Page images
PDF
EPUB

I have the following facts: From 1865 to January 1, 1881, the Society donated for building churches, in round numbers, $830,000. Of the whole amount, not less than $350,000 have been expended in the Southern States, and of the $350,000 nearly $200,000 have been used for the benefit of the colored people. Of their "loan fund"-used only in loans-less than $200,000 have been in use in the Southern States, and of this amount, about $50,000 among the colored people. The Society has aided 3,068 churches throughout the country; of the whole number, about 1,600 are in the Southern States, and of the 1,600, not less than 1,000 are for the use of the colored people.

Other Churches, whose reports are not available, have done much good. And many thousands of dollars have been given by benevolent individuals, whose benefactions do not appear in any published statistics. No doubt they are recorded where they will never be forgotten.

The Presbyterians (of the North for the most part) have done a great work in the education of the negroes. Mr. Eaton reports for them, two normal schools in the South; three "institutions for secondary instruction;" one university, the Biddle, located at Charlotte, North Carolina, and one at Oxford, Pennsylvania. The Episcopalians have established two normal schools and seven schools for "secondary instruction." The Friends have

one important institution in East Tennessee. The Roman Catholics have a school for colored people in Baltimore.

For myself I have reached a conclusion about this educational work among the negroes of the South; it is God's work. Errors and mistakes being allowed, the main facts abide. Here is a small army of devoted men and women teaching these poor negroes. Millions of dollars have been invested in the work; also millions of prayers. I have studied their reports, have looked into some of their schools, and have examined no little of their work; it is full of hope and cheerful prophecy. It is high time that those who are trying to do good should have knowledge of each other. Then they would help each other. These men and women of the North who are in the South teaching the negroes could do a great deal more good if we of the South, men and women, would do our full duty to them. If, when they know us, we "improve on acquaintance" as much as some of them have improved on acquaintance after being once known by us, then in the next generation, if not before, there will be mutual admiration, with much helping of one another in every good work. And it will be to the peace of men and the glory of God. Will not this be better than mutual suspicions, heart-burnings, and other such "works of the devil?"

CHAPTER XV.

THE NEGRO AS A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY.

WI

ISE men, who wish the negro well and who

have the best interests of the country at heart, will not confine their attention to his voting. It seems to me, as heretofore intimated, that his importance as a voter has been greatly exaggerated, much to his hurt. I say this not because he is a negro, but upon the general principle that the man is of more consequence than the voter. Voting is not the main business of life; determining elections is not the chief end of a man, whether of a black or of a white man. He not only has other duties and functions to perform, but others more important. A citizen does not render his greatest service to society by the act of depositing a ballot, but by his right living. What is he? What does he do? Is he a producer? Does he add any value, material, intellectual, or moral, to the resources of his community and of the country? Is his personal influence good? Is his family life a salt-savor among his children and neighbors? Is the man as well as the voter what he ought to be?

If we must stick on this ballot question, then I

have this to say, a man's real value in politics depends upon his value in the community. Voting is, indeed, important, but it is incidental. A man votes, we will suppose, two or three times a year, or oftener, as the case may be. But he is a member of the community three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. Now, what is he in the community? Is his influence, whether it be great or small, on the right side of morals and progress? This aspect of the question no thoughtful person can overlook, or undervalue. For it is real, practical, abiding.

The negro is a neighbor. Perhaps there is little or no intercourse between the cabin and the mansion, or between the cabin and the cottage, or even between two cabins, a white family in one and a colored family in the other. (But I do think there is more intercourse between "mansion" and "cabin" in the South than between "brown-stone front" and "garret" in the great cities.) But the negro is a neighbor all the same, and, by his very existence and presence, a power for good or evil. If we leave the higher considerations of duty, and find the lowest place for our argument-the self-interest, the mere convenience and comfort, of the dominant race—it is important that this negro, this humblest member of the community, be a good man, a man of right views, sentiments, habits, and associations. It is important to both races that their relations be not only friendly but mutually

helpful and affectionate. If this negro be a bad man, with false views, corrupt sentiments, vicious habits, and evil associations, he is a constant menace to peace and good order. Neither more nor less a menace on account of his color, but a menace on account of his character.

In what ways, now, can we of the white race help our colored neighbor to be what he ought to be as a member of the community? The answer cannot be given in detail; no rules can comprehend such a subject. Much depends on circumstances of time and place, as of persons. Of one thing we may be sure it is not in the power of legislatures, state or national, to define the class of relations and duties I am writing of, nor to secure the results that rightminded people believe to be so necessary to the well-being of society. Social problems were never solved by legislation or authority; it is not in the nature of things that they should be solved by mere power or mere law. I am not unmindful of the value and need of good laws, of laws that defend and protect men in all their rights; that encourage, and, in so far as it is possible, secure the fullest development of the best powers that are in human nature. But I am now speaking of these relations in life that are of necessity more or less beyond the reach of human laws and their sanctions; of relations in which each man must be more or less a law unto himself.

« PreviousContinue »