,55S 
 3.778 
 
 26,442 
 210.230 
 271.451 
 
 13.656 
 
 99.151 
 
 258,907 
 
 IOO. S 
 
 S9.2 
 
 206.4 
 
 39 J 7.4 
 
 12514-3 
 
 Arkansas . . 
 Texas 
 
 
 210,666 j 20S.990 
 iqi ^Sj. iij. S°6 
 
 Tennessee. . . 
 
 403.151 399-373 10571-0 
 
 Total 
 
 204,039 
 
 1,660.674 
 
 
 
 
 
122 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar, 
 
 TABLE G. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Increase of the White Population of 
 the Old Slave States from the first Enumeration until 1880. 
 
 
 
 White Popu- 
 
 White 
 
 
 
 States. 
 
 Date. 
 
 lation at 
 
 Population, 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Per 
 
 
 
 date given. 
 
 1880. 
 
 438,741 
 
 
 Virginia. . . . 
 
 1790 
 
 442,117 
 
 8S0.S5S 
 
 99.2 
 
 N. Carolina. . 
 
 1790 
 
 2SS.204 
 
 867,242 
 
 579.03S 
 
 200.9 
 
 S. Carolina. . . 
 
 1790 
 
 I40,I7S 
 
 391,105 
 
 250,927 
 
 179.O 
 
 Georgia 
 
 1790 
 
 52,SS6 
 
 Si 6, 906 
 
 764,020 
 
 1442.9 
 
 Florida 
 
 1S30 
 
 18,385 
 
 142,605 
 
 124.220 
 
 675.6 
 
 Alabama 
 
 1820 
 
 85.451 
 
 662,185 
 
 576,734 
 
 676.9 
 
 Mississippi.. . 
 
 1S00 
 
 5,179 
 
 479,398 
 
 474.219 
 
 9156.3 
 
 Louisiana. . . . 
 
 1S10 
 
 34,311 
 
 454,954 
 
 420,643 
 
 1225.9 
 
 Total 
 
 1,066.711 
 
 4,695.253 
 
 3,628,5-42 
 
 340.2 
 
 
 
 TABLE H. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Inaease of the Colored Population of 
 the Old Slave States from the first Eiiumeration until 1SS0. 
 
 States. 
 
 Date. 
 
 1790 
 1790 
 1790 
 1790 
 1S30 
 1S20 
 1800 
 1S10 
 
 Colored 
 
 Pop'lation 
 
 at date 
 
 given. 
 
 Colored 
 
 Population, 
 
 1880. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 N. Carolina. . 
 S. Carolina. . . 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Florida 
 
 Alabama .... 
 Mississippi. . . 
 Louisiana. . . . 
 
 305,493 
 
 105,547 
 
 I0S,S95 
 
 29,662 
 
 16,345 
 
 42,450 
 
 3-67I 
 
 42,245 
 
 631.616 
 
 53L277 
 604.332 
 
 725.133 
 126,690 
 600,103 
 650.291 
 
 483,655 
 
 326,123 
 425,730 
 495.437 
 695-47I 
 110,245 
 
 557.653 
 646,620 
 441,410 
 
 106.7 
 402.4 
 
 454-9 
 2344.6 
 
 674.6 
 
 I3I3-6 
 
 I76I4-3 
 
 1044.8 
 
 Total. . . . 
 
 654.308 
 
 4,353,097 
 
 3,698,789 
 
 563-7 
 
 
 
 From these it will be seen that the percentage 
 of increase of the whites in each of the States 
 
To-Morrow in the Light of Yesterday. 
 
 I 2 
 
 embraced in Tables E and F (" Border States") 
 during the periods which they have respectively- 
 been noted as separate territories in the census, 
 has been greater than that of the colored race 
 therein during the same period ; while in those 
 States embraced in Tables G and H (" Old Slave 
 States") the increase of the white race has been, 
 in eveiy case, less than that of the colored race 
 within the same limits. It will be noted that this 
 latter class embraces all those States in which the 
 colored population in 1880 averaged forty-seven 
 and six-tenths per cent of the aggregate population. 
 Perhaps the most striking view of this subject 
 that is presented by these tables is found by a 
 comparison of Tables G and H. From this it 
 will be seen that there were 412,403 more whites 
 than blacks in these States at the first enumera- 
 tion, yet the whites have only increased 39,753 
 more than the blacks. In other words, 1,066,308 
 whites show a net gain of 3,728,542, while 654,308 
 blacks in the same territory show a net gain of 
 3,698,789. While, therefore, the colored race has 
 not in all the States kept pace with the white 
 during the whole period since 1790, yet in 
 this region, which may be termed the " Black 
 Belt," it has greatly outstripped the dominant 
 
124 An Appeal to Casar, 
 
 race. These tables include the whole period of 
 slavery and liberty during which we have any re- 
 cord of our population. Tables I and J, which 
 follow, embrace the period from i860 to 1880, 
 showing the numerical gain and the percentage 
 of gain of each race in each of these States from 
 i860 to 1880. These tabulations will well repay 
 careful scrutiny, showing as they do that the per- 
 centage of increase of the white race in the Border 
 States was seventy-two and three-tenths, though the 
 percentage of gain of the colored race was only 
 forty-seven and six-tenths ; while in the Black Belt 
 the whites increased only thirty-three per cent, and 
 the blacks forty-three. In other words, while the 
 blacks of the Border States increased only four 
 per cent faster than those of the Black Belt, the 
 whites of the Border States increased thirty-nine 
 per cent faster than those of the Black Belt. This 
 difference is due not to any inherent distinction 
 between the comparative reproductive power of 
 the races in the contrasted States, but to the fact 
 that white immigration is coming into the newer 
 Border States and is leaving the older Slave 
 States. It will be seen hereafter that both these 
 movements of population are notable and steady, 
 and would seem to indicate beyond question that 
 
To-Morrow in the Light of Yesterday, i 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 Percentage of Increase of White and Colored Riiccs in the Border 
 States, 1S60 to 1SS0. 
 
 
 White Population. 
 
 c 
 
 V 
 
 Col. Population. 
 
 c 
 
 C r 
 
 
 
 i860, 
 
 1880. 
 
 
 i860. 
 
 1SS0. 
 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Texas 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 90,589 
 
 515,918 
 
 919,484 
 
 1,063,489 
 
 324,143 
 420,891 
 826,722 
 
 120,160 
 724,693 
 
 1,377,179 
 2,022,826 
 
 59*. 531 
 
 1,197.237 
 1,138,831 
 
 3 2 
 
 40 
 
 49 
 90 
 
 32 
 S2 
 
 27 
 
 6 
 4 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 4 
 S 
 
 7 
 
 21,627 26,442 
 171,131 210,230 
 236,167271,451 
 118,503 145,350 
 111,259 210,666 
 182,921393,384 
 283,019 403.151 
 
 22 
 22 
 
 14 
 22 
 
 ss 
 115 
 
 45 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 4 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 TABLE J. 
 
 Percentage of Increase of White and Colored Races in the Old 
 Slave States from i860 to 1 8 So. 
 
 White Population. 
 
 i860. 
 
 1880. 
 
 Virginia °9 I >773 
 
 N. Carolina. . . 629,942 
 S. Carolina.... 291,300 
 
 Georgia | 591,550 
 
 Florida | 77.746 
 
 Alabama j 526,271 
 
 Mississippi.... 353,899 
 Louisiana.... 357,456 
 
 S30.85S 
 867,242 
 391- 105 
 
 Colored Population 
 
 i860. 
 
 14. 31 527.763 
 
 37.8 361,522 
 34.2 412.320 
 
 816.906 55. 0! 465 698 
 
 62,677 
 
 437,770 
 
 437-404 
 
 350,373 
 
 142,605 84.8 
 
 662,185 ! 25.8 
 479,398 32.6 
 454,954 2S.6 
 
 631,616 
 
 531,277 
 604.332 
 
 725.133 
 126,690 
 600, 103 
 650.291 
 483,655 
 
 19.6 
 46.9 
 46.5 
 
 55-7 
 102. 1 
 34-3 
 48.7 
 35-1 
 
126 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 in what I have called the Black Belt the colored 
 race is bound to increase and -the white race to 
 decrease in relative numbers, to an extent that 
 should convince any careful observer that the 
 question of the African in the United States, as 
 an element of our life and civilization, is just be- 
 ginning to assume a national importance, and to 
 demand instant and earnest consideration. 
 
 But the most startling comparison yet remains 
 to be made. The statistics heretofore presented 
 have shown the comparative numerical increase 
 of the two races in the relation of master and 
 slave. The last two tables, it is true, include 
 the period of freedom, but they include also the 
 period of war. They were introduced only to 
 show that neither of these influences impaired 
 the deduction made from the figures presented 
 by the whole period covered by the various 
 censuses. It was confidently predicted by all 
 theorists who speculated upon the subject that 
 the negro would wither away under the influ- 
 ences of freedom and civilization. It was un- 
 hesitatingly asserted, and almost universally be- 
 lieved, that the first decade of liberty would show 
 the race to have been decimated by disease, de- 
 bauchery, and the lack of the master's paternal 
 
To- Morrow in the Light of Yesterday. 127 
 
 care. It was not an unnatural conclusion for 
 men to arrive at who devoutly believed in the 
 negro's incapacity for self-support. That the 
 people of the North should believe it also is 
 hardly to be wondered at. They have always 
 reflected the Southern idea of the negro in every- 
 thing except as to his natural right to be free 
 and to exercise the rights of the freeman. The 
 North, however, has never desired the numerical 
 preponderance of the colored man, and has espe- 
 cially desired to avoid responsibility in regard 
 thereto. From the first it seems to have been 
 animated by a sneaking notion that after having 
 used the negro to fight its battles, freed him 
 as a natural result of the overthrow of a rebel- 
 lion based on slavery, and enfranchised him to 
 constitute a political foil to the ambition and 
 disloyalty of his former master, it could at any 
 time unload him upon the States where he 
 chanced to dwell, wash its hands of all further 
 responsibility in the matter, and leave him to 
 live or die as chance might determine. It seems 
 a hard saying, but there is very little doubt that 
 side by side with the belief in the Northern 
 mind that the negro would disappear beneath the 
 glare of civilization was a half-unconscious feeling 
 
128 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 that such disappearance would be a very simple 
 and easy solution of a troublesome question. 
 Probably there are hardly ten men in the coun- 
 try — if indeed there be one — who did not believe 
 at the close of the war that in fifteen years there- 
 after the white population of every Southern 
 State would have increased at least fifty per cent 
 faster than its colored element. The census of 
 1870 seemed to leave the matter in doubt. We 
 waited anxiously for that of 1880. It came. 
 The story it told was so astounding that it could 
 not be believed. It was carefully tested. There 
 was no chance to question its correctness. All 
 that could be granted was that the preceding one 
 may have been inaccurate. This inaccuracy of 
 the census of 1870, however, applied alike to 
 both races, and so cannot be regarded as affecting 
 their relative positions. It seems to be conceded 
 that the census of 1870 was not correctly taken at 
 the South — the defect consisting in the failure to 
 enumerate all the population. The gain of both 
 races for the decade as shown by the census of 
 1880 was undoubtedly too great, but there is no 
 reason to suppose that the error affected one 
 more than the other ; so that the relative gain 
 would remain as indicated. 
 
To- Morrow in the Light of Yesterday. 1 29 
 
 The census of 1880 revealed the unexpected 
 and amazing fact that in a state of freedom the 
 reproductive energy of the American negro not 
 only exceeds that of the white race dwelling in 
 the same locality, but exceeds his own ratio of 
 numerical gain in a state of slavery. If the mat- 
 ter had a serious aspect seen in the light of pre- 
 vious statistics, it presents a problem of unex- 
 pected difficulty when considered in the light of 
 the figures of the Tenth Census. The following 
 table shows the numerical increase and the per- 
 centage of gain of each race in the States in- 
 cluded in the Black Belt from 1870 to 1880: 
 
 TABLE K. 
 
 Numerical Gain and the Gain per cent of Each Race in the 
 Old Slave States from 1 870 to 1880. 
 
 
 1870. 
 
 18S0. 
 
 Numerical 
 Gain. 
 
 Gain 
 per cent. 
 
 
 712, 0S9 
 678,470 
 289,667 
 638,926 
 9M57 
 521, 3S4 
 382,896 
 362,065 
 
 8So,S58 
 867,242 
 391,105 
 Si 6, 906 
 142.605 
 662,185 
 479.393 
 454,954 
 
 168,769 
 
 188,772 
 
 101,438 
 
 177, 9S0 
 
 46,54s 
 
 140.801 
 
 96,502 
 
 92,889 
 
 23.7 
 2 7 .8 
 
 35-0 
 
 27.8 
 
 48.3 
 27.0 
 25.2 
 25.6 
 
 North Carolina.. . . 
 South Carolina.. . . 
 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Total 
 
 B,68i,s54 
 
 4,095,253 
 
 1,013,699 
 
 27.5 
 
 
13° 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 COLORED. 
 
 
 1870. 
 
 1880. 
 
 Numerical 
 Gain. 
 
 Gain 
 per cent. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina. . . . 
 
 512. S41 
 391,650 
 415,814 
 545,142 
 91,689 
 475,5io 
 444,201 
 364,210 
 
 631,616 
 
 531,277 
 604,332 
 
 725,133 
 126,690 
 600,103 
 650,291 
 
 483,655 
 
 H8,775 
 139,627 
 188.518 
 179,991 
 35,OOI 
 
 124.593 
 206,090 
 
 119,445 
 
 23.I 
 35-6 
 45-1 
 32.8 
 
 
 38.0 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 26.2 
 
 46.3 
 32.8 
 
 Total 
 
 3.241,057 
 
 4-353, °97 1,112,040 
 
 34-3 
 
 
 
 
 
 It will be observed that this table shows not 
 merely a greater percentage of gain on the part of 
 the blacks, but a greater numerical increase. The 
 3,241,057 colored inhabitants of these States in 
 1870 show an actual gain of 98,341 more than the 
 whites, although the latter race outnumbered the 
 former in 1870 by 440,497. In other words, three 
 and a quarter millions of the colored race are able 
 to give the whites among whom they dwell the 
 odds of a half-million in numbers, and yet in a 
 decade outstrip them a hundred thousand in nu- 
 merical strength. 
 
 Upon this we present some tables and extracts 
 from the article by Prof. E. W. Gilliam in the 
 Popidar Science Monthly, heretofore referred to. 
 He makes certain tables, — compiled from the 
 
To- Morrow in the Light of Yesterday. 131 
 
 census of 1880, and "showing the rate percent 
 of the increase or decrease of the white and black 
 population in several of the Southern States, 
 during each decade from 1790 to 1880, — the basis 
 of a discussion of the probable numerical strength 
 of the races in the future." 
 
 The following are the tables which he gives : 
 
 UNITED STATE'S. 
 
 White. Black. 
 
 1830 to 1840 34 per cent. 23 per cent. 
 
 1840101850 38 " 23 
 
 1850 to i860 38 " 22 
 
 1S60 to 1870 24 " 9 " 
 
 1870 to 18S0 29 " 34 " 
 
 ALABAMA. 
 
 1830 to 1840 76 per cent. 114 per cent. 
 
 1840 to 1850 21 " 35 " 
 
 185O to i860 21 " 27 " 
 
 1S60 to 1870 i " loss. 8 " 
 
 1S70 to 1880 27 " 26 " 
 
 ARKANSAS. 
 
 1830 to 1840. . . , 206 per cent. 332 per cent. 
 
 1S40 to 1850 nr " 133 
 
 1850 to i860 98 " 133 " 
 
 i860 to 1870 11 " 9 " 
 
 1870 to 1S80 63 " 72 " 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 1830 to 1840 2 per cent. 1 per cent. 
 
 1840 to 1850 14 " 17 " 
 
 1S50 to i860 14 " 14 
 
 i860 to 1870 7 " 8 
 
 1870 to 1880 2S " 36 
 
13: 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 White. 
 
 1830 to 1840 \ per cent. 
 
 1840 to 1850 6 " 
 
 1850 to i860 6 " 
 
 i860 to 1870 \ " loss. 
 
 1870 to 1880 35 
 
 MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 1830 to 1840 155 per cent. 
 
 1S40 to 1850 64 
 
 1850 to i860 19 " 
 
 i860 to 1870 8 " 
 
 1870 to 1880 25 
 
 LOUISIANA. 
 
 1S30 to 1840 77 per cent. 
 
 1840 to 1850 61 
 
 1850 to 1S60 39 " 
 
 i860 to 1S70 1 " 
 
 1870 to 1880 25 
 
 GEORGIA. 
 
 1830 to 1840 37 per cent. 
 
 1S40 to 1850 27 " 
 
 1850 to i860 13 " 
 
 i860 to 1870 8 " 
 
 1870 to 1880 27 
 
 Black. 
 
 3 per cent. 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 1 " loss, 
 
 45 
 
 197 per cent. 
 
 57 
 
 40 " 
 
 ii " 
 
 47 
 
 53 per cent. 
 
 35 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 
 33 
 
 28 per cent. 
 
 35 
 
 20 " 
 
 17 " 
 
 32 " 
 
 Of the decade 1 870-1 880, Prof. Gilliam remarks 
 
 " It will be seen that throughout the United States the 
 gain for the whites has been twenty-nine percent, and for 
 the blacks thirty-four per cent, and that the latter is much 
 the highest figure reached by the blacks in the several 
 decades." 
 
To- Morrow in the Light of Yesterday. 133 
 
 Referring to the error in the census of 1870, he 
 says : 
 
 " As the error bears practically against both races 
 equally, however the figures, taken absolutely, may vary 
 from the truth, yet they are still a guide to the compara- 
 tive rate of increase of the races. It is estimated that five 
 per cent from the rate of gain for the Southern blacks is a 
 fair allowance for this error. Obvious considerations 
 point to the conclusion that for the future the blacks will 
 develop at the South under conditions more and more 
 favorable, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that in 
 subsequent decades this five per cent will be regained. 
 
 " The gain for the whites in the last decade is very nearly 
 thirty per cent. This is to be docked in the Southern 
 States to the extent of five per cent for the error in the 
 census of 1870. Since, however, this error appertains 
 only to the twelve million Southern whites, and the cen- 
 sus in regard to the thirty million Northern whites is 
 accepted as correct, the rate of increase for the total white 
 population is a fraction under twenty-nine per cent. Of 
 this at least nine per cent should be attributed to immigra- 
 tion. Immigration is now, and for a year or two past has 
 been, largely in excess of this figure, but probably not for 
 the past decade ; and the resultant is a gain of twenty per 
 cent for the entire native white population. 
 
 "There is a wide and, at first view, startling difference 
 between the twenty per cent for the whites and the thirty- 
 five per cent for the blacks. The solution is found in the 
 superior fecundity of the latter." 
 
134 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 From these figures Prof. Gilliam draws the fol- 
 lowing conclusions : 
 
 " The white population, increasing at the rate of twenty 
 per cent in ten years, or two per cent per annum, doubles 
 itself every thirty-five years. The black, increasing at the 
 rate of thirty-five per cent in ten years, or three and a half 
 per cent per annum, doubles itself in twenty years. 
 Hence we find : 
 
 Whites in United States in 1880 (in round numbers) 42,000,000 
 " " 1915 " " 84,000,000 
 
 " " 1950 " " 168,000,000 
 
 " " 1985 " " 336,000,000 
 
 Northern Whites in 1S80 30,000.000 
 
 " " 1Q15 60,000,000 
 
 " " 1950 120,000,000 
 
 " " 19S5 240,000,000 
 
 Southern Whites in 1SS0 12,000,000 
 
 " " 1915 24,000,000 
 
 " " 1950 48,000,000 
 
 " " 1985 96,000,000 
 
 Blacks in Southern States in 1880 6,000,000 
 
 "' " " 1900 12,000,000 
 
 " " " 1920 24,000,000 
 
 " " •' 1940 48,000,000 
 
 " " " 1960 96,000,000 
 
 «' " " 1980 192,000,000 
 
 It is not necessary that the conclusions of Prof. 
 Gilliam in regard to the future of the African race 
 should.be accepted as specifically true. These 
 prognostications do not need to be expressly ful- 
 filled in order to convince any thoughtful mind 
 
To- Morrow in the Light of Yesterday. 135 
 
 that the problem of the African in the United 
 States, instead of being a question that concerns 
 the past alone, is really the most vital and impor- 
 tant of all the questions that can possibly occupy 
 the national attention for the present and the fu- 
 ture. The tables on which he based his esti- 
 mates, embracing as they do the whole population 
 of the United States, indicate a numerical pre- 
 dominance of the colored race in all the Southern 
 States a hundred years hence. 
 
 The tables which we have given showing the 
 operation of the rate of increase in the colored 
 race upon separate groups of Southern States in- 
 dicates a still more startling fact ; to wit, that in 
 the year 1900, or sixteen years he7ice, each of the 
 States lying between Maryla?zd and Texas will have 
 a colored majority within its borders ; and we shall 
 have eight minor republics of the Union in which 
 either the colored race will rule or a majority will 
 be disfrancJiised! 
 
 Let those who think the Nation has no interest 
 in the matter ponder this fact very seriously. 
 
A Macedonian Cry, 
 
 THE next step in our investigation of this 
 question must be to ascertain whether 
 there are any causes which are likely to affect the 
 continuance of this disproportionate rate of in- 
 crease of the races, so as to sensibly modify its 
 normal results. Such influences may be of three 
 classes : 
 
 I. — Natural or social forces, tending to enhance 
 or diminish the repro'ductive energy of 
 either race so as to affect their present rela- 
 tive growth. 
 
A Macedonian Cry. 137 
 
 II. — Any movement of population from without 
 that shall tend sensibly to increase the nu- 
 merical strength of either race without af- 
 fecting in like manner the other. 
 HI. — Any migratory movement appreciably af- 
 fecting either race within the States under 
 consideration, and not sensibly affecting the 
 other. 
 The first of these classes has already been in- 
 directly considered. With regard to it the follow- 
 ing propositions may be safely formulated : 
 I. — There is no reasonable prospect of any known 
 or probably conceivable significant change 
 in the manner of life, occupation, external 
 surroundings, or position in the social scale, 
 as compared with the colored race, at all 
 likely to enhance the reproductive energy 
 of the white race in those States, and 
 thereby diminish the present disproportion- 
 ate rate of growth. 
 2. — On the other hand, all the natural and so- 
 ciological influences that now exist or are 
 likely to occur favor very distinctly and 
 potently the enhancement of the rate of in- 
 crease of the colored race. The most note- 
 worthy of these influences are the following : 
 
138 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 (a) — The fact that the colored population must 
 ever remain a distinct and alien body, so far 
 as the whites of the South are concerned, con- 
 demns them to remain, certainly for many 
 generations, the laboring class. They can- 
 not rise above this rank at least during the 
 next hundred years. They are safe, therefore, 
 from the enervating influences of luxury and 
 fashion. Labor, chiefly agricultural, the open 
 air, plain but nutritious food, confortable 
 clothing, sufficient shelter, and a climate 
 exactly suited to their wants, constitute con- 
 ditions which cannot fail to act favorably on 
 the natural reproductive energy of the race. 
 
 (b) — Freedom of life and a slow but constant im- 
 provement in their surroundings, greater ease 
 and comfort, and the inspiration of opportu- 
 nity, will more and more tend to lessen the 
 death-rate, prolong life, and increase the 
 numerical disproportion in favor of the col- 
 ored race. 
 
 (c)— Increasing intelligence, the power of self-sup- 
 port, and the knowledge and capacity to ex- 
 ercise thrift and care in the support of fami- 
 lies will continue to improve the advantages 
 which already predominate in favor of the 
 blacks. 
 
 The second of the above-named classes of modi- 
 fying surroundings (II) demands a more careful 
 
A Macedonian Cry. 139 
 
 and extended consideration. It is influences of 
 this character — immigration — on which so many 
 of those writers who for almost a score of years 
 have been foretelling the swift regeneration of 
 Southern life, society, and sentiment rely, not 
 only for numbers to overcome the existing 
 disproportion between the races, but also for 
 promoting the improvement and continued domi- 
 nation of the whites in those States. It is to 
 immigration that the people of the North have 
 looked also, year by year, for mollifying and im- 
 proving influences upon Southern prejudice and 
 sentiment gradually to become apparent. It is 
 the general belief, both at the North and at the 
 South, that immigration to the South both from 
 abroad and from the Northern States has very 
 greatly increased since the close of the war. There 
 are no doubt very many wise and self-assured men 
 of both sections who would not hesitate to aver 
 that such was an unquestionable fact. 
 
 It is a favorite notion of the American people 
 that everything which promises evil to the nation 
 will cure itself if only it be let alone. In a sense 
 we are, perhaps, the most unreasonable optimists 
 the world has ever seen. The facts of our history 
 have been so startling, our population has grown 
 
140 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 with such marvelous rapidity, and the constant 
 opening of new territory has made such a won- 
 derful and constant demand for new life and 
 energy, that we are inclined to forget that the laws 
 which govern humanity apply in any degree to 
 us or to our future. As a people we believe most 
 devoutly in our luck. Because we are Americans 
 we think that we are exempt from the perils and 
 dangers which beset other nations. We regard it 
 as something abnormal if the laws which control 
 other associated communities become factors in 
 our own development. For a hundred years all 
 the world except ourselves knew that sooner or 
 later the conflict between freedom and slavery 
 must come. But when Seward proclaimed the 
 " irrepressible conflict," it brought a thrill of fear 
 to every heart. Nearly all of our people repro- 
 bated any such utterances. War ! War in Amer- 
 ica! War between Americans ! It could not be. 
 The gulf between the North and the South might 
 be an impassable one. Slavery might rule upon 
 one side, and Liberty flourish upon the other, yet 
 it could not be that ever the sword would bridge 
 the chasm or that blood would flow in defense of 
 slavery or in resistance to its aggressions. Even 
 so late as December, i860, a Senator of the 
 
A Macedonian Cry 141 
 
 United States lectured throughout all the chief 
 cities of the North, demonstrating to the satisfac- 
 tion of immense audiences the impossibility of 
 civil war in America. At that very moment the 
 Confederacy was an organic form ; men were 
 mustering for the conflict ; the air was full of 
 threats ; war was at our thresholds. 
 
 This same spirit prevails with regard to any 
 evil that is said to threaten our land. We are 
 disinclined to believe any unpleasant fact of our- 
 selves. We refuse until the fifty-ninth minute of 
 the eleventh hour to recognize the presence of 
 danger. We have a sort of blind, fortuitous trust 
 in ourselves and in our luck that, whatever may 
 happen, the American people will be able to take 
 care of themselves. That this has hitherto proved 
 to be true hardly justifies the conclusion that it 
 always will do so. Besides the price which we are 
 called upon to pay for exemption from the ordi- 
 nary evils of humanity, the penalty which is de- 
 manded for the disregard of the laws of God is 
 always a very heavy one. It cost a million lives 
 and untold millions of treasure to repress the 
 rebellion which was founded upon slavery. If 
 the words of warning which for fifty years had 
 been uttered with passionate importunity to the 
 
14- An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 people of the whole country by the few who saw 
 and felt and knew — if these words had been 
 heeded — either the struggle would have been 
 short and sharp or never have occurred at all. 
 The nation suffered in the War of the Rebellion 
 because it would not listen to the words of warn- 
 ing and would not obey the laws which must 
 govern every associated community. Peoples 
 have been swept off the face of the earth for a 
 disregard of natural laws of far less importance 
 than those with which we trifled. Year after year 
 the danger grew ; year after year we slept with 
 folded arms ; year after year our trade and com- 
 merce clamored angrily against those who told 
 the truth which we were forced to learn when it 
 was written in blood. It was only procrastina- 
 tion, indecision, that made the problem of African 
 slavery in the United States one of overwhelming 
 danger. It is the same inclination to trifle with 
 the danger which lies before us that makes the 
 problem of the African in the United States a 
 terrible one to-day. 
 
 There are a few vague ideas which almost every 
 one, North and South alike, entertains with re- 
 gard to this question which demand consideration 
 at our hands. 
 
A Macedonian Cry, 143 
 
 First, it is a very general belief that trade and 
 commerce between the North and the South will 
 in some mysterious manner change the nature of 
 the people and obviate all danger that may seem 
 likely to arise from the co-occupancy of the two 
 races. Throughout the North we very frequently 
 hear the opinion expressed, and meet it not in- 
 frequently in print, that the dissemination of 
 Northern ideas and Northern intelligence and 
 Northern enterprise throughout the South will 
 in time remove the differences now existing be- 
 tween the people of the two sections, and har- 
 monize the discordant races. Two-thirds of the 
 average life of a generation has passed away 
 since the abolition of slavery and the cessation of 
 warfare. Northern ideas and Northern influences 
 have had scope and opportunity in the regenera- 
 tion of the South. Not only its commercial and 
 manufacturing skill have been at work, but its 
 abounding charity has extended throughout the 
 length and breadth of the land with its hands full 
 of golden treasure, scattering wisdom and kind- 
 ness and aid. Nearly twenty millions of dollars 
 have been given by the kindly Great-Hearts of the 
 North to help in lifting up the degraded and 
 oppressed of the South. Much has been done; 
 
144 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 and yet if we but glance at the results achieved, we 
 shall laugh at the faith which expects the world 
 to wait while Northern influence, Northern 
 thought and enterprise revolutionize the life of 
 the South. One might as well expect a drop of 
 oil to change the nature of a bucket of water. 
 
 Second. Another favorite idea with those who 
 have written upon this subject for twenty years 
 has been the notion that immigration from Eu- 
 rope would come in and fill the vacant spaces, 
 make the waste places of the South to blossom like 
 the rose, and constitute a new growth and a new 
 life before which the African would gradually 
 wither away and become an unimportant factor 
 in its future progress. For a time this was the 
 favorite fallacy of Southern writers and thinkers. 
 They insisted upon having a laboring class. They 
 were dissatisfied with the negro in a state of free- 
 dom ; they thought him not sufficiently subservi- 
 ent ; not easily enough bound to serve and obey. 
 He would, despite all laws and in the face of all 
 possible threats, sometimes abandon his contract, 
 either through lack of payment or from other less 
 reasonable motive. So the South proposed to 
 substitute other laborers. The white peasantry 
 of Europe was looked to as a source of supply. 
 
A Macedonian Cry. 145 
 
 Our own Northern philanthropists and economists 
 regarded this as a most reasonable and desirable 
 movement. How far they have succeeded, let 
 the tables which follow show. For twenty years 
 the attempt has been made ; the invitations have 
 been out ; the feast has been waiting. These 
 tables show the results. It may be well to ob- 
 serve, too, that very few of those of foreign birth 
 at the South are simple laborers. The average 
 illiteracy of the people of foreign birth throughout 
 the country is something more than twelve per 
 cent. The average illiteracy of those of foreign 
 birth at the South is less than four per cent. 
 What does this prove ? Simply that the foreigner 
 who goes to the South does not go as a laborer. 
 The high average of intelligence found among 
 them shows that these foreigners are, in the main, 
 traders scattered up and down throughout the 
 country, or perhaps engaged in the finer mechan- 
 ical avocations in the cities. 
 
 Another favorite fancy, especially with North- 
 ern theorists and Southern speculators, is that, in 
 some golden day of the future, immigration from 
 the North will set in overwhelmingly and form 
 anew all the life of the South. Ah, the eloquence 
 that has been wasted upon this subject ! How 
 
146 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 great -souled Northern philosophers have sped 
 through the South, gazing with disgust at its 
 peculiar agriculture ; ruminating beside its wasted 
 water-power; dreaming of the day when its mines 
 should give forth their treasures ; when new 
 Birminghams and Manchesters and Lowells should 
 rise beside the streams of the South ; when the 
 African should be pushed back to insignificance, 
 and industry and enterprise, Northern thrift and 
 Northern vigor and Northern labor should pre- 
 vail ! From the South, too, forever comes the 
 same glowing story of hopes waiting to be real- 
 ized. Every year new Edens are discovered. 
 Almost every day new wonders are evolved ; and 
 the world, and especially the greedy and credulous 
 Yankee, is asked to come, to come at once, buy 
 quickly and share the golden shower that is just 
 beginning to fall. Coal and iron and gold, a 
 thousand quaintly named and wondrously rare 
 metals, invite the best, the strongest, and the 
 bravest of the Northern people to come and help 
 to solve the problem of Southern destiny. Al- 
 most every man who owns so much as an acre of 
 sedge-grown field dreams of the time when the 
 Yankees shall come down and offer fabulous sums 
 therefor. Let us look at the results as shown in 
 
A Macedonian Cry. 
 
 H7 
 
 the following tables. They will prove interesting 
 if not startling to the intelligent reader. The 
 first shows the proportions of white, colored, and 
 foreign-born population in the several States of 
 the South, and the aggregate of each of these 
 classes at the North. 
 
 TABLE L. 
 
 Number of White, Colored, and Foreign-born in each Southern 
 State, and the Aggregate of each class in the Northern States, in 
 1S80. 
 
 States. 
 
 Foreign-born. 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 9.734 
 
 10,350 
 
 9.46S 
 
 9.909 
 10,564 
 
 59,517 
 
 54.146 
 
 82,So6 
 
 9,209 
 
 211,578 
 
 3-742 
 
 7.6S6 
 
 16,702 
 
 114,616 
 
 1 j. 606 
 
 662, 1S5 
 
 591,531 
 120,160 
 142,605 
 816,906 
 1,377,179 
 454.954 
 724,693 
 
 479,39S 
 
 2,022, S26 
 
 867,242 
 
 39M05 
 
 1,138,831 
 
 1,197,237 
 
 600,103 
 210,666 
 26,442 
 126,690 
 725,133 
 271,451 
 483,655 
 210,230 
 650,291 
 145,350 
 531,277 
 604,332 
 
 403,151 
 
 393,384 
 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 18,265 j 592,537 
 
 25,SS6 
 
 In the South. 
 
 642,98s 
 
 12,460,247 
 
 6,039,657 
 
 In the North 
 
 6,037,155 
 
 30,942,733 
 
 540,736 
 
 It will be seen that hardly one-tenth of the for- 
 eign-born population of the country is to be found 
 
148 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 at the South, which has more than one-third of 
 the white population and something more than 
 nine-tenths of the colored population. These fig- 
 ures will no doubt satisfy every one that foreign 
 immigration is not likely to constitute any very 
 important element of Southern life for a con- 
 siderable time at least. But the following table, 
 showing the number and per cent of the aggregate 
 and foreign-born populations of the States we are 
 especially considering, will tend to establish this 
 conviction in the minds of the most skeptical. 
 
 TABLE M. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Foreign-born Population in eight 
 Southern States in 18S0. 
 
 States. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Florida 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 Louisiana 
 
 Total. 
 
 Aggregate. 
 
 1,512,565 
 1,399.750 
 
 995,577 
 1,542,180 
 
 269,493 
 1,262,505 
 1,131,597 
 
 939.946 
 
 9,053,613 
 
 Foreign-born. 
 
 14,696 
 3.742 
 7,686 
 
 10,564 
 9,909 
 9,734 
 9,209 
 
 54,140 
 
 119,686 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 1-3 
 
 An average rate of one and one-third per cent 
 can hardly be considered a very potent influence. 
 It requires only a moment's glance at the fol- 
 
A Macedonian Cry. 
 
 149 
 
 lowing table, however, to afford the most convinc- 
 ing and astounding proof that this hope of 
 affecting Southern life in even the remotest 
 degree by the influence of foreign immigration is 
 utterly and absurdly visionary. This table 
 shows the loss and gain of foreign-born popula- 
 tion in each of the States we are considering from 
 i860 to 1870, and from 1870 to 1880. It demon- 
 strates the astounding fact that emancipation has 
 reduced even the ante-bellum ratio of the foreign- 
 born population in these States in a surprising degree, 
 and that all the efforts that have been made to 
 attract foreign immigrants to this region have 7iot 
 sufficed to prevent a LOSS of almost one fourth the 
 member of foreigners in these States in 1 860 ! 
 
 TABLE N. 
 Gain and Loss of Foreign-bom in each of these States, 1S60 to 
 1880, with aggregate Loss during that time. 
 
 
 FOREIGN-BOKN. 
 
 States. 
 
 i860. 
 
 1870. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Loss, 
 
 1SS0. 
 
 Gain. 
 
 Loss. 
 
 
 I8.5I3 
 3,298 
 
 9,086 
 ",671 
 
 3,309 
 12,352 
 
 8.558 
 80.975 
 
 13-754 
 3,029 
 8.074 
 
 11,127 
 4,967 
 9,962 
 
 11,191 
 
 61,827 
 
 1,658 
 2,633 
 
 4,759 
 269 
 
 i,9 12 
 544 
 
 2,390 
 
 19,148 
 
 ; 14,696 
 3,742 
 7,686 
 
 ; 10.564 
 
 i 9-9°9 
 9-734 
 
 1 9.209 
 
 ; 54,146 
 
 942 
 
 713 
 
 4,942 
 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 "388 
 
 563 
 
 Florida 
 
 Alabama 
 
 223 
 1,982 
 
 7 681 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 148,662 
 
 i23,93i 
 
 
 
 119,686 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total loss from i860 to 1880 of foreign-born population 28,976. 
 
15° 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 Instead of having gained anything by immigra- 
 tion from abroad during the last two decades, 
 therefore, we see that these States have lost the 
 amazing number of twenty-nine thousand foreign- 
 born inhabitants. 
 
 This loss, however, and much more, it will 
 generally be supposed, has been made up by 
 immigration from the Northern States. The fol- 
 lowing tables will show the futility of any such 
 belief. 
 
 TABLE O. 
 
 Natives of the United States resident in each Southern State in 
 1870, with section of Birth. 
 
 Residing in- 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Total 
 
 Born in the 
 United States. 
 
 937, 
 479. 
 115, 
 182, 
 
 172, 
 
 257, 
 665, 
 
 697. 
 816, 
 
 499. 
 06S. 
 697 
 
 .239 
 756 
 ,211 
 424 
 
 030 
 445 
 879 
 781 
 982 
 613 
 08S 
 4S2 
 
 731 
 028 
 332 
 532 
 204 
 168 
 409 
 923 
 
 13,271,627 
 
 Born at 
 the North. 
 
 4,829 
 16,746 
 13,272 
 
 2,257 
 
 6,613 
 
 59.901 
 
 14,228 
 
 36.8S2 
 
 7,503 
 
 340, T42 
 
 3,014 
 
 2,564 
 
 19,333 
 
 18,415 
 
 14.072 
 
 31,945 
 
 591,766 
 
 Born at the 
 South. 
 
 982,201 
 
 462,699 
 
 102,607 
 
 180,524 
 
 1,166,369 
 
 1,197,712 
 
 650,860 
 
 660,600 
 
 809,228 
 
 1,158,886 
 
 I,065,3lS 
 
 694,96s 
 
 1,219.821 
 
 737,753 
 
 1,197,337 
 
 392,978 
 
 12,679,861 
 
A Macedonian Cry. 
 
 151 
 
 TABLE P. 
 
 Natives of the United States resident in each Southern State in 
 1 8 80, with section of Birth. 
 
 Residing in — 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Virginia 
 
 West Virginia. . 
 
 Total 
 
 Born in the 
 United States. 
 
 1,252,771 
 792,175 
 137,140 
 259-534 
 
 1,531,616 
 
 1,539.173 
 
 S85,Soo 
 
 852,137 
 1,122,38s 
 1,956,802 
 1,396,008 
 
 987,891 
 1,525,657 
 1-477,133 
 1,497,869 
 
 600,192 
 
 Born at 
 the Nortli 
 
 17,864,336 
 
 9.449 
 
 3S,62 3 
 24-SI3 
 
 7,432 
 
 5.S48 
 66,074 
 
 9,96S 
 41,046 
 
 6,025 
 
 49i- 55 
 
 3,966 
 
 3-463 
 
 43.SS9 
 
 65,998- 
 
 7,116 
 
 5i,6So 
 
 876,445 
 
 Born at the 
 South. 
 
 1,243,322 
 753,552 
 II2.327 
 252,152 
 
 1,525.768 
 
 1,523,099 
 875,832 
 811,091 
 
 1,116,363 
 
 1,465,747 
 1,392,042 
 
 9S4.428 
 1,481,768 
 1,411-135 
 1,490,753 
 
 548,512 
 
 16,987,891 
 
 These tables show that while there has been an 
 actual numerical gain of 284,679 during this decade, 
 1870-80, in the entire South, the Northern-born 
 population still bears so ridiculously small a 
 proportion to the total, in all but five of the 
 Southern States, as to waken a smile when one 
 remembers the clamor of a few years ago in 
 regard to " carpet-baggers." Only think of 
 States " overrun with carpet-baggers" in the pro- 
 portions of, say, three or four thousand outsiders 
 
152 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 to a million natives ! No wonder the heart of 
 the North was wrung with pity for the sad estate 
 of the South and forgot duty, honor, and common- 
 sense in listening to their pathetic plaints ! 
 
 However this may be, it is well to observe that 
 this numerical increase of 284,679 barely keeps 
 pace with the increase of the population. In 1870 
 
 TABLE Q. 
 
 Number of Northern-born Inhabitants in eight Southern States 
 in 1870, and in 1880. 
 
 States. 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Florida 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Total. 
 
 1870. 
 
 55,o8o 
 
 14,072 
 
 7,116 
 
 3.014 
 
 3,9 66 
 
 2,564 
 
 3,463 
 
 6,613 
 
 5,848 
 
 2,257 
 
 7,432 
 
 4,829 
 
 9,449 
 
 7,503 
 
 6,025 
 
 14,228 
 
 9,968 
 
 53,267 
 
 the percentage of people of Northern birth in 
 the South was four and two-tenths; in 1880 it was 
 four and seven-tenths — showing an increase of five- 
 tenths of one per cent in ten years ! At this rate 
 Northern immigration would hardly seem likely 
 to become an important factor of the problem we 
 are considering, for some time to come. 
 
A Macedonian Cry, 153 
 
 But whatever may be the prospect of Northern 
 immigration considered with regard to the whole 
 South, the preceding table (Q) shows that the most 
 sanguine need not hope for the States therein 
 named. 
 
 Comparing this table with the two preceding 
 ones, we find that while there was again of nearly 
 300,000 in the aggregate Northern-born popula- 
 tion of all the Southern States during this decade, 
 in the eight States under consideration there was 
 an actual loss of nearly two thousand. In 1870 the 
 proportion of Northern-born in this belt was only 
 eight-tenths of one per cent of the whole popula- 
 tion ; while in 1880 even this was reduced by one- 
 fourth, being then only six-tenths of one per cent. 
 At this rate Northern immigration is not likely 
 to counteract any influences that may spring from 
 the increase of the colored race in this belt — an 
 increase, it will be remembered, of thirty-five per 
 cent during the same period. In Virginia, Georgia, 
 Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana there are 
 fewer Northern-born residents than there were in 
 1870, and in all of the States of this belt the per- 
 centage is less than it then was. 
 
 In other words, the proportion of foreign-born 
 inhabitants throughout the South has largely 
 
154 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 decreased, while the number of native Ameri- 
 cans of Northern birth in the " Black Belt " is 
 steadily becoming less. The element of immi- 
 gration, instead of showing any probability of 
 revolutionizing the Southern life, is itself, year by 
 year, becoming more and more insignificant. 
 
White Spaces Show Proportions, 
 
 Accounting for Strange 
 Things. 
 
 ' I 'HE reason for all this is not far to seek. 
 ■*■ The South boasts, not without reason, of 
 the hospitality of her people. The stranger 
 within her gates, even in her humblest homes, is 
 royally entertained. Kindness toward a guest, 
 unwearying ministration to his pleasure and com- 
 fort, is instinctive with her people. At the same 
 time the South is a shocking bad step-mother. 
 Her people know nothing about the art of making 
 those who come to abide with them feel at home. 
 
156 An Appeal to Cczsar. 
 
 The immigrant, seeking to establish his house- 
 hold gods in any one of the Southern States, is 
 received with effusive hospitality. So long as he 
 remains a guest, nothing could exceed the kind- 
 ness with which he is treated. Hardly, however, 
 has he become attached to the soil when a 
 strange suspicion, almost animosity, manifests it- 
 self with a peculiar fear that he may find some- 
 thing which he shall not approve. With the 
 utmost kindness and hospitality the people are 
 yet self-conscious, devoted to their own ideals, 
 and jealous to the utmost degree of all those 
 who differ with them in thought, in sentiment, 
 or in method. It is hardly to be wondered at 
 that such is the fact. Except along the borders 
 where Northern immigration has thrust itself 
 across the charmed line, there has hardly been such 
 a thing as a movement of population toward the 
 South for a hundred years. Indeed, it is nearly 
 twice that period since there can be said to have 
 been any material accessions to the life of the 
 older Southern States. The people who dwell 
 within their borders to-day are either natives of 
 their State or of neighboring Southern communi- 
 ties the general characteristics of which are the 
 same as their own. They know nothing of the 
 
Accounting for Strange Things. 157 
 
 arts of accommodating themselves to the various 
 shades of thought which the influx of population 
 from other regions brings. 
 
 To the people of the North this seems a 
 strange, almost incomprehensible thing. For 
 three hundred years our doors have been open 
 and the world has been pouring through our 
 homes, in at the front door and out at the back, 
 until we have become cosmopolitan in our tastes 
 and feelings. A farmer from New England finds 
 himself in the midst of a Western community 
 composed of people from all sections of the coun- 
 try and almost every nationality of Europe ; in a 
 week he is as much at home as upon his granite 
 hills ; in a month he is looked upon as a neigh- 
 bor with whom all are acquainted ; in a year it 
 has been forgotten that he has not always dwelt 
 among them. This process going on from day 
 to day at the North and West has given to the 
 Northern people a power of assimilation not 
 paralleled in any other country. 
 
 All of this the South has lacked. They have 
 lived to themselves ; they have nourished their 
 own sentiments and beliefs ; they have encour- 
 aged each other by that sense of approbation 
 that builds up the self-love of a people. Who- 
 
158 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 ever comes bringing different ideas is in a sense 
 regarded as hostile. The warm welcome which 
 was extended to him as a guest is chilled into 
 coolness when he becomes a neighbor. The South 
 requires all who come to dwell within her borders 
 to become Southerners before they have ceased 
 to be strangers. The North requires no change 
 of any man that comes to build up her interests 
 and be one among her people. His religious 
 belief is almost a matter of indifference ; his 
 language and customs and the traditions of 
 his father-land are looked upon with respect, 
 if not with approval. The South, on the con- 
 trary, demands that whoever comes within her 
 limits shall leave his former life behind ; he shall 
 become not only part and parcel of her material 
 prospects, but he shall divest himself of the per- 
 sonality which he brought and become more 
 ardent in his worship of all things Southern than 
 even those who are to the manner born. In all 
 their frantic appeals of the last twenty years for 
 immigration there will be noted by a careful 
 reader an undertone defining what the desired 
 immigrant must not be. He must not come 
 bringing with him new ideas. He must not 
 come with any thought that is not in harmony 
 
Accounting for Strange Things, 159 
 
 with the civilization that surrounds him. He 
 must come prepared to divest his mental and 
 moral nature of all the impressions that they have 
 received hitherto, and to receive and adopt the 
 feelings and sentiments of the vicinage in which 
 he expects to dwell. This distinctive peculiarity 
 is not the result of any feeling of animosity upon 
 the part of the Southern people toward those 
 whose presence they really desire. It is only an 
 exemplification of the fact that immigration is 
 desired, not for the sake of the immigrant, not 
 with the purpose of receiving him as a con- 
 stituent portion of the life of which he is to be- 
 come a part, but simply as a contributor to the 
 general wealth. This feeling, too, it should be 
 remembered, has been very greatly modified in 
 Texas and Missouri, where the tide of foreign 
 and Northern immigration has been so consider- 
 able as to restrain in a degree its manifestations. 
 Even here, however, it is as perceptible in com- 
 ing from Illinois or Kansas as the change of tem- 
 perature in entering the Gulf-stream. 
 
 Besides, there is really very little opening for 
 immigration to the South. It is true that there 
 are vast uncultivated areas, but nearly all of 
 these, east of the Mississippi at least, have been 
 
160 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 reduced to private ownership, and the peculiar 
 attachment which the Southern man has for real 
 estate is such that valuable lands can be acquired 
 only at high prices. Moreover, the conditions of 
 success in agricultural operations, the methods of 
 cultivation, and the requisites for the care of the 
 products are so different that the Northern man 
 or foreign emigrant, unless from the shores of the 
 Mediterranean, finds himself entirely at sea in 
 regard to them. It is very rarely, indeed, that 
 one of these immigrants is prosperous. Perhaps 
 hardly one in a hundred, of those of Northern 
 birth and training, who have undertaken the ex- 
 periment of cultivating the soil of the South 
 since the close of the war, have been successful. 
 This has not been from any lack of intelligence 
 or experience ; it was not because they were not 
 good farmers at home, but because they had no 
 knowledge or experience of the conditions essen- 
 tial to successful farming in the region to which 
 they went. 
 
 Another reason why immigration is not likely 
 to take place to any extent sufficient to modify 
 the characteristics of these communities is the 
 fact that there is no demand in those States foi 
 the mere hand-laborer. The cry of the South 
 
Accounting for Strange Things. 161 
 
 since the war has been not for laborers but for 
 capitalists. They have pleaded with the outer 
 world that it should come and invest its capital 
 and conduct business within its borders. Mere 
 capitalists can never constitute any very great 
 proportion of the life of any community, nor will 
 their influence, if they represent a foreign ele- 
 ment, ever be very great. 
 
 Of mere hand-laborers the South has enough 
 and to spare, if the law of supply and demand is 
 to be the test. The farm-laborer of the North 
 would be foolish indeed to go to the South to 
 compete with the negro in the cultivation of cot- 
 ton or of any other staple at the prices which 
 labor receives in that region. Not only can he 
 earn the equivalent thereof in one-half the time 
 upon a Northern farm, but with his labor there 
 he receives also bed and board of a character 
 that would seem ruinously extravagant to the 
 Southern landlord. Instead of working for six 
 or eight dollars a month with rations composed 
 of three pounds of bacon, a peck of meal, and 
 perhaps a pound of coffee a week, the Northern 
 laborer gets without difficulty from eighteen 
 to thirty dollars a month and board at the table 
 of his employer and lodgment beneath his roof. 
 
1 62 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 The same fact operating less apparently tends to 
 divert from the South almost all of the immigra- 
 tion from abroad. Of more than one million of 
 immigrants who reached our shores during a 
 specific period only one hundred and fifty-six 
 went to the State of Georgia. Probably not 
 more than the odd fifty-six remain there now. 
 The emigrant laborer, unless it be the Italian, 
 cannot compete with the negro upon anything 
 like equal terms. The colored man lives upon 
 wages which are insignificant as compared with 
 those of the Northern laborer ; is contented with 
 a hovel for himself and family which it would be 
 an insult to ask the Northern laborer to occupy ; 
 and, finally, is accustomed to be regarded as a 
 menial. He does not account it an insult that he 
 is required to remove his hat when he approaches 
 within twenty paces of his employer, nor does he 
 consider himself affronted at any disregard that 
 may be paid to his demands for better food and 
 prompter pay. He knows the habits of the 
 people among whom he lives. He understands 
 their methods of agriculture and dealing ; and if he 
 does not always get his own, he at least secures a 
 fair living and passes on from year to year, usually 
 a little better off than he was the vear before. 
 
Accounting for Strange Things. 163 
 
 The mere laborer, therefore, who emigrates to 
 the South goes into direct competition with the 
 negro, and in this competition every advantage 
 is on the side of the latter. It is possible that the 
 Italian laborer may in certain instances prove his 
 equal so far as the amount of labor performed is 
 concerned, but it should be remembered that for 
 two hundred years the cultivation of the great 
 Southern staples has been almost the sole occupa- 
 tion of the colored race. They have, as it were, 
 inherited the methods of culture, and have mas- 
 tered, as by intuition, the economics of the 
 plantation. No one can direct them so well as 
 a Southern man ; no one so well as those with 
 whom they have been reared knows their char- 
 acteristics or merits as laborers. The master's 
 methods become a part of the slave's instinct. 
 What has to be done upon the plantation he 
 does, perhaps not as rapidly nor with such show 
 of accuracy as other classes of laborers display, 
 but with more certainty, more care, and with that 
 instinctive readiness that only inherited knowl- 
 edge can give. For the agricultural labor of the 
 South, it is impossible to provide any substitute 
 for the African. It is his field ; he holds it far 
 beyond all competition ; and whosoever seeks to 
 
164 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 invade it must adopt not only his methods but 
 come down to his level also. 
 
 The same is true in a less exclusive sense of 
 mechanical laborers at the South. Little by 
 little, all of the plain mechanical labor of the 
 South is centering in the hands of the colored 
 people. Long before the abolition of slavery it 
 was found profitable to teach certain trades to 
 slaves. Blacksmiths and carpenters, house-paint- 
 ers, and, in some instances, wagon-makers, were 
 to be found among the slaves. Almost every 
 plantation had its rude blacksmith-shop, and a 
 slave presided at the forge and anvil. Some 
 masters paid large sums to have their slaves 
 taught the trade of the carpenter, so far as build- 
 ing could be taught without the knowledge of 
 reading and writing and the laws of mechanics. 
 These men have not been slow to seize upon 
 their opportunities. The old class of white 
 mechanics at the South, the " bosses" of the 
 ante-bellum era, are becoming fewer and fewer, 
 while the young colored mechanics are becoming 
 more and more numerous. I stood last spring 
 and saw a house in process of erection in one of 
 the Southern cities. It was a splendid structure, 
 one of the most costly, I was told, when it 
 
Accounting for Strange Things. 165 
 
 should be completed, that the city could boast. 
 Twenty-seven men were engaged in labor upon 
 it. Twenty-four of these were colored men. 
 The reason of this is obvious. Mechanical con- 
 struction requires only the oversight of a few 
 trained minds and the operation of trained hands. 
 The colored man works cheaper and does his 
 work as well as the white mechanic. A North- 
 ern carpenter who should pack his kit of tools 
 with the expectation of finding labor at re- 
 munerative rates at the South must come into 
 contact and competition with this labor — menial 
 in character, but now free and rising. Naturally 
 he cannot stand it. The colored man's board and 
 lodging cost but a fraction of what the white man 
 deems necessary to his comfort. If the latter 
 goes South, he must be a boss and not a worker. 
 But by far the strongest reason that can be 
 given for the absence of either Northern or 
 foreign immigration to these States is the fact 
 that the negro is already there in such numbers 
 as to make it impossible for any considerable 
 body of whites of the self-supporting class to de- 
 sire to go there. It matters not what may be the 
 apparent advantages of soil and climate ; it mat- 
 ters not how easily a living may be made ; it is of 
 
1 66 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 little import how soft and balmy may be the 
 climate ; even the charm of strange surroundings 
 and the luxury of abundant fruits : all these 
 count but little to the man who is seeking a 
 place where he may build a home for his family. 
 If he should be a foreigner, he is accustomed to 
 respect within his own sphere, to associates of 
 his own rank and class in life. As a laborer he 
 finds himself at once shut out from all such 
 associations. His wife and daughters are de- 
 prived of that society which made up their home- 
 life across the waters. That which is open to 
 them is of a strangely unfamiliar type. They 
 cannot associate with the colored man lest they 
 be degraded to his level. They are not re- 
 garded as the equals of the better classes of the 
 whites ; and in many portions of the South there 
 is only that strange, sad, half-caste known as the 
 " poor white"' remaining — kindly creatures, good 
 people, in the main, but not the associates one 
 would choose for himself. The foreign emigrant 
 comes to this country almost invariably with the 
 purpose of improving his condition. His desire 
 is to make money and to establish a home. Both 
 of these conditions he finds it difficult, if not im- 
 possible, to fulfill at the South. The Northwest 
 
dc counting for Strange Things. 16 
 
 offers a more inviting field for his labor and a far 
 more attractive location for his home. The same 
 things are true in a much greater degree of the 
 Northern immigrant. With him the home- 
 surroundings are especially important. He is 
 always a man of independent nature. If he is 
 not rich, he is seldom poor. He has the self- 
 respecting characteristics of the region from 
 which he came. He does not care so much 
 about earning a dollar to-day, if he can be sure 
 of two to-morrow. He is willing to begin early 
 and work late ; but -two things he must and will 
 have: a comfortable home and pleasant social 
 surroundings. If he must work like a slave all 
 the week, he is going to church like a gentleman 
 on Sunday. It matters not how humble his 
 position, he resents at once any implication of 
 superiority. He thinks the man who shoves a 
 jackplane just exactly as worthy as the man who 
 owns the palace. One of the essential conditions 
 of the home worth living in, to his mind, is that 
 it shall have a school-house in sight of the door- 
 step. He has no sort of antipathy to the negro 
 as a man, or as a political equal, but he has no 
 notion of being counted a " nigger" himself. He 
 is too proud to seek admission to another's 
 
1 68 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 house, but resents instinctively the idea that he 
 is not as good as the best. He has no thought 
 of approving all that he finds, and expresses his 
 disapprobation upon occasion without any idea 
 of concealment or hesitation. To such a man 
 the South, while sometimes offering considerable 
 opportunity, rarely offers any attraction. If he 
 were willing for himself and wife to disregard all 
 its unpleasant features, he is apt to feel that he 
 cannot take his children where they must com- 
 pete in the race of life with the colored man. 
 While he may find friends to whom he becomes 
 greatly attached, yet, as a whole, there is no 
 denying the fact that he is not in harmony with 
 Southern life, and cannot be made so. He is a 
 discordant element which no skill can bring into 
 unison with the life about him. However 
 honestly he may endeavor to assimilate himself 
 to his surroundings, it is impossible for him to 
 do so. In some instances the charms of climate 
 or exceptional success in business may for a time 
 — perhaps even for a lifetime — overcome the 
 difficulties which surround him. There are 
 Northern men scattered throughout the South, 
 of this very type, who have been successful, and 
 are in a sense esteemed by the communities in 
 
Accounting for Strange Things. 1 69 
 
 which they live ; yet they are not a part of 
 them ; they cannot become a part of them ; and 
 no length of residence is, as a rule, sufficient 
 to put the Northern man or the foreign immi- 
 grant thoroughly in harmony with Southern 
 life. 
 
 Therefore, because the colored man is at the 
 South already, in equal force with the whites ; 
 because of his superior reproductive power and 
 the prospect that he will very soon greatly 
 exceed the whites in number ; because the South- 
 ern white man cannot or will not extend to those 
 coming into his vicinage that peculiar assimila- 
 tive recognition which has built up the West — 
 because of all these things, it matters not how 
 great the opportunity, it matters not how fertile 
 the soil, it matters not how rich the mineral 
 treasures, it matters not how varied and marvel- 
 ous the manufacturing facilities may be, North- 
 ern immigration will not seek the South (and 
 especially the States we have named lying in the 
 Black Belt) in sufficient numbers to constitute 
 any material element of its life — not, at least, 
 until some very notable change has been made in 
 its social economy. Of such change there is no 
 
i/O An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 present indication, and the most careful analysis 
 of the social statistics offers no ground for reason- 
 able hope that any immigration of whites to 
 these States will in any sensible degree affect the 
 numerical relation of the races. 
 
The Other Side of the Picture. 
 
 THE data we have given effectually exclude 
 all prospect of any modification of the rate 
 of increase in the white race by any movement of 
 population from without the States we have under 
 consideration, so far as the white race is concerned. 
 As regards the negro, it is perhaps sufficient to 
 say that there is not any present indication of a 
 tendency to move into these States from any 
 other part of the country. 
 
 It remains, then, to consider whether there are 
 any evidences of any interior movement of popu- 
 lation of either race that might affect this propor- 
 
172 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 tion. Of course any special migratory tendency 
 on the part of either race would naturally reduce 
 its rate in the future and increase the proportion- 
 ate advantage of the other race. A careful analy- 
 sis of the statistics of migration of the natives of 
 each race in the different States of the Union 
 reveals some curious facts. Among these are the 
 following, which would no doubt be deemed 
 almost incredible were they not unmistakably 
 sustained by the figures of the census: 
 1. — A greater proportion of the native whites of the 
 South than of the native whites of the North 
 emigrate from the State of their birth. 
 2. — There are a greater number of native whites of 
 the South residing in the North than of North- 
 ern natives living in the South. 
 3. — The percentage of the native whites of the 
 South living at the North is almost thrice as 
 great as of white natives of the North resid- 
 ing at the South. 
 4. — The proportion of Southern whites zvho are 
 removing from the State of their birth is 
 rapidly increasing. 
 5. — The percentage of colored natives of Southern 
 States who migrate from the State of birth is 
 perceptibly dim inishing. 
 
The Other Side of the Pi 
 
 dure. 
 
 If these facts do not stimulate the desire of the 
 reader to see and examine the tables on which 
 they are based, it is certain that he has little inter- 
 est not merely in social and ethnological questions, 
 but also in matters affecting most closely the in- 
 terest and safety of the country. We regret the 
 necessity of troubling the reader with so many 
 tables, but the facts are of so startling and unex- 
 
 TABLE R. 
 
 Number and Percentage of A r ative Whites of each Northern 
 State resident in other Northern States in 1S70, and in 18 So. 
 
174 
 
 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 pected a character that we dare not set them forth 
 without the fullest and most convincing proof. 
 
 The first four of these tables indicate the migra- 
 tory movements of the native whites of the re- 
 spective sections. It will be seen (Tables R and S) 
 that in 1870 twenty-three and one-tenth per cent of 
 the whites born in the Northern States resided 
 outside the State of birth. In 1880 this ratio had 
 
 TABLE S. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Native Whites of each Northern 
 State resident in Southern States in 1870, and in 1SS0. 
 
 
 1870. 
 
 1880. 
 
 White 
 Natives of— 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 in the 
 
 Southern 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 in the 
 
 Southern 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 California 
 
 Colorado .. .. 
 Connecticut. .. 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 172,499 
 
 7.489 
 
 477.973 
 
 1,461,928 
 
 1.353.298 
 
 500.144 
 
 68,970 
 
 695,399 
 
 i,i34-77i 
 
 562.087 
 
 137,365 
 
 22,333 
 
 4,755 
 
 365.576 
 
 696,059 
 
 4,000.141 
 
 2,606.884 
 
 40,844 
 
 3,341,153 
 167,032 
 418.125 
 543,076 
 
 i,379 
 
 185 
 
 6,708 
 
 94,H4 
 
 73-190 
 
 24,829 
 
 5,952 
 
 5,831 
 
 14,148 
 
 7,033 
 
 1,600 
 
 1,359 
 
 81 
 
 3,281 
 
 12,145 
 
 66,802 
 
 122,137 
 
 158 
 
 105,319 
 
 1,997 
 
 5,32i 
 
 7.525 
 
 0.8 
 2.4 
 i-4 
 
 6.4 
 5 • 3 
 4.6 
 8.1 
 0.9 
 i .2 
 1 .2 
 
 6.0 
 1.6 
 0.9 
 1.6 
 1.6 
 4.6 
 0.3 
 
 3-i 
 1.1 
 1.2 
 i-3 
 
 327,956 
 29.757 
 527.671 
 2,225,804 
 1,770.964 
 934.489 
 264.279 
 736,664 
 
 1,337.999 
 
 900,161 
 
 328.679 
 
 110,683 
 
 14,432 
 
 368,614 
 
 871,056 
 
 4,672.739 
 
 3,236,597 
 
 7i,55i 
 
 4,100,738 
 
 i97,H2 
 
 425.281 
 
 871,129 
 
 2,939 
 
 912 
 
 7,186 
 
 148.575 
 
 102,615 
 
 36,996 
 
 17,612 
 
 6,365 
 
 15.319 
 
 10,862 
 
 2,697 
 
 2.732 
 
 180 
 
 3.377 
 
 14,170 
 
 75,96o 
 
 160,793 
 
 437 
 
 124.319 
 
 1,240 
 
 5,548 
 
 12,576 
 
 0.7 
 30 
 i-3 
 6.6 
 
 5-5 
 3-8 
 
 Kansas 
 
 6.6 
 0.8 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Nevada 
 
 N. Hampshire. 
 New Jersey — 
 
 New York 
 
 Ohio 
 
 1 1 
 
 o.Z 
 2.4 
 1 .0 
 0.9 
 
 i-5 
 1.6 
 
 4-9 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Pennsylvania.. 
 Rhode Island.. 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 0.6 
 
 is 
 
 i-4 
 
 Total 
 
 i8,777,90i 
 
 561,094 
 
 2.9 
 
 24,324,355 753,4io 
 
 3 
 
The Other Side of the Picture. 175 
 
 been reduced tcf twenty-two and three-tenths per cent, 
 showing a perceptible diminution of the migratory 
 tendency on the part of native Northern whites. 
 
 The proportion of native Southern whites living 
 outside the State of birth in 1870 will be seen 
 (Tables T and U) to have been twenty-two and 
 nine-tenths per cent, and in 1880 tzventy-two and 
 seven-tenths per cent ; being four-tenths per cent 
 greater than the ratio of Northern whites living 
 outside their State of birth, and showing an ap- 
 
 TABLE T. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Native Whites of each Southern 
 State resident in other Southern States in 1870, and in 1880. 
 
 
 1870. 
 
 l88o. 
 
 White 
 Natives of — 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 
 in other 
 
 Southern 
 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 
 in other 
 
 Southern 
 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware. . . . 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Tennessee 
 
 521,934 
 212.630 
 106,114 
 61.465 
 718,472 
 
 1,209,123 
 276,750 
 582,618 
 324,992 
 930.515 
 865,629 
 418,514 
 
 1,104,843 
 273,133 
 
 1,380.668 
 
 144,612 
 
 34.873 
 
 9,071 
 
 7,716 
 
 69,874 
 
 141.824 
 29,855 
 33,i8i 
 74,875 
 40.155 
 
 165,245 
 80,750 
 
 268.853 
 13.795 
 
 173.582 
 
 27.7 
 16.4 
 
 8-5 
 12.5 
 
 9-7 
 11. 6 
 10.8 
 
 5-7 
 23-3 
 19.0 
 19.0 
 21.4 
 24.3 
 
 5-0 
 
 12.4 
 
 708.109 
 382,150 
 124.506 
 98,464 
 932,027 
 1.522,911 
 
 399-145 
 
 700,764 
 
 472.472 
 
 1,416,756 
 
 1,027,459 
 
 500,338 
 
 1,364,900 
 
 621,482 
 
 1,682.348 
 
 192.966 
 
 59-76i 
 
 10.061 
 
 11,809 
 
 104,138 
 
 180,229 
 
 25,134 
 
 36.251 
 
 in. 495 
 
 80,247 
 
 150,362 
 
 126.563 
 
 314,829 
 
 2i,377 
 
 398.734 
 
 27.2 
 15-6 
 
 8.0 
 11. 4 
 11. 6 
 11. 1 
 
 6.2 
 
 5-i 
 23.5 
 
 5-6 
 14.6 
 25.0 
 23.0 
 
 3-4 
 
 23-i 
 
 Virginia and 
 West Virginia 
 
 Total 
 
 8,987,400 
 
 1,297,261 
 
 14.4 
 
 ",953.831 
 
 1,823,956 
 
 15-2 
 
1 7 6 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 parent decrease of two-tenths per cent of migration 
 of native Southern whites during this decade. 
 
 It will be seen from these tables that the num- 
 ber of Northern whites residing in the Southern 
 States has increased from 561,094 to 753,410, and 
 the ratio from tzvo and nine-tenths per cent to three 
 and four-tenths per cent, a gain of one-half of one 
 per cent in ten years. During the same time the 
 number of Southern whites living in Northern 
 States has increased from 765,363 in 1870 to 
 893,381 in 1880; though the ratio has decreased 
 
 TABLE U. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Native Whites of each Southern 
 State resident in Northern States in 1870, and in 1SS0. 
 
 
 1870. 
 
 18S0. 
 
 White 
 Natives of — 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 
 in 
 
 Northern 
 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 
 in 
 
 Northern 
 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 52L934 
 212.630 
 106,114 
 61.465 
 718,472 
 
 1,200.123 
 276.750 
 582.618 
 324,992 
 930.515 
 865,629 
 418.514 
 
 1,104,843 
 273,133 
 
 1.380,668 
 
 7,39i 
 
 7,402 
 22,528 
 
 1,127 
 
 9,367 
 191,814 
 
 9,490 
 86,979 
 
 4,7i5 
 103,305 
 52,315 
 ",463 
 67,993 
 
 5,247 
 
 184,227 
 
 1.4 
 
 3-4 
 21.2 
 
 1.8 
 
 i-3 
 i5-7 
 
 3-4 
 14.9 
 
 1.4 
 11. 
 
 6. 9 
 
 3-o 
 6.2 
 1.9 
 
 13-4 
 
 708,109 
 382,150 
 124,506 
 98,464 
 932,027 
 
 1,522,911 
 399,H5 
 700,764 
 472.472 
 
 1,416,756 
 
 1,027.459 
 500.338 
 
 1,364,900 
 621,482 
 
 1,682,348 
 
 8,232 
 
 10,587 
 
 26,478 
 
 i,93i 
 
 10,615 
 
 193,188 
 
 12,037 
 
 98,471 
 
 7,608 
 
 179,753 
 
 34,556 
 
 10,200 
 
 74,952 
 
 9,o44 
 
 215,729 
 
 1.2 
 2.7 
 
 21.2 
 1.9 
 1 . 1 
 
 12.6 
 3-2 
 
 14.0 
 1.1 
 
 12.6 
 3-4 
 2.0 
 
 5-5 
 1.4 
 
 Virginia and 
 West Virginia 
 
 11 .0 
 
 Total 
 
 8,987,400 
 
 765,363 
 
 8.5 
 
 ",953,831 
 
 893,381 
 
 7-5 
 
The Other Side of the Picture, i 7 7 
 
 from eight and five-tenths to seven and five-tenths 
 per ceiit. This apparent decrease in the ratio is 
 unquestionably due to the more complete enu- 
 meration of the Southern States in 1880. 
 
 It also appears, from these tables, that there 
 were 203,919 more Southern whites resident in the 
 North in 1870 than there were Northern whites 
 resident in the South at that time ; and despite a 
 slight decrease of percentage as compared with 
 the aggregate white population of the South in 
 1880, there were still 199,527 more Southern 
 whites dwelling at the North than Northern 
 " carpet-baggers" at the South. 
 
 It will be observed, however, that the emigra- 
 tion from either section to the other is not suffi- 
 cient materially to affect the life of either. The 
 tables show two great streams of domestic mi- 
 gration. One flows from the older Northern 
 States westward to newer Northern Territories. 
 It throws off a branch to the Southwest which 
 touches Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Vir- 
 ginia and Tennessee, with perceptible force, 
 though quite insignificant as compared with the 
 volume of the stream. The other stream has its 
 origin in the older Southern States, and sends its 
 main volume into the newer States of the South- 
 
178 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 west, though its northern branch is proportion- 
 ately three times as great as the southern fork of 
 the northern stream. 
 
 In other words, the percentage of native South- 
 ern whites living at the North is more than three 
 times -as great as the percentage of Northern 
 whites living at the South. 
 
 The two following tables show that in the States 
 especially under consideration the ratio of North- 
 ern emigration among the native whites, except 
 in the State of Virginia, is considerably less than 
 the average of the entire Southern States. 
 
 On the other hand, the ratio of emigration 
 from these States to other Southern States was in 
 1870 two per cent and in 1880 four per cent above 
 the average of the entire South. As this is by 
 much the larger class, it will be seen at once that 
 this movement, in connection with the fact that 
 these States receive so small a number of North- 
 ern immigrants, — having in 1880 only six-tenths 
 of one per cent of Northern-born, — throws the bal- 
 ance of white migration tremendously against 
 these States, which are losing steadily almost 
 one-fourth of their native whites, and receiving 
 both of foreign-born and Northern-born whites, 
 united, hardly one per cent of a like number. This 
 
The Other Side of the Picture. 1 79 
 
 TABLE V. 
 
 Number and Percentage of White Natives of Southern States 
 resident in the North in 1S70, and in 1880. 
 
 
 1S7O. 
 
 
 I 
 
 38o. 
 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 in North- 
 ern States 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Residing in 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 in North- 
 ern States 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Virginia and 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Florida 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 1.380,668 
 865,629 
 418,514 
 718,472 
 61.465 
 521,934 
 324,992 
 276,750 
 
 184,227 
 52.315 
 ",463 
 9,367 
 1,127 
 7,39i 
 4,715 
 9,490 
 
 i3-4 
 6.9 
 3 
 1 3 
 1.8 
 1.4 
 1.4 
 34 
 
 1,682,348 
 1,027,459 
 500.338 
 932.027 
 98.464 
 708,109 
 472,472 
 399- J 45 
 
 185.396 
 34,556 
 10,200 
 10,615 
 
 1,931 
 
 8,232 
 7,608 
 12,037 
 
 11. 
 3-4 
 2.0 
 
 1.9 
 1.2 
 1.1 
 3-2 
 
 Total 
 
 4,568,424 
 
 280,095 
 
 6.2 
 
 5,820.362 
 
 270,575 
 
 4.6 
 
 TABLE W. 
 
 Number and Percentage of White Natives of Southern States 
 resident in other Southern States in 1S70, and in 1 8 So. 
 
 White 
 Natives of- 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Virginia* 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Florida 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 [,380.668 
 865,629 
 418.514 
 718.472 
 61,465 
 52i,934 
 324.992 
 276,750 
 
 Total I 4,5c: 
 
 ,424 
 
 Residing 
 in other 
 
 Southern 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 12.4 
 
 19.0 
 21.4 
 
 9-7 
 12.5 
 =7-7 
 23.3 
 10.8 
 
 16.7 
 
 1SS0. 
 
 the L nited c „„.,„„ 
 Srateq Southern 
 btates - ; States. 
 
 Tcr 
 cent. 
 
 1,682.348 
 
 398,734 
 
 23.1 
 
 1,027,459 
 
 150,362 1 
 
 14.0 
 
 500,338 
 
 120,5*3 
 
 25.0 
 
 032,027 
 
 104,138 
 
 11. 6 
 
 98.464 
 
 11,809 
 
 11. 4 
 
 708,109 
 
 192,966 
 
 27.2 
 
 472,472 
 
 111,495 j 
 
 23-5 
 
 399,145 
 
 25.134 
 
 C.2 
 
 5,820,362 
 
 1,121,201 j 
 
 i9-5 
 
 * Including West Virj 
 rately in census of 1870. 
 
 inia. because place of birth was not given sepa- 
 
i So 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 steady depletion of the white race in the States 
 under consideration must greatly enhance the 
 prospect of the early predominance of the blacks 
 throughout the entire Belt. 
 
 On the other hand, it will appear from the fol- 
 lowing tables that almost all the conditions which 
 apply to the migration of the Southern whites 
 are reversed in the case of the blacks, and even 
 these favorable conditions are greatly emphasized 
 in their special application to the colored race 
 of the States we have designated the Black Belt. 
 
 TABLE X. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Colored Natives of Southern States 
 
 resident in other Southern States in ii 
 
 and in 1 8 So. 
 
 
 187O. 
 
 ISSO. 
 
 Colored 
 Natives of— 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 
 in other 
 
 Southern 
 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 in other 
 
 Southern 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi ... 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 451. 191 
 
 74,786 
 
 26.798 
 
 62.560 
 
 588,764 
 
 271.994 
 
 287,3^ 
 
 200,265 
 
 376.746 
 
 108,376 
 
 407,954 
 
 505,623 
 
 324,734 
 
 140,037 
 
 722.394 
 
 74,127 
 10,176 
 506 
 5,426 
 92.293 
 37,842 
 21,801 
 19,182 
 54,922 
 10.035 
 80,648 
 
 94.513 
 
 56,671 
 
 4,396 
 
 163,983 
 
 16.4 
 
 13-6 
 
 i.8 
 
 8.6 
 15.6 
 J 3-5 
 
 7-5 
 
 9-5 
 14.0 
 
 9.2 
 17.0 
 18.7 
 17 4 
 
 3- ! 
 
 22.6 
 
 610.139 
 137,089 
 30,406 
 95.822 
 785,830 
 32S.754 
 417,391 
 231,241 
 583,645 
 137.462 
 608.812 
 682.063 
 419,615 
 291,189 
 
 843. iSS 
 
 99,221 
 
 11.538 
 
 608 
 
 6,480 
 104,663 
 35,9o8 
 27,838 
 17,324 
 68,001 
 
 9,457 
 80,677 
 89,529 
 66,725 
 
 8,747 
 
 150,665 
 
 16.2 
 8.4 
 1.9 
 6.6 
 
 13.3 
 
 10.9 
 6.6 
 7-4 
 
 11. 6 
 
 69 
 13.2 
 13. 1 
 
 3.0 
 
 17 9 
 
 Virginia and 
 West Virginia 
 
 Total 
 
 4,609.541 
 
 726,521 
 
 15 s 
 
 6,202.646 
 1 
 
 777.481 12.5 
 
The Other Side of the Picture. 181 
 
 TABLE Y. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Colored Natives of Southern States 
 
 resident in Northern States in 1S70, and in 1SS0. 
 
 
 1870. 
 
 ISSO. 
 
 Colored 
 
 Natives of — 
 
 Residing in Residing ' p 
 the United in North- "J 
 States. ern States ' 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Residing in 
 
 ! the United 
 
 States. 
 
 i 
 
 Residing p 
 in North- £tr 
 ern States cent * 
 
 Alabama ... . 
 Arkansas. ... 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Missouri 
 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 451. iqi 
 74,786 
 26,798 
 62,560 
 588.764 
 271,994 
 287.319 
 200,265 
 376.746 
 108,376 
 4 6 7,954 
 505,623 
 324,734 
 140,037 
 
 722,394 
 
 2,646 
 2,147 
 6,078 
 176 
 2,107 
 
 28,469 
 1.562 
 
 13,663 
 2.464 
 2,840 
 8,075 
 2,825 
 7,433 
 335 
 
 37,833 
 
 5 
 2.7 
 
 22.6 
 0.2 
 o-3 
 
 10.4 
 0.5 
 6.8 
 06 
 
 11. 8 
 i-7 
 0.5 
 2.2 
 0.2 
 
 5-i 
 
 610,139 
 137,089 
 30.406 
 95,822 
 785.830 
 328,754 
 417,391 
 231,241 
 583,645 
 137,462 
 608,812 
 682.063 
 419,615 
 291,189 
 
 843,188 
 
 3,202 
 1,613 
 7,112 
 
 537 
 
 3,229 
 40,228 
 
 3,205 
 17,218 
 
 5,706 
 16,110 
 12,223 
 
 3-715 
 *4,457 
 
 2,898 
 
 48,940 
 
 0.5 
 
 1.1 
 
 23-3 
 
 0.5 
 
 0.4 
 12.2 
 0.7 
 7 4 
 0.9 
 11. 7 
 2.0 
 °-5 
 3-4 
 0.9 
 
 5-4 
 
 Virginia and 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Total 
 
 4.609,541 
 
 118,653 
 
 2 5 
 
 6,202,646 
 
 180,393 
 
 2.9 
 
 TABLE Z. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Colored Natives of States of the Black 
 
 Belt resident in Northern States in 1S70, and in 18 So. 
 
 
 
 [87O. 
 
 
 Colored 
 
 
 
 
 Natives of — 
 
 Residing in 
 
 Residing 
 
 Per 
 
 
 the United 
 
 in North- 
 
 
 States. 
 
 ern States 
 
 
 Virginia and 
 
 
 
 
 W. Virginia. 
 
 7 2 2,394 
 
 37.833 
 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 467,954 
 
 8.075 
 
 i-7 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 ^0^,023 
 
 2.825 
 
 °-5 
 
 Georgia 
 
 588,764 
 
 2,107 
 
 0.3 
 
 Florida 
 
 62,560 
 
 176 
 
 0.2 
 
 Alabama 
 
 451,191 
 
 2,646 
 
 0.5 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 • 376.746 
 
 2.464 
 
 [0.6 
 
 Louisiana. . .. 
 
 287.319 
 
 1.562 
 
 o-5 
 
 Total 
 
 3,462,551 
 
 57,688 
 
 1.6 
 
182 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar, 
 
 TABLE AA. 
 
 Number and Percentage of Colored Natives of States of the Black 
 Belt resident in other Southern States in 1 870, and in 1880. 
 
 
 1870. 
 
 1 8 So. 
 
 Colored 
 
 Natives of— 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 in other 
 
 Southern 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Residing in 
 
 the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Residing 
 
 in other 
 
 Southern 
 
 States. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Virginia and 
 
 W. Virginia. 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Florida 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 722,394 
 4 6 7,954 
 505,623 
 588,764 
 62,560 
 451,191 
 376,746 
 287,319 
 
 163,983 
 80,648 
 94,5*3 
 92,293 
 5,426 
 74,127 
 54,922 
 21,801 
 
 22.6 
 17.0 
 18.7 
 15.6 
 
 8.6 
 16.4 
 14.6 
 
 7-5 
 
 843,188 
 608,812 
 682,063 
 785,830 
 95,822 
 610,139 
 583,645 
 4i7,39i 
 
 150.665 
 80,677 
 89,529 
 
 104,663 
 
 6,480 
 
 99,221 
 
 68,001 
 
 27,838 
 
 17.9 
 13.2 
 13. 1 
 i3-i 
 
 6.6 
 16.2 
 11. 6 
 
 6.6 
 
 Total 
 
 3,462,551 
 
 587,713 
 
 16.9 
 
 4,626,890 
 
 627,074 
 
 13-5 
 
 It will be seen by a comparison of the pre- 
 ceding tables that the ratio of colored natives 
 residing in all the Southern States outside the 
 State of birth fell during the last census-decade 
 from fifteen and eight -tenths per cent to twelve 
 and one-tenth per cent, and increased numerically 
 only twenty-one thousand. At the same time 
 the Northward migration of the colored race in- 
 creased only sixty thousand, or barely three-tenths 
 of one per cent. In the case of the States of the 
 Black Belt the facts are very striking: the number 
 of colored natives residing outside the State of 
 birth in 1870 was sixteen and nine-tenths per 
 cent, which in 1880 had fallen to thirteen and 
 
The Other Side of the Picture. 183 
 
 Jive-tenths per cent, while the number who had 
 migrated Northward had increased only twenty- 
 two thousand, or one-tenth of one per cent. We 
 have then these conditions developed by an 
 analysis of the census returns, and a comparison 
 of the tables given : 
 
 First. The colored race is increasing at a very 
 much more rapid rate than the whites in these 
 States. 
 
 Second. The native white population of these 
 States is being rapidly depleted by emigration, 
 and is receiving no appreciable counterbalancing 
 accessions from foreign or Northern immigration. 
 
 Third. The proportion of colored natives of 
 these States residing outside the State of birth is 
 much less than that of the whites, and is steadily 
 decreasing. 
 
 Fourth. These conditions are constantly gain- 
 ing in force as regards both races ; that is, the 
 outflow of the whites is rapidly increasing, and 
 that of the blacks is steadily diminishing, in com- 
 parison with the whole number of each race. 
 
 Every possible view which we have been able 
 to take of the social statistics of these States con- 
 firms the conclusion at which we have already 
 arrived, that before the conclusion of this century 
 
184 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 we shall have a chain of States, extending from the 
 Potomac to the Mississippi, in every one of which 
 the colored race will have a clear and indisputable 
 majority, and in several of which their predomi- 
 nance will be very nearly in the ratio of tivo to one. 
 
I II I I I I I II 
 
 The Black Republics. 
 
 r I 'HE basis-conditions of society at the South 
 ■*■ are such as to tend very actively to increase 
 the disproportion of the races and hasten the 
 numerical preponderance of the blacks throughout 
 the belt we have under consideration. The most 
 important of these conditions are the following: 
 I. — The farther the Freedman gets from slavery 
 the more important and dangerous- a rival 
 zuill he become to the whites who are depend- 
 ent upon their own labor for self-support. 
 Already the aggressions of the colored man in 
 
1 86 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 this direction are noticeable. Gradually, and not 
 so slowly either, the colored man is driving the 
 white man out of many of the avenues to self- 
 support throughout the South. The white black- 
 smith is becoming a more and more infrequent 
 object even in the upland regions of the South. 
 Masons, carpenters, even contractors for the 
 plainer sorts of mechanical work are so common 
 that they have ceased to be at all noticeable 
 among the colored people of the South. It may 
 safely be said that the race is now doing at least 
 its own building. It is constructing also a great 
 portion of the implements it uses. It has al- 
 ready furnished its own religious teachers and 
 pastors. They may not be the best in the world, 
 but they are the ones their people desire, appre- 
 ciate, and support. It is not probable that one 
 per cent of the colored race of the South habitu- 
 ally listen to the ministrations of a white clergy- 
 man. These colored clergy are in a sense com- 
 petitors of the white ministry; for their con- 
 gregations represent productive forces which, 
 during the time of slavery, contributed very con- 
 siderably to the maintenance of the white minis- 
 try. The colored race is rapidly coming also to 
 furnish its own teachers. The natural source of 
 
The Black Republics. 187 
 
 pedagogic supply in a country like ours is the 
 young men or women who teach for a few terms 
 on the way to another destiny — a profession or 
 marriage. This work absorbs a large proportion 
 of our best young talent. The young white man 
 of the South naturally dislikes to teach a " nig- 
 ger" school. It is very rarely that he dare risk 
 the loss of caste by doing so There are some 
 few instances in schools of higher grade. Some 
 middle-aged white men teach in the colored 
 public schools, perhaps, but they are rare. There 
 are many more instances of middle-aged women 
 doing so. It is possible that some young South- 
 ern white women may teach in these schools too. 
 We do not remember an instance. The more 
 advanced the race becomes the more surely it will 
 seize upon its own professional work also. The 
 colored teacher will not come into the white 
 schools, but he will limit the range of the white 
 teacher to his own race. This is at the same time 
 an expansion of the opportunity of the colored 
 race and a limitation of that of the white race. 
 As the range of the one is widened that of the 
 other is measurably narrowed. 
 
 The result of these lines of rivalry must be to 
 vastly increase the white migration from these 
 
1 88 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 States. This migration, too, will be of the very 
 best classes — the self-supporting Southern whites. 
 The South offers little opportunity for that great 
 class who form the vast reserve of Northern life 
 — the intelligent, industrious poor, who begin with 
 nothing and end with affluence. Between the man- 
 ual labor which the negro either holds or renders 
 worthless by his competition, and the learned pro- 
 fessions, there is little place for a self-supporting 
 white man in Southern life. The mechanic can only 
 be a boss. He must go to the North if he would find 
 scope for his activity and at the same time secure 
 the rewards of intelligent exertion. Already from 
 every portion of the South intelligent, active, as- 
 piring men have come into Northern business and 
 are found throughout the country as agents, com- 
 mercial travelers, business men of all kinds, work- 
 ing their way up in the struggle of Northern life. 
 This aggression of the race which requires the 
 least — the race which is the stronger in the possi- 
 bility of self-support — upon that which is weaker 
 and more deficient so far as self-help is concerned, 
 must constantly increase. In the struggle be- 
 tween races it is not the commanding intellect, it 
 is not culture, it is not the intellectual power of 
 the individual that prevails, but the capacity to 
 
The Black Republics. 189 
 
 subsist upon little, to endure hardship, to perform 
 labor, to thrive under physical disadvantage. The 
 white man cannot compete, in any field of labor 
 except the highest, with the colored man at the 
 South. He may do more work and better work ; 
 he may use more skill and achieve better results 
 even on the plantation ; but he demands a higher 
 price ; he cannot live upon the same food and be 
 happy amid the same surroundings ; he cannot 
 compete upon even terms with the man whom he 
 has been accustomed to despise. So that in the 
 struggle of race, granting the continuance of pre- 
 sent conditions or those which are likely to pre- 
 vail, unless there be some great and abnormal 
 social revolution, the colored man is certain in the 
 future to increase far more rapidly in comparison 
 with the whites than in the past. 
 2. — The next most important condition bearing upon 
 this subject is the fact that colored emigration 
 from these States is likely to decrease rather 
 than increase. 
 The social conditions of the newer States of the 
 Southwest are not attractive to the freedman. 
 He realizes that it is better for him to have a lit- 
 tle and hold that in comparative security where 
 the mere numerical preponderance of his race 
 
190 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 affords him a sort of protection, than to yield to 
 the blandishments of higher wages when exposed 
 to lawless violence. Besides that, it is much 
 easier for him to gratify his highest ambition and 
 get a home of his own, however humble, in the 
 older Eastern States than in the richer Western 
 ones. It will be found, therefore, that, all through 
 the belt we are considering, the negro is making 
 a permanent lodgment on the poorer lands that 
 skirt the richer regions. A bit of land, a house 
 that hardly seems sufficient to keep out the storm, 
 and the colored man has a castle. To this home, 
 its surroundings and associations, he is ardently 
 attached. He has not so much ambition for 
 wealth and luxuries as his white neighbors. A 
 modest home and humble fare seem to satisfy his 
 yet undeveloped aspirations. The tendency, with 
 him, therefore, is not so much in the direction of 
 emigration as of return to his native haunts and 
 early surroundings. Not only is his attachment 
 to these very strong, but he seems to have little 
 or no inclination to form familiar associations 
 with the whites, and cannot endure to live where 
 he is not surrounded by his own people. There 
 are so very few of his race in the Northern States 
 that the feeling of isolation effectually prevents 
 
The Black Republics. 191 
 
 all inclination on his part toward emigration in 
 any considerable numbers. 
 
 The training of slavery, also, unfitted the colored 
 man in a great degree for emigration. The first 
 essential of the emigrant is self-reliance. The 
 man who is willing to break away from his early 
 associations and seek to establish himself among 
 strangers must be conscious of his own ability to 
 obtain suppbrt for himself and his family amid 
 any possible surroundings. This is the very thing 
 that slavery made it impossible for the colored 
 man to acquire. Unused to self-direction and the 
 struggle of competition, the freedman naturally 
 shrinks from venturing into unknown surround- 
 ings and undertaking tasks which he is not sure 
 of his ability to perform. In the labor of the 
 plantation, performed according to the system of 
 the slave regime, he feels himself absolutely at 
 home and safe from all competition. He hardly 
 knows the alphabet of self-protection in the mat- 
 ter of wages, labor, and the ceaseless contest of 
 labor with capital. In everything except the 
 mere matter of performing the accustomed tasks 
 of the plantation in the very manner they have 
 been performed for generations, he distrusts him- 
 self and naturally clings to those surroundings in 
 
192 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 which he feels himself most competent of solving 
 the problem of self-support. All of these in- 
 fluences, together with adverse climatic influences, 
 have combined to keep the negro from any con- 
 siderable migration Northward, and to reduce the 
 number of those leaving the State of birth even 
 for other Southern States. 
 
 It would seem natural that these influences 
 should continue to increase in power, and as the 
 preponderance of the colored race in the Black 
 Republics continues to increase, the tendency of 
 colored migration will be from other States to 
 these strongholds of the race. 
 3. — A third influence that is destined to tell prodi- 
 giously in favor of the colored race is the fact 
 that, in comparison with the white race, their 
 wealth and material surroundings must here- 
 after improve much the faster, and in a man- 
 ner to greatly favor them in the numerical 
 competition. 
 No statistics are accessible upon this subject at 
 the present time which may be considered in any 
 respect fairly indicative of the progress of the 
 race in this direction. During the period since 
 their emancipation, the acquisitions of the colored 
 race have perhaps been greater in proportion to 
 
The Black Republics. 193 
 
 their opportunities and what they possessed at 
 the outset than was ever before known. Literally 
 the race was without any earthly possessions less 
 than twenty years ago. An average million of 
 them did not own a million dollars' worth of any- 
 thing beyond the clothes they wore. Since that 
 period they have lived ; and self-support to a race 
 situated as they were is a great achievement. 
 Not only have they lived, but great numbers of 
 them have acquired homes, respectable clothing, 
 and instruments of agriculture or mechanical 
 trade, and not a few of the comforts as well as 
 the necessities of life. A vast aggregation of 
 such property makes but little show in the returns 
 of assessed value. The homesteads which they 
 have secured are of little actual worth. The 
 houses which they own are very unpretentious, but 
 each one of them is a fortress built along the line 
 of progress which the race will hold stubbornly 
 against all enemies in the future. Their personal 
 apparel may not be of a very costly or luxurious 
 character, but its possession adds to the self-re- 
 spect and dignity of the individual ; and although 
 the appraiser may not consider it worthy of atten- 
 tion, it is no inconsiderable element of the savings 
 of the race, situated as they have been. As com- 
 
194 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 pared with that portion of the white race of the 
 South nearest to them in character and oppor- 
 tunity, the progress of the colored race both in 
 intelligence and material accumulation has been 
 infinitely the greater. However small the per- 
 centage may be of those who have become land- 
 owners, enough are to be found in every commu- 
 nity to constitute an example and inspiration 
 for the future. 
 
 4. — As a resultant of these influences there will soon 
 begin, if indeed there has not already begun, a 
 migration of Southern whites who do not care 
 to remain themselves or leave their children 
 to meet this competition of the colored race 
 with the odds thus strongly against them. 
 A gentleman from one of these States called 
 upon the writer not long since on his way West- 
 ward with his family. We had known him for 
 years as a successful planter, a man of moderate 
 means, of large and exceptional intelligence for 
 one of his class. We were curious to know why 
 he was going to Kansas, and asked the reason. 
 
 " Wal," was his reply, " you see I have a big 
 family of children, — nine of them now, — and when 
 I look things squarely in the face it don't seem to 
 me that the South is going to be just the pleas- 
 
The Black Republics. 195 
 
 antest place for white folks not over an' above rich 
 to live in. You see the niggers are free now. I 
 don't object to that — never owned but two, and 
 they were mighty poor ones. I've nothing against 
 them, free nor slave, but they are getting a mighty 
 strong hold all through that country, and some- 
 how I've a notion my gals and boys will have a 
 little better chance out West, where there isn't 
 but one sort of folks. I don't suppose I'll ever 
 find a place where I'll make a better living or 
 make it more comfortably than I did on the old 
 plantation ; but we've lived through one pretty 
 rough time that lasted for four years. I was in 
 the army, and the wife and babies at home. That 
 war was all about the niggers. There's no use of 
 denying it North or South. They were at the 
 bottom of it, though it wasn't none of their doings 
 that brought it on. That was slavery, of course. 
 That's what everybody said, and what everybody 
 d on't know ain't worth anybody's finding out, 
 they say. So now everybody says there can't be 
 no more trouble just because there ain't any more 
 slavery. As if that was the only thing human 
 'beings ever fell out about and came to blows 
 over! Of course, I don't know as there ever will 
 be any more trouble — I hope there won't. But it 
 
196 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 does seem to me that it's going to be a hard matter 
 to keep out of difficulty where there's just about 
 as many niggers as there is white folks, or per- 
 haps a few more, an' one is just as free as t'other. 
 In a way, there's a heap more bad blood atween 
 'em now than most people takes any note on, and 
 me and the old woman just agreed we'd better 
 sell out, seein' as we had a good chance, and take 
 the boys and gals out West where there wouldn't 
 be no likelihood of such trouble, whatever else 
 there might be. 
 
 " The fact is," he continued, " I don't see what's 
 a-comin' when the niggers git a little better off 
 and a little more education and are really able to 
 take care of themselves. They'll outvote the 
 white man, outwork him, and I don't see why 
 they shouldn't outgrow and outrule him — unless 
 they're killed off or kept down. I ain't in favor 
 of that, and never was. If the law gives a nigger 
 the same sort of chance I have, he's a right to use 
 and enjoy it, /say ; and if I don't like it or can't 
 stand it, I can move away and let him take the 
 country and pay for it. I sold one of my planta- 
 tions to a nigger. He'll pay for it, too, and I 
 don't see what's to hinder his being a rich man in 
 a few years. 
 
The Black Republics. 197 
 
 " Wal, all this seems to me to be kind o' prom- 
 ising trouble in that region for years to come. I 
 didn't mind about it myself. After outliving the 
 Confederacy one needn't be troubled about any- 
 thing. I couldn't feel easy in my mind, though, 
 about leaving the children there to grow up and 
 face what may turn out a heap worse 'n anybody 
 knows. And I tell you what it is : I ain't the only 
 one that's getting them sort of notions down 
 there, neither." 
 
 We think this white emigrant was an example of 
 a class that will increase year by year ; not that 
 any Southern white man fears the negro, but be- 
 cause many can see no reason for staying to 
 struggle for a supremacy that will be of no ma- 
 terial advantage to them even if it is maintained. 
 
 To the white men of moderate means, whose 
 families are dependent for self-support largely on 
 their own labor, the South, especially the States 
 we have termed the Black Republics, offer a pe- 
 culiarly uninviting prospect. It is upon this class 
 that the disadvantages of competition with the 
 blacks must fall most heavily. To the lower classes 
 of whites — those who are properly termed " poor 
 whites" — the question of preponderance in num- 
 bers is of far less importance. In the conditions 
 
igS An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 of life and surroundings they are not so far above 
 the colored man as seriously to feel his competi- 
 tion. They have none of his ambition ; having 
 felt the spur of no new opportunity, but repre- 
 senting merely the dead level of centuries of apa- 
 thy and hopelessness, they expect only a bare ex- 
 istence for themselves, and look for nothing better 
 for their children. To the other class — the real 
 better class of the South — the self-supporters who 
 stand between its lowest classes and the remnants 
 of the old aristocracy, the question becomes a 
 very serious one. The simplest, surest, and easi- 
 est solution is that of migration to some part of 
 the country where the competition of race in the 
 field of labor and opportunity is not likely to 
 occur. This reasoning will continue very natural- 
 ly to deplete the most active and valuable class 
 of the Southern whites — that class in whom vigor 
 and aspiration most naturally and effectively 
 unite. So that the impetus derived from the fact 
 of numerical preponderance and comparative gain 
 of the colored race will act with an ever-increasing 
 momentum in acceleration either of a natural 
 result or a terrible crisis. 
 
Divide and Conquer. 
 
 " ' I A HERE is no middle ground between 
 ■*■ citizenship and the ballot," was the de- 
 claration of President Garfield in his inaugural 
 address. Whether there ever was any such mid- 
 dle ground or not, there is not now, and no one 
 can properly apprehend the relations of the races 
 in the South without a careful consideration of 
 the political status of each. 
 
 It has been a favorite notion with almost all 
 classes of the Republican Party that, by some 
 hook or crook of circumstance or occasion, there 
 
200 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 would come in time some great absorbing ques- 
 tion that would strike the line of demarcation 
 squarely through the white and black races of the 
 South, setting over against each other somewhat 
 nearly equal proportions of each race. Almost 
 every organ and nearly all the leading men of 
 this party have committed themselves at one 
 time or another to the declaration that some 
 question of overwhelming importance would 
 ultimately divide the white and colored vote of 
 the South. This has been the favorite idea, the 
 pet hallucination, of the party responsible for 
 emancipation, enfranchisement, and reconstruc- 
 tion. For almost twenty years it has been acting 
 on that policy. Every year or two the country 
 is saluted with the cry that the whites of the 
 South are separating upon the issue of tariff, 
 revenue, or administrative reform. We have had 
 Liberals and Re-adjusters and Independents, and 
 a thousand other tentative projects looking to a 
 division of the white vote and its amalgamation 
 with some portion greater or less of the colored 
 voting strength of the South. All of these plans 
 have come to naught, if we except the temporary 
 supremacy of the Re-adjusters in Virginia. Yet 
 the almost universal sentiment of the Republican 
 
Divide and Conquer. 20 1 
 
 Party of the North is that, at some millennial 
 period which cannot now be far away, Southern 
 whites and Southern blacks will see that their 
 political interests are identical, and that they will 
 peaceably divide and cordially co-operate with 
 each other in support of those abstract theories of 
 government which constitute what we are accus- 
 tumed to term " party issues." 
 
 Neither reason nor experience justifies this con- 
 clusion. It is as reasonable to expect the division 
 between night and day to vary from the fixed 
 proportion which centuries have demonstrated as 
 to expect that, within any period which reasona- 
 ble forecast may consider as affected by present 
 causes or past events, there will be any very great 
 political affiliation between the races. The Re- 
 publican Party of the South at the outset con- 
 sisted practically of the entire colored voting 
 population with a small fringe of white votes, 
 amounting in some States, perhaps, to as high as 
 twenty-five or thirty per cent, and in others fall- 
 ing as low as twelve or fifteen. This percentage 
 of white Republican voters has steadily grown 
 less in every State of the South. It is not worth 
 while to consider the reasons for this retrogres- 
 sion ; the fact is unquestionable. It is very rare 
 
202 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 indeed among the native whites of the South 
 that we find at this time Republicans under the 
 age of thirty-five, or in other words not old enough 
 for their sentiments to have been affected by 
 the spirit of unionism prevailing before the 
 war. Now and then, of course, there come from 
 the opposition temporary accessions of Southern 
 whites who stand with the bulk and strength of 
 the Republican Party upon some subordinate 
 question of local politics. Such is the case at the 
 present time in the State of North Carolina, 
 where certain so-called Liberals — revolting Demo- 
 crats — are willing, not to come over and stand 
 forth as Republicans, not to identify themselves 
 in any sense with the colored element or any con- 
 siderable portion of the colored race in support 
 of their rights and liberties, but, in the hope of 
 accomplishing certain changes in the local govern- 
 ment and administration of the State, to vote with 
 them for the occasion. Indeed the history of the 
 past twenty years gives rise to only enough of ex- 
 ception to the principle which we have laid down 
 to prove the rule to be as we have stated. 
 
 In the future as in the past, therefore, we may 
 account it as an indisputable fact that the two 
 races will, in the main, stand opposed to each 
 
Divide and Conquer. 203 
 
 other politically as they do to-day. Those who 
 have read the preceding pages will not be sur- 
 prised at this conclusion. Every possible influ- 
 ence affecting each of the races tends toward 
 separation and isolation. The black, as a man, is 
 further away from the white than he was at the 
 close of the war. The separateness of feeling, 
 sentiment, and interest is greater than it was upon 
 the day when emancipation took effect. This 
 tendency toward a separate crystallization of in- 
 terest, feeling, and action, as we have already 
 demonstrated, must in all economic and social 
 aspects grow stronger and more marked with each 
 succeeding year. The relation of master and ser- 
 vant is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. 
 The son of the slave has nothing of the feeling of 
 privity and familiarity with the son of the mas- 
 ter which existed between master and slave. 
 " Marse Tom's" son has little or none of the feel- 
 ing for " the boy John's" child which his father 
 had for John himself; and when another genera- 
 tion comes on, this relation of confidence and de- 
 pendence will become almost entirely obliterated, 
 and the grandson of the slave will have no sort of 
 confidential or familiar relation with the grandson 
 of the master, if, indeed, he knows him at all. 
 
204 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 Division of sentiment, independent religious 
 organizations, separate schools, no mutual com- 
 munity of interest, and the impassable wall of 
 color and caste between them, — all these influ- 
 ences act upon every individual of each race, 
 and it is as reasonable to expect a butterfly to 
 make headway against a cyclone as to expect the 
 day to come when parties at the South will pass 
 the color-line. The issues which divide parties 
 may apparently have no connection with the 
 question of color, race, or previous condition, 
 but the intellectual development of the indivi- 
 duals of the contrasting races has been such that 
 in the main each will agree with the mass of his 
 own race ; and where this is not the case, the 
 force of habit, inherited prejudice, the sentiment 
 generated by the co-occupancy of the soil by un- 
 assimilable races, are morally certain to produce 
 this result. Politicians may scheme and theorize 
 and lie as much as they choose ; the fact will re- 
 main, and must remain as it has for the last 
 twenty years, a surprise to those who first devised 
 the policy of disregarding the influences of the 
 past as an element in shaping the future destiny 
 of these States. 
 
 Upon this subject we cannot but regard the 
 
Divide and Conquer. 205 
 
 position of the Democratic Party as much more 
 philosophical and consistent than that of the Re- 
 publican. Tacitly at least disapproving the policy 
 of emancipation, it actively and vigorously re- 
 sisted, both in its national capacity and by its 
 organized branches at *"he South, by every lawful 
 and -frequently by unlawful means, every step 
 thereafter which was taken toward the elevation 
 of the colored race to political power or the exer- 
 cise of political power by them in opposition 
 to the will of the white race, without regard to 
 the question of numerical relation between them. 
 They have steadily and consistently avowed 
 that not only the country but each individual 
 State was, and must be, a " white man's govern- 
 ment," to be controlled, administered, and directed 
 as a majority of that race might ordain and direct. 
 They have never admitted directly or indirectly 
 the right of the colored race, no matter how over- 
 whelming its majority, to control the policy or 
 fill the offices of any State. Practically, as well 
 as theoretically, they have carried into effect this 
 principle. Fairly where they could, and unfairly 
 where they must, they have suppressed the will 
 of the majority. Either by the show of force 
 or by the practice of fraud have they prevented 
 
206 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the exercise of power by a majority composed 
 of colored voters acting with a white minority. 
 This has been done throughout the States of the 
 South with an open, bold, unhesitating affirma- 
 tion of an inherent right so to do. There has 
 been no apology or thought of apology for the 
 resultant effects of Ku-Kluxing, bullwhacking, 
 tissue-ballots, or any other form of fraud or vio- 
 lence by which the Southern whites have asserted 
 and maintained their right to rule. Thousands 
 upon thousands of them have regretted the neces- 
 sity of resorting to such means. Perhaps a ma- 
 jority of them now willingly and freely admit that 
 the atrocities of the Ku-Klux era, the blood and 
 terror attending the victory of the shotgun-pol- 
 icy, all the inhumanity and cruelty attendant 
 upon the suppression of colored majorities in 
 States where they had a preponderance of num- 
 bers, and the alliance with a sufficient proportion 
 of whites to give them power, were sad and 
 deplorable things. They do not pretend to claim 
 any right to kill, mutilate, whip, or in any way to 
 injure the colored man in person or estate. They 
 only claim the right, as it seems to them in self- 
 defense, to prevent him from exercising a co- 
 ordinate political power. In the assertion of this 
 
Divide and Conquer. 207 
 
 inherent and inalienable right of the white man 
 to rule not only himself but those associated 
 with him, without regard to numerical relations 
 between them, the Democratic Party has been 
 consistent and philosophical. Their view of 
 the present situation admits of but three hypo- 
 theses. First, the colored race must remain per- 
 manently subordinated to the whites in a political 
 sense, no matter how great the disproportion of 
 numbers between them may be. Second, the 
 colored race must be disfranchised or removed. 
 Third, the colored man must acquire such intel- 
 ligence and wealth that the Southern white man 
 may be willing to accord to him a sort of qualified 
 exercise of the elective franchise, and the privilege 
 of a limited participation in public affairs. 
 
 Upon this point we quote once more the words 
 of Prof. Gilliam, calling attention again to the fact 
 that his outlook and inclination are radically 
 different from our own. He says : 
 
 " The blacks will always, in the main, vote to- 
 gether. Why they are all Republicans now 
 is readily seen. But should present political 
 parties break up and others be formed, the 
 blacks would still naturally go as a body. The 
 circumstances under which they live, compelling 
 
2o8 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 them to stand together socially, will also compel 
 them to stand together politically. Confined by 
 a social barrier, they may be expected to develop 
 abnormally the natural race-instinct and, under a 
 powerful esprit de corps, to cast a solid ballot." 
 
 What he affirms of the colored race is even 
 more literally true of the Southern whites, in- 
 asmuch as the pride of domination is a more ex- 
 clusive and unreasoning impulse than the sense of 
 injustice and wrong. The instinct of race is a 
 very potent factor in the life of the colored man 
 of the South, but it is as nothing when com- 
 pared to the pride of race and caste in the breasts 
 of the Southern whites. 
 
 Whether it is better to allow the influences 
 we have noted to continue in active operation 
 until a crisis arrives, or attempt to secure their 
 modification and peaceful harmonization by the 
 exercise of wise and beneficent influences, is a 
 question that every good citizen will find con- 
 fronting him with perhaps unpleasant urgency, 
 until the problem has received a solution of some 
 sort at the hands of the American people. There 
 are two classes, widely different in sentiment, 
 character, and antecedent influences, who queerly 
 enough agree in declaring that neither policy nor 
 
Divide and Conquer. 209 
 
 duty requires anything- at all to be done. These 
 classes are: 
 
 First. The Northern man who has made up his 
 mind that the negro must and shall not con- 
 stitute an element in the national politics of the 
 future; who believes that emancipation and 
 enfranchisement were the end of duty, of right, 
 and of power ; who is convinced that all we 
 have to do to cure a political evil is to pretend 
 absolute ignorance of its existence. This class of 
 good Americans cry out, as soon as the subject is 
 broached : " Oh, let it alone. Let the negro 
 take care of himself. What difference does it 
 make to us how fast he increases, how strong he 
 becomes numerically, how much the white race 
 of the South suffer from his competition, or what 
 of evil may result from this juxtaposition of 
 hostile forces?" 
 
 Second. The average Southern man replies 
 even more glibly and promptly : " Pshaw ! What 
 difference does it make! Just let the niggers 
 alone. We will take care of them. It matters 
 not a whit if there is only one white man to a 
 thousand negroes. This is a white man's coun- 
 try, and the white man will rule it. We will look 
 out for that !" 
 
2io An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 There is something absolutely fascinating in 
 the self-reliance and self-assertion of the Southern 
 white man. So far as he himself is concerned, 
 or his capacity to do or achieve, he seems never 
 to be afflicted with a doubt. That the whites 
 should be able, no matter how striking their 
 minority may be, to control the colored race, 
 seems to him as natural and reasonable as that 
 one of his number should be able to whip a 
 dozen Yankees. It is a peculiar fact, too, that 
 no sort of failure regarding this estimate of his 
 own prowess, sagacity, or infallibility seems to 
 create any sort of doubt in his mind. The fact 
 that almost every idea upon which was based the 
 hope of victory in the struggle with the North 
 proved false has hardly served in the least de- 
 gree to weaken the Southern conviction of their 
 superior prowess, patriotism, and devotion. They 
 seem irresistibly prone to overestimate them- 
 selves and underestimate those with whom they 
 are contrasted. 
 
 In nothing is this tendency more clearly shown 
 than in their estimate of the colored man. 
 While he was a slave they boasted of their know- 
 ledge of his temperament, capacity, and ability. 
 They declared it an axiomatic truth that he was 
 
Divide and Conquer. 2 1 1 
 
 incapable of self-protection, self-direction, and 
 self-support They underestimated his value as 
 a self-directing laborer, declaring that he lacked 
 shrewdness, fortitude, and capacity. It was the 
 universal belief that if cast upon its own resources 
 the race must inevitably yield to swift and s*ure 
 decay. They accounted the negro incapable of 
 civilization or development. They ridiculed the 
 notion that he might be made an efficient soldier. 
 They laughed at the idea that he would ever 
 successfully meet the onset of Southern veterans. 
 That the time could ever come when negro 
 soldiers should charge with unloaded guns, rely- 
 ing upon the bayonet alone, and put to flight 
 any force of Southern soldiers, never even 
 entered their imaginations. The time came when 
 all these impossibilities became accomplished 
 facts. Yet the Southern white man did not 
 change his belief nor admit the element of doubt 
 in regard to the theories which he had so long 
 maintained. He laughs to scorn to-day any one 
 who dares to intimate that he does not know all 
 about the negro. As a matter of fact, the very 
 relation which they sustained to each other made 
 it impossible that the master should have any real 
 knowledge of the slave's thought. Concealment 
 
212 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 was the most essential element of the slave's life. 
 It was his sole weapon of offense and defense 
 against the master and the master-race. By long 
 cultivation, secretiveness became one of his most 
 pronounced characteristics. Behind his black 
 face* servile manner, and mirthful proclivity the 
 slave hid the man. Concealment came to be 
 almost a second nature to him through the train- 
 ing of slavery. Even while the servile relation 
 remained in force, the concerted plans of the 
 negroes for escape and for the assistance of fugi- 
 tives on the way to liberty showed a remarkable 
 capacity for this very style of co-operation. 
 
 The statute-books of the older Slave States bear 
 eloquent testimony to this peculiar trait of the 
 slave. It is no small tribute to his capacity for 
 combined action that the whole South in the old 
 slave days was nothing less than a carefully 
 guarded military camp. When one considers the 
 laws that were thought necessary to prevent es- 
 capes and secure the master-race against servile 
 insurrection, it is somewhat surprising that the 
 whites of the South should regard with such un- 
 mitigated contempt the freedman's capacity for 
 intelligent, secret, and concerted co-operation 
 with his fellows. As a slave, no laws were severe 
 
Divide and Conquer, 213 
 
 enough to restrain his instinct for liberty. It be- 
 came necessary to limit and restrict his action with 
 the most stringent regulations. The master dare 
 not allow him to meet his fellows even for public 
 worship unless a white man were present to spy 
 upon their action. The whole country from the 
 Ohio to the Gulf was covered by a system of pa- 
 trols as thorough and complete as the chain of 
 sentinels about a Roman camp. The militia offi- 
 cers were always upon active duty and might be 
 required by the magistrates at any moment to 
 increase the force of patrol guards at any point. 
 The slave was not allowed to travel upon the 
 highway without a written pass from the master, 
 and was kept in ignorance lest he should forge 
 this imperial rescript which might open the way 
 to freedom. The most terrible penalties were 
 imposed upon any who should attempt to escape 
 or should assist another in the slightest manner to 
 acquire liberty. Even with all these disabilities 
 imposed upon them, the negroes not unfrequently 
 performed miracles of sagacious subterfuge in aid- 
 ing each other to escape from bondage. 
 
 During the war no Federal soldier escaping 
 from the enemy's lines ever found a slave so dull 
 that he could not command the services of scores 
 
214 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 of others to assist his friend and deliverer. The 
 history of their achievements in this direction 
 alone, as well as their marvelous power of obtain- 
 ing and transmitting intelligence in regard to mil- 
 itary operations, should have taught the white 
 race not to despise their capacity for secret, effec- 
 tive, and concerted action. Even this lesson, how- 
 ever, was lost upon the dominant race, and they 
 regarded the resistance made to the Ku-Klux revo- 
 lution as due entirely to the white leaders of the 
 Republican Party. There could be no greater 
 mistake. In everything but the power to read 
 and write, the colored people showed themselves 
 in this struggle fully the equals of their white 
 allies. Indeed, but for the remonstrances of their 
 recognized leaders they would have carried into 
 effect plans of retributive justice which would 
 have made those years memorable in all history 
 for the terrible vengeance which an oppressed race 
 executed upon their persecutors. They were 
 counseled and implored to wait, to suffer pa- 
 tiently and trust the Government that had freed 
 them, to secure them in their rights and mete out 
 justice to their oppressors. In this Government 
 and in these representations they had the most 
 implicit confidence. When they found them- 
 
Divide and Conquer. 215 
 
 selves abandoned, and discovered that the Nation 
 whose justice they trusted as implicitly as they 
 had been wont to rely upon Jehovah for ultimate 
 deliverance from bondage — when they found 
 that this Government had deliberately deserted 
 them and left them hopeless in the hands of 
 those who were the natural and avowed enemies 
 of their race in everything pertaining to its liberty 
 and the exercise of the rights conferred upon 
 them as citizens — when they knew this they nat- 
 urally lost heart. There was a lull in the great 
 struggle. For some years there was hardly any 
 indication of an inclination on their part to act 
 for themselves in political affairs. The Southern 
 whites counted the matter as ended. They 
 thought the colored race was politically subju- 
 gated. Yet they did not neglect to check with a 
 strong and bloody hand any incipient signs of a 
 renewed interest in public affairs on their part. 
 This made such affairs as the Danville riot a ne- 
 cessity — not to punish any evil tendency on the 
 part of the'blacks, but to admonish the rice of the 
 danger attending any attempt on their part to ex- 
 ercise political power at their own discretion. 
 The apparent success of these measures has con- 
 tinued the self-deception of the Southern white 
 
216 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 in regard to the negro's capacity for collective ac- 
 tion in assertion of his own rights. The South 
 has no idea that the negro will ever assert himself 
 as a political factor. The only thing they appre- 
 hend is that some white leader may arise who may 
 be brave and strong enough to unite them blindly 
 and unquestioningly under his leadership. Not- 
 withstanding the fact, therefore, that the freedom 
 they prophesied would bring decay is demon- 
 strated to have brought, instead, increased fecund- 
 ity, the Southern man, as a rule, not only regards 
 the colored man as an inferior, but as so inferior 
 in all the elements of effective manhood as to be 
 politically unworthy of any consideration other 
 than contempt. 
 
 Because of this misconception of the real char- 
 acter of the negro as modified and developed by 
 the harsh tuition of slavery and, in some sense, 
 the still harsher tutelage of the Reconstruction 
 era, there are two classes who fail, in about equal 
 degrees, to appreciate his present situation or the 
 possibilities and probabilities of his future. 
 
 One of these classes is the Southern white 
 who bases his estimate of the negro, as a man, 
 solely upon his conception of him as a slave. 
 This estimate is as naturally defective in its 
 
Divide and Conquer, 217 
 
 economic and personal as in its political aspects. 
 The slave is never appreciated by the master. 
 Pharaoh unquestionably despised Moses and his 
 people, and had no idea that they were capable of 
 individual autonomy or collective independence. 
 Yet they became the most remarkable people in 
 distinctive power, and in the inherited capacity 
 of waiting and watching for remote opportunity, 
 that the world has ever seen. It was a general 
 belief among the white people of the South that 
 if the slaves were even for a day thrown upon 
 their own resources they must inevitably perish. 
 Their willingness to labor, their vigor and fortitude, 
 were all underestimated. They were considered 
 incapable of civilization and development. The 
 Southern white regards the freedman simply as 
 the product of slavery. He looks upon his out- 
 ward circumstances and material surroundings as 
 the sole indications of progress or the want of it. 
 He does not think of measuring the race with 
 any other free people. He does not once dream 
 of regarding the foundations of independence and 
 self-support which are constantly multiplying 
 about the colored people as of any peculiar sig- 
 nificance. The fact that a once favorite servant is 
 doing well pleases him. The knowledge that one 
 
2i8 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 of bad and unworthy character has come to grief 
 only strengthens his conviction that freedom can- 
 not make a bad negro good. He measures all 
 that exists by the standard of comparison drawn 
 from a previous and altogether dissimilar state of 
 existence. He thinks of the colored people as a 
 race to be kindly treated ; to be given every op- 
 portunity to obtain comfortable surroundings; to 
 be encouraged to make for themselves a good 
 livelihood. But so far from considering any of the 
 elements of life with regard to their bearing 
 upon the character and development of the negro 
 as a citizen or as an independent being of co-eqnal 
 power and like dominant energy with himself — 
 so far from doing this, the Southern white man 
 finds it impossible even to entertain the idea or 
 comprehend in any degree its significance. To 
 him the negro is simply a " nigger" — not using 
 the word as a term of opprobrium, but simply 
 to mark the gulf of inequality and inferiority 
 which he believes to exist between the races. 
 
 The material acquisitions of the colored man 
 during the period of liberty are to the white 
 significant merely of a capacity for self-support. 
 All are generally willing to admit now, what 
 hardly one in a hundred would have admitted at 
 
Divide and Conquer. 219 
 
 the close of the war — that the negro is capable 
 of supporting himself by his o\vn labor; that he 
 has certain faculties, such as good-nature, mirth- 
 fulness, endurance, adaptability to the climate in 
 which he lives, and ability for performing labor 
 with a moderate supply of creature comforts, 
 which perhaps no other race can equal. As a 
 laborer, therefore, as an inferior, as a " nigger" 
 the white man of the South regards his progress 
 and advancement in intelligence and in material 
 prosperity with a sort of kind complacency. Just 
 so soon, however, as this prosperity comes to 
 mean aspiration for power and recognition as an 
 element in the government of State or Nation, 
 that very instant the white man of the South 
 becomes a hostile influence. He cannot appre- 
 ciate or understand the desire of the colored 
 man to be anything more than a prosperous, 
 well-fed laborer. He cannot believe that any 
 duty rests upon him to promote the well-being 
 of the colored man, beyond wishing that he 
 may be well fed, well clothed, well cared for in 
 sickness and in health, and offered unrestricted 
 opportunity for achieving his eternal salvation. 
 For the religious element of the negro's nature 
 the Southern white man, as a rule, has the most 
 
220 An Appeal to Ctesar. 
 
 profound respect. It is true that many of their 
 school-houses and churches were burned during 
 the Ku-Klux revolution. It is true that many 
 colored ministers of the Gospel have been sub- 
 jected to indignity and outrage of various kinds ; 
 but it was not because of their ministry. It was 
 not, as a rule, perhaps even from any lack of re- 
 spect for the religious feelings and aspirations of 
 the colored man. It was because of a feeling, a 
 suspicion, a fear, that these religious teachers 
 might become also political leaders who should 
 teach a gospel not merely of salvation in the 
 world to come, but of manhood and co-equal 
 rights upon the earth. 
 
 The other class who fail to estimate the negro 
 correctly is composed of those peculiarly positive, 
 undoubting Northern men who made up their 
 minds, years ago, that all the negro needed to 
 make him the equal, or a little more, than the 
 equal, of the whites by whom he was surrounded, 
 was liberty and the ballot. These two boons 
 having been bestowed upon him, the positive 
 Northern theorist expects to see him at once 
 develop all the virtues of the highest civilization, 
 with none of its attendant vices or weaknesses. 
 After half a generation of liberty this dogmatic 
 
Divide and Conquer. 221 
 
 well-wisher of the blacks, whom he regards as his 
 own individual protege's, comes among them and 
 is disgusted at what he finds. To this scornful 
 tourist-observer who comes with a fixed and clear 
 idea of what he is to find and discovers some- 
 thing very unlike his expectation, the negro 
 seems only a strange compound of gnome and 
 satyr. His irresistible inclination to mirth, his 
 seeming contentedness with the present, his in- 
 vulnerability to all assaults of misfortune, pass 
 as nothing in the eyes of the censorious Northern 
 observer, who expects the recent slave, because he 
 has become a freedman, by some sort of miracle 
 to have become also suddenly an exemplification 
 of all the virtues and capabilities which it has 
 taken so many ages to develop among the whites. 
 Such an observer is naturally disappointed to find 
 that the colored man of the South goes bare- 
 footed ; lives in a hovel that it would be an 
 affront to offer to a Chester pig at the North ; is 
 apparently happy and contented, — doing his day's 
 work, getting his day's pay (if he does get it !), — 
 and going on month after month, and year after 
 year, in much the same path ; gaining a little 
 here and there ; gathering something of strength 
 and dignity, and indulging in some quaint mani- 
 
222 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 festations of the liberty which came to him as if 
 by miracle and which he seems so little to appre- 
 ciate. The Northern tourist-observer who goes 
 through the South with the boastful declaration 
 that he means to see with his own eyes, not find- 
 ing what he had predetermined must exist, is 
 naturally disgusted with all that he sees and hears 
 of the negro race. He comes to regard the col- 
 ored man as the great ethnological clown — the 
 careless mirth-maker and mirth-finder of the 
 human race — knowing nothing of the privileges 
 or rights of the free man, and caring less ; submit- 
 ting to wrong and extortion ; regardless of the 
 rights of property and heedless of the obligations 
 of contract ; in short, having none of those ele- 
 ments of civilization which centuries of mercan- 
 tile training have developed so highly among our 
 Northern population. For the negro's weakness, 
 ineptness, and ignorance he has only ridicule and 
 contempt. For that careless mirthfulness which 
 is the shield against despair he has only a 
 sneer. For the little log-cabin homestead, with 
 its puncheon floor, its door hung on wooden 
 hinges, its long split shingles held in place by 
 superincumbent poles, and its truck-patch in- 
 closed by split palings woven in and out upon a 
 
Divide and Conquer. 22 3 
 
 framework of poles — for this castle of the freed- 
 man, not overcleanly, affording little shelter 
 from the weather, and sometimes queerly in- 
 habited, the Northern observer has no respect. 
 To him it is a mere overcrowded den. The fact 
 that the pig runs in at one door and the chickens 
 out at the other proves positively to his mind 
 that civilization can never enter there. All the 
 neatness, promptness, and aggressive indepen- 
 dence of his own Northern life are wanting in the 
 freedman. He sees nothing to hope for in the 
 fact that a man thrown naked upon the world, in 
 fifteen years has secured a shelter for himself and 
 family. He sees the ebon pickaninnies running 
 about with but one garment. He finds two or 
 three generations sleeping in a house with one 
 room, and is certain that only degradation and 
 failure wait upon the future of the African race. 
 Even the Southern white man is more charitable 
 and hopeful for the negro than this wise Northern 
 visitant who catches merely a glimpse of the 
 colored man's life, notes its defects with unfailing 
 accuracy, is unable to see that it has any excel- 
 lences, and, because he is unable to comprehend 
 its relations with the past, is also incapable of 
 perceiving the possibilities of its future. 
 
224 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 In view of all the facts that have been pre- 
 sented, it must be evident even to a child's com- 
 prehension that the political contest between the 
 white and colored races at the South, instead of 
 being a thing of the past has only just begun. 
 The negro, instead of having been forever ban- 
 ished from national politics, has only just entered 
 there as a potential and important factor. It 
 matters not how complete may be his present 
 exclusion from participation in public affairs, the 
 time must come when the mere preponderance of 
 numbers must overpower the prestige of superior 
 intelligence, no matter how marked it may be. 
 In five of the States this time cannot long be de- 
 ferred. In three more it is almost certain to come 
 within a quarter of a century. 
 
 Shall these forces be harmonized or continue in 
 antagonism? Shall the outcome be peaceful or 
 violent? What will our myriad-minded Casar 
 decree ? 
 
A New Complication. 
 
 "\/l/E have dwelt upon the question of the 
 • * mutual relations of the races at the 
 
 South at considerable length, for several reasons : 
 
 I. — Because they are so little understood by the 
 majority even of our most intelligent peo- 
 ple. 
 
 2. — Because of the almost universal prevalence of 
 certain ideas in regard to them on which 
 have been based erroneous conclusions. 
 
 3. — Because a full apprehension of these facts is 
 essential to produce that first condition -of 
 
226 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 ameliorative action — a conviction in the 
 public mind of the pressing and instant 
 necessity that something must be done. 
 We come now to consider an element of 
 Southern life the study of which is at once de- 
 pressing and hopeful — depressing in that it 
 greatly complicates the dangers likely to arise out 
 of the relations we have been considering, and 
 hopeful because it offers the only reasonable and 
 peaceful solution of the momentous problem 
 which has yet been devised. This element is the 
 prevailing illiteracy of the Southern people of 
 both races — the startling fact that these masses 
 of population, which nature and a wonderful 
 sequence of events have arrayed against each 
 other in seemingly unavoidable antagonism, are 
 likely to be precipitated into a conflict which for 
 savage horror would have no parallel in history, 
 by the folly and inconsiderate prejudice of vast 
 bodies of the ignorant and reckless of both races. 
 The following tables show the essential facts in 
 regard to this matter. 
 
 By an examination of these tables it will be 
 seen that the following astounding summary is 
 only a simple statement of facts now four years 
 old: 
 
A New Complication. 227 
 
 The North has thirty millions of population and a 
 
 million a?id a half of illiterates. 
 The South has eighteen millions of population and 
 
 five millions of illiterates. 
 Five and three-tenths per cent of the people of the 
 
 North cannot read and write. 
 Thirty-six and a half per cent of the people of the 
 
 South cannot read and write. 
 Five and two-te?iths per cent of the white people of 
 
 the North cannot read and write. 
 Nineteen per cent of the white people of the South 
 
 cannot read and write. 
 
 Twenty-five per cent of the colored population of 
 the North and seventy-three per cent of the colored 
 population of the South cannot read and write. 
 
 In the Black Belt forty-eight and one-half per 
 cent of the entire 'population cannot read and write, 
 twenty- five per cent of the native whites and sev- 
 
 TABLE BB. 
 General Illiteracy of North and South. 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Population, 
 1880. 
 
 Illiterates. Ten 
 Years Old 
 
 and Upward. 
 
 The North 
 
 The South 
 
 31.938,459 
 18,217,324 
 
 1,442,064 
 4,808,528 
 
 Total 50,i55i7S3 6,250,592 
 
228 
 
 An Appeal to Caesar. 
 
 enty-eiglit per cent of the colored population being 
 illiterates. 
 
 In the same region seventeen per cent of the white 
 adults and seventy-eight and one-half per cent of 
 the colored adults cannot read and write. That 
 
 TABLE CC. 
 
 Illiterates, Ten Years Old and Upward, in the Northern States 
 and Territories. Census of 1880. 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Per 
 
 
 Per 
 
 Na- 
 
 Per 
 
 For- Per 
 
 1 
 Col- (Per 
 
 States. 
 
 Illit- 
 erates. 
 
 ct. 
 
 Whites. 
 
 ct. 
 
 tive 
 Whit's 
 
 ct. 
 
 eign. ct. 
 
 ored. ; ct. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : 
 
 Cal 
 
 53-43o 
 
 7-8 
 
 26,090 
 
 4.4 
 
 7,660 
 
 2.0 
 
 18,430 8.6 
 
 27,340129.8 
 
 Colorado. 
 
 10.474 
 
 6.6 
 
 9,906 
 
 6.4 
 
 8,373 
 
 7- 1 
 
 i,533 4-o 
 
 568 20.5 
 
 Conn . . . 
 
 28.424 
 
 5-7 
 
 26,763 
 
 5-5 
 
 3.728 
 
 1 .0 
 
 23,035 18.3 
 
 1,661, 17. 4 
 
 Illinois... 
 
 145.397 
 
 6.4 
 
 132.426 
 
 5-9 
 
 88. 510 
 
 5-3 
 
 43,907 7-7 
 
 12,971 37 2 
 
 Indiana. . 
 
 110,761 
 
 7-5 
 
 100,398 
 
 7.0 
 
 87,786 
 
 6.8 
 
 12,612 8 9 
 
 10,363:35-6 
 
 Iowa 
 
 46,609 
 
 3-9 
 
 44,337 
 
 3-8 
 
 23,660 
 
 2.6 
 
 20,677 8.1 
 
 2,272 30.0 
 
 Kansas . . 
 
 39,476 
 
 5-6 
 
 24,888 
 
 3-7 
 
 17,825 
 
 3-i 
 
 7,063 6.7 
 
 14,588 46.8 
 
 Maine 
 
 22,170 
 
 4-3 
 
 21.758 
 
 4.2 
 
 8.775 
 
 1.9 
 
 12,98323.7 
 
 412 24.8 
 
 Mass 
 
 02.980 
 
 6-5 
 
 90,658 
 
 6.4 
 
 6,933 
 
 0.7 
 
 83,725 19.6 
 
 2,322 15. 1 
 
 Michigan 
 
 63,7=3 
 
 5-2 
 
 58,932 
 
 4 .8 
 
 19,981 
 
 2-3 
 
 38,951 10.7 
 
 4.791 28.5 
 
 Minn 
 
 34-540 
 
 6.2 
 
 33,5o6 
 
 6.0 
 
 0,671 
 
 1.9 
 
 2 7,835 IO -9 
 
 1,040 37.2 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 n.528 
 
 3.6 
 
 10,926 
 
 3-5 
 
 5,102 
 
 2-3 
 
 5,824 6.4 
 
 602 30.7 
 
 Nevada. . 
 
 4,ocg 
 
 8.0 
 
 i,9i5 
 
 4-5 
 
 240 
 
 I . I 
 
 1,675 8.4 
 
 2,154 26.7 
 
 N. H 
 
 14.302 
 
 5-o 
 
 14,208 
 
 5.0 
 
 2,710 
 
 I . I 
 
 11,498 26.9 
 
 94 15-8 
 
 N. Jersey 
 
 53- 2 49 
 
 6.2 
 
 44,049 
 
 5-3 
 
 20,093 
 
 3.2 
 
 23,956 ". 1 
 
 9,200 30.5 
 
 N. York.. 
 
 219,600 
 
 5-5 
 
 208,175 
 
 5-3 
 
 59,5i6 
 
 2.2 
 
 148,659 12.5 
 
 11,425 21 2 
 
 Ohio 
 
 131.847 
 
 5-5 
 
 115,491 
 
 4.9 
 
 83,183 
 
 4-3 
 
 32,308 8.4 
 
 16,356 27.3 
 
 Oregon. . 
 
 7.423 
 
 5-7 
 
 4,343 
 
 3-6 
 
 3,433 
 
 3-5 
 
 910 4.4 
 
 3,080' 27. S 
 
 Penna 
 
 228.014 
 
 7-i 
 
 209,981 
 
 6.7 
 
 123,206 
 
 4.8 
 
 86,775i5-i 
 
 18.03327. 1 
 
 Rhode I.. 
 
 24,793 
 
 11. 2 
 
 23.544 
 
 10.9 
 
 4,261 
 
 2.0 
 
 19,283 27.3 
 
 1.249 23.6 
 
 Vermont. 
 
 15.837 
 
 6.0 
 
 1 5,68 1 
 
 6.0 
 
 5,354 
 
 2.4 10,327 20.6 
 
 156 19. 3 
 
 Wis 
 
 55.558 
 
 5-8 
 
 54.233 
 
 5-6 
 
 11,494 
 
 0.2, 42,739 I0.8 
 
 1,325 3i-o 
 
 Total.. 
 
 1,414,210 
 
 5-3 
 
 1,272,208 
 
 5-2 
 
 597,403 
 
 3-2 674.705 12.2 
 
 1 
 142,002 25.1 
 
 Territo- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ries. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arizona. . 
 
 5,S 4 2 
 
 17.7 
 
 4.824 
 
 16.8 
 
 1.225 
 
 8.1 
 
 3,599 
 
 26.8 
 
 1,018 23.7 
 
 Dakota .. 
 
 4,821 
 
 4.8 
 
 4.157 
 
 4.2 
 
 933 
 
 1.8 
 
 3,224 
 
 6.8 
 
 664:44.2 
 
 Idaho 
 
 1.778 
 
 7-i 
 
 784 
 
 3.6 
 
 443 
 
 3-o 
 
 34i 
 
 5 1 
 
 994 28.2 
 
 Montana. 
 
 1.707 
 
 5-3 
 
 631 
 
 22 
 
 272 
 
 1.4 
 
 359 
 
 3-8 
 
 1,076 35 8 
 
 Utah. ... 
 
 8. 826 
 
 9.1 
 
 8,137 
 
 8 5 
 
 3-183 
 
 5-9 
 
 4,954 
 
 11. 8 
 
 689 52.3 
 
 Wash ... 
 
 . . 3-889 
 
 7.0 
 
 1,429 
 
 2.0 
 
 8 95 
 
 2.4 
 
 534 
 
 4-5 
 
 2.460 38.1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total.. 
 
 26,863 
 
 8.5 
 
 19.962 
 
 6.3 
 
 6.951 
 
 3-5 
 
 13. on 
 
 9.8 
 
 6,901137.0 
 
A New Complication. 
 
 229 
 
 is to say, of the nineteen hundred thousanu male 
 adult voters, white and black, in these eight States, 
 eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand, or forty- 
 five -per cent, are unable to read the names upon their 
 ballots. 
 
 We do not propose to discuss these facts at any 
 length. The man who does not realize their ter- 
 rible significance at a glance will never compre- 
 hend their import. Amplification would be wasted 
 on him. 
 
 TABLE DD. 
 
 Illiterates, Ten Years Old and Upward, in the Southern States 
 and Territories. Census of 1S80. 
 
 
 Total 
 Illit- 
 erates. 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 Native 
 Whites. 
 
 Per 
 
 ct. 
 
 For- Per 
 eign.l ct. | 
 
 Colored. 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 Ala.. 
 
 433-447 
 
 50. Q 
 
 "TxT^ 
 
 24-7 
 
 111,040 25.0 
 
 727' 7-7 
 
 321.680 
 
 80.6 
 
 Ark.. 
 
 202,015 
 
 38.O 
 
 98.542 
 
 25.0 
 
 97-99° 2 5 ■ 5 
 
 55= 5-6 
 
 103,473 
 
 75.0 
 
 Del. 
 
 19.414 
 
 17-5 
 
 8.346 
 
 9.1 
 
 6,630 8.1 
 
 1,716 18.5 
 
 11,068 
 
 57-5 
 
 Ha . . 
 
 80,183 
 
 43 4 
 
 19,763 
 
 19.9 
 
 19.024 20.7 
 
 739 10. 
 
 60,420 
 
 70.7 
 
 Ga. . . 
 
 520,416 
 
 49-9 
 
 128,934 
 
 22 9 
 
 128.362 23 2 
 
 572 5- D 
 
 391,482 
 
 81.6 
 
 Ky... 
 
 34S.392 29.9 
 
 214,497 
 
 22 
 
 208,796 22.8 
 
 5.701 9.7 
 
 I33-895 
 
 70.4 
 
 La... 
 
 313.380 49.1 
 
 58,951 
 
 18.4 
 
 53,261119.8 
 
 5,690 IO. G 
 
 259,429 
 
 79.1 
 
 Md . 
 
 134.488 19-3 
 
 44-3 l6 
 
 8.1 
 
 36,027! 7.8 
 
 8.23o 10.2 
 
 90.172 
 
 59-0 
 
 Mi.s.. 
 
 373.201 49-5 
 
 53,448 
 
 16.3 
 
 52.910. 16. 6 
 
 538 
 
 6.0 
 
 3*9,753 
 
 75- 2 
 
 Mo. 
 
 208,754 13.4 
 
 152.510 
 
 10.5 
 
 137, 949] 1 1. 1 
 
 14,501 
 
 7.0 
 
 56,244 53.9 
 
 N. C. 
 
 463,975 48.3 
 
 I9 2,032 
 
 3 T -5 
 
 191,91331.7 
 
 119 
 
 3 • 3 
 
 2 7 I -943 77 4 
 
 S. C. 
 
 309,848 55 4 
 
 59-777 
 
 21. 
 
 59. 4 T5[22. 4 
 
 362 
 
 49 
 
 310,071 7S.5 
 
 Term. 
 
 410.722 38.7 
 
 216.227 
 
 27-3 
 
 214,994,27.8 
 
 1,233 
 
 7-51 
 
 194,495 7i-7 
 
 Tex 
 
 316.432 20 7 
 
 123,912 
 
 15-3 
 
 97,498113.9 
 
 26,414 24.7 
 
 192,520 75.4 
 
 Va.. 
 
 430,352,40.0 
 
 114,692 
 
 18.2 
 
 113,915118.5 
 
 777' 5-4 
 
 315,660)73.7 
 
 VV.Va 
 
 85,376ji9-9 
 
 75, =37 
 
 18.3 
 
 72.826 
 
 18.6 
 
 2.4III3.5 
 
 10,139 
 
 55-° 
 
 Total 
 
 4-7i5,30S 3 6 -5 
 
 1,672,951 
 
 ^7 
 
 1,602,550 
 
 19.5 
 
 70,401 11 .4 
 
 3,042.444 
 
 £i 
 
 D. C. 
 
 25.77818.8 
 
 3.088 
 
 ♦■3 
 
 1,950 
 
 2.6 
 
 2,038 12. 1 
 
 21,790 
 
 484 
 
 X. M. 
 
 57.156 65.0 
 
 49.597 
 
 02.2 
 
 40.329 
 
 64.2 
 
 3-268J43-3 
 
 7-559 
 
 92.2 
 
 Total 
 
 82,934 
 
 41.0 
 
 53-585 
 I 
 
 33 • 3 
 
 48,279 
 
 33-4 
 
 5,3o6 
 
 H 
 
 29.349 
 
 70.4 
 
2^0 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 So far as these figures present a comparison 
 between the North and the South, they are valua- 
 ble only as showing conclusively that Slavery was 
 the nurse of Ignorance. There is no reason why 
 twenty per cent of the native whites of the South 
 and only three and one-fifth per cent of the native 
 
 TABLE EE. 
 The Black Belt. Census of 1880. 
 
 TABLE FF. 
 
 Illiterates, Ten Years Old and Upward, in the Black Belt. 
 Census of 1 8 So. 
 
 States. 
 
 Total 
 Illit- 
 erates. 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 Whit's 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 Na- 
 tive 
 
 Whit's 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 For- 
 eign. 
 
 1 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 i 
 
 Colored. 
 
 Per 
 ct. 
 
 Virginia . . 
 
 430,352 
 
 40.6 
 
 114,692 
 
 18.2 
 
 "3,9*5 
 
 18.5 
 
 1 ! 
 7771 5-4 
 
 315,660173.7 
 
 N.Carolina. 
 
 4°3'975 
 
 48.3 
 
 192,032131.5 
 
 191,913 31.7 
 
 "91 3-3 
 
 271,943 77 
 
 4 
 
 S. Carolina. 
 
 369,848 
 
 55-4 
 
 59,777121.9 
 
 59,415 22.4 
 
 362 49 
 
 310,071178 
 
 3 
 
 Georgia . . . 
 
 520,416 
 
 4Q.9 
 
 128,934122.9 
 
 128,362 23.2 
 
 572; 5-6 
 
 391.48281 
 
 6 
 
 Florida .... 
 
 80,183 
 
 43-4 
 
 i9.7&3|i9-9 
 
 19,024 20.7 
 
 739 TO O 
 
 60.420170 
 
 7 
 
 Alabama.. 
 
 433,447 
 
 50.9 
 
 111,767124.7 
 
 111,040 25 .0 
 
 727 7.7 
 
 32i,68o!8o 
 
 6 
 
 Mississippi. 
 
 373,201 
 
 49-5 
 
 53,448 16 3 
 
 52,910 16.6 
 
 538 6.0 
 
 3i9,753i75 
 
 2 
 
 Louisiana.. 
 
 318.380 
 
 49.1 
 
 58,951 18.4 
 
 53,261 19.8 
 
 5,690 IO.9 
 
 259,429 79.1 
 
 Total... 
 
 2,989,802 
 
 48.4 
 
 739,364122.2 
 
 729,840,24.7 
 
 9,5 = 4; 8.4 
 
 1 1 
 
 2,250,438 78.1 
 
 I 
 
A New Complication. 231 
 
 whites of the North, should be illiterate, except 
 that liberty implies intelligence and slavery pre- 
 fers ignorance, and that slavery ruled the one and 
 freedom the other. In a free settlement the 
 school-house was a thing of first necessity ; in a 
 slave-holding community it was the last thing pro- 
 vided for the people. The slave-holding States 
 allowed the rich to educate themselves, and left 
 the poor without opportunity. The fruit of 
 slavery at the South was six times as large a pro- 
 portion of ignorance even among the free whites 
 as was to be found at the North. The Free States 
 encouraged intelligence in all. Some of them 
 made it compulsory. The Slave States enforced 
 ignorance by statute upon the slave, and left the 
 
 TABLE GG. 
 Male Adults in the Black Belt. Census of 1SS0. 
 
 States. 
 
 Total 
 
 Total 
 
 White Male 
 
 Adults. 
 
 Virginia i 
 
 North Carolina.! 
 South Carolina., j 
 
 Georgia ! 
 
 Florida j 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana ' 
 
 206,248 
 189.732 
 
 86.900 
 177-967 
 
 34,210 
 141. 461 
 108.254 
 108,810 
 
 0S2 
 
 3^474 I 
 44,420 1 
 13.924 
 28,571 
 4.706 
 24,450 
 12.473 I 
 16,377 
 
 176.395 ; 16.7 
 
 Total 
 
 Illiterate 
 
 
 Colored 
 
 Colored 
 
 Per 
 
 Male 
 
 Male 
 
 cent. 
 
 Adults. 
 
 Adults. 
 
 
 Total 
 
 Colored 
 
 Male 
 
 Adults. 
 
 128,257 
 
 105.018 
 
 118.889 
 
 143-471 
 
 27.489 
 
 118.423 
 
 130.278 
 
 107.977 
 
 879,802 j 
 
 100,210 
 
 80.282 
 
 93,010 
 
 116,516 
 19,110 
 96.408 
 90,068 
 
 86,555 
 
 091,159 
 
 78.1 
 
 76 4 
 
 78.2 
 
 81 
 
 69 
 
 81 
 
 76 
 
 80 
 
 78. 5 
 
 Total Male Adults 1,033.384 
 
 Illiterate Male Adults 867.554 145.0 per cent.) 
 
- J- 
 
 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 poor white man without opportunity. It will be 
 seen, therefore, that the present state of affairs is 
 not the result of war nor of any external influence, 
 but the direct and natural outcome of the institu- 
 tions of the South and of those theories of srov- 
 ernment and statesmanship prevailing among that 
 class who still claim the right to control her des- 
 tiny and shape her policy. Beyond this, all com- 
 parison with the North or consideration of the 
 illiteracy in the Northern States is unnecessary. 
 Her educational machinery is so powerful, so free, 
 so universal, so liberally supported and popularly 
 sustained, that it matters not how great the influx 
 of foreign illiterates may be, or what the circum- 
 stances affecting her prosperity, they are not able 
 to increase in any sensible degree the proportion 
 of native illiterates within her borders. She may 
 not be able to cure the ignorance of the foreign- 
 born who come uninstructed to her shores, but 
 their children feel the stimulus of her institutions, 
 and in the first or second generation at the far- 
 thest cease to be counted among the illiterates. 
 
 These figures of the census, however, utterly 
 fail to give the real facts. One of the encourag- 
 ing phases of the present situation is the fact that 
 
A New Com pile at ion. 233 
 
 a colored man is proud of the distinction of being 
 able to read and write. It is to him a sort of 
 patent of nobility. It shows to the world that he 
 has gone above the level, that he has come up 
 above the mass of his fellows, and is worthy of 
 distinction and consideration, in this respect if in 
 no other. Because of these facts, the statistics of 
 illiteracy among the colored people are peculiarly 
 unreliable. The man or woman who has but the 
 faintest knowledge of the Cadmean mysteries is 
 very apt to figure in the census-taker's books as 
 able to read and write. To satisfy my own con- 
 viction upon this subject, I examined, not long 
 since, the original returns of some townships of 
 the South in which I was personally acquainted 
 with almost every individual. I found there not 
 a few persons entered as able to read and to write 
 whose capacity to do either, to my own personal 
 knowledge, was limited to the bare possibility of 
 mastering the significance of the simplest words, 
 or the writing only of their own names. So far 
 as any practical benefit to be derived therefrom 
 is concerned, instead of seventy per cent of the 
 colored race being set down as illiterate it would 
 be much nearer the truth if ninety per cent were 
 to be so regarded. True, taking the figures as they 
 
234 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 stand, they represent a progress during the fifteen 
 years previous to 1880 which, under the circum- 
 stances, is absolutely incredible. During at least 
 one-third of that period there were practically no 
 public schools whatever in the South. During 
 the remainder of that time the average school- 
 period in the various States has been less than 
 one hundred days in a year. And the average 
 attendance of the colored children within school- 
 age, during even that limited period, has been 
 less than forty per cent of the whole of that class. 
 The only other opportunity which the race has 
 had for acquiring knowledge has been from a few 
 hundred private schools scattered here and there 
 through the various States, the aggregate attend- 
 ance at which has probably not at any one time 
 equaled one hundred thousand. The progress of 
 the colored race since the era of emancipation has 
 unquestionably been the most amazing that the 
 world has ever known. Considering the point at 
 which they started, the circumstances under which 
 they were situated, and the disadvantages which 
 surrounded them, there is no question that their 
 advancement in knowledge, in power, in wealth, 
 and in the mastery of the elements of civilization 
 has been unequaled by that of any race that his- 
 
A New Complication. 235 
 
 tory records ; but that so great a proportion as 
 thirty per cent should have become, in any just 
 sense of the term, able to read and write, with the 
 meager advantages which have been placed before 
 them, is an absolute impossibility. That even 
 fifteen per cent, or half of what is claimed, should 
 be able to read with ordinary facility the simplest 
 prose narrative, or to write ordinary English with 
 sufficient accuracy to make it reasonably compre- 
 hensible to another, would in itself constitute 
 almost a miracle. It is true, the tendency to pro- 
 fess greater knowledge than they have is one of 
 the encouraging features in the development of 
 the race, showing as it does not merely a pride in~^> 
 the fact of knowledge, but an appreciation of 
 the fact that knowledge is the chiefest inheritance 
 of the free men. So far, however, as it bears 
 upon the question of danger to be apprehended, 
 or harmony to be expected between the races 
 at the South, the actual illiteracy of the colored 
 people may safely be put at eighty-five or ninety 
 per cent of the whole. The road from ignorance 
 to knowledge is not one lightly to be passed over, 
 and half a generation is too short a period to show 
 such results as have been claimed from the mea- 
 ger instrumentalities that have been employed. 
 
236 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 The writer desires here to note the fact that he 
 has personal knowledge of several colored men 
 who had reached man's estate before emancipa- 
 tion, who have learned to read and write very 
 fairly without having attended school at all. One 
 of these, who has just completed the purchase of 
 a homestead through the author's co-operation, 
 conducted nearly all the correspondence in regard 
 to the business himself. His letters were by no 
 means faultless, but they were intelligible and very 
 sensible. Yet with all their anxiety to acquire 
 knowledge, there is no doubt that the census 
 reports as able to read and write not a few who 
 have no just right to be so classed. 
 
 The same is true, but in a less degree, of the 
 ignorant whites of the South. They have some- 
 thing of the same pride in a reputation for intel- 
 ligence, though far less inclination to acquire 
 knowledge. Upon this point the words of a 
 Democratic State Superintendent of Schools in 
 one of these States may well be noted. They are 
 a striking tribute to the elasticity of spirit and 
 determination to rise which the colored race has 
 manifested. 
 
 "Take the negro and put him along with that class of 
 whites who are on a level with him in intelligence and in 
 
A New Complication. 237 
 
 opportunities, and he is a great deal more interested in 
 the question of the education of his children than the 
 whites have been. 
 
 " I have seen negro children all over the State, here and 
 there, going to school in such garbs as the white children 
 would not appear in, and it was not because the parents 
 did not want to put them in a better condition, but be- 
 cause they were absolutely unable to do it. They would 
 have a long shirt on, reaching, perhaps, half way down the 
 legs, and nothing else, with a piece of ash-cake and 
 broiled bacon — not bacon, but pickled pork — for their 
 dinner. I account for it on this ground : the white peo- 
 ple who are without the privileges of education, and whose 
 children are not educated, and who are keeping their 
 children at home without education, have been so long 
 without the benefits and privileges of education that they 
 have reached a state of stupor which it is hard to get them 
 out of." 
 
 Even with a population entirely homogeneous, 
 without any distinction of race or caste to dis- 
 turb the public peace or social harmony, such 
 a predominance of ignorance as is found in these 
 States would be an element of the utmost danger 
 
 o 
 
 in any republic. In this case, however, we have a 
 mass of ignorance amounting to forty-five per 
 cent of the whole population over ten years old, 
 composed largely of negroes recently emancipated 
 from slavery, living under the traditions of inferi- 
 
25S An Appeal to Ctes 
 
 ar 
 
 ority, subject to all the aggravation and insult 
 which a race boastful of its superiority would 
 naturally offer. And side by side with this we 
 have a mass of ignorance just as dense, and far 
 more hopeless because the spur of ambition has 
 long since been blunted in their natures, — the ig- 
 norant whites of the South, amounting to twenty- 
 five per cent of the adult white population in 
 many of the States. 
 
 Between these two masses of ignorance the in- 
 nate hostility of race and caste exists with an in- 
 tensity that no Northern man can measure. They 
 are two great clouds upon the horizon of our 
 civilization, charged with electric forces, ready to 
 flash forth and destroy each other at any mo- 
 ment when some unfortunate occasion may bring 
 them into hostile collision. 
 
"Am I my Brother's 
 Keeper?" 
 
 " A LL this may be true enough of the South," 
 *** says the reluctant Northern man who has 
 long since made up his mind — as he says to him- 
 self, "once for all"" — that the state or condition 
 of the negro shall never again with his consent 
 become a factor in American politics. " All this," 
 he says, " may be true enough of the South, but 
 what have we of the North to do with it ? The 
 South is simply reaping the natural harvest of her 
 own neglect and crime. She would insist upon 
 
240 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 retaining slavery, and slavery, as you have shown, 
 brought ignorance, and that ignorance may now 
 bring peril ; but what interest have we in the 
 matter? How does it affect us, our personal re- 
 lations to the government, our duty to ourselves 
 or humanity?" 
 
 This objector represents a very large, intelligent, 
 and worthy portion of our Northern citizenship. 
 He is entirely sincere in the question which he 
 asks, and any objection which he makes is worthy 
 of serious consideration. While entertaining 
 nothing like positive hostility toward the white 
 people of the South, he does not pretend to deny 
 that he experiences a certain sort of satisfaction 
 in seeing the people who engaged in war in order 
 to maintain the institution of slavery smart a 
 little for their own fault. He is all the more will- 
 ing to entertain this feeling because he thinks he 
 recognizes a sort of poetical justice in the present 
 situation. That the freedman should be a source 
 of perplexity, annoyance, and expense, or even 
 danger, to the people of the South, seems to him 
 to be just what they deserve ; and as long as the 
 danger or annoyance is of a character not to shock 
 the sensibilities of the world, or to affect his own 
 relations to the government either as an indivi- 
 
"Am I My Brother s Keeper?" 241 
 
 dual or a citizen of a Northern State, he is very 
 loath to give the matter any special consideration. 
 
 There are certain specific reasons why even a 
 man of this class cannot afford to look with in- 
 difference upon the subject herein presented for 
 consideration. At the present we will specify but 
 one, to wit : 
 
 Because the States in which this mass of igno- 
 rance, averaging forty per cent or more of their 
 voters, is to be found represent seventy-six per cent 
 of a majority in the Electoral College, in the House 
 of Representatives, and i?i the Senate of the 
 United States. 
 
 This is a full and complete answer to the objec- 
 tion. No Northern man, no matter how selfish, 
 no matter how debased, his idea of political power 
 may be, dare permit three-fourths of the power 
 necessary to choose a President, and a like pro- 
 portion of a majority in each of our national 
 legislative bodies, to remain in the hands of con- 
 stituencies of whom practically one-half are un- 
 able to read their ballots, and consequently unable 
 to apprehend and perform aright the duties of the 
 citizen. But this fact only brings home to the 
 consciousness of the Northern man a still deeper 
 interest in the question we are considering. A 
 
242 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 vast proportion of this ignorance was given power 
 at his express instance, perhaps at his individual 
 demand and request. However that may be, the 
 fact that more than three-fourths of the colored 
 votersof the South are at the same time illiter- 
 ates puts upon every Northern man who has 
 actively or passively assisted in their emancipa- 
 tion and enfranchisement a responsibility for the 
 present and prospective state of affairs at the 
 South which, whether he desires it or not, must 
 not only bring the negro into national politics 
 again, but must render him a more potent and 
 important element of the same than ever before. 
 
 The assertion may seem a startling one, yet it 
 is none the less true. The condition of the 
 African as a slave was of far less importance to 
 the North than is his condition — his present and 
 
 future status — as a free man and a citizen. The 
 
 < 
 
 interest which the people of the North felt in the 
 question of slavery was purely theoretic and sym- 
 pathetic. So far as the material prosperity of a 
 citizen of Massachusetts was concerned, it mat- 
 tered not a whit whether there were four million 
 slaves or forty millions in '-he South. So far as 
 the prosperity of the country, the security of the 
 iiovernment, the collection of the revenues, the 
 
"Am I my Brother s Keeper V % 243 
 
 regulation of the tariff, and all other questions of 
 a national character were concerned, the negro as 
 a slave was a most insignificant factor. It is true 
 that by the terms of the Constitution the repre- 
 sentative power of the Slave States was increased 
 by three-fifths the number of slaves held therein. 
 This power, of course, was exercised by the mas- 
 ters and constituted the sole ground of objection 
 of a political character or affecting public inter- 
 est which any citizen of the North could make 
 against the institution of slavery. This power, 
 however, at no time seemed at all likely to seri- 
 ously affect the national interest or prosperity. 
 It is true that in the enactment of the Fugitive 
 Slave law it made itself disagreeably felt toward 
 the North ; but for this fact the North had only 
 itself to blame, since the power of the South — 
 even with the advantage derived from its 'ficti- 
 tious enumeration — was at no time so considera- 1 
 ble as to prove dangerous to Northern interests 
 or even to Northern sentiment. It was the pro- 
 slavery element of the North which made the 
 aggressions of slavery possible, whether in the 
 domination of the territories or the enactment of 
 the Fugitive Slave law. 
 
 Even in this view, however, the power of 
 
244 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 slavery would not have been felt at the North, 
 had it not been for the development of a senti- 
 ment which revolted at the injustice and in- 
 humanity of the institution. The North pitied 
 the slave because he was oppressed. The people 
 of the North were outraged when they were re- 
 quired by national law to assist in the return of 
 fugitives from labor, because they regarded the 
 state of slavery from which the fugitive had fled 
 as one of injustice and oppression. The slave 
 was a man forcibly deprived of a natural and in- 
 herent right, the right of self-control, of " life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Not from 
 any desert on his part, not because of any infrac- 
 tion of the laws of society, but simply because 
 another man desired to hold and enjoy the fruits 
 of his labor. Because of this theoretical interest 
 in the condition of the slave, the people of the 
 North grew, year by year, more and more op- 
 posed to the institution of slavery, and more and 
 more bitterly averse to its extension and perpetu- 
 ation. Then began that irrepressible conflict which 
 is not yet ended, and which cannot end until its 
 causes have been eradicated. This sympathy with 
 the colored man, however, was based apparently 
 and solely upon the condition of servitude in which 
 
"Am I my Brother's Keeper ?" 245 
 
 he was placed. Because he was a slave the heart 
 of the North went out toward him, extended its 
 hand in helpfulness, and made the earth vocal 
 with objurgations of the system which deprived 
 him of his rights. Slavery was the point of 
 attack ; the slave the focus of sympathy. The fact 
 that he was of another race was a mere incident. 
 It was thought to be insignificant. The North 
 had proved by its own experience that ten 
 thousand white men and one negro could live 
 peaceably together. That there should be any 
 question about a million white men and a million 
 negroes living side by side in peace never once 
 entered their consideration. They saw only the 
 fact of slavery. All of its concomitants were 
 ignored. Ignorance, poverty, race, color, and 
 even the effects of the previous condition of 
 servitude — all these were thrown to the winds. 
 By a stroke of the pen the attempt was made to 
 eradicate all differences, to put the old slave and 
 the former master upon the same level of right 
 and power, blot out the line between the races, 
 and secure at once in the South the peace and 
 prosperity which characterized the Northern com- 
 munities. By this course one result was obtained. 
 The negro became a political power: whether for 
 
246 An Appeal 10 Gcesar. 
 
 good or for evil must depend upon the method 
 of its exercise, or, perhaps, upon the fact of its 
 exercise at all. Instead of swelling the enumera- 
 tion upon which representation and the electoral 
 power are based by three-fifths of their number 
 only, every colored man now constitutes a full 
 governmental unit. And this unit of power must 
 either exercise the authority vested in him as one 
 of the governing body, not only of the State but 
 of the United States, — rightly or wrongly accord- 
 ing as he has knowledge, capacity, and patriot- 
 ism, — or he must fail to exercise that right be- 
 cause of negligence on his own part or fraud or 
 violence on the part of others. 
 
 Let us consider these three conditions: remem- 
 bering what has been shown hitherto in regard to 
 the influence of race-prejudice, and what has been 
 fully demonstrated by twenty years of experi- 
 ment, — that the colored race, in the main, acts 
 and will act by itself upon all political questions; 
 and that over against it stands, and will continue 
 to stand unless some solvent is found which shall 
 modify the feeling which exists, the great mass of 
 the white people of the South. Let us consider 
 first what reasonable prospect there is that the 
 mass of voters reared under the influences of 
 
"Am I my Brother s Keeper?" 247 
 
 slavery, or less than a generation removed there- 
 from — a mass whose illiteracy had been secured 
 by statute ; a race on whom none of the responsi- 
 bilities of government had rested ; who knew none 
 of the details of business or affairs ; who were ut- 
 terly impoverished because slavery had consumed 
 their earnings ; who had hitherto enjoyed none of 
 the rights of citizenship, not even the right to 
 marry or give in marriage, or to claim as their 
 own the sons and daughters that were born to 
 them — what prospect, what probability, what pos- 
 sibility was there which a reasonable human being 
 should consider for a moment that the individ- 
 uals of this mass could safely, properly, and wisely 
 exercise the power of the citizen in the shaping 
 and direction of domestic or national affairs? It 
 was impossible for any person to believe that 
 would be the case. No one did believe it. 
 
 Just three distinct influences operated upon the 
 minds of our national legislators and induced 
 them to attempt this great and terribje experi- 
 ment. First, they did not realize the fact that 
 slavery was anything more than a transitory, in- 
 cidental evil. They comprehended nothing of 
 the ignorance, the poverty, the ineptness of the 
 race which they endowed with power. The only 
 
248 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 question which they had been accustomed to dis- 
 cuss in the political arena bearing upon the per- 
 sonality of the negro was the question whether he 
 was a man of like power and instinct with the 
 white man. In the first hours of freedom he was 
 watched with anxious care to see whether the 
 dawning of intelligent power were visible or not. 
 They noted with exultation every indication of 
 intelligence, capacity, courage, vigor, fitness, that 
 might be developed, and, inferring from these in- 
 dications the ultimate fitness of the race for civili- 
 zation and self-government, forgot that a chasm of 
 unknown width lay between their former condi- 
 tion and that which they were capable ultimately 
 of attaining. 
 
 In the second place, the Republican Party, which 
 then wielded the power of government in all its 
 branches, was fearful that the Democratic Party of 
 the North, allying itself with the rebellious white 
 element of the South, might obtain the ascend- 
 ency in the government and undo all that had 
 been acomplished. This fear was not without 
 foundation. The long delay in determining what 
 should be done with the subjugated region, what 
 method of reconstruction or rehabilitation should 
 be adopted, had given time for the recovery from 
 
"Am I my Brother s Keeper ?" 249 
 
 the first feeling of subjugation and humiliation on 
 the part of the South. Anger had taken the 
 place of fear, and defiance was rapidly usurping 
 the feeling of complete submission which had ob- 
 tained with the Southern people immediately 
 upon the close of the war. Resistance to any 
 measure of reconstruction which contemplated 
 the elevation of the negro in the social or politi- 
 cal scale, beyond the mere fact of his freedom, 
 had become the prevailing sentiment of the 
 South. To this the Democratic Party of the 
 North yielded a cheerful assent, and the clamor- 
 ous hostility of the re-united factions of that 
 party, which had so long administered the govern- 
 ment in former times, certainly offered abundant 
 ground for apprehension that the party which had 
 put down rebellion and proposed to make the 
 slave a freedman might be swept out of power as 
 soon as the ballot should be restored to the hands 
 of the disaffected Southern race. For the pur- 
 pose of counteracting this influence and to estab- 
 lish a body of voters at the South whose actions 
 should neutralize that of the disaffected whites, 
 the Republican Party so shaped its reconstruc- 
 tionary measures as not only to make the colored 
 man a voter in the several States, but to assure to 
 
250 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 him, with a small proportion of the whites who 
 might act in conjunction with him, a dominant 
 majority in every State of the South. This was 
 not done, as the white people of the South sup- 
 posed, with any idea of affronting, humiliating, or 
 injuring them. The Northern legislator had no 
 adequate conception of their feeling toward the 
 negroes as a race, nor any desire to impose upon 
 them any unnecessary humiliation. Regarded 
 from the view of the partisan it was merely a 
 movement to prevent the development of the 
 opposition party by means of the power restored 
 to the disaffected element. It was only playing 
 the freed slave against the recent rebel. It was a 
 game by which the Republicans sought to beat 
 the Democratic Party wit'h its own weapons. The 
 South was clamoring for representation in the 
 government. Two or three schemes of short-hand 
 reconstruction had been devised and attempted to 
 be carried into operation by the Executive and 
 his Democratic friends in the National Legisla- 
 ture, for the purpose of giving to the white 
 people of the South again, without limitation or re- 
 striction, the same power in the administration of 
 the government which they had exercised before 
 the act of rebellion. The policy of the Republi- 
 
"Am I my Brother s Keeper?" 251 
 
 can Party, considered as a mere act of partisan- 
 ship, was to grant to the white people of the 
 South all or nearly all that they asked, but to 
 couple with it such conditions as should render it 
 powerless in their hands for the purpose for 
 which they chiefly desired to obtain it ; to wit, in 
 order that by co-operation with the Democratic 
 Party of the North they might thrust the Repub- 
 lican Party out of power and undo so far as possi- 
 ble all the legislation connected with and ren- 
 dered necessary by the events of the war. As to 
 what might be the ultimate result of the meas- 
 ures thus hastily concocted to thwart a threaten- 
 ing opposition, it is probable that but very few of 
 those who were responsible for its adoption paid 
 any very serious heed to their consideration. 
 Those who did were so imperfectly informed as 
 to the real state of affairs, so imperfectly compre- 
 hended the relations which centuries had estab- 
 lished between the races as well as between mas- 
 ter and slave, and had been so startled by the 
 swift development of the blacks during the few 
 months which followed the close of hostilities (a 
 fact very unexpected to the masses of the people 
 of the North, and consequently seeming to be 
 much more significant than it really was), that 
 
252 - An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 they were entirely blinded to the fact that no 
 possible development could in the short space of 
 a few years, a decade, or a generation obliterate 
 the growth of centuries. 
 
 As a third influence, it should be remembered 
 that two years had elapsed after the surrender of 
 the Confederate forces before any definite plan 
 of reconstruction had been agreed upon by the 
 legislative branch of the government and was 
 ready to be put in force. It was perhaps not 
 unreasonable that the people of the North and 
 of the South should begin to clamor at this 
 apparently unnecessary delay. The truth is that 
 the national legislators instinctively felt their 
 inability to cope with the subject. In fact their 
 eyes were still blinded by the glamour of battle. 
 Whatever social or political phenomena appeared 
 at the. South they attributed at once not to any 
 pre-existent causes, but to the war and its con- 
 sequences. In nothing has the fact that the 
 North and South really constituted two peoples, 
 ignorant of each other's characteristics to a re- 
 markable degree, been so apparent as in the 
 groping, hesitating blunders attending the legisla- 
 tion of this era. The representatives of both 
 parties were equally at fault. The Northern 
 
"Am I my Brother s Keeper?" 253 
 
 Democrat, receiving his inspiration entirely from 
 the Southern white man, blinded with the rage 
 of defeat, speaking only the language which 
 slavery had taught, was hardly further from the 
 truth than the Republican who attributed all the 
 phenomena which were developed, not to the 
 influence of years of development that went 
 before the war, but to the animosity engendered 
 by the struggle. To the Southern white man, 
 anything that looked toward the elevation of 
 the negro beyond the mere fact of his liberty, 
 — which as a rule he was willing to concede, — 
 any other civil or political right which it 
 was proposed to confer upon the recent slave, 
 seemed a direct assault upon the master himself. 
 Why the fact of liberty should give to the 
 colored man the right to testify against the 
 white man in courts of justice, he was utterly 
 unable to conceive. Why it should change the 
 rules of law which had been enforced, why it 
 should modify the presumptions which had borne 
 so hardly upon the colored man during the period 
 of slavery, why it should give him the right to 
 enter the jury-box, to hold the ballot, to pass 
 from place to place without the permission of 
 his employer, or to exercise any privilege which 
 
254 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 had not been granted during the period of 
 slavery to the free colored man of the South, the 
 Southern white man could not understand. Be- 
 cause he was unable to comprehend this neces- 
 sity or to see any reason or justice therein, all of 
 these measures seemed to him direct affronts in- 
 tended only to humiliate and degrade a defeated 
 foe. He never once imagined that in this matter 
 the North or the Republican Party was animated 
 by any feeling of justice or impelled by any logi- 
 cal necessity. He regarded the Republican Party 
 as founded not on any feeling of right or upon 
 any humane impulse, but as animated solely by a 
 sentiment of hatred for the white people of the 
 South. He believed that the war had been waged 
 entirely for the purpose of depriving him of his 
 right, and that all those measures which were 
 adopted at its close were designed merely as pun- 
 ishments to him for having attempted to resist 
 aggression and tyranny. Perhaps no people were 
 ever animated by a more universal sense of injus- 
 tice and oppression than the people of the South ; 
 high and low, rich and poor, almost all of the 
 white people of the South were possessed of this 
 idea. It was, of course, strengthened by every 
 act of legislation in favor of the colored man, 
 
"Am I my Brother s Keeper?" 255 
 
 From their standpoint only one of two motives 
 could inspire such legislation : either the people 
 of the North had an especial and peculiar fond- 
 ness for the colored people as a race, or they in- 
 dulged in a bitter and relentless hatred for the 
 white people of the South. They could conceive 
 of but two reasons why the North should be op- 
 posed to slavery or why the slaves should be made 
 free : the one was that the people of the North 
 were, so to speak, in love with the negro, and the 
 other that they were full of hateful envy at the 
 prosperity and ease which the South enjoyed. To 
 these sentiments acting conjointly upon the 
 Northern man they attributed the freedom of the 
 slave. The first they regarded as unmistakable 
 evidence of the hypocrisy of all " Northern aboli- 
 tionists," — which term included all those who 
 were in favor of extending freedom to the slave, 
 either before or after the war, and in an especial 
 sense embraced those who favored granting the 
 full powers and privileges of free men to the 
 emancipated slave. They realized very fully that 
 slavery did not touch the personal interest of any 
 resident of a free State. Whether Virginia had 
 slaves within its borders or not, to their view, 
 could not constitute any question of interest to 
 
256 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the people of Massachusetts, so that they regarded 
 the whole movement against* slavery at the North 
 as founded in malice, hatred, and envy. They be- 
 lieved that the mercenary sentiment of the North 
 was at the bottom of the entire movement. They 
 thought the Northern man who labored with his 
 hands was moved simply by a feeling of greed and 
 envy against the master who lorded it over a 
 hundred slaves that did his bidding while he en- 
 joyed luxury and ease. Of course the Republican 
 Party, which had come to represent the idea of 
 abolitionism in the minds of the South, was be- 
 lieved to be animated by the same motive. To 
 speak of hostility to slavery as inspired by a high 
 and noble sense of justice was to the Southern 
 man a mockery. He regarded it as simple hypoc- 
 risy. He called these men who claimed to be 
 animated by such motives " sniveling puritans." 
 The idea that they were impelled by any generous, 
 philanthropic, and disinterested motive was to him 
 a matter entirely beyond belief. It seemed too 
 utterly absurd and ridiculous to merit even re- 
 spectful consideration. How could an honest 
 Christian man with a white skin desire to take 
 the property of another white Christian in order 
 merely to gratify a negro? And if he did really 
 
'Am I my Brother s Keeper ?" 2 
 
 5/ 
 
 feel impelled by religious or philanthropic motives 
 to set the negro free, why should he not do two 
 things : first, compensate the master for the prop- 
 erty he took, and, secondly, remove the offensive 
 race from contact with those whom they had 
 formerly served and with whom there could never 
 be any affiliation or assimilation ? 
 
 Occupying this standpoint, the Southern man 
 was naturally and not unreasonably opposed to 
 anything that might be done which should in any 
 manner affect the relations of the races beyond, 
 as has been already stated, granting to the slave 
 the mere fact of liberty. This, it was generally 
 conceded, must be allowed. The hope was gen- 
 eral if not universal that in consideration of its 
 peaceful acknowledgment the government would 
 recognize the right of the master and offer com- 
 pensation for the property thus taken from his 
 hands as a logical result of war. This view was 
 the one adopted by the Northern Democracy, 
 and on it was based the clamor which finally im- 
 pelled the party in power to try the dubious ex- 
 periment which was at length agreed upon. 
 
 The defects of the .scheme were due quite as 
 much to the misapprehension of the real senti- 
 ment and feeling of the white people of the 
 
25S An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 South as to misconception of the real causes of 
 the phenomena developed by the fact of emanci- 
 pation. Instead of regarding the inherent differ- 
 ences of race and the long-established distinctions. 
 of caste as of prime importance in the matter of 
 restoring the subjugated territory to the relation 
 of constituent States, the Republican legislators 
 acted upon the hypothesis that the recent slave 
 within a generation at least would become a com- 
 petent, reliable, self-protecting citizen. In the 
 mean time they trusted much to the influences of 
 Northern immigration which they supposed would 
 pour into the South, just as it had overrun the 
 West. In addition to this, they accounted the 
 opposition and hostility of the white race merely 
 an incident of war which would soon pass away 
 with the ameliorating influences of trade and 
 prosperity. Misled by these considerations, they 
 shaped their legislation to cure a temporary evil 
 and not to uproot or eliminate a permanent cause 
 of discord or danger. It was supposed by its 
 originators that long ere this entire and absolute 
 harmony would be restored the colored man 
 would be in peaceful enjoyment of all the rights 
 of the citizen, and the white people of the South 
 would have established the most harmonious 
 
"Am I my Brother s Keeper?" 259 
 
 civil and political relations with their former 
 slaves. 
 
 The motives of these acts were entirely good, 
 and their machinery well enough adapted to the 
 purpose in view, had the evil been, as they appre- 
 hended it, a temporary one and not the result of 
 long-established causes. It has proved a failure 
 simply because it dealt only with the facts ap- 
 pearing on the surface and not with those which 
 underlay them and were more important — be- 
 cause enfranchisement without specific and ample 
 provision for the speedy enlightenment of those 
 upon whom the ballot is conferred is so absurdly 
 foolish as to be worthy of consideration only as a 
 farce, were it not that the element of tragedy lies 
 so near the surface as to forbid that we should 
 laugh. 
 
"Promote, as an ohjeet of Tori me. importance, 
 inslitit iions for th& genera. I diffusion of 
 Jcnowhdqe,. 'Wasninqfon '3 fa r€ me 11 Address. 
 
 w£*^M^ 
 
 Wisdom Becometh a King. 
 
 HTHE importance of general intelligence in a 
 ■*■ republic has always been conceded. All 
 the founders of our Republic, all the great minds 
 in philosophy and religion for the past hundred 
 years, have dwelt upon the advantages, not only 
 to the individual but to the commonwealth, of 
 intelligence in the citizen. All civilized nations 
 now admit the especial value of public education 
 as a national investment, rendering as it does, up 
 to a certain limit at least, every individual more 
 capable of productive effort than he otherwise 
 
Wisdom Be cometh a King. 261 
 
 would be. As a safeguard of free institutions, 
 also, it has always been regarded as of the utmost 
 importance ; but in no nation was it ever so over- 
 whelmingly important as in our own, and at no 
 period of our history of so grave interest as at 
 the present. Of course where suffrage is limited, 
 whether by a proprietary or an educational qualifi- 
 cation, or by almost any other reasonable and 
 natural method, the greater proportion of illiter- 
 acy is shut out from any effective power or influ- 
 ence upon the government. With us, however, 
 where in all except a few of the States the mere 
 fact of mature manhood is the sole test of bal- 
 lotorial right, the intelligence of the people be- 
 comes a matter of the most absorbing interest to 
 every one. Perhaps it may be well to consider 
 the opinions of a few of those most eminent in 
 our history, upon this subject. We give them 
 briefly, not because we deem them at all neces- 
 sary, but because it may be well for us to remem- 
 ber that even in the dawning of our Nation's life 
 those great men to whom we are wont to ascribe 
 almost supernal attributes looked forward to 
 ignorance, even without the complication of race 
 and caste, as one of the imminent dangers which 
 might threaten the Republic: 
 
262 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 " In proportion as the structure of a govern- 
 ment gives force to public opinion it is essential 
 that public opinion should be enlightened." — 
 Washington s Farewell Address. 
 
 " Knowledge is in every country the surest 
 basis of public happiness. In one in which the 
 measures of government receive their impressions 
 so immediately from the sense of the community 
 as in ours, it is proportionably essential." — Wash- 
 ington s First Inaugural Message. 
 
 " If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in 
 a state of civilization, it expects what never was 
 and never will be." — Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 Speaking of the continuance of the tariff on 
 imports, Jefferson said : " Patriotism would cer- 
 tainly prefer its continuance and application to 
 the great purposes of the public education, roads, 
 rivers, and canals." Again, calling attention to 
 the surplus revenue, he asked : " Shall it lie un- 
 productive in the public vaults ; shall the revenue 
 be reduced ; or shall it not rather be appropriated 
 to the improvement of roads, rivers, canals, edu- 
 cation, and other great foundations of prosperity 
 and union ?" 
 
 " A popular government without popular in- 
 formation or the means of acquiring it, is but the 
 
Wisdom Be cometh a King. 26 
 
 prologue to a farce or a tragedy — or perhaps to 
 both.^ — James Madison. 
 
 " The advancement of science and the diffusion 
 of information is the best element of true lib- 
 erty." — James Madison. 
 
 " Let us by all wise and constitutional meas- 
 ures promote intelligence among the people as 
 the best means of preserving our liberties." — 
 James Monroe. 
 
 These men were among the wisest of the foun- 
 ders of our Republic. Practically they knew 
 almost nothing of what we now term " free insti- 
 tutions." Not one of them had ever lived in a 
 State in which manhood constituted the sole 
 qualification of suffrage. They had no knowledge 
 of a popular government in which every man 
 should exercise a co-equal power with every other. 
 Probably not one of them even dreamed that such 
 a state of affairs would ever exist. If, with their 
 imperfect knowledge of what has now become an 
 universal fact in our government, they deemed 
 general intelligence, popular education, and the 
 enlightenment of the masses the most essential 
 prerequisite of free institutions, what would have 
 been their opinion of the danger likely to accrue 
 from universal suffrage without the concomitant 
 of universal intelligence? 
 
264 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 It ought not to require the opinions of these, or 
 any other wise men, to convince even the dullest 
 mind that the most essential prerequisite of good 
 government in a republic is the general intelli- 
 gence of its citizens. It ought to be as easy for 
 one to understand that an ignorant voter is a 
 dangerous element, as to perceive the truth of the 
 declaration that a king needs wisdom in order to 
 govern righteously. In truth, it is no figure of 
 speech that terms the American people a nation 
 of kings. On every brow is the invisible token 
 of imperial authority. We have no rulers : we 
 only choose our agents. We delegate our power, 
 but do not abrogate our sway thereby. " We 
 the people" are the words in which the fathers 
 declared the national will. More truly now than 
 then, " we the people" think, determine, act for 
 the American nation. Our nineteenth-century 
 Caesar is a myriad-minded unit. The voice of the 
 majority is the expression of the kingly will. 
 Fifty millions participate in our national councils. 
 Every hand that holds the ballot wields the baton 
 of authority. The lack of knowledge in the 
 voter is as fatal to the prosperity of the republic 
 as the folly of a king to the peace of his realm. 
 
 Upon this subject there come to us as it were 
 
Wisdom Be cometh a King. 265 
 
 the dying words of one whom the Nation has not 
 yet ceased to mourn ; the words of one who saw 
 and felt all that we have written, who dreaded 
 the long delay, the strife, the turmoil, perhaps 
 even the conflict that might intervene, but doubt- 
 ed not for an instant of the result. On the 
 most momentous occasion of his life, when he 
 spoke in greeting and encouragement, but with a 
 solemnity born perhaps of forecasted evil, James 
 A. Garfield left as an inheritance to the people 
 of the United States his deliberate and urgent 
 declaration that the first, greatest, and only safe- 
 guard of national power, prosperity, and glory in 
 a republic lay in the intelligence of the individual 
 voter. After his words, none others need be 
 uttered : 
 
 u But the danger which arises from ignorance in 
 the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field far 
 wider than that of negro suffrage and the present 
 condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks 
 and hides in the sources and fountains of power in 
 every State. We have no standard by which to 
 measure the disaster that may be brought upon 7cs 
 by ignorance and vice in the citizen when joined to 
 corruption and fraud in the suffrage. 
 
 " The voters of the Union zu/10 make and unmake 
 
266 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 constitutions, and upon zvlwsc zvill hang the destinies 
 of our governments, can transmit their supreme 
 authority to no successors save the coming genera- 
 tion of voters, who are the sole heirs of sovereign 
 power. If that generation comes to its ijiheritance 
 blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall 
 of the Republic zvill be certain and remediless. 
 
 " The Census has already sounded the alarm in 
 the appalling figures which mark how dangerously 
 high the tide of illiteracy has risen among our 
 voters and their children. 
 
 " To the South this question .is of supreme im- 
 portance : but the responsibility for the existence of 
 slavery did not rest upon the South alone. The 
 Nation itself is responsible for the extension of the 
 suffrage, and is under special obligations to aid in 
 removing the illiteracy which it has added to the 
 voting population. For the North and South alike 
 there is but one remedy." — Garfield's Inaugural 
 Address. 
 
Is Education a Specific? 
 
 "[ T may be admitted that the intelligence of 
 -*■ the masses is an essential of good govern- 
 ment in a republic, and yet it be honestly doubted 
 whether education is a remedy for the evils we 
 have depicted. We do not feel like saying with the 
 certainty of assured conviction that it is a specific 
 for all the woes likely to arise from the causes 
 that have been noted. We can only say that we 
 do not believe there is any other reasonable or 
 practicable means of sensibly alleviating, modify- 
 ing, or, it may be, entirely averting these evils. 
 
268 An Appeal to Ctesar. 
 
 We speak with something of hesitation in re- 
 gard to the efficacy of this remedy only because 
 the elements of the problem are so intricate and 
 terrible. If there were no factor of race antago- 
 nism, none of the terrible prejudice that centuries 
 of servitude engendered ; if on the part of the 
 one race there were not the feeling that it alone 
 had the right to rule, and on the part of the 
 other the dull, unspoken conviction that the col- 
 ored man has never received justice at the hands 
 of the whites, and perhaps never will ; if there 
 were only one race, no matter how far apart 
 classes or individuals might stand in the social 
 scale ; if only the impassable barrier of color did 
 not come between the discordant elements ; if 
 love and marriage might ever soften the asperities 
 that prevail ; if by any means or during any 
 conceivable period of time the two races might 
 become one — in that case, no matter how great 
 the discrepancy of thought or feeling, how wide 
 the gulf of rank or caste, how bitter the hostility 
 that may now exist, we should say without a 
 moment's hesitation that education, general in- 
 telligence, universal enlightenment, was not only 
 the sole remedy but would prove almost an instant 
 specific for the evils which now impend. Under 
 
Is Education a Specific? 269 
 
 -» 
 
 such circumstances it would only be necessary to 
 make the spelling-book the scepter of national 
 power until all classes clearly and distinctly ap- 
 preciated the fact that the individual interest of 
 each lay in the prosperity of all, to assure the 
 continuance of peace and the mutual recognition 
 of the rights of all. But alas ! those elements 
 which constitute the chief difficulties of the pro- 
 blem are of such a subtle and difficult character 
 that the most exhaustive knowledge and most 
 painstaking analysis of the existing forces of the 
 society with which we are dealing cannot justify 
 any positive forecast of the resultant effect of any 
 added element or specific influence. There are 
 some hypotheses the consideration of which may 
 enable us to arrive at more satisfactory conclu- 
 sions in regard to the probable effect of a thor- 
 ough enlightenment of the ignorant masses of 
 these States than we would be likely otherwise to 
 reach. The first of these is a proposition which 
 probably no man will deny, to wit : 
 
 I. — Intelligence is the chief est foe of prejudice. 
 
 The intelligent man is much less likely to be 
 influenced by an insufficient motive than the 
 ignorant one. He is more likely to act upon 
 what he knows than upon a mere unfounded 
 
270 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 belief which he has perhaps caught from a neigh- 
 bor who has no better reason for entertaining it 
 than himself. The intelligent man is more apt 
 to require a solid and substantial reason for his 
 action than an ignorant one, and also more likely 
 to be restrained in its manifestation by a knowl- 
 edge of ultimate results. 
 
 II. — This being the case, we may safely conclude 
 
 that if the percentage of illiterates among the 
 
 native zvhite people of the South had been for 
 
 the past Jmndred years what it is among the 
 
 whites of the North, instead of being more 
 
 than five times as great, there would be very 
 
 much less reason for appreheyision on account 
 
 of the prejudice of race than there now is. 
 
 Although this sentiment may be as strong or 
 
 even stronger among the more intelligent of the 
 
 white people of that section, it cannot be doubted 
 
 that if the same general intelligence had prevailed 
 
 among the masses of the South as at the North, 
 
 Slavery would have been peacefully eradicated 
 
 and the lesson of tolerant coexistence taught to 
 
 both races long before now. 
 
 III. — If 'ninety-five per cent of the freedmen at the 
 date of their emancipation had been able to 
 read and write with the facility and accuracy 
 
Is Education a Specific? 271 
 
 possessed by the like proportion of natives of 
 the Northern States, the history of the South 
 since the close of the war would not have bee?i 
 one continued story of violence, humiliation, 
 and shame. 
 It is only by such a violent hypothesis as this 
 that we are able to realize what a wonderful 
 change in the situation of affairs might be accom- 
 plished by the general . enlightenment of the 
 masses of the South. There is no doubt that all 
 the failure, shame, and humiliation of the past 
 twenty years of reconstructionary growth has 
 been, in the main, the fruit of ignorance. Had 
 the same ratio of intelligence which prevails at 
 the North extended also to the people of the 
 South ; had the colored man been able to master 
 his political duty, to understand and perform the 
 functions of citizenship, to detect fraud, and in- 
 telligently and wisely to combine in his own de- 
 fense, such terms as " Ku-Klux," " Bull-Dozer," 
 " Rifle-Clubs," " Shotgun Policy," and " Tissue 
 Ballots" would never have disgraced the Ameri- 
 can vocabulary. Had the vast body of igno- 
 rant whites been so enlightened as to be able 
 to comprehend the circumstances in which they 
 were placed, the new relations which they must 
 
272 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 assume toward the freedmen, the responsibilities 
 for the peaceful future that rested upon them — 
 had they been accessible to reason and informa- 
 tion upon these subjects, one of the chief im- 
 pulses to violence, and perhaps the most potent 
 evil force which threatens the future of that 
 region, would have been obliterated. It was of 
 course an impossibility that such a state of affairs 
 should have existed. Slavery would long ago 
 have been blotted from our soil if the slave had 
 been made intelligent or the non-slave-holding 
 whites of the South had been brought to the same 
 average of intelligence as like classes at the North. 
 The one great essential for the perpetuation of 
 slavery was ignorance. Intelligence and servitude 
 cannot co-exist : light and darkness are not less 
 antagonistic. 
 
 IV. — Intelligence is essential to develop the restrain- 
 ing influences of religious teachi?ig. 
 The relations of Christianity to Slavery are 
 among the most curious facts of history. It is 
 unquestionable that until the discovery of Amer- 
 ica the Christian religion had been one that 
 tended to liberty and equality. Among the early 
 Christians it had been the universal solvent of the 
 bondman's shackles. No believer was allowed 
 
Is Education a Specific ? 273 
 
 to hold another believer in bondage. When the 
 era of awakening came after the long slumber of 
 the Middle Ages, one of the greatest of the incen- 
 tives to discovery was the conquest of new 
 realms and the conversion of other races to the 
 faith of the Church. In return for this material 
 recognition of her authority, the Church granted 
 its blessing and gave " the heathen for an inheri- 
 tance" with lavish profusion to kings and queens, 
 navigators, adventurers, and whosoever promised 
 to extend her power or increase her wealth. 
 Servitude was imposed upon these subjugated 
 heathen as a punishment for unbelief, and per- 
 haps in some cases as an inducement for them to 
 espouse, in the loose and merely formal manner 
 of that day, the tenets of Christianity. From 
 this custom undoubtedly sprung the Christian 
 slavery of the New World. The heathen were 
 enslaved under the shallow pretense of Christian- 
 izing and civilizing them thereby. There is a 
 chapter of our history bearing on this subject 
 which is of peculiar interest, showing as it does 
 in very sharp relief the relations between Slavery 
 and Intelligence, and Christianity and Bondage, 
 in this country. 
 
 It is a fact not generally known that, at the 
 
274 An Appeal to C<e 
 
 sar 
 
 time of the introduction of slavery into the colo- 
 nies, the idea was widely prevalent in the Anglican 
 Church, as well as among the leading sects of dis- 
 senters, that while it was no sin to enslave an 
 unbeliever, it was contrary to the teachings of 
 Christianity to hold a brother-Christian in bond- 
 age. In 1696 this question was brought before 
 the Court of King's Bench (Chamberlain v. Her- 
 vey, 5 Modern Reports); and though the case 
 went off on a decision as to the form of the ac- 
 tion, so that there was no decision upon the 
 merits, yet the grounds on which it was argued by 
 counsel give the general belief of that day, and 
 the reasons therefor. " Being baptized accord- 
 ing to the use of the Church," argued the coun- 
 sel, " the slave is thereby made a Christian, 
 and Christianity is inconsistent with slavery. 
 When the popish religion was first established 
 [in England], as appears by Littleton, if a villein 
 entered into religion, and was professed, as they 
 called it, the lord could not seize him ; and the 
 reason there given is because he was dead in 
 the law, and if the lord might take him out of 
 his cloister, then he could not live according to 
 his religion. The like reason may now be given. 
 Baptism having been incorporated into the laws 
 
Is Education a Specific? 
 
 /o 
 
 of the land, if the duties which arise thereby can- 
 not be performed in a state of servitude, the bap- 
 tism must be a manumission. That such duties 
 cannot be performed is plain, for the persons bap- 
 tized are enjoined by several acts of Parliament 
 to come to church. But if the lord hath abso- 
 lute control over him, then he might send him far 
 enough from those duties." He instances also 
 the fact that " the Turks do not make slaves of 
 those of their own religion; and if a Christian be 
 taken captive in war, yet if he renounce Christian- 
 ity and turn Mahometan, he doth thereby obtain his 
 freedom." 
 
 This curious argument is given both because 
 of the quaint logic which underlies it, and as a 
 fair statement of the view of Christian duty 
 which even at that early day for a time bade fair 
 to strangle slavery in its incipiency. Looking 
 back upon its history now, it would seem almost 
 impossible that there should be an American 
 Christian who does not feel a pang of regret that 
 this humane and righteous view did not then uni- 
 versally prevail, l^ot only the blood and sorrow 
 which the nation has already known, but the 
 danger that now impends would then have been 
 unknown, — they might even have appeared to this 
 
276 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 generation as things impossible to have happened 
 under any circumstances. 
 
 On the contrary, it was at once declared by 
 statutory enactment in the various colonies that 
 this view of Christianity was unauthorized, incor- 
 rect, and unlawful. 
 
 A law of Maryland adopted in 1692, according 
 to the " Plantation Laws" published in London 
 in 1705, provided as follows: 
 
 " When any negro or slave, being in bondage, 
 shall become a Christian and receive the sacra- 
 ment of baptism, the same shall not nor ought 
 to be deemed, adjudged, or construed to be a 
 manumission or freeing of any such negro or 
 slave or his or her issue from their servitude or 
 bondage, but they shall hereafter at all times re- 
 main in servitude and bondage as before their 
 baptism, any opinion or matter to the contrary 
 notwithstanding/' 
 
 Virginia in 1705 passed a law of similar char- 
 acter, as follows : 
 
 " It is hereby enacted and declared that the 
 baptism of slaves does not exempt them from 
 bondage." 
 
 South Carolina in 1712 enacted and declared a 
 law to the same effect, but most curiously 
 
Is Education a Specific? 277 
 
 worded, making it " lawful for a negro or Indian 
 slave, or any other slave, to receive and profess 
 the Christian faith and to be therein baptized," 
 and providing that thereby no slave shall be 
 deemed to be manumitted. 
 
 Despite these enactments there still remained, 
 especially in the mother-country, a very strong 
 sentiment in the minds of leading churchmen, 
 not only against slavery in the abstract, but espe- 
 cially in opposition to it as a repressive influence 
 upon intelligence and genuine Christian liberty. 
 Archbishop Seeker, in 1741, recommended "the 
 employment of young negroes, prudently chosen, 
 to teach" among the slaves. In 1744 Dr. Bear- 
 croft, in an address before the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 
 speaking of what the society had done since its 
 previous session, said : 
 
 " The society have lately fallen upon a happy 
 expedient by the purchase of two young negroes, 
 whom they have qualified, by a thorough instruc- 
 tion in the principles of Christianity and by teach- 
 ing them to read well, to become schoolmasters 
 to their fellow-negroes. The project is but of 
 yesterday, but one school is actually opened at 
 Charles Town in South Carolina, which hath 
 
278 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 more than sixty young negroes under instruction 
 and will annually send out between thirty and 
 forty of them well instructed in religion and 
 capable of reading their Bibles, who may carry 
 home and diffuse the same knowledge which 
 they shall have been taught among their poor 
 relations and fellow-slaves. And in time schools 
 will be opened in other places and in other colo- 
 nies to teach them to believe in the Son of God 
 who shall make them free." 
 
 Hardly any more pathetic picture can be pre- 
 sented to the minds of the thoughtful Christian 
 of to-day than this quaint and humble effort to 
 spread Christianity and intelligence at the same 
 time among the slaves of the United States. 
 How curious it seems to think that this little 
 company of god-fearing men met in the Capital 
 of Great Britain, seeking not only to extend the 
 knowledge of religion but all the beneficent in- 
 fluences which attend true liberty, purchasing as 
 one of their instrumentalities two young slaves, 
 teaching those slaves not only the principles of 
 religion but the rudiments of an English educa- 
 tion, and sending them forth among the slaves 
 upon the plantations of the South in order that 
 their friends and fellow-bondmen might learn 
 
Is Education a Specific? 279 
 
 from them the knowledge which maketh free ! 
 How terrible is the contrast between this effort 
 to lift up the down-trodden and the oppressed, 
 and those fearful laws which a century afterward, 
 in the glare of Christian light, in the middle of the 
 nineteenth century, were placed upon the statute- 
 books of these States ! We need quote but one 
 of them, the statute of the proudest of the subor- 
 dinate republics whose future we are considering, 
 and the very one in which this early Christianiz- 
 ing effort was planted — South Carolina. This is 
 the language of her law in 1834 : 
 
 " If any person shall hereafter teach any slave 
 to read or write, or cause or procure any slave to 
 be taught to read or write, such person, if a free 
 white person, shall be fined not exceeding one 
 hundred dollars for each offense and imprison- 
 ment not less than six months; or, if a free per- 
 son of color, shall be whipped not exceeding 
 fifty lashes and fined not exceeding fifty dol- 
 lars ; and if a slave, to be whipped at the dis- 
 cretion of the court not exceeding fifty lashes ; 
 the informer to be entitled to one-half the fine, 
 and to be a competent witness. And if any free 
 person of color or slave shall keep any school or 
 other place of instruction for teaching any slave 
 
2 So An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 or free person of color, he shall be liable to the 
 same penalties prescribed by this act on free per- 
 sons of color and slaves for teaching slaves to 
 write." 
 
 How .terrible in the light of to-day are the 
 words of this barbarous statute ! It was not sin- 
 gular in its refinement of cruelty. In every 
 Southern State its equivalent was enacted. Our 
 nineteenth- century Christianity denied to the 
 slaves who thirsted for its sweets the knowl- 
 edge which the Christians of an earlier day 
 had sought with humble zeal to induce them to 
 receive. 
 
 We know what followed. The statute was 
 blotted out with blood. Suffering and woe fol- 
 lowed in the path of oppression. Even now a 
 fruit of peril impends which has its root in the 
 great wrong; done not to the slave alone but to 
 humanity. Time avenges wrongs which men 
 forget. The cramped intelligence of the former 
 slave and the distorted instincts of the former 
 masters are the instrumentalities by which repa- 
 ration for the past will be ultimately enforced 
 should the Nation refuse to note the signs of peril 
 in its path. 
 
 Who that looks back upon these strange relics 
 
Is Education a Specific? 281 
 
 of the past can restrain a wish that the earlier 
 Christian sentiment had prevailed over its subse- 
 quent statutory form ? The common law that 
 obtains in the forum of conscience is very rarely 
 amended with advantage, whether by creed or 
 statute. We speak of the past as dead. Fortu- 
 nately or unfortunately, as the case may be, it 
 cannot die. Time's eternal repetend of Yester- 
 day, To-day, and To-morrow can never be broken. 
 To-day is as Yesterday made it, and To-morrow 
 will be shaped by To-day. It may be that the 
 work of the purchased colporteurs — the two 
 young slaves whose task was to bear not only 
 God's Word but the seeds of knowledge also to 
 their fellow-bondmen — it may be that this work, 
 however widely extended and carefully nurtured, 
 might have proved insufficient to avert the storm 
 of war that burst upon our Yesterday. It may 
 be that the tender Christian spirit that deemed it 
 sin to hold a believer in bondage, even if it had 
 become universal, would not have sufficed to knit 
 the races in such close affiliation as to render our 
 To-morrow bright and peaceful. Yet it would 
 seem hardly possible that any one who looks 
 backward through the lurid glare of a recent past 
 to that early day when two antipodal ideas strug- 
 
282 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 gled for the direction of a people's destiny could 
 do otherwise than wish that the earlier Christi- 
 anity had overpowered and made impossible the 
 later. It was the excuse and justification which 
 slavery most boastingly flaunted in the faces of 
 its Christian opponents that it had done more 
 than all other agencies to Christianize the earth. 
 While other forces numbered their converts by 
 the score, it counted its redeemed heathen by the 
 million. It claimed pre-eminence as a wholesale 
 religious agency, and pointed with exultation to 
 the boisterous devotion of its dusky converts. 
 Ah, well might it have been for us to-day if the 
 idea of the elder days had prevailed and along 
 with the belief in Christian truth we had given, to 
 the heathen we had transplanted to our shores, 
 that knowledge which we count the first essential 
 of our own belief ! 
 
 We cannot tell all its probable effect ; but there 
 can hardly be one honest heart who can for a 
 moment doubt that general intelligence of the 
 masses would have greatly lessened, even if it 
 had not entirely averted, the evil, the shame and 
 humiliation of the recent years. 
 
 But it may be said that, even admitting this, it 
 does not prove that the work of education, so 
 
Is Education a Specific ? 283 
 
 long neglected, now begun, would avert or even 
 greatly alleviate the dangers which threaten. It 
 is by no means certain that, because two races 
 might have been so shaped and molded by the 
 influences of centuries as to dwell together there- 
 after in harmony, they can, when those influences 
 have been antagonistic, be suddenly lifted to a 
 plane of equality and by the mere fact of intelli- 
 gence be restrained from harmful demonstrations 
 toward each other. All this is very true ; and all 
 the more pitiful it is to know that, when time in 
 the procession of events has shown the evil and 
 pointed out what might have constituted a pre- 
 ventive thereof, we are never sure that the once 
 possible preventive may constitute an actual cure. 
 Remedies for human ills act slowly. Causes that 
 shape humanity must have much time to act. 
 No man is changed in the twinkling of an eye. 
 The time between the cradle and the grave is too 
 short for the reconstruction of a human soul. 
 As men are born, in most essentials so they die. 
 Little by little change may come. The father 
 lifts the son upon his shoulders and starts him in 
 the race of life upon the level of his own highest 
 growth. Generations must come and go before 
 fixed attributes can be changed. The spots of 
 
284. An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the leopard are hardly more ineradicable than 
 types of character. The Southern man, black 
 or white, is not likely to be greatly different 
 to-morrow from what he was yesterday. Gen- 
 erations may modify ; years can only restrain. 
 The question is not whether education, begun to- 
 day and carried on however vigorously and suc- 
 cessfully by the most approved agencies, would 
 change the characteristics of to-day's masses. 
 Not at all. The question is whether it woJld so 
 act upon them as they are, would so enlighten 
 and inform their minds, as to convince them of 
 the mutual danger, peril, disaster, that must at- 
 tend continued oppression or sudden uprising. 
 We cannot expect to make intelligence instantly 
 effective in the elevation of individual citizenship 
 or the exercise of collective power. Little by 
 little that change must come. 
 
 The question for us to decide is whether it 
 will ever come at all except through the chan- 
 nel of universal intelligence ; and whether the 
 power of enlightenment can at once be so ap- 
 plied and exercise such an influence upon the 
 characteristics of classes and individuals as to 
 make it a positive force and a probably effective 
 one in the mitigation of evils which seem to 
 
Is Education a Specific? 285 
 
 promise disaster. There may be some who 
 doubt the efficacy of this course ; but there 
 can hardly be one who does not believe that 
 something needs to be done, and to be done 
 very quickly, in regard to this most important 
 subject. It may not be possible to avert all evil, 
 but no effort should be spared to lessen it as 
 much as we may. 
 
A Pharmacopoeia. 
 
 "O UT are there any other remedies which give 
 ■^ promise of a cure? If there are, it is need- 
 less to urge so mild and inglorious a specific. 
 Mankind is not inclined to adopt quiet, peaceful 
 remedies. The spelling-book has none of the 
 charm that attends the glitter of the bayonet. 
 Humanity prefers always the scalpel rather than 
 the poultice. It would rather shed blood than 
 furnish food. It relishes better the scourging of 
 evil than the curing of disease. It gloats upon 
 the gallows and the jail, but groans beneath the 
 
A Phar??iacopceia. 287 
 
 burden of the hospital and is a natural enemy of 
 disinfection. As between a school-house and a 
 fortress, a people is always prone to choose the 
 garrison. 
 
 The War of Rebellion cost the North alone fif- 
 teen million dollars a week. It cost the Confede- 
 rates, counting in the results, not less than twenty 
 millions a week! Either of these weekly sums 
 would be sufficient, by supplementing the volun- 
 tary exertions of individuals and communities, to 
 establish and maintain an efficient system of in- 
 struction which would put the means of intelli- 
 gence before every illiterate in the South for a 
 year. In other worlds, a week of war costs more 
 than a year of education. Yet if the end could 
 be achieved by war, it is probable that a majority 
 of all classes would prefer the sword to the spell- 
 ing-book. It is so much easier to let events flow 
 along in their own uninterrupted course until they 
 overwhelm the obstacles and " all the world is in 
 a sea." We have no word of commendation for 
 the patience which unties a Gordian knot : but the 
 impetuous soul that cuts it with the sword is 
 dubbed a hero. 
 
 Many remedies have been suggested for the ills 
 above depicted. Some have been already con- 
 
288 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 sidered. The elements of others have been so 
 thoroughly analyzed that they need no further 
 discussion. We name the chief ones here in order 
 that no reader may suppose that we have forgot- 
 ten or purposely omitted any. The following list 
 may not embrace all that have been devised, but 
 it contains at least the chief reasons that have 
 been set up for avoiding at the same time a plain 
 duty and a manifest danger. 
 
 I. — The first vf these is to deprive the illiter- 
 ate voters of the right of suffrage in these 
 States. 
 There are two objections to this. First, it can- 
 not be done by honest means. No population 
 can be found that, having once exercised power 
 or had the legal right to do so, will disfranchise 
 from forty five to fifty-seven percent of itself, at 
 a fair and free election. Second, there is the fur- 
 ther objection that this would not cure the evil 
 at all, but would only put it off until like a darnmed- 
 up river it overflowed the obstructions and be- 
 came more unmanageable than before. 
 II.— It has been proposed to remove the negroes to 
 Africa a?id colonize them there. 
 It is the old Colonization Society scheme, which 
 was invented to flank the Abolitionists on the one 
 
A Pharmacopoeia. 289 
 
 hand and the slave holders on the other. It lacks 
 the element of feasibility. The negroes are not 
 inclined to go, and no one has the right to compel 
 them to emigrate. As a colored man has pithily 
 written : * " The black people of this country are 
 Americans, not Africans ; and any wholesale ex- 
 patriation of them is impossible." It has another 
 element which stamps it as impracticable. Sixty 
 years ago Henry Clay estimated that it would cost 
 one hundred dollars apiece to take the blacks 
 from the plantation to the west coast of Africa. 
 (That was the cheapest the society could do it, at 
 least.) To take them there, secure them from 
 starvation a year, or give them a fair show for 
 life, would cost at least two hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars each. So the moving of them alone, if they 
 were willing to go, would cost more than Six 
 Hundred Millions of Dollars — enough to educate 
 thoroughly tJiree generations during their entire 
 school-ages ! 
 
 III. — // has been suggested that some specific West- 
 ern territory be set apart for the blacks, a?id 
 held sacred to their use and behoof. 
 
 * T. Thomas Fortune, Editor of the New York Globe, in his 
 recent book, " Black and White : Land, Labor, and Politics in 
 the South" Fords, Howard, & Hulbert. New York. 
 
290 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 Objections: (1) We have no such territory. 
 (2) If we had, it would require a soldier for 
 every ten rods of boundary, to keep the blacks in 
 and the whites out. (3) It cost six million dol- 
 lars to move a few thousand Seminoles from 
 Florida across the Mississippi, — and half of them 
 were left behind at that. The colored people 
 could no more be uprooted from the States we 
 have named than the mountains can be moved 
 from their bases. 
 
 IV. — The same ideas have been advanced both as to 
 volmitary and compulsory emigration to the 
 island of Cuba or the territory of Mexico, 
 and the acquisition of one or both urged on 
 that account. 
 The same objections prevail against this notion 
 as against all others based on the voluntary or en- 
 forced migration of the negro, with the added 
 probability of an increased migration of whites to 
 the newly acquired territory and a possible influx 
 of blacks therefrom. 
 
 V. — It is still proposed to split up the white and 
 black voters of the South into two parties each 
 of which shall have about the same proportion 
 of voters of each race working together in 
 peaceful accord to secure or defeat some mea- 
 
A Pharmacopoeia. 291 
 
 sure dear to the hearts of each. Just now 
 this measure is said to be a protective tar- 
 
 iff- 
 The idea is as reasonable as an attempt to cut 
 a diamond with glass or to batter down Gibraltar 
 with green peas. The sentiment that produces 
 the separation of the races and their crystalliza- 
 tion into distinct bodies is stronger than any- 
 other sentiment that can animate humanity ex- 
 cept the religious. 
 
 VI. — // is believed by many that this very fact of 
 identity of religious belief will so act upon the 
 minds and consciences of both races as to pre- 
 vent any serious encroachment upon the rights 
 of either ; that it will gradually tend to 
 ameliorate the se?itimeuts of each tozuard the 
 other until peace and harmony and entire re- 
 spect for each otJiers rights shall prevail. 
 Fanaticism is unquestionably the most potent 
 influence that can affect humanity. As a rule it 
 may be said that community of belief obliterates 
 all differences. In order to have this effect, how- 
 ever, such community of belief must be accom- 
 panied by habitual association in religious acts 
 and observances, and among Christians it is fur- 
 ther limited' by the distinctions of sect. While 
 
292 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 Christianity is especially noted as a religion incul- 
 cating the broadest charity toward all men, it is, 
 perhaps for that very reason, the least affected by 
 that narrower and more intense devotion that in 
 other cases makes fanaticism the ready solvent of 
 all other sentiments and antipathies. With 
 Christians, in order to awaken this feeling of in- 
 tense and active confraternity which shall make 
 each and every believer the stanch and active 
 champion and guardian of the other's rights, it is 
 necessary that the common faith should be at- 
 tacked by an extraneous force. If Christianity 
 were in peril from some external force which made 
 war upon Christians as such, the whites and blacks 
 of the South would no doubt stand shoulder to 
 shoulder in its defense. Without this we have 
 seen that the mere profession of a common faith 
 is insufficient to overcome or modify the preju- 
 dice of race and, under existing circumstances, 
 tends rather to their isolation than their peace- 
 ful and harmonious union. 
 VII. — Immigration. — All possible phases of this 
 
 remedy have been considered. 
 VIII.— The stimulation of the white and the neg- 
 lect of the colored race in these States. 
 It is believed by some who have given the 
 
A Pharmacopoeia. 293 
 
 situation much study that the true remedy for 
 the apprehended evil is, not to encourage or 
 stimulate the colored man, but to leave him 
 where he is, to struggle slowly and tediously up- 
 ward to the fullness of liberty. It is claimed 
 that only in this manner can he hope to develop 
 in time into an efficient and reliable factor of our 
 national life. It is argued by those who accept 
 this theory that the supremacy of the white race 
 during this transition-period through which the 
 black must pass may be maintained by promot- 
 ing new industries and developing new lines of 
 activity which shall be open only to the whites. 
 It is not claimed that this theory offers an 
 actual remedy, but only that it suggests a 
 method for maintaining the existing status of 
 affairs for an indefinite period. It is a favorite 
 idea with certain classes of Southern speculators. 
 It has certain defects which seem to us insur- 
 mountable: (1) The masses of the Southern 
 whites are not so easily stimulated by new oppor- 
 tunities for labor. (2) The colored man will out- 
 work and underwork the Southern white man in 
 new fields of manual labor as well as in the old 
 ones. (3) It is not easy to " boycott" the great- 
 er moiety of the laborers of a community. (4) 
 
294 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 Capital will incline to the employment of the 
 cheapest labor. 
 
 IX. — The remedy most generally favored by the 
 Southern whites is embraced in the oft-re- 
 peated assertion that the white people of 
 those States " intend to keep the niggers in 
 their place." 
 This simply means the exercise of so much 
 force as may be necessary, legally or illegally, to 
 keep the colored man from asserting his power as 
 a political entity. It is a good enough remedy 
 from the standpoint of the dominant race as 
 long as the power remains to carry it into effect. 
 It is based on the principle of fastening down the 
 safety-valve and increasing the head of steam. 
 It works all right until the crisis comes. Until 
 the explosion actually takes place there is 
 nothing in the working of the machinery to 
 indicate unusual peril. After the explosion the 
 world wonders at the reckless folly which could 
 trifle with forces that only become dangerous 
 because they are pent within too narrow bounds. 
 A modification of this theory is that idea which 
 so largely prevails throughout the South, — arising 
 no doubt from the unexpected success which 
 attended the Ku-Klux revolution, — that the ter- 
 
A Pharmacopceia. 295 
 
 ror of annihilation, aroused by the show of force, 
 is sufficient to restrain for an indefinite period 
 any possible numerical majority of the colored 
 race. Those who entertain this theory believe 
 that " an example" now and then is all that is 
 necessary to keep the colored people in their 
 present relation of semi-subjection to the domi- 
 nant race. 
 
 " It don't need much to keep them all right," 
 was the reply which a Southern planter gave to 
 an inquiry as to what would be the outcome of 
 the present situation. " The railroads and the 
 telegraphs and the newspapers do the greater 
 part of it. If the niggers get a little too sassy in 
 a Mississippi or Virginia town so that the white 
 people cannot well stand it any longer, all we 
 have to do is to stir up a little row, rub a few of 
 them out, and then see that the news of it is well 
 circulated among the rest of them. It seems 
 queer, but I have no sort of doubt but that little 
 trouble up at Danville saved us perhaps a hundred 
 more such, up and down the country. All we 
 had to do was just to read an account of that to 
 the niggers and give them to understand that it 
 was just what would happen here if they didn't 
 behave. That settled it. Of course there will 
 
296 A?i Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 have to be more or less of this thing, from time 
 to time, and it is just possible that the time may 
 come when it cannot be kept up any longer. If 
 it does, I don't see what else we can do only just 
 kill a few thousand or a million of them — as 
 many as is necessary in order to keep them 
 straight, so that we can get along with them and 
 have peace and prosperity and good government 
 in the States." 
 
 This was a frank and honest statement of an 
 honorable man who is very far from entertaining 
 any personal antipathy against the colored race, 
 and who is entirely incapable of anything like 
 unnecessary brutality. He sees and acknowl- 
 edges to himself the inherent antagonism of the 
 races. He knows the futility of the thousand and 
 one speculative remedies which mere theorists 
 have put forth, but does not at all believe in the 
 capacity of the colored man at any time to dis- 
 charge the responsibilities and duties of a self- 
 directing political factor. He believes that the 
 whites have the sole right to rule ; that they must 
 rule and will rule, without regard to the senti- 
 ments or wishes of the colored people, whether 
 they constitute a majority or not. As between 
 different factions of white men he acknowledges 
 
A Pharmacopoeia. 297 
 
 the rule of the majority with the utmost readi- 
 ness ; but whenever the colored man constitutes 
 any considerable element of what he is asked to 
 recognize as a majority, he refuses to admit the 
 binding force of the obligation, and feels perfectly 
 justified in preventing such a result by any 
 means, lawful or unlawful, within his power. He 
 is the representative of by far the larger class 
 among the whites of the South. An honest, 
 sturdy, resolute man, to whom the maintenance 
 of what he deems good government (that is, a 
 government entirely controlled by those who 
 agree with him in regard to the relations, duties, 
 and legitimate privileges of the colored race) is 
 an object of prime importance. He is a good 
 citizen according to what he esteems the duties 
 of the citizen. He is a law-abiding man, just so 
 far as he believes the law has a right to control 
 and direct his action. Whenever he conceives 
 the law to be defective or insufficient, he does 
 not hesitate for a moment to supplement it with 
 his own sense of justice and his own ideas of 
 what the public weal demands. The great objec- 
 tion to this theory is that no one can determine 
 exactly how much terrorism, fraud, or violence 
 may be requisite to maintain the domination of 
 
298 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the white race or to prevent the colored race 
 from attempting to assert in similar unlawful 
 methods their ideas of justice and right. This 
 doctrine is likely at any time to become not only 
 a very costly but a very troublesome remedy. A 
 government which for any considerable time 
 winks at the subversion of law and permits the 
 rights of any class to be ignored by another is 
 destined, sooner or later, to pay very dearly for 
 its weakness. That " species of wild justice" 
 which has been so often urged in excuse of acts 
 of violence committed upon the colored race of 
 the South, or inflicted upon those associated with 
 them in political conviction, may sometimes 
 justify its name, but is far more likely to prove 
 a subversion of all justice and a species of oppres- 
 sion that is all the more dangerous because of 
 the sincerity of purpose of those engaged in it. 
 
 The objections to this idea naturally shape 
 themselves into two inquiries: (1) Is it any rem- 
 edy at all for the disease, or is it merely repres- 
 sive in its character, serving only to hold the evil 
 in abeyance for a time and rendering it all the 
 more terrible when it shall finally break its bonds? 
 (2) How long can the American people afford to 
 have the law of the land subverted by the forci- 
 
A Pharmacopoeia. 299 
 
 ble subjection of one race to the will of an- 
 other? 
 
 In other words, the great question which this 
 theory presents is, How long can the American 
 people afford to have the basis-principle upon 
 which our Government rests, of the peaceable and 
 legitimate exercise of power by the majority, 
 subverted by fraud or violence, which is rendered 
 effective simply by the ignorance and consequent 
 weakness of the lawfully constituted majority? 
 Mob-law may be better than no law. Crime may 
 sometimes seem to justify a community in sup- 
 plementing the enginery of the law by its own 
 methods of irregular but terrible retribution. 
 Can the American people afford to admit that in 
 the last quarter of the nineteenth century its 
 laws not only are insufficient but may be violated 
 with impunity in one third of our territory ? If 
 so, then the best thing that can be done is to 
 repeal all laws or constitutional provisions pre- 
 tending to confer right or privilege upon the 
 colored man and remit him again to a state of 
 dependence upon the whites of the South, to be 
 by them nurtured, protected, and allowed to de- 
 velop as they may see fit, slowly and gradually 
 as he did with the incubus of slavery about his 
 
300 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 neck. If the right of the majority to rule is to 
 be subverted at the will of a minority simply 
 because it is a white minority, then the action of 
 the Government in granting liberty and power to 
 the freedman was simply a mockery which justice 
 and mercy alike demand should be at once re- 
 scinded. In that case, instead of troubling our- 
 selves to promote the intelligence of the colored 
 people, it would unquestionably be an act of wis- 
 dom and sound policy to revert again to the 
 doctrines of the slave-era and by statute exclude 
 the free man of color from all opportunity to 
 obtain knowledge. 
 
 This might not cure the evil, but it would per- 
 haps put it off five or ten years: and whatever de- 
 lays the access of evil our characteristic American 
 sentiment is apt to consider wise statesmanship 
 and sound policy. 
 
U/// 
 
 Who Shall Apply the 
 Remedy? 
 
 11 A ' LL the Constitutional power of the Nation 
 and of the States, and all the volunteer 
 forces of the people, should be summoned to meet 
 this danger by the strong influence of Universal 
 Education." — Garfield's Inaugural Address. 
 
 " The Volunteer Forces of the People." 
 I. The Beneficiaries. — Those classes which most 
 need the influence of this remedy are the least 
 able to secure its benefits for themselves. There 
 
302 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 are probably to-day in the States of the South 
 tzvo millions of white illiterates and four millions 
 of colored illiterates. Of these six millions it is 
 not probable that one-sixth, even if the oppor- 
 tunity for obtaining an education by their in- 
 dividual exertions were open to them, could 
 reasonably be expected to accomplish such a task. 
 They are poor not in the sense that they are 
 likely to suffer want, nor in the sense that they 
 may be said to require extraneous aid for them- 
 selves or their families, but in the sense that they 
 have nothing, and can acquire nothing, whereby 
 they might obtain books and pay the tuition 
 necessary to obtain even the rudiments of edu- 
 cation. Two-thirds of these, it will be noted, are 
 of the colored race. Thousands upon thousands 
 of them probably never had so much as ten dol- 
 lars at a time in their whole lives. They earn 
 their daily bread ; their employers furnish weekly 
 rations ; the excess is consumed for necessary 
 clothing or perhaps squandered for unnecessary 
 indulgence. The entire tangible possessions of 
 these six millions of illiterates of the South are 
 probably not equal in actual value to the ordinary 
 clothing of an average six millions of the people 
 of the North. The eagerness of at least a great 
 
Who Shall Apply the Remedy? 
 
 303 
 
 majority of these to obtain knowledge can hardly 
 be exaggerated ; but however willing they may be, 
 they can do but little. The cost of enlightening 
 this mass of ignorance must, in the main, be sup- 
 plied by some one else. If these poor people can 
 be so stimulated as to give their children opportu- 
 nity to take advantage of privileges offered to 
 them by an enlightened national policy, it is all 
 that can be expected of them. It counts for 
 much if the patient do not find the remedy 
 nauseous. The few words already quoted from 
 the Superintendent of Education of North Caro- 
 lina will enable the reader to understand this 
 situation better than many pages of dissertation : 
 " I have seen," he says, " negro children all 
 over the State, here and there, going to school in 
 such garbs as the white children would not ap- 
 pear in. It was not because the parents did 
 not want to put them in better condition, but 
 because they were absolutely unable to do it. 
 They would have a long shirt on, reaching 
 perhaps half way down the legs, and nothing 
 else ; with a piece of ash-cake and boiled bacon 
 or pickled pork for their dinner. The white 
 people who are without the privileges of edu- 
 cation and whose children are not educated, 
 
3°4 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 and who are keeping their children at home with- 
 out education, have been so long without the 
 benefits and privileges of education that they 
 have reached a state of stupor which it is hard to 
 get them out of." 
 
 These words were uttered in the year of grace 
 1884, in the Capitol at Washington, before a com- 
 mittee of the House of Representatives ; which 
 committee made a report to the servants of 
 our American Caesar, the representatives of the 
 American people: who, with full knowledge of 
 these facts— "DID NOTHING. 
 
 II. The Giving -Hands. — The charity of the 
 North has been poured out like water to aid in 
 ameliorating this evil. Not less than twenty mil- 
 lions of dollars have been given by private individ- 
 uals, churches, aid-societies, and other organized 
 bodies, to help in the education of the people of 
 the South since the close of the war. It is a stream 
 that naturally cannot be expected to flow on for- 
 ever. Pity for the oppressed, sympathy for the 
 helpless freedmen, and kindly generosity for the 
 conquered foe, for a score of years have appealed 
 to the hearts of the people of the North, and 
 never in vain. In every State of the South, 
 schools, academies, churches, public and private 
 
Who Shall Apply the Remedy f 505 
 
 institutions of learning, of every class and variety, 
 have sprung up under the fostering care of North- 
 ern philanthropy. Whites and blacks alike have 
 shared in its beneficent influences, and all has 
 been done that could reasonably have been expect- 
 ed under the existent circumstances; and more. 
 It is evident to all that this stream must grow 
 less. Year by year it has been diminishing in its 
 general character. Only the bulk of some great 
 benefactions has been sufficient to keep it up to 
 the measure of the past. In the future it will 
 grow less and less as the evil it was designed to 
 remedy grows less apparent and the sentiment 
 from which in the main it springs becomes more 
 and more remote. Unless this private largess is 
 supplemented by public aid, the struggle with 
 illiteracy at the South will soon come to be a 
 hopeless one. 
 
 The States. 
 We do not care to discuss or compare the pub 
 lie-school systems of the North and the South. 
 Time is too precious to be wasted in what can 
 be of no advantage to any one. It must be re- 
 membered that public schools are a new thing in 
 most of the Southern States. In none of them 
 
306 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 was there what might be termed a fair system of 
 public instruction until after the close of the war. 
 Since 1868 all have done something in this direc- 
 tion. Some have done all that could have been 
 expected. Some municipalities have exhibited a 
 spirit of enterprise and self-sacrifice that awakens 
 admiration. Yet, judged by results, these efforts 
 fall so far below what is required to be done that 
 the Northern mind is apt to think no progress 
 has been made unless he keeps in view a few 
 facts in regard to the burden and ability of these 
 States. We do not care to trouble the reader 
 with statistics as to what has been done or at- 
 tempted. It needs but a moment's consideration 
 of a few pertinent facts to convince any one that 
 they are utterly unable, no matter how willing 
 they may be, to perform the task of enlightening 
 the ignorance in their borders : 
 
 Within a quarter of a century they have lost 
 all that it costs to carry on an unsuccessful war 
 extending through four years, fought out upon 
 their own territory and invalidating by its 
 result every debt contracted for its prosecu- 
 tion. 
 
 Nearly one-half the accumulations of two hun- 
 dred years of enterprise and industry had been 
 
Who Shall Apply the Remedy? 307 
 
 invested in, and was represented by, slaves which, 
 by the result of war, were made free. 
 
 Almost all financial enterprises, railroads, banks, 
 and other corporate institutions within the 
 borders of these States were destroyed and ren- 
 dered worthless as investments, either by the 
 financial exigencies or by the results of war. 
 
 These States having previous to the war no 
 established public-school system are almost with- 
 out the machinery of education and have yet to 
 build school-houses, establish schools, and orga- 
 nize the army of teachers which in the States of 
 the North is already full to overflowing. 
 
 " We must remember, gentlemen," said Dr. 
 Mayo before a committee of Congress, " that nine 
 men out of ten of the South never saw what we 
 call a good public elementary school." 
 
 It is believed that the public-school buildings 
 of the city of Denver alone exceed in value all 
 the public-school buildings of the State of North 
 Carolina. 
 
 These two facts give a better idea of # what 
 needs to be done than a volume of statistics. 
 
 The proportion of white illiterates alone, in 
 these States, is so great as to tax their educating 
 power to the utmost, even without the losses they 
 
308 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 have sustained ; and, in the present state of the 
 public mind, taxation for the purpose of educat- 
 ing the colored illiterates seems, to a consider- 
 able portion of the whites of the South, not only 
 burdensome but unjust. 
 
 The increase of taxation necessary for the 
 proper education of the colored illiterates is 
 beyond the limit of reasonable or possible expen- 
 diture on the part of these States. To put within 
 the reach of every person within school-age of 
 the commonwealths of the Black Belt an oppor- 
 tunity to acquire even the rudiments of an Eng- 
 lish education would impose upon the people of 
 these States a tax to which no free people would 
 submit. Already in some of these States the 
 rate of taxation for public-school purposes is 
 greater than in any State of the North, and yet 
 the results upon the illiteracy of that region are 
 scarcely perceptible. However well-disposed the 
 citizens might be to the education of all, and 
 however anxious that general intelligence should 
 immediately prevail, it is an impossibility for 
 them to provide a system of schools at all com- 
 mensurate with the needs of the people. 
 
 The average school-year throughout the South 
 in 1880 was less than a hundred days; the aver- 
 
Who Shall Apply the Remedy? 309 
 
 age attendance, less than thirty per cent of those 
 within school-age. 
 
 The Nation. 
 
 There are many cogent reasons why the greater 
 part of the burden of educating the illiterates of 
 the South should be undertaken and discharged 
 by the general government for a considerable 
 period — at least until the percentage of illiteracy 
 shall be reduced to a point where it can readily be 
 left to the care of the local municipalities, the 
 individual States, and private enterprise. Some 
 of the more potent of these reasons are the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 Because there is no other power or authority 
 able to cope with so great an evil. 
 
 Because the danger likely to result from the 
 preponderance of ignorance threatens the peace 
 and prosperity of the Nation. 
 
 Because there is no other manner in which the 
 danger of conflict between the races is at all 
 likely to be avoided. 
 
 Because it is cheaper to enlighten ignorance^ 
 than to suppress violence. / 
 
 Because we DARE not leave three-fourths of a 
 majority in the Electoral College, the House of 
 
310 An Appeal to Gcesar. 
 
 Representatives, and the Senate, in the hands of 
 constituencies nearly half of whose voters cannot 
 read the names upon their ballots. 
 
 Because the Nation was responsible for Slavery, 
 and Slavery was the cause of all that ignorance 
 from which the present peril springs. 
 
 Because the Nation enfranchised ignorance and 
 thereby gave it power to harm. 
 
 Because by such enfranchisement the Nation 
 enhanced the peril which now threatens these 
 States from the inherent antipathy of race. 
 
 Because, by thus extending the elective fran- 
 chise, the general government imposed upon the 
 several States the burden of educating their 
 voters at the peril not only of bad government 
 but of violence and disaster, thereby enhancing 
 the burden of taxation until it became too great 
 to be borne. 
 
 Because the Nation besought the aid of the 
 colored man in its struggle for existence and has 
 no right to abandon him, bound with the fetters 
 of ignorance, to his hereditary enemy. 
 
 Because the Nation promised the slave his lib- 
 erty, and emancipation is but half achieved while 
 ignorance yet confines the freedman's soul and 
 holds him still in impalpable bondage. 
 
Who Shall Apply the Remedy? 3 11 
 
 Because the Nation encouraged and supported 
 slavery and permitted the colored man not only 
 to be despoiled of his liberty, but to be excluded 
 from the possibility of acquiring knowledge ; and 
 because the nation which permits such crime 
 should be glad to offer retribution. 
 
 Because the danger that impends from the co- 
 occupancy of the soil by races alien to each other 
 in tradition, development, and apparent interests 
 results from the encouragement, protection, and 
 favor which a free government extended to the 
 institution of slavery, and it is the duty of that 
 government to assist in removing the evil which 
 it helped to create. 
 
 Because the Nation put into the hands of the 
 freedman the ballot and imposed upon him the 
 duty of exercising honestly and intelligently 
 the power thus conferred, and demanded of him 
 a task which he was helpless to perform because of 
 his ignorance. Common decency demands that a 
 nation which requires a duty at the hands of the 
 citizen should clothe him with power for its 
 performance. 
 
 Because the Government of the United States 
 is bound, by every consideration of honor, truth, 
 and fidelity to its allies, to protect in the exer- 
 
312 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 rise of their rights as citizens that race to whose 
 degradation she lent herself willingly for almost a 
 century, and to whom in her hour of need she 
 appealed for aid. Because the slave gave of his 
 blood to maintain the liberty of the Nation, the 
 freedman is entitled, as of the highest and holiest 
 right, to be armed and equipped at the national 
 expense for the struggle for liberty and equality 
 of power which lies before him. 
 
 Because it is a most desirable thing that the 
 general government should be presented day by 
 day in a beneficent and kindly aspect to the com- 
 mon people of those Southern republics whose 
 political beliefs have been corrupted by slavery 
 and distorted by the dogma of " State Sove- 
 reignty " until they have come to regard the 
 Nation as a sort of hereditary enemy of the State 
 — an extraneous and half-hostile power which it 
 is the bounden duty of the citizen to thwart in 
 its repeated assaults upon the rights and privi- 
 leges of the Southern white man. As the mes- 
 senger of good tidings, the bearer of precious 
 gifts, the general government will come into a 
 more direct, personal, and pleasant relation with 
 the people of the South than it has ever before 
 maintained. As a Reconstructionary measure 
 
Who Shall Apply the Remedy? 313 
 
 this is of prime importance, since it strikes at the 
 very root of the evil — the disaffection of the unin- 
 formed masses. 
 
 We do not propose to discuss any of these pro- 
 positions. The man who would deny them is 
 impervious to reason, and the nation which does 
 not recognize them by explicit and effective 
 action deserves all the ill which its neglect may 
 entail upon its future. 
 
The Method of Application. 
 
 NATIONAL aid to education is a question 
 which has attracted a constantly increas- 
 ing interest in the public mind during the past 
 fifteen years. In the main it has been considered 
 rather from a theoretical and sentimental point 
 of view than as a remedy for any specific evil or 
 a preventive of any clearly defined danger.' , In a 
 general way it has come to be accepted as "a 
 good thing to be done." Our pride as a people 
 has been touched by the rate of illiteracy and the 
 actual numerical array of illiterate voters. There 
 
The Method of Application. 315 
 
 has arisen a feeling in the public mind that in a 
 vague, remote manner ignorance may become 
 dangerous. As a preventive of the special evils 
 which we have endeavored to set forth it has 
 hardly received any consideration whatever be- 
 cause of the overweening desire of those who 
 sought Congressional action in regard to the 
 matter to prevent its entering the arena of party 
 politics. There has been an almost universal 
 desire that whatever is to be done in this matter 
 may be done with smiling and unforced assent 
 and by the general accord of all parties. To ob- 
 tain this unanimity of sentiment, those who have 
 regarded it in its true light as a supplementary 
 " Reconstruction measure" have been willing to 
 waive all questions of form, method, and detail 
 in order to secure a general concurrence in a 
 liberal appropriation of public funds for the 
 purpose of promoting primary education in the 
 various States, and thereby reducing promptly 
 and effectually the present ratio of illiteracy. 
 The motive has been a good one : the policy is 
 absurd. Certain results which have been ob- 
 tained are, however, of the utmost value when 
 considered in connection with what remains to 
 be done. 
 
316 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 In the first place it is to be noted that the 
 Superintendents of Education of nearly every 
 State in the Union, the leading educators, teach- 
 ers, and educational writers of the country, have 
 almost all united in declaring it to be their opin- 
 ion that the Government of the United States 
 should act liberally, vigorously, and promptly in 
 regard to this matter. 
 
 Those having charge of educational institutions 
 throughout the South supported in whole or in 
 part by Northern charity, the representatives of 
 churches, freedmen's aid-societies, and other or- 
 ganizations which have been active in educational 
 effort through that region ever since the close 
 of the war, have unanimously, emphatically, and 
 persistently indorsed this opinion. 
 
 Four successive occupants of the Presidential 
 chair, each from his own peculiar point of view 
 and in accordance with his own temperament and 
 characteristics, have urged upon the attention of 
 Congress as a matter of prime importance the 
 enactment of some provision to secure the gene- 
 ral intelligence of voters. 
 
 Not less than fifteen separate bills, each more 
 or less complete in its details, have been intro- 
 duced in Congress upon this subject. 
 
The Method of Application. 3 1 7 
 
 The Senate of the United States, after long 
 deliberation, passed a bill appropriating nearly 
 one hundred millions of dollars for this purpose. 
 
 After long deliberation, the committee of the 
 House of Representatives having the subject 
 in charge presented to the House a minority 
 and majority report, both agreeing in the sub- 
 stantial advisement of liberal appropriation but 
 differing as to the manner of distribution and 
 application of the funds. 
 
 All this has been done, however, upon the 
 hypothesis of promoting education simply as a 
 cure for the abstract evil of illiteracy, and not, to 
 any marked degree at least, in consideration of 
 its effect upon the other and more serious evils 
 to which we have called attention. It may be 
 accepted as a settled fact, therefore, that the 
 weight of public sentiment is already distinctly 
 ascertained to be in favor of the following propo- 
 sitions, to wit : 
 
 First. That the present illiteracy is inimical to 
 the national welfare. 
 
 Second. That it is advisable and necessary that 
 national action of some sort should be taken in 
 regard thereto. 
 
 Third. That liberal and prompt appropriations 
 
3 1 8 An Appeal to Ctesar. 
 
 should be made by the general government in aid 
 of primary education. 
 
 Fourth. That such appropriations should be 
 distributed upon the basis of illiteracy. 
 
 Upon these four propositions a vast majority 
 of the best brain and conscience of the land 
 unite. In arriving at these conclusions the ques- 
 tion of harmony between the races, the purifica- 
 tion of the ballot, the firm establishment of 
 equal political rights, and the encouragement of a 
 more favorable inclination toward the national 
 government have received hardly any considera- 
 tion at all. Even without these, however, there 
 was developed an active and positive conflict of 
 opinion in regard to the method of distribution 
 and applying the appropriation, which may be 
 said to constitute the most important phase of 
 the present status of the question. 
 Briefly stated, the difference is this : 
 First. A part of those who advocate a liberal 
 expenditure for national education insist that the 
 funds thus appropriated shall be given without 
 material restriction (or at least any that can be 
 enforced and made really obligatory) into the 
 control of the various States in proportion to the 
 illiteracy within their borders. 
 
The Method of Application. 3 1 o 
 
 Second. Another class of those who advocate 
 not less earnestly the necessity of immediate and 
 vigorous action on the part of the general gov- 
 ernment in this direction, while consenting to the 
 payment of the fund in bulk into the treasuries 
 of the different States, by whom it shall be dis- 
 tributed upon the basis of illiteracy, yet insist 
 that this payment shall be conditioned and lim- 
 ited after the first installment so as to secure the 
 application of the fund, so far as may be, to the 
 purpose which it is designed to promote. 
 
 Third. Another class, among whom is the 
 author of this work and the many thousands who 
 have signed the petition which he has heretofore 
 circulated in regard to this matter, are of the 
 opinion that the money appropriated for the pro- 
 motion of primary education in the various 
 States should not be paid over in gross to the 
 treasurers of the various States at all ; but, 
 instead of that, should be distributed, on the 
 basis of illiteracy, to the various townships and 
 school-districts in wJiich free primary schools shall 
 have been in active operation for a specified period 
 during the time covered by the appropriation, 
 and having a specified average atte?uia?ice. 
 
 The reasons which obtain against the former 
 
320 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 methods of distribution and in favor of the latter 
 are as follows : 
 
 Those who advocate the payment of the fund 
 directly into the treasuries of the various States 
 insist that the general government has no right 
 to establish a system of public schools within the 
 several States, or to do anything in the direction 
 of the general enlightenment of the citizens, ex- 
 cept through the agency and by the means pro- 
 vided by the States themselves. As was natu- 
 rally to be expected, this plea for the sacredness 
 of State rights comes mainly from the South. 
 The bulwark which so long protected Slavery is 
 that behind which Ignorance is now intrenched. 
 The claim that the nation has no right to provide 
 for the intelligence of the citizen is one that 
 ought under no circumstances to be allowed. It 
 is true that, at the present time, it does not seem 
 necessary that the government should undertake 
 the organization of schools or the establishment 
 of a system of public instruction in any State of 
 the Union ; but that it has not the right, under 
 circumstances which might very easily arise, to 
 provide for the instruction of the whole body of 
 citizens of any particular State or of any specific 
 class of those citizens, should the public weal 
 
The Method of Application. 321 
 
 demand, is a doctrine which, in the present as- 
 pect of affairs and with the prospect which the 
 future offers of dissension and perhaps of conflict, 
 ought by no means to be even tacitly admitted. 
 After the mistakes which have occurred during 
 the past twenty years from an inconsiderate zeal 
 for outward harmony, we should at least have 
 learned the peril of establishing any precedent 
 which may hereafter bar the action of the na- 
 tional government in the redress of grievances or 
 the prevention of evil. 
 
 Another objection to the payment of the fund 
 directly into the treasuries of the several States 
 is that it unnecessarily adds an element of un- 
 certainty with regard to the achievement of the 
 specific results desired to be attained. It matters 
 not how faithfully the people of any particular 
 State may desire to carry out the provisions and 
 accomplish the purpose of the act, the temptation 
 of a large fund, in whole or in part, at the dis- 
 posal of a State Legislature, which is not derived 
 directly from the taxation of their constituents, 
 is one which very few legislative bodies are likely 
 to be able to withstand. If either of the bills 
 which have been submitted should become a law, 
 several of the States would receive sums ranging 
 
322 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 from five to eight hundred thousand dollars out 
 of the apportionment. In some cases this fund 
 would be much greater than the tax which these 
 States have hitherto themselves levied for educa- 
 tional purposes. That it would be expended with 
 altogether the same care attending the application 
 of funds raised by immediate taxation of the citi- 
 zens of the State is not to be expected. At the 
 very least we should anticipate that experiments 
 would be tried, lavish expenditures in .certain 
 directions permitted, and a general lack of econ- 
 omy in the public-school systems of these States 
 inaugurated and encouraged thereby. Besides 
 this, it should be remembered that all govern- 
 ments are at least human. The executive and 
 legislative officers of no State in this Union can 
 claim to be exempt from the common infirmities 
 of our nature. The general government has had 
 some striding illustrations of this fact. The 
 history of the funds which have hitherto been 
 distributed among the States for specific pur- 
 poses or to await the demand of the general gov- 
 ernment is almost farcical. The school-funds of 
 every State of the South which had a public- 
 school system of any sort whatever before the 
 war were buried in the grave of the Confederacy. 
 
The Method of Application. 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 The Federal agricultural land-scrip distributed 
 among the States since the close of the war was 
 in a majority of cases either squandered outright 
 or rendered almost valueless for the purpose for 
 which it was designed, by maladministration of 
 the funds or their application to the promotion 
 of some whimsical theory. In short, to place the 
 fund appropriated for the promotion of primary 
 education by the general government in bulk in 
 the hands of the various State governments is to 
 invite maladministration, defalcation, misapplica- 
 tion, and every conceivable influence which may 
 interfere with the accomplishment of the precise 
 results intended to be secured. 
 
 In addition to this, it should be remembered 
 that in all the States of the South, if this course 
 should be pursued, the fund will pass under the 
 control of the dominant race alone ; and while it 
 may be provided that it shall be equitably and 
 fairly distributed among schools for both races, it 
 is easy to see that disaffection would almost cer- 
 tainly arise on account of this fact. It is almost 
 impossible that, with the deep and peculiar feeling 
 which exists throughout the South in regard to 
 the education and enlightenment of the colored 
 race, any State government absolutely under the 
 
324 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 control of the white population should fairly and 
 honestly administer a trust of this nature. It is 
 not necessary that there should be any inequality 
 in the formal distribution. There are a thousand 
 ways of squandering such a fund which even the 
 wisest and most cordially inclined to the purposes 
 of the appropriation would find it difficult to point 
 out and define. What is needed above all things 
 is a direct and immediate transmutation of money 
 into intelligence. Costly school-houses are not 
 required. Very little of the ornate machinery 
 which is found in the Northern public schools is 
 needed. Good teachers, cheap houses, and the 
 books necessary for primary instruction consti- 
 tute all the equipment which the national gov- 
 ernment should permit or encourage under the 
 provisions of this bill. In the administration of 
 this fund the utmost economy is absolutely essen- 
 tial. The primary results which are desired must 
 be immediate, not ultimate. We cannot afford 
 to wait. What is to be done must be done at 
 once ; to-morrow it may be too late. 
 
 Again, it should be remembered that whatever 
 restrictions may be placed by the general govern- 
 ment upon the application of this fund by the 
 States to which it is apportioned, no such con- 
 
The Method of Application. 325 
 
 ditions can be enforced nor any penalty for their 
 violation exacted. More than one of the bills 
 which have been introduced have attempted to 
 guard against this tacitly admitted danger by 
 providing that a special commission or some offi- 
 cer of the Government shall be authorized to re- 
 fuse payment of the subsequent installments of 
 ,the fund to those States which shall fail faithfully 
 and honestly to carry into effect the conditions 
 of the act. It is possible that this method of 
 procedure might be carried out in practice, but it 
 is not at all probable that it would be. Such an 
 officer or such a commission might indeed refuse 
 to direct the payment of the subsequent install- 
 ments, but it would be at the peril of being 
 arraigned for partiality, and would inevitably 
 result in an appeal to the legislative branch of the 
 Government for the abolition of the commission 
 and the repeal of the restriction. Unless the 
 case were of a very apparent and atrocious char- 
 acter, the result of such an appeal cannot be 
 doubted. Between a limited and unlimited con- 
 trol of the fund by the several States there is 
 only the slightest margin of choice. Of the two 
 perhaps the latter is preferable, since a condition 
 which cannot be enforced is, at the best, only a 
 
326 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 mockery which tends to bring the power impos- 
 ing it into contempt. 
 
 Another reason why this fund should not be 
 put at the disposal of the various State govern- 
 ments — and a most serious and important consid- 
 eration it is, too — is that the administration of 
 such a fund is almost sure to become a party 
 question, and the fund itself likely to be used for 
 the promotion of partisan purposes. The power 
 to control the appointment of teachers, the erec- 
 tion of school-buildings, the establishment of 
 institutions of learning, and all the incidents at- 
 tending the organization and administration of a 
 public-school system, especially in States where 
 all the inferior officers are appointed by the 
 Chief Executive and in which the administration 
 of the public-school system is a thing new to the 
 people, is a most important and dangerous politi- 
 cal factor. The people of the North and their 
 representatives in Congress seem entirely to have 
 forgotten this one important feature common to 
 all the Southern States, that they are the best 
 examples of centralized power to be found in 
 our Federal Union. Their governments are cen- 
 tripetal in all their tendencies. In nearly every 
 one of these States the administrative officers are 
 
The Method of Application, 327 
 
 appointed directly or indirectly either by the 
 Governor or by the dominant majority in one or 
 both branches of the Legislature. Take, for 
 instance, the State of North Carolina. The 
 majority in the Legislature appoints the Justices 
 of the Peace of the various counties; the Justices 
 of the Peace select the County Commissioners ; 
 the County Commissioners control the assess- 
 ment of taxes and the distribution of public 
 funds, appoint every officer connected with the 
 schools of the county, designate every Registrar 
 of Voters and Inspector of Elections, have charge 
 of all schools and highways, and in short admin- 
 ister the whole government of the county with- 
 out regard to the wishes of the people. If one 
 of these subordinate officers fails to perform his 
 duty to the satisfaction of his district, the only 
 method by which a change may be secured and 
 another put in his place is by overturning the 
 whole State administration. There are more 
 than five thousand appointive offices in the State, 
 and hardly five hundred elective ones. To put 
 the administration of such a fund into the hands 
 of a State the laws of which are specifically de- 
 signed to thwart and suppress public sentiment 
 is as farcical as to ask the wolf to divide his din- 
 
328 An Appeal to Ctesar. 
 
 ner with the lamb. In some counties, no doubt, 
 it would be honestly administered and fairly- 
 divided between the races ; in others there would 
 hardly be an attempt to accomplish such a result. 
 It should be remembered, also, that, however 
 desirous the officials and people of the various 
 States of the South might be to effect the results 
 aimed at by the legislation in question, yet they 
 are entirely lacking in that experience in the 
 administration of such a system which has be- 
 come almost second-nature to the people of the 
 North. The public schools of the North (espe- 
 cially outside of the great cities), regulated and 
 controlled as. they are by boards of directors 
 chosen by the voters of the districts, are perhaps 
 the best examples of economic administration 
 which the world has ever known. Every dollar 
 of expenditure is carefully discussed and consid- 
 ered, not merely by the board of directors but by 
 the people of the district in their annual or semi- 
 annual meetings. In many cases the selection of 
 school-trustees or teachers may appear for a time 
 to be a matter of form; but no sooner is there 
 any hint of maladministration, any suspicion that 
 the teacher is less efficient than might be desired or 
 that any abuses have crept into the school, than 
 
The Method of Application. 329 
 
 the public spirit is aroused, the matter is dis- 
 cussed at every fireside and at every gathering, 
 the responsibility is quickly ascertained, and the 
 party on whom it rests held to a strict account. 
 In most if not all of the States of the South both 
 this machinery and this incentive are entirely 
 wanting. The officers in charge of the schools 
 are no doubt in most cases good men. They 
 desire to see them succeed, and they are anxious 
 that the systems adopted by their respective 
 States should yield the best results. They are in 
 most instances competent, active, faithful men, 
 no doubt ; but they are accountable, not to their 
 neighbors, but only to the appointing power. 
 And even in those cases in which the neighbor- 
 hood is responsible for the character of the school- 
 commissioners there is almost an entire absence 
 of that administrative knowledge and experience 
 in the direction of public affairs which the free 
 schools and township-system of the North have 
 developed to such a marvelous extent among her 
 people. From boyhood the Northern man is 
 trained to the conduct of public affairs. He is 
 accustomed to consider himself as a factor in the 
 affairs of his vicinage. If an officer of the town- 
 ship or of the school-district incurs his disap- 
 
33° An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 proval, he sets himself at once to work for his 
 removal. He discusses the matter with his 
 neighbors, ascertains the tendencies of public 
 sentiment, recounts his objections or states his 
 suspicions, and at the annual election asks his 
 neighbors to pass upon the question of the con- 
 tinuance or discontinuance of the offending offi- 
 cer. This fact makes it far more difficult to 
 apply such an appropriation to partisan purposes 
 in a State of the North than in those States to 
 which three-fourths of it must be apportioned. 
 The people of the South may be just as upright 
 and honest as those of the North ; yet the fact 
 that at the North those in control of the public 
 fund in one school-district may belong to one 
 political party and in the adjoining district to 
 another tends, of itself, to prevent deleterious 
 political results. In every State of the North the 
 County Superintendents and other higher offi- 
 cials of the State school-system represent the 
 politics of the districts in which their duties are 
 discharged ; in one county it is a Republican, 
 and in the adjacent one a Democrat. In most if 
 not all of the States of the South, however, this 
 is entirely different ; the county officers are ap- 
 pointed, directly or indirectly, by some central 
 
The Method of Application. 331 
 
 State power, and, no matter what may be the 
 sentiment of the majority of the county or dis- 
 trict to which their duties extend, they represent 
 always the dominant party of the State. To ex- 
 pect a clean, fair, and equitable administration of 
 such a fund under such circumstances and at the 
 hands of officials so appointed is not only to 
 admit the universal integrity, uprightness, and 
 efficiency of such officials simply because they are 
 Southern men, but to expect them to be endowed 
 with superhuman wisdom, honesty, and devotion 
 to the best interests of all " without regard to 
 race, color, or previous condition of servitude." 
 The other plan of distributing a national fund 
 intended to aid in the cure of illiteracy is designed 
 especially to obviate the objections which must 
 lie against any scheme of apportionment by 
 which the funds are placed under the immediate 
 control of the various States to be distributed 
 according to the discretion of their officers, no 
 matter how that discretion may be sought to be 
 limited or modified. To frame an act which shall 
 meet all the exigencies that may arise is mani- 
 festly a difficult task. The elements of the prob- 
 lem for which a solution is required are by no 
 means simple. If we keep in view, however, cer- 
 
3 32 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 tain essential requirements, we shall find the task 
 much easier than it seems. Such a plan should 
 possess certain fundamental features and prescribe 
 the machinery by which certain specific results 
 may be obtained and particular evils avoided. 
 Among the requisite features of such a measure 
 may be named the following: 
 
 It must provide with absolute certainty that 
 the fund shall be expended for the promotion of 
 primary education and for no other purpose. 
 
 It must unite economy of administration with 
 simplicity of detail. 
 
 It is desirable that it should utilize the existing 
 educational systems of the various States and at 
 the same time provide a method by which the 
 appropriation may be utilized in the promotion of 
 intelligence in case the State authorities refuse to 
 co-operate with the general government. 
 
 It ought, if possible, to avoid trespassing in the 
 least degree upon the specific domain of the State, 
 even as construed by the most enthusiastic ad- 
 vocate of State sovereignty. 
 
 It should afford a constant stimulus to public 
 appropriation and private contribution in the 
 States where illiteracy most abounds. 
 
 It should provide a method by which a specific 
 
The Method of Application. 333 
 
 proportion of the fund may be applied to the 
 enlightenment of the illiterates of each race with- 
 out possibility of the portion intended for one 
 race being applied to the education of the other. 
 
 On the ether hand, the plan proposed must 
 not — 
 
 Provide for a system of national schools or a 
 numerous and expensive array of Federal officials ; 
 
 Nor place the fund under the control of any 
 State officials or State legislation ; 
 
 Nor leave any considerable loophole to fraud 
 or malversation ; 
 
 Nor present such intricacy of detail as in any 
 manner to interfere with a complete comprehen- 
 sion of its operation by any person of ordinary 
 intelligence. 
 
 It is believed that an act containing the follow- 
 ing provisions would meet these essential require- 
 ments : 
 
 I. — That provision shall be made for the appro- 
 priation, during each year of the current 
 census-decade, of specific sums which shall 
 be multiples of the aggregate illiteracy ac- 
 cording to the census of 1880. 
 II. — That this fund shall be distributed on the 
 basis of illiteracy as shown in the census of 
 
334 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 1880, and requiring the Federal Commis- 
 sioner of Education to assign to each town- 
 ship, parish, or school-district of each State 
 the sum it is entitled to receive annually 
 upon that basis. 
 
 III. — That the fund shall be applied by pre- 
 ference to the support of free schools or- 
 ganized and operated under the law of the 
 State in which the district is located. 
 
 IV. — That it shall be used only for the payment 
 of teachers. 
 
 V. — That it shall be paid out in quarterly install- 
 ments only when the Commissioner shall be 
 satisfied that a primary free school has been 
 in operation not less than three months in 
 any one year, with such average of atten- 
 dance as the Commissioner may prescribe 
 considering the number of children within 
 school-age resident in said district. 
 
 VI. — That the amount appropriated shall in no 
 case exceed one-half of the entire expense 
 of maintaining said school, the balance to be 
 made up out of the State,' county, or muni- 
 cipal appropriations for school-purposes, or 
 by private contribution. 
 
 VII. — That the necessary facts in regard to such 
 
The Method of Application. 335 
 
 school shall be ascertained by report of the 
 proper officers under the State system, for- 
 warded to the Commissioner through the 
 State Superintendent of Education and ap- 
 proved by him, or by the report of a volun- 
 tary inspector, acting without pay, if the 
 school is not a part of any State system. 
 VIII. — That payment of the sum to which such 
 district shall be entitled be made only after 
 some prescribed proof of compliance with 
 the conditions of the statute, by check pay- 
 able to the order of the teacher or other 
 designated representative of the school, the 
 check being countersigned, if for a State 
 school, by the State Superintendent. 
 IX. — That in case there is no public school organ- 
 ized under the State system in operation 
 within any district, or the authorities of 
 the State refuse to establish one, the people 
 thereof, under such regulations as the Com- 
 missioner shall prescribe, may organize a 
 private school, free to all within school-age 
 resident in said district (except in case of 
 separate schools for different races), and by 
 keeping the same in operation the required 
 time, and paying at least one-half of the 
 
336 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 expenses thereof, shall be entitled to the 
 benefit of the sum thus appropriated. 
 
 X. — That the sum appropriated for one year shall 
 not be applied to school-work done in an- 
 other year, nor the sum assigned to one 
 district to the payment of teachers in an- 
 other ; and all assignments of this appropri- 
 ation not applied for within three months 
 after the fiscal year for which they were 
 appropriated shall, at the close of that pe- 
 riod, be covered into the Treasury. 
 
 XT. — That the State Superintendent shall report 
 to the Commissioner the attendance, studies 
 pursued, and text-books used in every pub- 
 lic school in his State making application 
 for a share in such fund, and the Commis- 
 sioner shall be entitled of right to visit and 
 inspect such school at any time in person or 
 by any agent whom he may authorize to act 
 for him : Provided that neither the said Com- 
 missioner nor his agent, nor any one acting on 
 behalf of the United States, shall have any 
 power or authority to i?iterfere in any way 
 in the management of said school, the employ- 
 ment or discharge of teachers, the course of 
 study pursued or texts-books employed. 
 
The Method of Application. S37 
 
 XII. — That in case the State within which any 
 district is located prescribes separate schools 
 for white and colored pupils, then the sum 
 which the number of white illiterates in said 
 district would entitle it to receive must be 
 devoted to the aid of a school for white 
 children therein, and the sum which its 
 number of colored illiterates would entitle 
 it to receive in like manner to the support 
 of a school for colored children ; and neither 
 of these sums shall, under any circumstances, 
 be used to aid a school for the benefit of 
 the other race. 
 XIII. — This measure shall not apply to any State 
 in which the percentage of illiteracy does 
 not exceed twelve per cent of the aggregate 
 population. 
 In considering the advantages of this plan as 
 compared with any bill looking to the payment of 
 the fund in bulk to the State officials and its ad- 
 ministration by them, attention is directed to the 
 following points : 
 
 ECONOMY OF ADMINISTRATION. 
 It will be observed that it makes provision for 
 no new Federal official. Except the necessary 
 
33% An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 increase of the clerical force in the office of the 
 present Commissioner of Education, and the sta- 
 tionery and postage of his office, there need be 
 no increase of the governmental expenditure. At 
 the very utmost, it would appear that fifty thou- 
 sand dollars a year would be sufficient to admin- 
 ister a fund of fifteen million dollars upon the 
 plan proposed. This is, of course, upon the hy- 
 pothesis that the Commissioner is a man of prac- 
 tical administrative capacity. Upon this system 
 he will be merely a financial agent — the paymas- 
 ter, as it were, of the fund. The questions he 
 will have to decide will not be of a literary or 
 educational character, but purely legal and finan- 
 cial. In addition to the highest business talent, 
 he will require tact in negotiation, and in the 
 avoidance and adjustment of questions of diffi- 
 culty arising between his department and the 
 officers of the various State systems of instruc- 
 tion. The material for the apportionment of the 
 fund, it will be noted, he already has in hand. 
 The facts of the census, relating to illiteracy, are 
 reported in detail with regard to the smallest 
 municipal subdivisions. The transfer of a few 
 clerks from the Census to the Educational 
 Bureau would suffice, in a few weeks, to prepare a 
 
The Method of Application. 339 
 
 schedule of the amounts to which every township 
 or district was entitled. In case of change of 
 boundary, or difference as to the amount to which 
 any district was entitled, it could soon be decided 
 by reference to the duplicate returns of the cen- 
 sus-takers on file in the court-house of every 
 county. 
 
 CERTAINTY AND SIMPLICITY. 
 The fund passes through no intermediate 
 hands. The Commissioner remits a check pay- 
 able to the order of the man who has done the 
 work, which is to be countersigned and forwarded 
 by the State Superintendent. The work is sup- 
 posed to be already done. Its performance is 
 certified to by the regular State officials. If there 
 is any doubt about the fact, action may be de- 
 ferred and inquiry instituted. It would, perhaps, 
 be well to have the vouchers executed under oath, 
 as in the case of payments to pensioners, and with 
 like penalties. All this is, of course, a mere mat- 
 ter of detail which should be elaborated before 
 the measure becomes a law. It is doubtful, how- 
 ever, if a like sum is disbursed by any depart- 
 ment with so little chance for any slip betwixt 
 the cup and the lip. 
 
34-0 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 STIMULATING EFFECT UPON STATE SYSTEMS. 
 
 By providing that the sum appropriated shall 
 in no case exceed one-third or one-half the sum 
 to be expended in maintaining the school, a most 
 powerful incentive is offered to local and individ- 
 ual exertion in this direction. This part of the 
 plan proposed is borrowed from the rules govern- 
 ing the operation of the Peabody Fund, which 
 has undoubtedly been the best managed and most 
 effective charity the world has ever known. By 
 offering a premium for self-help it has done more 
 to stimulate and encourage educational enterprise 
 at the South than could possibly have been done 
 in any other manner. The promise of one-third 
 or one-half the needed funds has inspired many a 
 Southern man to a liberality of expenditure for 
 the public good which he would otherwise never 
 have dreamed of exercising, and many a father 
 and mother have been impelled by it to self- 
 sacrifice for the sake of their children which would 
 not otherwise have been thought worthy of a 
 moment's consideration. Take Alabama as an 
 instance of the probable workings of such an act. 
 The share her people would be entitled to re- 
 ceive of an annual appropriation of $15,000,000 
 would be $1,127,869.83. The total amount raised 
 
The Method of Application. 341 
 
 by State taxation for schools in that State in 1880 
 was $250,000. Even of this the fact that both 
 items of taxes received are given in round thou- 
 sands affects the mind with doubt as to its accu- 
 racy. But does any one suppose that the people 
 of Alabama would fail to raise another million in 
 order to secure the benefits of this appropriation ? 
 In other words, the appropriation of $15,000,000 
 by the general government will lead every South- 
 ern State except Missouri, Virginia, and Maryland 
 to double or treble their own appropriations for 
 school-purposes. 
 
 CO-OPERATION OF STATE AXD NATIONAL 
 AUTHORITIES. 
 
 The plan proposed can in no sense be regarded 
 as an invasion of the right of the State or an 
 undue extension of the national power. It is 
 simply a bonus offered to the people of each of 
 the lowest municipal subdivisions of a State for 
 the doing of a thing deemed essential to the 
 public weal. If the State does not see fit to co- 
 operate in this movement, there is no attempt to 
 coerce its action. Of course, he would be a brave 
 State legislator who would cast his vote against 
 the acceptance of such an imperial bounty ; but 
 
34 2 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 if such an opinion prevails in any legislature, there 
 is no penalty visited upon any one except the 
 usual reward of stupendous folly. As to the 
 practical effect, there can be no doubt that an 
 overwhelming majority of both races at the South 
 would be heartily in favor of accepting such 
 bounty, and the very fact that it came without 
 any condition affecting the control of the schools 
 would take away the gravest and most serious 
 objection that has been urged against the idea of 
 National Education by the leading thinkers of 
 that section. 
 
 PUTTING THE REMEDY ON THE SORE. 
 The provision which requires the sum appro- 
 priated on account of white and of colored illiter- 
 ates to be expended for the support of schools for 
 white and for colored pupils, respectively, is one 
 of the most valuable elements of this plan. In 
 the present state of public feeling at the South it 
 is but natural that there should be a strong ten- 
 dency to neglect the education of the negro. The 
 Southern whites, impoverished by the false econo- 
 mies of slavery as well as by the results of war, 
 feel, very naturally, that the burden of instructing 
 some millions of colored illiterates, whom the 
 
The Method of Application. 343 
 
 Nation has made voters, is a task beyond their 
 strength, as well as one that ought not to be 
 required of them. Such a donation by the Nation 
 which* liberated and enfranchised the blacks, to- 
 ward their enlightenment and elevation, will be 
 received by even the most incredulous among 
 them as a guaranty of good faith and kindly 
 sympathy. The only thing required of State 
 officials in this respect, as in others, when co- 
 operating with the general government in the 
 distribution of its bounty, is simple good faith in 
 the performance of the conditions on which it is 
 granted. 
 
 THE GOOD PAYMASTER PAYS WHEN THE WORK 
 IS DONE. 
 The best possible security against a misappro- 
 priation of the fund is that not a dollar of it is to 
 be expended until full and sufficient proof is made 
 of the complete performance of the act it is 
 designed to encourage and promote. The goods 
 are to be delivered before the money is to be paid. 
 The opportunity for fraud is thereby reduced to 
 a minimum, and its probability absolutely ex- 
 cluded. 
 
344 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 FREEDOM FROM PARTISAN ABUSE. 
 It will be seen that this plan is especially com- 
 mendable from the fact that it preserves the fund 
 from, all possibility of being prostituted to . par- 
 tisan purposes. The Commissioner and a half- 
 dozen clerks constitute the working force for its 
 administration. Not a single person to whom the 
 money is to be paid is in any manner under the 
 control of the Commissioner. He appoints no 
 teacher, no director or trustee of any school, and 
 has no control over its course of study further 
 than to determine its adequacy for rudimentary 
 instruction. The whole system of distribution is 
 modeled on that prescribed for the quarterly pay- 
 ment of pensions, which has long been noted 
 as the simplest, most effective and economical 
 method of disbursing funds ever known under 
 our Government, or perhaps under any. It is not 
 only simple in the extreme, but is surrounded 
 with checks which effectually prevent the mis- 
 appropriation of a single dollar, and render it 
 impossible that it should under any circumstances 
 be made a machine for influencing a single 
 vote. 
 
The Method of Application. 345 
 
 EXEMPLIFICATION. 
 
 The objection having been made to this plan 
 that it is too intricate, we give an instance of its 
 practical operation when acting in conjunction 
 with a State system of education, and when 
 taken advantage of by a school-district, no public 
 school being maintained by the State. 
 
 It is to be premised that the Department has 
 been organized and the Commissioner of Educa- 
 tion has obtained from the records of the Census 
 Bureau the actual number of illiterates in each 
 township, school-district, or other smallest sub- 
 division, of each county, in the various States, ac- 
 cording to the census of 1880. It is probable 
 that in most cases this minimum subdivision 
 would be the township. In that case it would 
 be necessary to obtain from other sources the in- 
 formation necessary to determine approximately 
 the illiteracy of the separate school-districts. 
 The proportion to which each district would be 
 entitled could easily be ascertained by requiring 
 the parties applying to furnish such facts as might 
 be deemed necessary for making a sufficiently ac- 
 curate apportionment. 
 
 Under these circumstances, School District No. 
 3 of Blackhawk township, Caswell County, North 
 
346 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 Carolina, we will say, makes application for the 
 portion of the fund which may be assigned to it 
 in support of a public school organized under the 
 State law as a colored school. The County and 
 State Superintendents indorse the application and 
 certify that one-fourth of the colored population 
 of said township reside in District No. 3. The 
 Commissioner ascertains that there were one hun- 
 dred colored illiterates in the township, and, there 
 being two dollars allowed for each illiterate, he 
 notifies the applicants that upon complying with 
 the law they will be entitled to receive the sum 
 of fifty dollars. The school being then organized 
 and the requirements of the statute during the 
 required period having been complied with, as 
 shown by the necessary reports and verified by 
 such vouchers as the Commissioner may prescribe, 
 as well as the fact that the requisite proportion 
 of the expense of the same has been paid by the 
 State, the county, or by individual contribution, 
 a check for that amount is made out payable to 
 the teacher or his order when countersigned by the 
 State Superintendent, through whom it is trans- 
 mitted to the payee. In case all the districts 
 of the township apply even this simple process 
 might be much abbreviated. Thus it will be seen 
 
The Method of Application. 
 
 .47 
 
 that with an altogether insignificant expenditure, 
 without any interference with the State system, 
 the money appropriated is expended upon the 
 very spot where it is most required without pos- 
 sibility of being diverted from its intended pur- 
 pose or made subservient to any scheme for par- 
 tisan advantage. 
 
 The following table exemplifies the plan for 
 States of the Black Belt from actual facts : 
 
 TABLE HH. 
 Total Amount expended for Education in States of the Black 
 Belt in 18S0: and Proportionate Amount receivable from an 
 Annual Appropriation of $10,000,000, distributed or the basis 
 of Illiterary according to the Census of iSSo. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama. 
 Florida. . 
 Georgia. 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina. 
 Virginia 
 
 Total, 
 
 Expended. 
 
 3-540.213 
 
 Receivable. 
 
 $433,131 
 
 $694,631 
 
 117 724 
 
 123,499 
 
 653,404 
 
 834,005 
 
 455-75S 
 
 510,227 
 
 679-475 
 
 598,082 
 
 3S3.709 
 
 743,554 
 
 367.259 
 
 59 2 ,709 
 
 452.693 
 
 689,671 
 
 4,791,373 
 
 It will be observed that almost one-half of a 
 fund of $10,000,000 would have gone to these eight 
 States, and would have exceeded by one-third their 
 entire educational appropriations. The disburse- 
 
34^ An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 ment of such a fund by the Nation in the manner 
 proposed would not only stimulate these States 
 to increased appropriations, but would stir up 
 every township and district to secure its proper 
 share. It would bring into every household a 
 knowledge of the fairness and beneficence of the 
 national government, and would do more than any- 
 thing else could to modify that extravagant idea 
 of the paramount rights of the individual States 
 which was the shield of slavery and the bulwark 
 of rebellion. On the other hand, if the fund be 
 merely cast into the treasuries of the different 
 States, this influence will not only be lost, but 
 the worship of the Juggernaut of States' Rights 
 will be thereby strengthened and confirmed. It 
 is cheaper to uproot this dogma with spelling- 
 books than with bayonets. 
 
 Whether certainty, simplicity, and effectiveness 
 are preferable to uncertainty, doubt, suspicion of 
 partisanship, and probability of waste and dis- 
 affection, it is for Cesar to decide. 
 
Objections Considered, 
 
 "\ 7"ARIOUS objections are made both to the 
 v policy and legality of any measure propos- 
 ing the national aid to education, but more espe- 
 cially to one which does not put the distribution 
 and application of the fund entirely within the 
 control of the individual States. First and most 
 important of these objections is the following : 
 
 Congress has not the constitutional authority to 
 levy taxes or appropriate funds for such purpose. 
 
 This objection comes too late. It has already 
 been determined by numerous precedents that 
 
35° An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 the Government has such power. Under various 
 acts nearly two billion acres of the public do- 
 main have already been appropriated for the 
 purposes of education. Schools have been estab- 
 lished, funds have been created for the establish- 
 ment in different States of institutions of a pecu- 
 liar class or character, and the whole course of 
 the Government tends to show an almost univer- 
 sal concurrence in the idea that the power " to 
 promote science and the useful arts" must in- 
 clude that master-key to all science and art, the 
 general intelligence of the citizen and the preva- 
 lence among all classes of the people of that 
 rudimentary knowledge without which neither 
 science nor art can flourish. 
 
 But in the view which we have taken of this 
 subject the authority of Congress to appropriate 
 funds for the primary education of the citizen 
 rests upon a much broader basis — the authority 
 granted in the Constitution to " provide for the 
 common defense and general welfare of the 
 United States." It rests upon the same funda- 
 mental principle as the various acts and appropri- 
 ations for the support of the Military Academy 
 at West Point or the Naval Academy at Annap- 
 olis, The great controlling purpose of such 
 
Objections Considered, 351 
 
 appropriation is to secure public peace, promote 
 the national power, and establish the national 
 welfare and prosperity, by giving to its citizens 
 an opportunity to learn the duties of citizenship, 
 to perform the functions devolved upon them as 
 component elements of our national power, to 
 cement and strengthen their allegiance and devo- 
 tion to the Government and the principles upon 
 which it is founded. If there was ever a measure 
 proposed which was clearly and unmistakably 
 within the scope and purpose of this broad and 
 essential power, it is the one which we are now 
 considering. It is essential to the common de- 
 fense because it tends to unity of sentiment, sup- 
 pression of discord, and the removal of causes 
 which might easily result in domestic violence. 
 It promotes the national welfare because it en- 
 ables the citizen to comprehend and perform his 
 duties, to protect himself against fraud and 
 violence, to understand and appreciate the rights 
 and privileges conferred upon him ; and it 
 strengthens his adhesion and devotion to the 
 Government. Moreover, this constitutional ob- 
 jection, it will be observed, whether it count for 
 much or little, applies just as strongly to the one 
 plan of distribution as to the other. If the 
 
35 2 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 Nation has not the right to levy taxes and dis- 
 tribute funds through its own agencies, it very 
 clearly has no right to apportion those funds 
 among the different States. 
 
 The second objection is that the general govern- 
 ment has no right to appropriate funds for the 
 benefit of classes or individuals. 
 
 Those who urge this objection seem to be 
 laboring under the impression that national aid 
 to education is to be given solely for the benefit 
 and advantage of those individuals and classes 
 receiving instruction. Such is not at all the prin- 
 ciple on which public instruction, whether State 
 or National, is based. The State does not edu- 
 cate the citizen for his own sake. It does not 
 bestow the rudiments of education or the ele- 
 ments of science for the sake of the individual. 
 The whole theory of public instruction is based 
 upon the principle of public benefit to be derived 
 therefrom. The fact that the individual receives 
 advantage thereby is entirely secondary and sub- 
 ordinate to this main object. The fact that 
 education increases individual opportunity and 
 power, opens to the instructed the avenues of 
 wealth and prosperity, enables him to pursue 
 avocations from which he would otherwise be 
 
Objections Considered. 
 
 JO J 
 
 excluded — in short, the fact that intelligence 
 directly or indirectly elevates, strengthens, and in 
 all respects improves the individual, while a very 
 pleasant and agreeable incident of public instruc- 
 tion, would yet constitute an entirely insufficient 
 reason for the establishment of such systems. 
 No fact can be clearer, both from fundamental 
 reasoning and constitutional consideration, than 
 the proposition that a government, whether State 
 or National, has no right to tax A for the benefit 
 of B, C, or D, or for any class or number of in- 
 dividuals. It is only upon the ground that the 
 ignorance of B, C, and D is an element of weak- 
 ness, expense, or peril to the State or the Nation 
 that it becomes permissible to employ public 
 funds for the removal of such peril or for the 
 enhancement of public prosperity by the lessen- 
 ing of expenditure or the increase of productive 
 capacity. The right of the Nation to secure the 
 general, intelligence of its citizens is even more 
 limited than this. The State as such — the subor- 
 dinate republic of our Federal Union — is inter- 
 ested directly in increasing the productive capac- 
 ity and the power of self-support of each one of 
 her citizens. One of the first great duties of a 
 modern government is to .provide for the support 
 
354 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 of its pauper classes. This also constitutes one 
 of its chiefest burdens. This burden is greatly 
 lessened by the general intelligence of the citizen 
 which promotes his capacity for self-support by 
 opening to him other channels and fresh opportu- 
 nities for exertion. The State, therefore, is direct- 
 ly interested in the intelligence of its entire popu- 
 lation. Schools are in this respect as in some 
 others a direct investment for the benefit of the 
 commonwealth. The general government has no 
 such direct interest in the intelligence of the 
 masses. The support of the poor, outside of the 
 District of Columbia, in no case becomes a charge 
 upon its treasury. Its interest in the citizen is 
 not one of direct pecuniaiy advantage. While 
 the prevalence of illiteracy no doubt indirectly 
 tends to reduce its revenues by repressing enter- 
 prise and reducing the productive capacity of the 
 masses, its interest in their development is of a 
 higher and less material character. Still it is the 
 interest of the general public and not that of the 
 recipient classes which is to be subserved by 
 national aid to primary education. As ignorance 
 is dangerous to the public welfare, so intelligence 
 is favorable to it. As ignorance of the duties of 
 the citizen necessarily- implies inability for their 
 
Objections Considered, 355 
 
 proper discharge, so intelligence presumes the 
 faithful performance of such duties. The princi- 
 ple on which this measure depends, therefore, is 
 not the benefit of any particular class but the 
 general advantage of the entire Republic. 
 
 This objection is especially potent with those 
 who conceive that the purpose and intention of 
 this act is to extend some special favor to the 
 colored race. While it might be within the pur- 
 view of the powers of Congress to grant to this 
 race special privilege or advantage in considera- 
 tion of the circumstances which have attended 
 its previous history, yet such cannot properly be 
 accounted the purpose of this measure.- More 
 than one-third of the recipients of direct advan- 
 tage therefrom will be of the white race ; and the 
 indirect advantage to accrue- is in the proportion 
 of seven millions of blacks to forty-three millions 
 of whites. It is true that the relations which our 
 Government has sustained to the colored people 
 in the past, and the duties which it has placed 
 upon the individuals of that race while yet in a 
 state of profound ignorance with regard to their 
 performance, have been such as should constitute 
 a most potent factor in inclining every right- 
 minded citizen toward the accentanee of this 
 
35 6 An Appeal to Casarl 
 
 policy. This duty becomes incumbent upon us 
 not simply because education will be a direct ad- 
 vantage to the individuals of that race, but be- 
 cause the national honor is pledged — the good 
 faith of a great people placed in pawn — with 
 those unfortunate allies whom the Nation has 
 abandoned in its hour of prosperity. We gave 
 them liberty which we coupled with the duty of 
 citizenship. We put into their hands the sword 
 which we asked them to use for the national 
 honor as well as for individual defense. We left 
 them ignorant of the proper exercise of the 
 power they held, defenseless before their heredi- 
 tary enemies, the sometime foes of the Republic. 
 Yet it is not chiefly for their advantage that this 
 measure of justice and righteousness is proposed, 
 but to redeem the honor of the whole people and 
 to secure the safety of a great nation. 
 
 Another objection made to this measure is that 
 a large portion of the fund will be expended in the 
 attempt to educate the negro and prepare him for 
 the exercise of co-equal power in the Government, 
 man for man, witli his white fellow-citizens, and 
 that such expenditure is simply a wasteful attempt 
 to perform an impossibility. 
 
 I do not care to discuss the question. 
 
Objections Considered. 357 
 
 Whether the colored man is the equal, the infe- 
 rior, or the superior of the white race in knowl- 
 edge, capacity, or the power of self-direction has 
 not been specifically revealed to me. I have 
 no knowledge in regard to the matter beyond 
 what is accessible to every other citizen. Some 
 things are self-evident, and among these is the 
 fact that every argument and demonstration by 
 which the inherent inferiority of the African of 
 the United States has been so frequently estab- 
 lished has been shown by the irrefragable evi- 
 dence of experience to be false. Year after year, 
 for a century, it has been dinned into the ears of 
 the American people that the African could not 
 live except in a state of slavery. Those who 
 boasted of having converted him to Christianity 
 declared his inherent barbarism to be incurable. 
 The power of progress and development was 
 denied him. Only the form of man, the debased 
 instincts of the slave, and a sufficiency of the im- 
 mortal principle to make him a child of grace 
 were accorded to the colored man. We were told 
 that he would not work; that he would starve in 
 the midst of profusion ; that idleness was not 
 only his besetting sin but his irremediable, de- 
 fect ; that lust and vice would make the race an 
 
35 8 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 uncontrollable scourge to the land ; that there 
 were but two alternatives, the state of bondage 
 or utter annihilation. Twenty years of liberty 
 have disproved each one of these dicta. Already 
 there are proportionably fewer of this race main- 
 tained at the public expense than of the white 
 race. The idleness which was to destroy has re- 
 sulted in increased production of all the staples 
 of that region. The vice which was to over- 
 whelm society has for the most part been con- 
 fined to petty crimes and misdemeanors which 
 slavery encouraged. Having been taught by 
 Christian slavery that the sacrament of marriage 
 could not bind their race, cast adrift with no 
 recognized or legal family ties, the great bulk of 
 this despised people recognized the moral force 
 of previous personal association, and even in this 
 respect are not behind those classes of the whites 
 which are affected with like ignorance and pov- 
 erty. In addition to all this, in eighteen years of 
 liberty they have organized thousands of effi- 
 cient church-societies, erected all over the South 
 comfortable houses of worship, and, with all their 
 crudity of ideas and of practice, constitute to-day 
 perhaps the best organized, most self-sacrificing 
 body of professed Christians in the world. This 
 
Objections Considered. 359 
 
 power of church government, religious associa- 
 tion, and intelligent management and direction of 
 church affairs — the accomplishment of really 
 great things with the most scanty means, the 
 least possible opportunity, and under the most 
 adverse circumstances — would seem to demon- 
 strate that the colored man may yet constitute a 
 factor in republican government by no means 
 to be despised. 
 
 Whether the black man will in all respects 
 develop an absolute equality of power with the 
 white is, however, a question that cannot yet be 
 answered either the one way or the other. So 
 far as the measure under discussion is concerned 
 it is entirely immaterial whether he has such a 
 capacity or not. This one thing we do know : 
 that the Nation has recognized him as capable to 
 perform the duties of citizenship even without 
 the preparation and the experience which the 
 white race had received before developing such 
 capacity. Having conferred that privilege and 
 duty upon him, it is an unavoidable obligation 
 that we place before him every possible opportu- 
 nity to develop whatever power he may possess. 
 If he is not capable of competing with the white 
 race after enjoying such opportunity, certainly no 
 
360 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 harm will have resulted from allowing him to 
 approach as nearly to that level as he is capable 
 of attaining. On the other hand, if it should be 
 that his capacity is not materially different from 
 that of the white man, certainly no Christian 
 people can be excused and no government upon 
 which rest such obligations as we have recognized 
 can be held guiltless if they fail to enable him to 
 take the initial step in the race of progress by 
 granting him an opportunity to obtain the rudi- 
 ments of an education. 
 
 There are some — more than would generally be 
 supposed, yet, thank God, not so many as there 
 might be — who urge against this measure that it 
 would result in a sacrilegious disturbance of the 
 ordained and established relations between the 
 races, by which dominion and control has been 
 given to the whites, and menial service and subjec- 
 tion decreed for the blacks. 
 
 There are not a few, especially among our 
 Southern brethren, who do not hesitate to declare 
 that the divine order prescribes subjection of the 
 negro to the control of the white. They assert 
 without any hesitation that it is the undoubted will 
 of the Almighty that the white man is and must for- 
 ever remain the undoubted superior and the right' 
 
Objections Considered. 361 
 
 ful controller and director of the destiny of the 
 colored race. The belief in this peculiar dogma is, 
 perhaps, more widely spread than one might sup- 
 pose it possible that it should be. Its constant rep- 
 etition, year after year and generation after gen- 
 eration, has unquestionably served to fix it in the 
 minds of the Southern whites as a truth which, if 
 not absolutely demonstrable from the words of 
 revelation, is yet so indubitable that it may as 
 well be accepted as divine. This was the sup- 
 posed premise on which negro slavery rested its 
 claim to recognition as a Christian institution. It 
 was never contended that the right existed under 
 any circumstances to enslave a white man. There 
 were undoubtedly some instances in which it was 
 done, but such acts were always not only in vio- 
 lation of law but opposed to the public sentiment 
 and religious conviction of the entire people of 
 the South. The defense set up in favor of 
 American slavery, distinguishing it from that 
 which existed among the early Roman be- 
 lievers, was based entirely upon the fact that the 
 American slave was of the African race. It 
 was freely admitted that under no circumstances 
 could the right exist to enslave one of Caucasian 
 birth ; but it was maintained by the great body of 
 
362 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 Southern Christians that the distinction of race 
 and color was designed to mark a difference of 
 right and destiny which the Supreme Being had 
 for his own inscrutable purposes established. The 
 same belief in a modified form still exists and 
 actuates the conduct and convictions of a very 
 large proportion of the Southern people. They 
 do not admit that the colored man can ever be- 
 come entitled to share in the duty of mutual con- 
 trol and direction that rests upon the white citi- 
 zen. He is regarded as having been divinely set 
 apart for a peculiar, specific, and inferior destiny. 
 To attempt to enlarge his sphere of action, to 
 seek to elevate him to the level of the white, or 
 permit him to claim as of right equal dignity, 
 authority, and capacity, is to impugn the wisdom 
 and decrees of the Almighty. We do not know 
 whether this belief is well founded or not. We 
 have no special knowledge of the divine purpose 
 in establishing distinctions of race, nor do we 
 believe that any other human being has. At any 
 rate, the events of the past quarter of a century 
 would seem to be sufficient to convince any one 
 of the possibility of mistake' in regard to such a 
 theory. There was evidently some sort of error 
 in the doctrine so universally accepted and taught 
 
Objections Considered. 363 
 
 at the South with regard to the divine nature of 
 slavery. There must have been some sort of mis- 
 take in regard to the capacity of the negro for 
 self-support. Time has demonstrated that emanci- 
 pation is not the forerunner, of extinction through 
 any natural or physical cause. It is, therefore, at 
 least possible that the related theory in regard 
 to the purpose intended to be subserved by the 
 distinction of race and color may also be errone- 
 ous. Where so many theories, each one resting 
 in some degree upon the other and all of them 
 being merely speculative conclusions from the 
 same group of facts, have been proved false by the 
 irresistible logic of events, it is well not to regard 
 the other doctrines of this group of related theo- 
 ries with too much positiveness of conviction. It 
 would seem to be altogether possible that the 
 whole idea of the inferiority of the blacks to the 
 whites might yet disappear. Whether it be true 
 or false, however, one thing is certain : the white 
 race can never prove or maintain its superiority 
 simply by excluding the negro from all opportu- 
 nity for growth and development. 
 
 The objection most frequently urged against this 
 measure at the North is that the ignorance which it 
 is sought to eradicate is the result of slavery, which 
 
364 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 was purely a Southern institution, maintained by 
 Southern power and defended by Southern arms. 
 Because of this fact, it is urged that no duty rests 
 upon the citizen of the Northern States to remedy 
 evils for which the South alone is responsible. 
 
 If the premises on which this assumption rests 
 were true, the view would still be too narrow and 
 contemptible for an enlightened Christian people 
 to take. If the South were alone responsible for 
 slavery and its resultant ignorance and poverty, 
 it would still be the narrowest and most short- 
 sighted policy that could possibly be devised 
 which in the face of existing facts should refuse 
 to lend a helping hand to cure the evil. Fortu- 
 nately for the argument, however, such is not the 
 case. The action of our national government 
 from the very outset tended toward the encour- 
 agement and perpetuation of slavery. From first 
 to last the national power was exerted for its 
 extension and perpetuity. Its fruits were shared 
 by the North and South alike. The labor of the 
 slave enriched the manufacturer of New England 
 as well as the planter of Virginia. The whole 
 national life was tainted with its injustice. As a 
 people, no State or section can claim exemption 
 from responsibility for this crime of crimes. In 
 
Objections Considered. 365 
 
 every act of oppression that makes up the vast 
 category of evil which American slavery wrought, 
 the Nation shared responsibility for every crime 
 with the State and the individual. The evils 
 resulting from slavery are part and parcel of the 
 inheritance which the Republic of yesterday 
 bequeathed to the Nation of to-day. 
 
 It is further urged by many of the Souther 71 peo- 
 ple that the education of the negro, instead of tend- 
 ing to his development and equipment for the duties 
 of life and citizenship, has a directly contrary effect, 
 and is in fact a constant menace to the peace and 
 prosperity of the South. 
 
 From the standpoint which these persons oc- 
 cupy, there is no doubt as to the truth of the view 
 which they express. The spread of intelligence 
 among the colored people of the South unques- 
 tionably leads to the comprehension and asser- 
 tion on their part of rights and privileges to which 
 they believe themselves to be entitled, but which 
 a majority of the white race there conceive to be 
 strictly limited to individuals of the Caucasian 
 race. The first result of knowledge is to teach 
 the individual his rights; the next, to inspire 
 him to assert and maintain them. To educate 
 the colored man is to enable him to compre- 
 
366 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 hend exactly what his rights and duties are ; 
 to show him how those rights may be peace- 
 fully and lawfully secured, and teach him how 
 those duties should be performed. The preva- 
 lence of general intelligence among the colored 
 people of the South would unquestionably" 
 tend to disturb the peace of those communi- 
 ties, if that peace be dependent upon the subjec- 
 tion of the colored man to the will and authority 
 of the white. If by peace be meant that state of 
 quiet submission which permits a minority if it is 
 white to override the power and wishes of the 
 majority if it is black, there can be no question 
 that general intelligence would constitute a very 
 serious menace to its continuance. A peace 
 which is based upon the disregard of right by one 
 portion of the community and quiet submission 
 thereto by another portion is always likely to be 
 disturbed whenever the subjugated element comes 
 clearly to understand not only what are its rights, 
 but how they may be secured and • enforced. 
 Knowledge, however, as we have seen, inevitably 
 tends to the establishment of that genuine peace 
 which depends alone upon the recognition of the 
 rights of all classes and individuals by each and 
 every other individual and class in the commu- 
 
Objections Considered. 367 
 
 nity. Instead of being a menace against the 
 peace of Southern society, then, the general edu- 
 cation of both white and black illiterates would 
 tend to the establishment of a peace which not 
 only recognizes but holds sacred the rights of all. 
 
 There is another principle connected with the 
 idea of the State's right to control the education 
 of its citizens that it would be well to keep in 
 mind. It is this : 
 
 The State s light to educate her citizens does not 
 include . or presuppose the right to keep them in 
 ignorance. 
 
 This is a principle which is apt to escape the 
 consideration of men raised in a political school 
 one of the basis-principles of which was that one 
 great class of the citizens of a community should 
 not be allowed to acquire even so much as the 
 elements of knowledge. A people who for three- 
 quarters of a century regarded the colored man's 
 exclusion from all educational opportunity not 
 only with equanimity, but as a question of in- 
 dubitable right and necessity, can hardly be ex- 
 pected to have reached that period of develop- 
 ment in regard to general education when the 
 public sentiment shall accord to white and black 
 with equal heartiness the public aid. The State 
 
368 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 has undoubtedly a right — it not only has a right, 
 but it is its bounden duty — to provide for the 
 rudimentary instruction of all its citizens. Such 
 right is not an exclusive one, however. Any 
 individual or society has an. equal right to con- 
 tribute toward the enlightenment of any indi- 
 viduals or classes or even the entire community 
 of a State. The right of the general government 
 to aid in the education of its citizens does not 
 in any manner exclude or conflict with the right 
 of the State, nor relieve it from any responsi- 
 bility or duty. On the other hand, the plan 
 which we have proposed simply says to every 
 State, "We will give to every free school which 
 you may establish a fund proportionate to the 
 number of illiterates within the district for which 
 it is designed, whenever we are satisfied by 
 proper testimony that such a school has been 
 established and continued for a certain specified 
 time, and has had such average attendance as to 
 render it likely to have achieved something in 
 the direction of mitigating the evils of illiteracy." 
 Instead of interfering with the action of the 
 State in this direction, it offers a direct and tan- 
 gible bonus for every exertion that the State may 
 make. It is only in case of the State's delin- 
 
Objections Considered. 369 
 
 quency that the Nation says to the individual, to 
 the citizens of the township or the authorities of 
 the municipality : 
 
 " If you will establish public schools of a spe- 
 cific character, if you will secure a certain average 
 attendance, if you will see that those schools are 
 maintained for a certain specified period in each 
 year, we will give to you a sum proportionate to 
 the number of illiterates within the territory 
 represented, for the support of such schools." 
 
 Instead of being in conflict with the rights of 
 the State, it is much farther removed from such 
 conflict than either of the other measures thus 
 far proposed. All of those, while they contem- 
 plate the payment of the fund directly into the 
 State treasury and its administration solely by 
 the officers of the State, yet propose to affix to 
 this giftj benefaction, or contribution certain 
 conditions, which conditions of themselves are an 
 insult to the sovereignty of the State. If the 
 distribution is to be made to the States at all, it 
 must be made as of right. It does not become, 
 then, an appropriation strictly for a specific pur- 
 pose, but it is something which the State has a 
 right to demand that the Government shall do. 
 To attempt to bind a sovereign State with con- 
 
2)jo An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 ditions subsequent is in itself absurd ; but it is a 
 direct, positive, and undeniable interference with 
 the rights of the State to authorize any officer, 
 commission, or body of men authorized and or- 
 ganized under and by virtue of authority of an 
 act of Congress, to consider, investigate, or pass 
 upon the action of a sovereign State. Congress 
 has the authority to give to the various States 
 any portion of the national income that it may 
 see fit to distribute among them, and it may 
 advise or request that such fund shall be used by 
 each of the States in a certain particular manner, 
 but it has no right or authority to inquire 
 whether its wish has been complied with or its 
 fancied conditions performed after it has deliv- 
 ered over the funds. The control which the 
 general government has over either the legisla- 
 tive or administrative officers of the States is 
 solely the negative power which resides in the 
 Federal judiciary. Whenever the State law is in 
 conflict with the Constitution of the .United 
 States or with the laws of Congress duly enacted 
 thereunder, it becomes nugatory by the judg- 
 ment of the Federal tribunal. Not all the 
 power of the Nation, however, can lawfully re- 
 quire a State Legislature to enact any specific 
 
Objections Considered. 371 
 
 law or punish any executive officer for the per- 
 formance or non-performance of an act which he 
 is not specifically required to do or not to do by 
 some Federal statute. The action of the several 
 States in regard to the fund after the same or 
 any portion thereof had been distributed could 
 not be questioned, much less affected, by any de- 
 partment of the Federal Government ; neither 
 could an appropriation made for a series of years 
 be diverted for any portion of that time by the 
 non-performance on the part of the several 
 States of conditions which Congress has no 
 power to impose. 
 
 There has been made, in objection to the 
 special plan of procedure which we have advo- 
 cated, this suggestion : 
 
 Such a plan of distribution is likely to arouse 
 party rancor. 
 
 In one sense this may be considered an objec- 
 tion. It is unquestionably desirable, abstractly 
 considered, that all good things in government 
 should be adopted by unanimous consent : but 
 they never are. Anything that is worth doing is 
 certain to have opponents. If there are two pos- 
 sible ways of accomplishing a good thing, men 
 are very likely to have strong preferences in re- 
 
$72 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 gard to them. The very large sums of money that 
 would be distributed by means of this measure 
 throughout the States of the South make it a 
 very natural thing that the political leaders of 
 that region should desire not only to have con- 
 trol of this fund, but to have it appear to their 
 constituents of both races as if the largess 
 flowed through their hands, and that this bounty 
 came from the State, and not the Nation. The 
 natural inclination of the political thinker of the 
 South, whatever his rank or class in society, is to 
 magnify inordinately the doctrine of State rights. 
 " I went with my State," is the almost universal 
 excuse for engaging in rebellion ; and it is always 
 a matter of surprise to the person urging it that 
 any Northern man should at all question its suf- 
 ficiency. From Robert E. Lee down to the 
 humblest private in the Confederate army this 
 reason or excuse was urged with the utmost sin- 
 cerity. To a Southern man the allegiance which 
 binds him to his State is an umbilical tie ; that 
 which he owes to the Nation, a remote, theoreti- 
 cal, intangible thing. That this school of politi- 
 cal thinkers should prefer that the fund should 
 be placed entirely in the control of the States, 
 or at least hampered only with certain nominal 
 
Objections Considered. 2>7Z 
 
 conditions which could in no event be enforced, 
 instead of being distributed directly to the ben- 
 eficiaries by the national government, is only 
 natural. Not that this method of distribution in 
 any manner conflicts with the theory of State 
 Rights, even in its broadest acceptation, but sim- 
 ply because its operation would tend to exalt the 
 Nation rather than the State in the eyes and 
 affections of the Southern people, or, more prop- 
 erly perhaps, to put the Nation upon the same 
 level in their regard. In this sense it would 
 unquestionably awaken partisan conflict. A 
 part of the more hot-headed and short-sighted 
 of the Representatives of the South would un- 
 questionably oppose its adoption and might 
 possibly waste a good deal of rhetoric in trying 
 to prove it an insult to the Southern people. 
 Senator Butler of South Carolina has put himself 
 on record as opposed to the measure in any form. 
 It is not difficult to understand why. It would 
 be inconsistent with his record to do otherwise. 
 The hostility of such partisans as he is not only 
 to be expected but desired for any good meas- 
 ure. At the same time there are very few of 
 them that would stand up and oppose such an 
 appropriation, however it was to be distributed. 
 
374 ^ n Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 It would be a very hazardous thing for a Repre- 
 sentative from Alabama, for instance, to cast his 
 vote against the appropriation of eight hundred 
 thousand dollars a year for the education of the 
 people of Alabama simply because the Govern- 
 ment proposed to pay it to the teachers instead 
 of to the politicians of the State. The question 
 which those who raise this objection should ask 
 themselves is whether it is better to have cer- 
 tainty, economy, and efficiency in the administra- 
 tion of such a fund or a political love-feast at the 
 time of its adoption. In the history of this coun- 
 try, harmonious legislation, or legislation designed 
 to harmonize parties and sections, has not usually 
 proved the most efficient and valuable. Every 
 great measure of public policy from which have 
 flowed lasting and beneficent results has been 
 hotly contested, perhaps for years, before it as- 
 sumed the form of law. Partisan warfare is simply 
 the seven-fold heated furnace in which the gold of 
 truth is smelted. A measure that drops into one 
 House of Congress like oil and dribbles slowly 
 through them both into the statute-book, dissem- 
 inating the fragrance of harmony and good-will, 
 and winning the assent of all, usually bears a 
 most dubious complexion. We have the record 
 
Objections Considered. 375 
 
 of the Missouri Compromise, the history of the 
 Fugitive-Slave Law, the remembrance of a hun- 
 dred half-way measures designed to unite hostile 
 thought, secure peace and harmony, and avoid 
 partisan conflict in the Nation. Of later years 
 we have that notorious and peculiar example 
 of harmony that annually thrills the hearts of 
 Congressmen expectant of further honor, the 
 " River and Harbor Improvement Bill," which 
 passes perhaps without division, with joined 
 hands and a universal chorus of good-will. It is 
 always the climax of the legislative millennium. 
 Party is forgotten, strife is laid aside, even per- 
 sonal hostility is for the time held in abeyance ; 
 all other feelings and considerations give way in 
 the face of this measure of universal harmony. 
 All bickering and strife in that millennial hour is 
 forgotten, and only universal happiness prevails, 
 for the space of one whole day, 
 
 " So hallowed and so gracious is the time." 
 
 The plan of distribution which we propose is 
 not likely to be cursed with a harmony of this sort 
 — a harmony the last analysis of which is plun- 
 der. It is not to be supposed, however, that a 
 measure one of the results of which undoubtedly 
 
376 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 would be not only to elevate the colored man in 
 the scale of humanity, but to enable him to ex- 
 ercise the political power which has been con- 
 ferred upon him according to the dictates of his 
 own conscience ; which would prepare him to de- 
 fend himself in public as well as in private affairs 
 against the tyranny of fraud ; which would arm 
 his manhood with the sword of intelligence, and 
 strengthen his courage with the consciousness of 
 power which comes from knowledge — it is not to 
 be expected that such a measure would fail to meet 
 with the sharpest opposition, when we consider 
 that in one form or another the rights, privileges, 
 and destinies of that race have formed the basis 
 of political divergence for more than half a cen- 
 tury. The real question in this case is not, What 
 will please everybody? but, What will bring the 
 greatest good to the greatest number? Our 
 "Government by the people" is also "for the 
 people," and in its life as in its birth its noblest 
 results have accrued not from concord but from 
 conflict — not from any smiling and unforced as- 
 sent upon the part of all, but from the inflexible 
 enforcement of the convictions of the majority. 
 The fact that any proposed measure is likely to 
 provoke partisan strife, is more frequently a 
 
Objections Considered. 377 
 
 badge of merit than a basis for sound objection. 
 If the partisan can base his opposition upon good 
 and valid grounds, showing harmful results likely 
 to accrue to the citizen therefrom, then his hos- 
 tility is to be welcomed. It is for this very pur- 
 pose that parties are constituted, in order that in 
 the conflict of mind with mind the underlying 
 principles upon which every measure of public 
 policy claims to be based may be completely un- 
 derstood, thoroughly discussed, and fully estab- 
 lished before it obtains the sanction of the legis- 
 lative body. Such discussion is, in this case, 
 altogether welcome. If any individual or party 
 can show to the people of the United States that 
 it is better for them, as a people, that the money 
 to be appropriated in aid of national education 
 should be shoveled in bulk into the treasuries of 
 the different States rather than carefully, eco- 
 nomically, and effectively administered by the 
 national government in some such manner as we 
 have proposed, no one will experience greater 
 pleasure in the adoption of such a policy than 
 the writer of these lines. 
 
 There remains one general objection to national 
 aid to education, specially applicable to the view 
 which we have taken of the subject, namely, that 
 
$J% An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 education of itself is not sufficient to make a ma?i 
 a good citizen. 
 
 There can be no doubt in regard to this propo- 
 sition. A man may have all knowledge and pos- 
 sess all wisdom and yet be a tyrant, a usurper, a 
 " boss," a traitor, or a conspirator. Mere intelli- 
 gence is not enough to insure the performance 
 of public duties, any more than it is a sufficient 
 safeguard against private crime. Knowledge 
 simply gives to the individual the power to be a 
 good citizen, not the inclination. It shows him 
 how the power which he holds by means of 
 the ballot may be exercised either for good 
 or for evil. How he will exercise it depends 
 very largely upon his antecedent development. 
 Knowledge, whether it be much or little, is only 
 an instrumentality by which a good or evil incli- 
 nation acts. And while it is true that an edu- 
 cated man may not be a good citizen because he 
 will not perform the duties which he understands, 
 it is very certain that the ignorant man cannot 
 exercise the power of the citizen with any sort of 
 assurance that he is acting rightly. Knowledge 
 does not of necessity make any man honest ; but 
 it enables him to detect other men's dishonesty. 
 Intelligence does not make a man courageous and 
 
Objections Considered. 379 
 
 incorruptible ; it only shows him how he may use 
 his courage and how he may defend himself 
 against fraud. Intelligence simply furnishes the 
 motive power by which manhood may make it- 
 self effective in political affairs as well as in any 
 other. 
 
 Political error is possible to the most highly 
 cultured community, and it is not an infrequent 
 thine to find the best-educated class in a commu- 
 nity adopting some pet theory which if carried 
 into effect would result in the most imminent 
 public disaster. The Southern slave-owners were 
 unquestionably a highly intelligent and well- 
 educated class of men. They were also men of 
 as keen natural instincts and as good and patri- 
 otic bias as could be found. Blinded by the fact 
 of slavery, however, they became the most 
 dangerous enemies the country has ever known. 
 
 Our Government is the first great republic of 
 the world, indeed the first nation, to have tried 
 the experiment of self-government on the broad 
 basis of including within the governing power all 
 the males of mature age. This theory is founded 
 upon the hypothesis that the majority of all com- 
 munities are right-thinking, honest, patriotic, and 
 brave. They are supposed to be honest enough 
 
380 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 to decide (without being influenced by base 
 motives or narrow individual considerations) what 
 measures are for the public weal and what party 
 is most likely to carry out and enforce such meas- 
 ures. They are supposed to be too honest to be 
 willing to sell the safety and happiness and pros- 
 perity of the future for a trivial pleasure of the 
 present. They are supposed to be earnest 
 enough in their convictions, loyal enough to their 
 duty and the interests of the country to be ready 
 and willing to maintain those convictions at 
 whatever hazard against fraud or violence. 
 
 If these basis-hypotheses on which our Govern- 
 ment was founded are. incorrect, then, indeed, it 
 matters little what may be the character of our 
 controlling masses. But if our Government is 
 founded upon the true principles of democracy, if 
 self-government is a possibility to any great nation, 
 then it is of the utmost importance that every 
 individual constituting the governing power in 
 such nation should be not only honest and patri- 
 otic and courageous, but that he should have 
 knowledge to inform his honesty, knowledge to 
 sustain his patriotism, knowledge to direct his 
 courage. The ignorant man is as the breath of 
 life to the nostrils of the demagogue. He is the 
 
Objections Considered, 381 
 
 material which the ambitious and unscrupulous 
 leader uses to promote his own unrighteous ends. 
 While intelligence may in some cases lead to 
 abuse of power, ignorance renders almost certain 
 its misuse. The voter who drops into the box 
 a ballot which he cannot read is like a blind man 
 wielding a sword : he may slay his enemy, but he 
 is quite as likely to destroy his friend. 
 
From Different Standpoints, 
 
 HHERE are some views of this subject that 
 are common to more or less numerous 
 classes, which cannot well be omitted from the 
 discussion of the question. 
 
 The Old Abolitionists. 
 It is one of the most curious things in history 
 that the particular type of American thinkers 
 who had given the best part of their lives to the 
 consideration of the colored man's relation to the 
 whites in a state of slavery should so frequently 
 
From Different Standpoints, 38 
 
 j 
 
 be among the most apathetic in regard to his 
 present condition and relations. They seem to 
 have accepted as undeniable the conclusion that 
 the formal obliteration of the legal right to 
 restrain the colored man of his liberty was the 
 end of slavery, and the end also of duty to the 
 enslaved race. Mr. Greeley's celebrated edito- 
 rial entitled " Root, Hog, or Die" no doubt ex- 
 pressed the sentiment of a great portion of this 
 class who were apprehensive that the colored 
 people would become a race of moral, political, 
 and economical mendicants. It was for a long 
 time regarded as a doubtful question whether 
 the freed slave would have stamina enough to 
 earn his daily bread and become a self-supporting 
 element of our national life. It was perhaps 
 generally believed that liberty and civilization 
 would kill him. It was no doubt feared by his 
 best friends that he would become a general 
 beggar — a sort of universal tramp ; and his for- 
 mer friends felt called upon distinctly to inform 
 him that he must live by his own efforts. In- 
 stead of justifying this belief, the very reverse 
 has been the* case. No people having so little 
 ever asked for less. Only for schools and 
 churches have they asked assistance, Indeed, 
 
3^4 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar* 
 
 the proportion of defective and dependent classes 
 among them is, under the circumstances, amaz- 
 ingly small. When we consider the circum- 
 stances surrounding the two races in the eight 
 States we have been considering, and remember 
 that in 1865 the white race in those States prob- 
 ably possessed one thousand times the tangible 
 wealth of the blacks ; that in these States there 
 are as many blacks as whites, and that they are 
 still, as a race, mere laborers and capable only of 
 self-support by the results of daily wages — in 
 view of these facts, how amazing are the follow- 
 ing tables (II-MM), compiled from the census of 
 1880! 
 Three motives undoubtedly lay at the root 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 Insane, 1880. 
 
 States 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 North Carolina _. 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Total 
 
From Different Standpoints, 385 
 
 of the movement for the abolition of slav- 
 ery: 
 
 1. A conviction of the unrighteousness and in- 
 justice of slavery; 
 
 2 A sentiment of pity for the slave; 
 
 TABLE JJ. 
 Idiotic, 18S0. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Virginia 
 
 Total 
 
 Colored. 
 
 TABLE KK. 
 
 Paupe?s in Almshouses, 1880. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Mississippi. . . . 
 North Carolina 
 South Carolina 
 Virginia 
 
 Total. ... 
 
;86 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 3. A belief that slavery would ultimately en- 
 danger the peace of the Republic. 
 
 These very same motives should now stimulate 
 the same class of people to a like activity in pro- 
 motion of national aid to the education, espe- 
 
 TABLE LL. 
 Blind, 1880. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Mississippi. 
 North Carolina. 
 South Carolina. 
 Virginia 
 
 Total. 
 
 White. 
 
 755 
 94 
 861 
 366 
 468 
 :,i6i 
 434 
 897 
 
 5,036 
 
 Colored. 
 
 644 
 121 
 
 773 
 479 
 603 
 704 
 666 
 813 
 
 4,S03 
 
 TABLE MM. 
 Deaf Mutes, 18S0. 
 
 States. White 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Total ! 3.334 
 
 Colored. 
 
 405 
 
 288 
 
 55 
 
 63 
 
 499 
 
 320 
 
 32S 
 
 196 
 
 317 
 
 2S9 
 
 724 
 
 308 
 
 301 
 
 263 
 
 705 
 
 293 
 
From Different Standpoints, 387 
 
 daily, of the recent slave and his descendants. 
 Their ignorance is a part of the injustice of 
 slavery: the evils they suffer because of it ap- 
 peal to pity quite as keenly as the ills of bondage 
 ever did ; the danger that seemed likely to occur 
 from slavery was remote and insignificant com- 
 pared with that which now impends because of 
 the ignorance which slavery entailed. 
 
 There is no question but much of the indiffer- 
 ence displayed at the North in regard to the 
 state of affairs at the South since the close of the 
 war has arisen from a fear that the colored race 
 would become a dependent class rather than self- 
 helpers. The past twenty years, as we have seen, 
 have most abundantly dissipated this apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 It is said that the progress of the African is 
 slow. Upon this continent it has been the swift- 
 est that history has ever recorded. Less than 
 three hundred years measure to this race the 
 distance between the most helpless barbarism 
 and its present condition. Slavery was a harsh 
 teacher, but she gave to the colored man many a 
 precious lesson. He has learned the need of 
 exertion ; he has come to understand the power 
 of law. The elements of our Anelo-Saxon civili- 
 
J 
 
 SS An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 zation have become a part of his moral nature. 
 He may not always have learned the lessons 
 perfectly, but the rudiments he has thoroughly 
 acquired. Place him beside his congener on the 
 African coast to-day, and we see the difference 
 which three centuries of exposure to our civiliza- 
 tion and a breath of freedom have made. Al- 
 ready the blacks have taken the first and hardest 
 steps in the upward course. They have gathered 
 wealth with wonderful assiduity and under un- 
 heard-of difficulties. The fact that the estimated 
 value of their holdings in the State of Georgia is 
 six millions of dollars, when twenty years ago 
 they had not as many cents, is of itself enough to 
 astound the universe. As a rule they are frugal 
 livers and steady workers. The charge of collec- 
 tive, general laziness not only comes with a bad 
 grace from the whites of the South, but is re- 
 futed with tremendous force by the increased 
 production of the staples which depend upon 
 their labor. That there are more idlers among 
 them than when the white race spent its energies 
 in driving them afield is no doubt true ; but the 
 workers do more, because they have the stimulus 
 of self-interest and the hope of reward for their 
 toil. Their rate of wages is so low in comparison 
 
From Different Standpoints, 389 
 
 with that of laborers at the North that it seems 
 incredible that they should make any saving 
 therefrom. During this time, too, they have 
 gathered the rudiments of knowledge : weakly, 
 ludicrously, it may be, sometimes only half-com- 
 prehending the words whose pronunciation they 
 have mastered; but again shedding new light, 
 with a shrewd philosophy, upon the wisest utter- 
 ances of the subtlest authors. From all these 
 facts we may well conclude that the colored man 
 of the South, on his own merits as a self-helper, 
 struggling under incredible disadvantages to 
 accomplish better things, has a right to expect 
 the active co-operation of every philanthropist, 
 and more especially every one who helped at all 
 the overthrow of slavery, in obtaining from the 
 general government such aid as will supplement 
 his own efforts to place his children on a higher 
 plane than he himself can hope to reach. 
 
 In this connection it may be well to consider 
 the status of the colored race as one of the fac- 
 tors of our criminal population. This is a very 
 important matter, and one which should by no 
 means be passed lightly by. The following 
 table presents the data of those confined for 
 crime and awaiting trial in the States we are 
 
390 
 
 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 considering at the date of the enumeration of 
 
 1880. 
 
 TABLE NN. 
 
 Imprisoned for Crime, 18S0. Including those held for trial, in 
 
 Jails and Penitentiaries. 
 
 States. 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 North Carolina, 
 South Carolina. 
 Virginia 
 
 White. Colored. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1,884 
 
 221 
 
 i,i77 
 
 42 
 
 233 
 
 231 
 
 1,606 
 
 230 
 
 845 
 
 153 
 
 1,176 
 
 601 
 
 1,018 
 
 56 
 
 586 
 
 350 
 
 1,204 
 
 7,S45 
 
 That ignorance is the nurse of crime there 
 is no room to doubt. That four-fifths of the 
 colored race are illiterate is of itself a sufficient 
 reason for a great disparity in the ratio of crimi- 
 nals among the two contrasted races. There 
 are, however, some other special considerations 
 which ought not to be forgotten. 
 
 The first of these is the fact that Slavery was 
 an institution especially adapted to the nurture 
 and encouragement of crime. It obliterated the 
 ties of family, and taught that the sacrament of 
 marriage and the law of chastity did not apply to 
 the colored race. It prescribed statutes of such 
 
From Different Standpoints. 391 
 
 palpable injustice as to break down the slave's 
 regard for law. By unremitting oppression it 
 encouraged him to transgress. The temptation 
 to take what the law gave to his master was ever 
 present in his own person. The fact that his 
 labor was taken by another without compensation 
 was a constant inducement for him to steal. The 
 fact that he was the victim of violence inclined 
 him to appeal to force when under the influence 
 of rage. The fact that the master's lust fed on 
 his wife or daughter without restriction was a bad 
 example by which to enforce the restraint of 
 passion. Considered in the light of this fearful 
 preparation for crime, these figures seem less 
 appalling. 
 
 It should not be forgotten, either, that there are 
 in these States not far from fifteen thousand com- 
 mitting magistrates every one of whom, it is be- 
 lieved, is of the white race. There may be a few of 
 the colored race who have that power, but certainly 
 not enough to affect the general result. There 
 are about the same number of sheriffs, deputies, 
 and constables, of whom it is possible that one- 
 tenth may be of the colored race or allied to it in 
 political belief. Of the judges of higher courts 
 having criminal jurisdiction it is believed that 
 
39 2 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 there are not more than three or four in these 
 eight States who are not politically predisposed 
 against the negro. There are perhaps a score of 
 colored lawyers in the same region. So that it 
 will be seen that, a priori, the machinery of the 
 law is prejudiced against the colored man accused 
 of crime. Considering the past and present re- 
 lations of the races, it is impossible that this 
 should not tell against the blacks in the ratio of 
 convictions. It is not necessary to allege cor- 
 ruption or conscious bias on the part of these 
 officials. The fact is apparent that in numerous 
 cases the colored man cannot have anything like 
 " a white man's chance" before the courts. In 
 many cases, too, the colored man is unable to 
 employ counsel, and for that reason often loses 
 the protection which the law is supposed to give 
 the citizen. 
 
 Besides this, the temptation to injustice is very 
 great. The fact that conviction of even the 
 lightest crime that can be classed as a felony serves 
 to disfranchise the criminal is itself a serious influ- 
 ence among a magistracy who are almost univer- 
 sally opposed to the colored man's being allowed 
 to exercise political power. 
 
 Another serious element of disadvantage which 
 
From Different Standpoints. 
 
 ovo 
 
 must not be forgotten is the fact that any — 
 even the slightest — taking, using, and removing of 
 the crop raised by the laborer who cultivates 
 land " on shares," before the final division 
 with the landlord, constitutes larceny. The un- 
 scrupulous landlord is enabled to bring this 
 charge after the greater part of the work of the 
 crop is done, and by securing the laborer's con- 
 viction becomes entitled to the whole crop, the 
 laborer being unable by reason of his imprison- 
 ment to complete his contract. That many such 
 cases 'occur is not a matter of doubt. 
 
 So, too, in many other respects the laws are 
 framed to the disadvantage of the black. Be- 
 sides that he is seldom able to give security for 
 costs ; and long {erms in the penitentiary, where 
 he is leased out for hire, are the result. 
 
 The writer saw once in a Southern court, on 
 the same day, a young colored man of sixteen or 
 eighteen sentenced to two years in the peniten- 
 tiary for stealing a pair of gloves, worth perhaps 
 a dollar, from the counter of a country store, and 
 a young white man of about the same age, per- 
 haps a little older, let off on suspended judg- 
 ment and payment of costs after conviction for 
 stealing a pair of boots from a private house, 
 
394 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 broken into during the absence of the occupants. 
 In both cases it was a first offense. The colored 
 man was disfranchised : the white man was not. 
 
 Considering all these disadvantages, it may 
 fairly be urged in the colored man's behalf that 
 given " a white man's chance" and equal educa- 
 tional facilities, he would very soon reduce the 
 ratio of crime at least to a parity with the white 
 race. This, of course, is a matter in regard to 
 which there can be no reliable statistics ; but the 
 pathetic record that now stands against him, in- 
 stead of prejudicing any one to his detriment, 
 ought to incline every kindly Christian heart to 
 aid in removing every obstacle from his pathway 
 and obliterating every excuse the past or present 
 may seem to offer for the crimes he may commit. 
 As has been elsewhere stated, the ante-bellum 
 friends of the negro were too much inclined to 
 expect unmixed good in his life as a free man. 
 They have not usually paused to consider that not 
 only his past estate but his present condition is 
 very far from affording him an equality of oppor- 
 tunity with the white man, and that the greatest 
 cause of this unequal chance is the ignorance 
 that slavery engendered. 
 
From Different Standpoints. 395 
 
 The Republican Party. 
 This party is so thoroughly committed to the 
 doctrine of the negro's equality of right, by the 
 legislation of the past twenty years, that it would 
 seem almost as absurd for one professing its 
 tenets to object to this essential supplement of 
 its Reconstructionary legislation as it would be for 
 him to cast a ballot in favor of the re-establish- 
 ment of slavery. That party, by every conceiv- 
 able declaration, argument, and act, has declared 
 the colored man to be justly and properly en- 
 titled to an equality of power with the white 
 man in shaping the character of our Government, 
 both State and National. Knowing the race to 
 be wholly illiterate, absolutely without expe- 
 rience in public affairs, and still bound under the 
 thralldom of centuries of slavery, it not only ex- 
 tended to him the power and privilege of the bal- 
 lot, but it laid upon him the solemn duty of the 
 citizen. It placed upon the shoulders of every 
 adult male of this race, as well as upon the poor 
 whites of the South who were generally dis- 
 franchised by previous Constitutional provisions, 
 just as much responsibility for the destiny of 
 fifty millions of people as rests upon the shoul- 
 
396 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 ders of the wisest and best man that casts his 
 ballot into the urn of fate. 
 
 But, aside from these considerations, every 
 member of the Republican Party is bound by still 
 stronger ties of honor. It was at the solicitation 
 of that party that the slave offered his life for the 
 life of the Nation. At its earnest importunity 
 the freedman first undertook with fear and trem- 
 bling, doubt and dread, the duty of the citizen. 
 And only by his aid has this party maintained 
 its ascendency since that time. This party 
 armed the negro with a sword and refused to 
 grant him a shield. For twenty years it has re- 
 mained deaf to his supplication for what is just 
 as important for his political existence as the 
 breath of life to his physical being. Whatever 
 other evils the negro might have been called 
 upon to suffer, one thing is certain : that the 
 myriad outrages of the Ku-Klux Klan, the bar- 
 barities of Bull-Dozers and Rifle-Clubs, would 
 not have fallen to his lot but for the action of 
 the Republican Party in making him a political 
 factor. The enfranchisement of the colored man 
 at the close of the war was unquestionably an act 
 of wisdom and necessity which national honor 
 imperiously demanded. To grant the privileges 
 
From Different Standpoints. $97 
 
 and responsibilities of power, however, without 
 providing means for its secure and proper ex- 
 ercise was an act of such apparent stupidity and 
 such evident peril to its recipients as to smack 
 of cowardice and treachery on the part of those 
 who claimed credit for bestowing favor. The 
 barbarity which attended the revolution by 
 which the minority swept aside the rule of the 
 majority at the South is as nothing beside the 
 cold-blooded cruelty of that Republican who, 
 looking upon the events of the past twenty 
 years, deliberately refuses to give his voice and 
 influence in favor of extending to the eighty per 
 cent of colored illiterates of the South an oppor- 
 tunity to equip themselves for the performance 
 of the duty which this party imposed upon them. 
 We have poured fifty millions of dollars into the 
 mouths of the Mississippi in the hope that trade 
 may some time be coaxed to find its way through 
 them: but to the poor black mouths that have 
 pleaded with us for knowledge to enable a help- 
 less people to perform the tasks we imposed 
 upon them we have given not one cent. To the 
 Republican Party this measure is simply an op- 
 portunity to retrieve eighteen years of blunder- 
 ing stupidity and an unexampled record of faith- 
 
39S An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 lessness and cruelty to the most devoted allies a 
 political party ever knew. 
 
 The Democratic Party 
 While the Republican Party is estopped from 
 opposing this measure by reason of its record in 
 favor of the enfranchisement of the negro and 
 the policy of Reconstruction, the Democratic 
 Party is logically debarred from opposing such a 
 measure by the course which it has taken upon 
 the same questions. This party has always stub- 
 bornly contended, ever since the negro's right to 
 liberty or the freedman's right to power first 
 came in question, that he was unfitted for the 
 trust of citizenship. Throughout the South this 
 claim has generally been broadly based upon the 
 fact of color. The Southern Democrat does not 
 hesitate to avow his belief that the colored man 
 is not, and can never become, fit to exercise the 
 rights and privileges of citizenship in a republic. 
 At the North the party has not generally 
 espoused this view, but has planted itself 
 squarely upon the declaration that at the time of 
 his enfranchisement and until the present, he 
 was, and has continued, as a race, incapable of 
 the due and proper discharge of the responsibili- 
 
From Different Standpoints. 399 
 
 ties of citizenship. In this view of the fact they 
 were unquestionably right. The action of the 
 Republican Party in conferring the power of the 
 ballot upon the mass of ignorant voters at the 
 South without making any provision for their 
 enlightenment and instruction was unquestionably 
 an act of the most egregious folly, as well as the 
 utmost inhumanity to the colored race. Having 
 been accomplished, however, and being an act 
 which it is utterly impossible to undo, the ques- 
 tion which presents itself to the mind of the 
 patriotic Democrat is, whether it is better to 
 seek to remedy this evil by endeavoring to 
 remove the defect or to leave the matter to drag 
 along until it brings in its train the most terrible 
 of calamities. Either the position of the South- 
 ern Democrat in regard to the inherent incapa- 
 city of the colored man is correct or it is incor- 
 rect. If it be the true doctrine in regard to the 
 race, then twenty years of earnest effort toward 
 his enlightenment and development will demon- 
 strate that fact to the satisfaction of the whole 
 land and the whole world. If after that time 
 he shall not have shown himself unmistakably 
 able to acquire the intelligence and develop 
 the courage and power necessary for the perfor- 
 
4-00 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 mance of the duties of citizenship, no one will 
 thereafter be heard to claim that he is capable 
 of such development. It will then have been 
 proved that the white Democracy of the South 
 were right beyond all question in their claim that 
 this should be " a white man's government" and 
 that the colored man should be allowed no 
 power, authority, or voice in the shaping of its 
 policy or the determination of its destiny. He 
 must then go to the wall without hope of further 
 opportunity. If, however, after this twenty 
 years of experiment and the honest application 
 of the one or two hundred millions of dollars 
 that it is proposed to expend for the eradication 
 of illiteracy at the South, it shall be demon- 
 strated beyond a peradventure that the colored 
 man in America is able to become a worthy 
 factor in our government and civilization, cer- 
 tainly there is not one of any party or any 
 faction, whose opinion would be worth consider- 
 ing in connection with this question, who will 
 dare to say that he should be debarred from like 
 privilege and opportunity with his fellow-citizens 
 of the white race. In either point of view it 
 must be admitted that even as an experiment it 
 is one well worth trying. If it fail, it is cheaper 
 
From Different Standpoints. 401 
 
 to settle the question thus than by conflict and 
 slaughter. If it succeed, the Nation has saved 
 itself from committing a still greater and more 
 heinous wrong against humanity and right. 
 
 In no other peaceful manner can this question 
 be decided. The rest of the Nation and the 
 world will never admit the theory of the South- 
 ern Democrats that God has made the colored 
 man radically inferior to the white race until at 
 least one generation shall have been given " a 
 white man's chance" to acquire knowledge and a 
 fair opportunity to display capacity. The best 
 way to substantiate this theory, therefore, is to 
 give the negro a fair field and full opportunity to 
 demonstrate that the contrary doctrine is falla- 
 cious. 
 
 Moreover, if the inferences we have drawn 
 from the facts set forth in this book be correct, 
 the black majorities in the South are going to 
 increase year by year; their peaceful suppression 
 is going to be more and more difficult, not to say 
 impossible ; the only possible hope for a Demo- 
 cratic utilization of a fair proportion of this vast 
 mass of political power and multitude of ballots 
 lies in a growth of intelligence among ignorant 
 blacks and whites alike, and a gradual dying out 
 
4-02 An Appeal to C<zsar. 
 
 of the inherited instincts of race-prejudice ; and 
 the wise Democrats — wise not merely in patriot- 
 ism but also in partisanship — will act for to- 
 morrow and not blindly for to-day alone. 
 
 The Church. 
 One hesitates to address to any one professing 
 a belief in the doctrines of Christianity anything 
 like a specific argument or appeal in favor of any 
 measure the sole object and purpose of which is 
 the general betterment of humanity. It would 
 seem that one who claimed in any degree to be 
 controlled by the command, " Do good to all 
 men," must feel as if an injunction were laid upon 
 him actively and earnestly to promote such a 
 measure as we have discussed. It is one which 
 no person has yet been bold enough to aver will 
 accomplish aught of harm, and one which cannot 
 fail to result in very great good. Considered as 
 an act of humanity, it will constitute an inspira- 
 tion to many millions. Considered as a religious 
 agency, it opens the Word of God to the blind. 
 Regarded as a measure of peace, it gives promise 
 of averting bloodshed. Regarded as an act of 
 national policy, it offers hope of increased pros- 
 perity. Taken in connection with that myste- 
 
* From Different Standpoints. 403 
 
 rious providence which made the greed of man 
 the instrumentality for bringing the colored race 
 to these shores, which appointed for the lot of 
 the negro Christian stripes and tears and woe, 
 but kept forever green in his heart the faith in 
 that "year of jubilee" which should bring to him 
 deliverance — considered as a part of this wonder- 
 ful sequence of marvelous events, it would seem 
 that every believer must regard this measure as 
 an opportunity to offer the sacrifice of good 
 works in extenuation of the evil wrought before 
 by those who bore the Christian name and with 
 the sanction of Christian churches. 
 
 The Southern White Man. 
 If the negroes are increasing more rapidly than 
 the whites of the South ; if the whites are migrat- 
 ing from the oFder Slave States in much greater 
 proportion than the blacks ; if the number of 
 white persons of foreign birth resident in the 
 South is constantly decreasing; if the number of 
 white persons of Northern birth who are migrat- 
 ing to these States is very much less than the 
 number of white persons who are emigrating 
 thence to the North — if these are facts, then the 
 Southern white man has a greater interest in the 
 
404 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 measure under consideration than any other class, 
 unless it be the colored people of that section 
 themselves. No one knows so well as he what 
 this condition of affairs signifies to him and his 
 children. No one is so well able to understand the 
 horrors that must ensue if the day should ever 
 come when the colored man should rise up 
 against the white, not in fitful, isolated spasmodic 
 ebullition, but with the wild rage of a half-bar- 
 baric race, stung to the quick with oppression 
 and maddened with the desperate determination 
 to conquer for themselves liberty, equality, and 
 justice, or to face the dread alternative of death. 
 The writer knows full well that very few of the 
 white men of the South believe that this time can 
 ever come. They think the black man's capacity 
 for endurance has been divinely adapted to the 
 infinity of their arrogance. They do not deem 
 it possible that the colored people as a race, no 
 matter if they were a thousand to one, would 
 ever dare to rise up and attempt to achieve by 
 force anything that the whites might not be will- 
 ing to yield to them as of grace. They know 
 well, however, that if such a conflict should come 
 in the eight States which we have named, in the 
 end there could be but two alternatives — either 
 
From Different Standpoints. 405 
 
 the colored race must be destroyed or the white 
 race must be expelled. Conflict between the 
 two — open, avowed, and universal — means nothing 
 more and nothing less. In this conflict, even if 
 it should come to-morrow, they know, too, that the 
 odds are not so much against the colored race as 
 they would seem to be. The advantage of arms 
 and organization is with the whites ; the advantage 
 of opportunity is with the blacks. The white race 
 is open to two lines of attack : the colored people 
 are exposed to but one. The white man is in 
 peril both of person and property: the colored 
 man has only his life to lose. Six millions of 
 people with a proved capacity of doubling their 
 number every twenty years cannot always be 
 held in subjection by terror. If the white man is 
 to rule the South hereafter, he must rule by co- 
 operation with the colored race, and by their 
 assent, because of his superior wisdom, sagacity, 
 and prudence. If there is to be peace at the 
 South for any considerable time in the future, 
 it must come by the enlightenment of ignorance, 
 by the removal of prejudice, by the exercise of 
 toleration. If it be dangerous to the peace of 
 those communities to give to colored majorities 
 to-day the right to rule, it will be far more 
 
406 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 dangerous to prohibit them from obtaining the 
 intelligence and the capacity which shall enable 
 them to exercise the power of the ballot with 
 wisdom and discretion until it shall be impossible 
 longer to bar them from its exercise by the show 
 of force or practice of fraud. That time is not 
 very far distant ; and no class of our people 
 except the colored man himself has so intense an 
 interest in the elevation, intelligence, and develop- 
 ment of the black race as the white people of the 
 South. With them it must ultimately become a 
 question of possible collaboration with the blacks 
 upon terms of equality for the public good, or of 
 massacre for the public peace. The colored race 
 must be made fit to exercise joint dominion with 
 the whites, or enough of them killed from time to 
 time to make the rest of them willing to remain in 
 subjection. Neither of these may be an alto- 
 gether pleasant prospect for the Southern white 
 man to contemplate for himself and his children, 
 but none other is possible. The blacks will mul- 
 tiply, they will grow in strength and wealth and 
 knowledge, whether they receive aid from the 
 Government, from the States in which they dwell, 
 from the people with whom they mingle, or not. 
 The question for the Southern white man to 
 
From Different Standpoints. 407 
 
 answer for himself and for his children is whether 
 it is better to promote the improvement of the 
 colored race by education or to leave them in 
 their present estate and take the chances that 
 may attend upon their future. It is hardly pos- 
 sible that any man who shall coolly and deliber- 
 ately consider these things in the light of the 
 peace and happiness of future generations will 
 not conclude that the safest, wisest, and best 
 policy to pursue is to do whatever may be done 
 to enlighten the ignorance of both races and to 
 promote the exercise of that spirit of toleration 
 on the part of both which alone can secure 
 peace, harmony, and prosperity for the future. 
 
Will Caesar Hear? 
 
 DO not know. What is written herein has 
 ■*■ been written in the hope that attention may 
 be called to what seems to me the greatest of all 
 perils to our land. Because I believe that the 
 people have only thoroughly to comprehend an 
 evil in order to secure its extermination, I have 
 — under difficulties that few of its readers will 
 ever realize — laid this appeal before our Caesar, 
 and leave the matter to the decision of the 
 Nation without concern as to the result. If the 
 danger be not real, no harm can arise from its 
 
Will Ccesar Hear? 409 
 
 consideration. A peril that is fully understood 
 is already half overcome. Slavery would have 
 been harmless to the Nation had we but half 
 comprehended its power for mischief. It was 
 dangerous only because its power was despised. 
 We thought Mammon stronger than Moloch, 
 and believed that gold was a certain remedy for 
 the prejudices of race and caste. We paid dearly 
 for our indifference. 
 
 Perhaps I ought to offer something of apology 
 for having written again of what so many wiser 
 men declare that the people will not hear or 
 think. I would have kept silent had I dared. No 
 one bewails the facts I have been called upon to 
 discuss more than I. No one regards with more 
 of apprehension the result, or more keenly fears 
 lest the remedy so long delayed should come too 
 late to forestall the danger. 
 
 In excuse for having written, let me only say 
 that this is no new thought, no sudden thrill of 
 apprehension, and not by many my first attempt 
 to direct remedial attention in this direction. In 
 January, 1870, while the terrors of Ku-Kluxism 
 were at their fiercest, I wrote to the President of 
 the United States these words : 
 " One of the chief causes of these evils is the ignorance 
 
4io An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 and consequent weakness of those classes who are in 
 accord with the Reconstructionary policy of the Govern- 
 ment. The only remedy for this is general education. 
 It will act slowly but surely. It is no magic, patent 
 nostrum, but is the only remedy that will cure the 
 disease, and the general government is the only power 
 that can apply it. 
 
 " If the Government will place side by side with the 
 collector of its revenue the school-house and the teacher, 
 thousands who now recognize only the power of the 
 Government, find that irksome and believe it hostile, 
 will recognize its beneficent aspect, and indifference will 
 give way to cordial interest and support. In my opinion 
 the simplest, cheapest, and surest way to eradicate in the 
 mind of the ordinary Southern man that overweening 
 estimate of the doctrine of State sovereignty by means of 
 which the Confederacy commanded his devotion is to 
 impress upon his consciousness by daily demonstration 
 the fact that the Nation is aiding directly in the educa- 
 tion of his children." 
 
 In December of that year I presented a me- 
 morial of like purport to the United States Sen- 
 ate. In February of 187 1 I sought access to the 
 columns of a leading magazine in order to pre- 
 sent the matter and my observations and conclu- 
 sions more fully. The reply of the manager was 
 that he did not " think the matter of sufficient 
 public interest to warrant the publication of the 
 
Will Ccesar Hear? 411 
 
 article." A few weeks after I was allowed to 
 state it in one of the most obscure columns of a 
 great daily. It was referred to in a three-line 
 editorial as " a curious theory." 
 
 In 1872 I submitted a printed memorial to the 
 Republican National Convention, setting forth 
 in brief the main elements of the doctrine that 
 general education was an essential supplement of 
 Reconstruction and the only permanent pacifica- 
 tor of the South. It concluded in these words : 
 
 " School-houses are better than bayonets. Knowledge 
 alone can kill prejudice. Education is the only reliable 
 guarantee of peace and good order. Instruction is the 
 best defense for the humbler citizens of a community. 
 It is far cheaper for the Government to provide education 
 than to attempt to go on without it." 
 
 I never heard from this at all. 
 
 This matter, however, because of the apparent 
 failure of the Reconstruction Acts to secure the 
 pacification of the South, and the terrible devel- 
 opments of the census of 1870 in regard to illit- 
 eracy, made a profound impression on the mind 
 of President Grant. After long and anxious 
 consideration he determined to recommend to 
 Congress a remedy embracing two distinct fea- 
 tures. (1) A constitutional amendment exclud- 
 
412 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 ing from the elective franchise, so far as the 
 choice of national officers was concerned, all 
 illiterate males who might come of voting age 
 after a specified time, say ten years. (2) His un- 
 erring sense of justice, however, led him to 
 couple with this penalty of disfranchisement for 
 ignorance the frank admission that it ought not 
 to be enforced unless the Nation should first 
 provide ample opportunity for enlightenment. 
 This wise recommendation fell on evil times. A 
 personal warfare was already raging between the 
 President and a portion of his party in Congress, 
 and it does not appear that the proposition re- 
 ceived any serious consideration whatever. 
 
 In 1876 I bombarded the members of both 
 the Congressional and National Committees of 
 the Republican Party with another printed me- 
 morial upon the subject. The secretary of one 
 of them acknowledged it. 
 
 Then I gave up this method and in 1879 wrote 
 a book, hoping to call attention to the evil, its 
 causes, character, and remedy. In it are to be 
 found these words : 
 
 " The remedy for darkness is light ; for ignorance, 
 knowledge ; for wrong, righteousness. . . . Let the 
 Nation undo the evil it has permitted and encouraged. 
 
Will Ccesar Hear? 413 
 
 Let it educate those whom it made ignorant, and protect 
 those whom it made weak. It is not a matter of favor to 
 them, but of safety to the Nation. Make the spelling-book 
 the scepter of national power. Let the Nation educate the 
 colored man and the poor white BECA USE the Nation 
 held them in bondage, and is responsible for their igno- 
 rance. Educate the voter BECA USE the Nation cannot 
 afford that he should remain ignorant. . . . Poor whites, 
 freedmen, Ku-Klux, and Bull-Dozers are all alike the har- 
 vest of ignorance. The Nation cannot afford to grow such 
 a crop." 
 
 The volume was published in November, 1879. 
 It was the first appeal to the people in this mat- 
 ter. Caesar heard. The Republican National 
 Convention met the next June. For the first 
 time in the history of the country a great party 
 pledged itself in its platform to the support of 
 measures for the promotion of national aid to 
 education by these words : 
 
 " The work of popular education is one left to 
 the care of the several States, but it is the duty 
 of the national government to aid that to the 
 extent of its constitutional ability. The intel- 
 ligence of the Nation is but the aggregate of the 
 intelligence of the several States ; and the des- 
 tiny of the Nation must be guided, not by the 
 genius of any one State, but by the genius of all." 
 
4H An yip peal to Ccesar. 
 
 Since that time much has been said : and noth- 
 ing done. As we have seen, it was the subject 
 nearest to Garfield's heart. His death turned 
 the Nation's attention away from all subjects of 
 national polity except those which might be 
 linked directly or indirectly with the event of his 
 death. In the mean time many good and wise 
 men have joined in promoting the educational 
 movement in Congress on the general ground of 
 abstract public advantage and national honor. 
 That it would be a good, a wise and commend- 
 able thing for the Nation to do seems to be 
 admitted by all. That it is the one possible rem- 
 edy for an evil of incalculaole magnitude seems to 
 be in danger of being forgotten. No question 
 seems to be thought worthy of prominence in 
 the campaign of 1884 that does not find its high- 
 est expression in some application of our decimal 
 currency. Statesmanship appears to have aban- 
 doned the domain of public honor, forgotten 
 the claims of personal right and liberty, and 
 ignored the question of the public safety. The 
 inscrutable mysteries of tariff and wages are dan- 
 gled before the eyes of voters upon the one side 
 and the other as the only things worthy of con- 
 sideration at this time. What is the reason ? 
 
Will Ccesar Hear ? 415 
 
 They do not understand that duty and honor are 
 stronger bids for the favor of a free people than 
 any appeal to greed. There are no servants who 
 are so apt to forget their appointed tasks as 
 those who are charged with a public trust in the 
 performance of which they can discern no im- 
 mediate personal advantage. Why should a 
 politician whose steps are already passing down- 
 ward from life's divide trouble himself about 
 securing general intelligence among those who 
 will not cast a ballot until his career is ended ? 
 As well expect a centenarian to plant an orchard ! 
 
What can Caesar Do? 
 
 ' I ^HIS year is one of those in which the 
 -*- servants of the people receive their march- 
 ing orders. The convention and the platform of 
 the party to which he belongs are not the only 
 things that impress his duty upon the conscious- 
 ness of the candidate. The people's will, how- 
 ever it may find expression, is pretty sure to 
 control his action. It is a curious but important 
 fact that the unwritten ethical code of American 
 politics is so strong that even party affiliation is 
 rarely potent enough to induce a representative 
 
What can Ccesar Do ? 417 
 
 of the people to override the expressed and un- 
 mistakable will of his constituents, and still more 
 rarely strong enough to induce him to ignore an 
 explicit pledge to pursue a certain line of con- 
 duct. This is one of those years when we 
 choose the servants who are to shape our legisla- 
 tion. These are they to whom our myriad- 
 minded Caesar delegates his imperial power. 
 The most important work of government is in- 
 trusted to them. While the result is still in 
 doubt they are accessible to reason. As a rule 
 they are willing to pledge themselves to do or 
 not to do any especial thing not explicitly 
 opposed to the doctrines and platform of their 
 party. The individual Caesar, therefore, who 
 desires to see this great national duty performed, 
 this constantly growing evil cured, and this im- 
 pending danger averted will at once address him- 
 self to the Congressional candidates from his 
 district, and will propound a few such pertinent 
 inquiries as the following: 
 
 I. — Do you think that republican institutions can 
 
 long be safe in a nation having an average 
 
 of seventeen per cent of illiteracy among its 
 
 people? 
 
 2. — Do you not think it perilous to the national 
 
4i 8 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 welfare that in sixteen States more than 
 forty per cent of the population over ten 
 years old cannot read or write? 
 
 3. — Do you not think it a matter of prime im- 
 portance to the Nation that in eight of the 
 minor republics of the Union forty-eight 
 and one-lialf per cent of the people over ten 
 years old cannot read or write ? 
 
 4. — Does it strike you as an important fact that 
 one-half the population of those eight 
 States are white, and the other half of the 
 colored race? 
 
 5. — Do you think it of any special moment that 
 the whites were masters and the blacks 
 were slaves a little less than twenty years 
 ago? 
 
 6. — Has it occurred to you as a dangerous symp- 
 tom that in these States, three of which 
 have a large colored majority, a party 
 boasting itself to be the " White Man's 
 Party" continuously holds the power? 
 
 7. — Has it ever struck you as significant that 
 collisions between the races are peculiar to 
 this region, and usually have at least a semi- 
 political complexion ? 
 
 8. — Are you aware that one-fourth of the whites 
 
What can Ccesa?' Do ? 419 
 
 and three-fourths of the blacks of this 
 region a re unable to read or write? 
 
 9. — Have you ever noted the fact that the pre- 
 ponderance of the blacks is increasing at an 
 amazing ratio every year, and considered 
 whether the present state of affairs can 
 long continue without more serious colli- 
 sion between the races, and what such 
 collision would mean ? 
 
 10. — Have you fully considered the effect of 
 ignorance upon this state of facts, that it is 
 impossible for the individual States to rem- 
 edy the evil, and that whatever is done in 
 this direction should be done quickly? 
 
 II. — Do you not think that this state of affairs 
 demands immediate and vigorous action on 
 the part of the general government in the 
 direction of National Education ? 
 
 12. — Under the circumstances do you think it 
 would be wise or prudent to intrust the 
 distribution of a fund raised for the cure of 
 illiteracy to the officials of those States in 
 which a white minority has control of every 
 department of the government, while three- 
 fourths of the fund should be devoted to 
 the education of colored illiterates? 
 
4-20 An Appeal to Casar. 
 
 13. — Will you pledge yourself to give your best 
 endeavor to the elaboration and adoption of a 
 measure bestowing national aid to primary 
 education on the basis of illiteracy, which shall 
 provide fo? the fair and equable distribution 
 of such fund without placing it under State 
 control ? 
 If Osar will do this, let him DO IT NOW! 
 It matters not whether he is known or unknown, 
 rich or poor, high or low ; if he hold a ballot in 
 his hand, his servant will be only to glad to listen 
 and reply. Let every candidate for Congressional 
 honors receive not one but a hundred — aye, a 
 thousand — such epistles, and there is no doubt 
 but the will of the people will be performed. 
 These are things that even politicians do not for- 
 get. Let every one who reads these pages 
 remember that he has a personal duty to perform 
 in connection with this matter, and see to it 
 that his duty is not neglected. 
 
 And for him who reads this appeal after the 
 elections of the autumn of 1884 are past, — what 
 is his duty? He will have lost his best oppor- 
 tunity — to impress the mind and conscience of a 
 candidate ; but the responsibility of this matter 
 will still rest upon each individual citizen, and he 
 
What can Ccesar Do? 421 
 
 must address his representative and servant in 
 Congress. We cannot shoulder off our individual 
 burdens on the Nation at large, or on " Congress 
 and the Administration." That way destruction 
 lies. It is governments that blunder into compli- 
 cations and combats ; the instinct of the people 
 is far safer. But it must be operative. If Caesar 
 is to act, each single Ccesar must do his part. Let 
 your Congressman hear from you ! 
 
 One of the wisest of the laws of Solon, pre- 
 scribed for the government of the Athenians, was 
 that which disfranchised all who should stand 
 neutral in case of a rebellion or sedition of any 
 sort among the people. Those who engaged in 
 rebellion, made war upon the government, stirred 
 up strife and sedition, might be forgiven ; but 
 those who stood by and left the government to 
 fight it out with the insurgents, those who had 
 not manhood enough to entertain a conviction 
 either one way or the other, or had not courage 
 enough to stand forth and take the risk of death 
 or exile because of that conviction — these were to 
 be punished without hope or possibility of pardon 
 by absolute, irrevocable disfranchisement. The 
 American citizen, the individual Caesar to whose 
 
42 2 An Appeal to Ccesar. 
 
 judgment are left the issues of prosperity and 
 adversity, of peace and war, of life and death for 
 the Nation, who has not the manhood to deter- 
 mine those issues for himself and to take the 
 steps which shall give effect to his judgment — 
 such a man well deserves the fate which the laws 
 of Solon prescribed. The worst enemy which our 
 national institutions can have is not the man who 
 assails them, for he may be met and overcome : 
 it is the man who knows what is right and neces- 
 sary to be done, but is too slothful and indifferent 
 to give effect to his own opinion and exercise the 
 power he holds as one of the co-ordinate rulers of 
 the Great Republic. 
 
 This appeal may be vain. Dictated from a bed 
 of sickness as it has been, it may only weakly set 
 forth the grounds on which it is based : but I have 
 performed what seemed a duty, and leave now 
 the responsibility for action or inaction, good or 
 evil consequences, to those my fellow-rulers for 
 whose consideration these pages have been 
 written. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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