Newspaper Page Text
8
GMO BOSTON. '
ie Full Text of His Remarkable
Speech.
THE RACE PROBLEM IN THE SOUTH
A Ringing Answer to the
Policy of Interference,
Boston, Mass., December 12.—[Special.]—
Upon being introduced to the audience to
night, Mr. Grady received a great ovation.
The Story of the Banquet.
Boston, December 12. —OverlOOof the solid
business men of Boston and New England crowded
the spacious apartments of the Hotel Vendome this
evening on the occasion of the annual banquet of
the Boston Merchants* association. 80 great was
the desire to see and hear tho honored guests of the
Sflaociation that the tickets were all disposed of at a
prtaßium days ago, and scores of applicants were
appointed From sto 6 o’clock a reception was
bcXi in tho hotel parlors, at which many of the
scribers of the association were introduced to the
sp/ ftl guests of the evening: Ex-President Cleve
aici. Andrew Carnegie, Henry W. Grady and Hon.
W % Putnam, of Maine. At 6 o’clock the march
w<m» caken to the (lining hall, to music by the
mania orchestra. **
THE BANQUET OPENED.
It was 8:15 o'clock before President Lane called
the attention of the gathering. After reading a
letter of regret from James Russell Lowell, he pro
ceeded in a brief speech to introduce Governor
Oliver Ames, who, in a few words, welcomed the
guests ot the occasion. When ho referred to the
welcome extended to the distinguished guests from
New York, the assembly greeted the mention with
loud applause. Governor Amos then turned to
Mr.(Cleveland, and said:
••If the wicked democrats speak as well of me
when I retire from oilice, as the republicans now
do of you,[ shall be abundantly satisfied."
Tins sentiment was also loudly cheered. Homer
Rogers, president of the board of aidermen, was [
then introduced and welcomed the guests in be- j
half oi Mayor Hart, who is absent from the city ’
President Lane then, in very few words, introduced
Ex-President Cleveland as one who, strong in his
personality, would speak strong words tonight
which would be heard all over the land and across
the sea in behalf of pure politics and those reforms
which are now sweeping ail parties before them.
Mr. Cleveland was greeted with long continued
applause, si mute and cheers, the entire assembly
rising and waving handkerchiefs and cheering
again. He spoke in a strong, well modulated voice,
and was easily heard by all.
Hr. Cleveland's ad-lre.-s aroused great enthusiasm
t A his points were greeted with cries of "good,’
(. J applause.
Mr. Grady Speaks.
jFhen Mr. Henry W. Grady arose lie was
r teted by such applause that it was some limo
jure he could begin. Three times three cheers
®e given with a will. Mr. Grady at last be
gun, and for eighty minutes spoke with the
closest attention. Said he:
“Mr. President, bidden by your invitation
to a discussion of the race problem, forbidden
by occasion to make a political speech, 1 ap
preciate, in trying to reconcile order with pro
priety, the perplexity of the little maid, who,
bidden to learn to swim was yet adjured:
"Now, go, my darling daughter,
Hang your clothes on a hickory limb,
And don’t go near the water.’’
The stoutest apostle of the church, they j
say, is the missionary, and the missionary, t
wherever he unfurls his flag, w ill never find |
himself in deeper need of unction and address .
than I, bidden tonight to plant the standard of I
a southern democrat in Boston’s banquet hall,
and to discuss the problem of the races in the
home of Phillips and of Sumner. |
Mut. - Mr. 1£ a
io speak in pertect frankness and sincerity : if
earnest understanding of the vast interests in
volved ; if a consecrating sense of what disaster
that must follow further misunder
standing and estrangement: if these may bo
counted to steady undisciplined speech and to
strengthen an untried arm—then, sir, I shall
find the courage to proceed.
Happy am I that this mission has brought
my feet, at last, to press New Eng
land’s historic soil, and my eyes to the
knowledge of her beauty and her thrift.
Here within touch of Plymouth Rock, and
Bunker Hill—where Webster thundered and
Dongfellow sung, Emerson thought, and
Channing preached—here in the cradle of
American letters and almost of American
liberty, I hasten to make the obeisance that
every American owes New England when first
he stands uncovered in her mighty presence.
Strange apparition! This stern and unique
figure—carved from the ocean and the wilder
ness—its majesty kindling and growing amid
the storms of winters and of wars—until at last
the gloom was broken, its beauty dis
closed in the tranquil sunshine, and the he
roic workers rested at its base—while startled
kings and emperors gazed and marveled
that from the rude touch of this handful, cast
on a bleak and unknown shore, should have
come the embodied genius of human govern
inent and the perfected model of human lib
erty! God bless the memory of those immortal
workers—and prosper the fortunes of their
living sons—and perpetuate the inspiration of
their handiwork!
Two years ago sir, I spoke some words in
New York that caught the attention of the
north. As I stand here to reiterate and em
phasize ,as I have done everywhere, every
word I then uttered —to declare that thesenti- 1
incuts I then avovul were universally ap- i
proved in the south—l realize that the eonti- I
dence begotten by that speech is largely re
sponsible for my presence here to-
ght. 1 should dishonor myself if |
betrayed that confidence by uttering
t .© insincere word, or by withhold
% one essential element of the truth. A pro- i
'js of this iast. It ime confess. Mr. President — j
i/ore the praise of New England has died on ■
/ lips—that I believe the best product of her ;
.Gsent life is the procession of 17,000 Vermont i
n:oerats that for twenty-two years, undimin- j
ished by death, unrecruited by birth or conver.
sion, have marched over their rugged bills, j
cast their democratic ballots—and gone !
back home to pray for their un regenerate
neighbors, and awake to read the record of i
26,000 republican majority. May tho God of |
the helpless and the heroic help them —and •
may their sturdy tribo increase!
Far to tho south, Mr. President, separated 1
from this section by a line—once delined in irre
pressible difference, once traced in fratricidal
blood, and now, thank God, but a vanishing
shadow—lies the fairest and richest domain of
this earth. It is of a brave and hos
pitable people. There,is centered all that can ;
please or prosper humankind. A perfect cli
mate above a fertile soil, yields to the hus
bandman every product of the temperate zone.
There, by night the cotton whitens beneath
the stars, and by day the wheat locks the
sunshine in its bearded sheaf. In the same field
the clover steals the fragrance of the wind,
and the tobacco catches the quick aroma of the
rains. There, are mountains stored with ex -
haustless treasures; forests—vast and
primeval; ami rivers that. tumbling
or loitering, run wanton to the sea.
Os the three essential items of ail industries—
cotton. iron and wood—that region
'as easy control. In cotton, a
Xed monopoly—in iron, proven su
-emacy—in timber, the reserve supply of the
public. From this assured and permanent
.vantage, against which artificial conditions
n not long prevail, has grown an amaz
g system of industries Not, maintained
j human contrivance of tariff or
jpital, afar off from the fullest and cheapest
source of supply, but resting in Di
ivine assurance, within touch of field j
and mine and forest—not, set amid bleak hills .
and costly farms from which competition has
driven the farmer in despair, but amid cheap ■
and sunny lands, rich with agriculture, to
which neither season nor soil has set a limit— ;
this system of industries is mounting to a ;
‘plendor that shall dazzle and illumine the I
orld. That, sir, is the picture and the j
promise of my home—a land better and fairer
than 1 have told you, and yet but fit setting, iu
its material excellen :e, for the loyal and gentle
quality of its citizet-siiip. Against that., sir, we
have New England recruiting the republic
from its sturdy loins, shaking from its over
crowded hives new swarms of workers, and
touching tliis land all over with its energy and
its courage, And yet—while in the Eldorado
of which I have told you, but 13 per cent
of lands are cultivated, its mines scarcely
touched, and its population so scant that,
were it set equidistant, the sound of the hu
man voice could not be heard from Virginia
to Texas—while on the threshold of nearly
every house in New England stands
a son, seeking with troubled eyes, some
new land in which to carry his modest pa
trimony. and the homely training that is better
than gold—the strange fact remains <liat in
1880 the south had fewer northern born citi
zens than she hadin 1870—fewer in,’7o than in
’6O. Why is this? Why is it, sir,
though the sectional line be now
but a mist that the breath may
dispel, fewer men of the north have crossed it
over to the south, than when it was crimson
with the best blood of the republic, or even
when the slave-holder stood guard every inch
of its way?
There can be but one answer. It is the very
problem we are now to consider. The key that
opens that problem will unlock to the world
tho fairest half of this republic, aud free the
halted feet of thousands whose eyes arealready
kindling with its beauty. Bettor than this, it
will open the hearts of brothers for thirty
years estranged, and clasp in lasting
comradeship a million hands now with
held in doubt. Nothing sir, but this
problem and the suspicions it breeds, hinders a
clear understanding, and a perfect union.
Nothing else stands between u«, and such love
as bound Georgia and Massachusetts at Valley
Forge and Yorktown, chastened by the sacri
fices of Manassas and Gettysburg, and illum
ined with the coming of better work and a
nobler destiny than was over wrought with the
sword, or sought at the cannon’s mouth.
If this doca not invito your patient hearing
to nigut—lie'ar one thing more. My people,
your brothers in the south
brothers in blood, in destiny, in all that
is best in our past and future—are
so beset with this problem that their very ex
istence depends on its right solution. Nor are
they wholly to blame for its presence. The
slaveships of tho republic sailed from your
ports—the slaves worked in our fields. You
will not defend the traffic, nor I the institu
tion. But I do here declare that in
its wise and humane administration, in lift
ing the • slave to heights of which he
had not dreamed in his savage home,
and giving him a happiness ho has not yet
found in freedom—our fathers left their sons
I a saving and excellent heritage.
|ln the storm of war, this insti-
I tution was lost. I thank God as
, heartily as you do, that human slavery is
gone forever from American soil. But the free
domremains. With hima problem without pre
cedent or parallel. Note its appalling condi
tions. Two utterly dissimilar races on the same
soil—with equal political and civil rights—
almost equal in numbers, but terribly unequal
in intelligence and responsibility—each
pledged against fusion—one for a century in
servitude to tho other, and freed at last by a
desolating war—the experiment sought by
neither, but approached by both with doubt—
these are the conditions. Under these, ad
verse at every point, we are required to carry
these two races in peace and honor to the end.
Never sir, has such a task been given to mor
tal stewardship. Never before in this republic
has the white race divided on the rights of an
alien race. The red man was cut down as a
weed, because ho hindered the way of the
American citizen. The yellow man was shut
out of this republic because he is an alien and
inferior. The red man was owner of the land
—the yellow man highly civilized and assimi
lable- -but they hindered both sections aud are
gone! But the black man, clothed with
every privilege of government, affecting
but one section, is pinned to the soil, and my
people commanded to makegood at any hazard,
and at any cost, his full and equal
heirship of American privilege and prosper
ity. It matters not, that every other race has
| been routed or excluded, without rhyme or
j reason. It matters not that wherever the
i whites and blacks have touched, in any era or
j in any clime, there has been irreconcilable
, violence. It matters not that no two races
| however similar have ever lived anywhere at
ruy time, on the same soil with equal rights
i.i peace! In spite of these things we are com
manded to make good this change of
- yeAio-y —wVitc’h - rias not peruaps
changed American prejudice—to make certain
here, what has elsewhere been impossible be
tween whites aud blacks—and to reverse, un
der the very worst conditions, the universal
verdict of racial history. And driven, sir, to
this superhuman task with an impatience that
brooks no delay—a rigor that accepts no ex
cuse—and a suspicion that discourages frank
ness and sincerity, We do not shrink from tins
trial. It is so interwoven with our in
dustrial fabric that we cannot disentangle it
if we would .so bound up in our hon
orable obligation to the world, that we
would not if we could. Can we solve it? The
God who gave it into our hands, lie alone can
know. But this, the weakest and wisest of us
do know ; we can not solvo it with less than
your tolerant and patient sympathy—with less
than the knowledge that the blood that runs
in your veins is our blood—and that, when we
have done our best, whether the issue be lost
or won, we shall feel your strong arms about
us and hear the beating of your approving
hearts!
The resolute, clear-headed, broad-minded
men of the south—the men whose geuius
made glorious every page of the first seventy
years of American history—whose courage
and fortitude jtn tested in five years of the
fiercest war—v.liosi energy has made bricks
without straw and snread splendor amid the
ashes of their war-wasted homes—these men
wear this problem in their hearts and tiieir
brains, by day and by night. They real
ize, as you cannot, what this problem
means—what they owe to this kindly
and dependent race—the measure of their
debt to the world in whose despite they de
fended and maintained slavery. And though
I their feet are hindered in its undergrowth,
I mid their march cumbered with its burdens,
i they have lost neither the patience from
| which comes clearness, nor the faith from
which comes courage. Nor sir, when in pas
sionate moments is disclosed to them that vague
and awful shadow, with its lurid abysses, and
j its crimson stains, into which I pray God they
■ may never go, are they struck with more of
! apprehension than is needed to complete their
| consecration!
Such is the temper of my people. But what
of tho problem itself? Mr. President, we need
J not go out* stop further unless you concede
I right hero that tho people I speak for areas
honest, as sensible, and as just, as your people
the seeking as earnestly as you would in their
I place, to rightly solve problem that
touches them at every vital point. If you
. insist that they are ruffians, blindly striving
I with bludgeon and shotgun to plunder and op
press a race, then I shall tax your patience in
vain. But admit that they aro men of com
mon sense and common honesty—wisely modi
i tying an environment they cannot wholly
disregard—guiding and controlling as best they
can the vicious and irresponsible of either
race—compensating error with frankness, anil
retrieving in patience what they lose in passion
: —and c- nsciousall the time that wrong means
ruin—admit this, and we may reach an under
standing tonight.
The president of the United States, in his
late message to congress, discussing tho plea
that the south should he left to solve this
problem, asks: "Are they at work upon it?
What solution do they offer? When
will the black man cast a free
ballot? When wilt In- have the
civil rightss that is his?” 1 shall not here
protest against a parlisanrv that for the first
time in our history, in time of peace, has
stamped with the great seal of our govern
ment, a stigma upon the people of a great
loyal section : though 1 gratefully remember
that the great dead soldier who held the helm
of state lor tho eight stormiest years of re, on
struction, never found need for such a stop—
ami though I can think of no personal sacri
fice 1 would not make to remove this cruel aufl
unjust imputation on my people from tho
archives of my country! lint, sir, backed.by a
record, sir, on every page of which is progress,
I venture to make earnest and Respectful an
i swer to the questions that aro asked. 1 be
speak your patience, while with rigor
ous plainness of speech, seeking your
judgment rather than your applause,
I proceed step by step. Wo give
to tho world this year a crop of 7,300,(XX) bales
1 of cotton, worth 8450,000,000, and its cash
I equivalent in grain, grasses and fruit. This
I enormous crop could not have come from the
GA.,'DECEMBER 20, 1889.
hands of sullen and discontented labor.
It comes from peaceful fields, in which
laughter and gossip rise above the
hum of industry, and contentment runs with
the singing plow. It is claimed that this igno
rant labor is defrauded of its just hire? I pre
sent the tax books of Georgia, which show
that the negro, twenty-five years ago a slave,
has iu Georgia alone $10,000,000 oi assessed
property, worth twice that much. Does
not that record honor him, and vin
dicate his neighbors? What people, penniless,
illiterate, lias done so well ? For every Afro-
American agitator, stirring the strife iu which
alone he prospers, I can show, you a hundred
negroes, happy in their cabin homes, tilling
their own land by day, and at night taking
from the lips of their children the helpful mes
sage their state sends them ftotn the
schoolhouse door. And the schoolhouse itself
bears testimony. In Georgia, we added last
year $260,000 to the school fund, making a
total of more than $1,000,000 —aMd this
in the face of prejudice not yet conquered—of
the fact that the whites are assessed
for $368,000,000, the blacks for
$10,000,000. and yet 49 per cent
of tho beneficiaries are black children—and in
the doubt of many wise men if educa
tion helps, or can help, our problem. Charles
ton, with her taxable values cut half in two
since 1860. pays more in proportion for
public schools than Boston. Althoi gli it is
easier to give much out of much than little out.
of little, the south with one-seventl; of the
taxable property of the country, with relative
ly larger debt, having received only one
twelfth as much of public lands, and having
back of its tax books none of half billion of
bonds that enrich the north, yet gives nearly
one sixth of the public school fund. Tliosouth,
since 1865, has spent $122,000,000 in
education, and this year is pledged to $37,-
000.000 more for state and city schools—
although the blacks paying one
thirtieth of the raxes, get nearly one-half
of the fund. Go into our fields tad see
whites and blacks working side by side. On
our buildings in the same sttuad. °u»
shops at the same forge. Ofreu the
blacks crowd the whites from work, V lower
wages by their greater need or simph'J habits,
and yet are permitted, because wo wiiJt ti bar
them from no avenue in which their fffiet are
fitted to tread. They could not there be'elccted
orators of white universities as they insye been
here, but they do enter there, a hundred useful
trades that are closed against them lieie. We
hold it better and wiser to te£d the
weeds in the garden than to water the exotic
in the window. In the south there are negro
lawyers, teachers, editors, dentists, doctors,
preachers, working in peace and multiplying
with the increasing ability of their race to
support them. In villages and towns they
have their military companies equipped
from the armories of the state, their churches
and societies built and supported largely by
their neighbors. W hat is the testimony of the
courts? In penal legislation we have
steadily reduced felonies to misdemeanors,
and have led the world in mitigating
punishment ' - crime, that we might
save, as la. as possible, this dependent
race from its own weakness. In our
penitentiary record 60 yer cent of
the prosecutors are negroes, aud in
every court the negro criminal strikes
the colored juror, that white men may judge
his case. In tho north, one negro in every 185
is in jail—in the south, only one in 416. In the
north the per centage of negro prisotiers is
6 as great as that of native Whites—
in the south only 4 timesas
great. If prejudice wrongs him in southern
courts, the record shows it to be deeper in
northern courts. I assert here, aud a*bar
as intelligent and upright as the bar of Massa
chusetts will solemnly indorse my assertion,
that in the southern courts, from
highest to lowest, pleading for either liberty
or property, the negro has distinct advantage
because ho is a negro apt to be overreached
oppressed—and that this advantage reaches
from the juror in making liis verdict to the
judge in measuring his sentence. Now, Me.
President, can it be seriously maintained—that
wo are terrorizing the people ’.from
whose willing hands comes every * year
$1,000,000,000 of farm crons. Or have
robbed a people, who twenty-five years from
unrewarded slavery have amassed in one state
$20,000,000 of property? Or that we intent) to
oppress the people we are arming every dr.y?
Or deceive them, when we are educating them
to tlye utmost limit of our ability? Or outlaw
them when we work side by side with them?
One-enslave them under legal forms, when lor
their benefit we have even imprudently irir
rowed the limit of felvxw’.s and mitjf.ted the
severityui’law? MyTellowcounti'ymefi;Tssyoii
yourself may sometimes have to appeal
at the bar of human judgment for justice and
for right, give to my people tonight the fair
and unanswerable conclusion, of these incon
testible facts!
But it is claimed that under this fair seem
ing there is disorder aud violence. This, I ad
mit. And there will be until there is one
ideal community on earth after which we may
pattern. But how widely is it misjudged. It
is bard to measure with exactness whatever
touches the negro. His helplessness,
his isolation, his century of servitude,
these dispose us to emphasize and
magnify his wrongs. ’this disposi
tion, inflamed by prejudice and partisanry
until it has led to injustice and de
lusion. Lawless men may ravage a county in
lowa and it is accepted as an incident—in the
south a drunken row is declared to be the
fixed habit of the community. Regulators may
whip vagabonds in Indiana by platoons and it
scarcely arrests attention—a ehanee collision in
the south among relatively the same classes, is
gravely accepted as evidence that one race is
destroying the other. We might as well claim
that the union was ungrateful to the colored
soldiers who followed its flag, because a
Grand Army post in Connecticut closed
closed its doors to a negro veteran, as for you
to give racial significance to every incident
in the south, or to accent exceptional grounds
as the rule of our society. lam not of those
who becloud American honor with the parade
of the outrages of either sections, and belie
American character by declaring them to be
significant and representative. 1 prefer to
maintain that they are neither, and stand for
nothing but the passion and sin of our fallen
humanity. If society, like a machine,
were no stronger than its weakest part,
I should despair of both sections. But.,
knowing that society, sentient and
responsible in every fiber, can mend ami
repair until the whole has the strength of the
best, I despair of neither. These gentlemen
who come with me here, knit into
Georgia’s busy life as they are, never saw, I
dare assert, an outrage committed on a negro!
And if they did, no one of you would he
swifter to prevent or punish. It is through
them, and the men who think with them—
mnking nine-tenths of every southern com
munity—that these two races have been carried
thus far with less of violence-than would have
been possible anywhere else on earth. And in
their fairness and courage and steadfas4Mss-r
inoto than in all the laws that can bo pasSßd,
or all the bayonets that can be inustciedjvis
the hope of our future! ’■
But we are asked." When will the negro cast
a free ballot'”’ When the ignorant, any
where, can cast a ballot not dominated by the
will of the intelligent. When the laborer,
anywhere, casts liis vote unhindered by his
boss. When tho poor, everywhere, are not
influenced by tho money and devices of the
rich. When the might of the strong
and the responsible will not every
where control the suffrage of tho
weak and the shiftless. Then and not
till then will the ballot of tho negro be free.
Mr. President, I shall not go further into po
litical discussion than is necessarv to make
plain what is most misunderstood, and what
holds the kernel of this whole matter. The white
people of tho south aro banded together, not
t hrough prejudice against the negro, nor sec
tional estrangement, nor the hope of political
dominion, but because of deep and abiding
necessity. Hero is this vast mass of ignorant
ami purchasable votes. Clannish, credulous
passionate, and irresponsible. On tho slight
est division of tho white vote it holds the
balance of power. It cannot be merged
mid lost in the' two groat parlies
lor it lacks political conviction, and even tho
knowledge on which conviction is based, It
remains a faction, tempting every art of the
demagogue, insensible to the appeal of the
statesman. Let thel whites divide audit be
comes the prey of the cunning and the un
scrupulous. its cupidity is tempted, its
passion inflamed, its credulity imposed on. its
prejudice deepened, and even its superstition
made to play its part in a campaign in which
every honest society is jeopardized aud
every approach to the ballot box debauched
It is against such campaigns as these that the
white people are banded together—just as they
would be in Massachusetts, if 300,000 black
men—not one in a||hundred able to read his
allot—banded in race instinct—holding
against you the memory of a century of slaver-,
—aud inspired by the party that had freed
them to distrust and oppose you. had already,
in alliance with your conquerors, travestied
government from your State House, and in
| folly or villainy scattered your substance, and
exhausted your credit!
i But admitting the right of the whites to
unite against this tremffndous menace, we are
challenged with the smallness of our vote.
This has long been flippantly charged to be
evidence, and has now been solemnly and of
ficially declared to be proof, of political turpi
tude and baseness on our part. Let us . see.
Virgin®—a state now nnder fierce as
sault for this alleged crime—cast in 1888 75
per cent of her vote. Massachusetts, the state
hi which I speak, 60 per cent of her vote. Was
it suppression in Virginia and natural causes in
Massachusetts? Last month, Virginia cast
69 per cent of her vote, and Massa
chusetts, fighting in every district, cast only
49 per cent of hers. If Virginia is
condemned because 31 per cent of her
vote was silent, how shall this state escape in
which 51 per cent was dumb? Let ns
enlarge this comparison. The six
teen southern states in 'BB cast 67 per cent of
their, total vote—the six New England states
but 63 per cent of theirs. By what fair rule
shall the stigma be put upon one section,
while the other escapes? A congressional
election in New York last week, with the
polling place in touch of every voter, brought
out only 6,000 votes of 28.000—and the lack of
opposition is assigned as the natural cause. In
a district in my state in which an opposition
speech has not been heard in ten years, and
the polling places are miles apart—under
the unfair reasoning of which my sec
tion has been a constant victim,
the small vote is charged to be
proof of forcible suppression. In Virginia an
average majority of 10,000,under hopeless divis
ion of the minority, was raised to 42,000; in
lowa in the same election a majority of 32,000
was "wiped out and an opposition majority of
8,000 was established. Tho change ot 42,000
votes in lowa is accepted as political revolu
tion—in Virginia an increase of 30,000 on a safe
majority is declared to be proof of political
fraud. I charge these facts and figures home,
sir,to the heart and conscience of the American
people who will not assuredly see one section
condemned for what another section is ex
cused !
If I can drive them through the prejudice of
the partisan, and have them read and pondered
at tiie fireside of the citizen, I will Test on tho
judgement there formed and tho verdict there
rendered!
It is deplorable, sir, that in both sections a
larger percentage of the vote is not regularly
cast. But more inexplicable that this should
be so in New England, than in the south.
What invites the negro to the ballot box ? He
knows that of all men. it has promised him
most, and j-ielded him least. His first appeal
to suffrage was the promise of “forty acres and
a mule.” His second, tho threat that demo
cratic success meant his re-enslavement.
Both have been moved false in his experience.
He looked lor a home, and he got the Freed
man’s bank. He fought under promise of the
loaf, and in victory was denied the crumbs.
Discouraged aud deceived, he has realized at
last that his bestfriends are his neighbors with
whom his lot is cast, and whose prosperity is
hound up iu his—and that he has gained
nothing in politics to compen
sate the loss of their confidence
and sympathy that is at last liis best and bis
enduring hope And so, w ithout leaders or
organization—and lacking the resolute heroism
of mv party friends in Vermont that makes
their hopeless march over the hills a high and
inspiring pilgrimage—he shrewdly measures
the occasional agitator, balances his little ac
count with politics, touches up liis mule, and
jogs down the furrow-, letting the mad world
wag as it will!
The negro vote can never control in the
south, and it would be well if partisans at the
north would understand this. I have seen the
while people of a state set about by black
hosts until their fate seemed sealed. But, sir.
some brave man. banding them together,
would rise, as Elisha rose in beleaguered
Samaria, and, touching their eyes with faith,
bid them look abroad to see the very
air “filled with tho chariots of Israel
and the horsemen thereof.” If there is
any human force that cannot he withstood.it
is the power of the banded intelligence and re
sponsibility of a free community. Against it,
numbers and corruption cannot prevail. It
j-annot be forbidden in the law, or divorced in
i;qc6. It is tho inalterable right of every free
9 aunity—the just and righteous safeguard,
>st an ignorant,ljr.*-orniptsuffrage. ,It is!
is, sir, that we rely in the south. Not the
rdly menace of mask or shotgun ; but the
sful majesty of intelligence and re
sponsibility. massed and unified for
the protection of its homes and
the preservation of its liberty. That, sir, is
our reliance and our hope, aud against it all
the powers of earth shall not prevail. It
was just as certain that Virginia would come
back to the unchallenged control of her white
race—that before the moral and materia!
power of her people once more unified, opposi
tion would crumble until its last desperate
leader was left alone vainly striving to rally
his disordered hosts—as that night
should fade iu the kindling glory of the sun.
You may pass force bills, but they will not
avail. You may surrender your own liberties
to federal election law—this old state which
holds in its charter tho boast that
it “is a free and independent com
monwealth”—it may deliver its election ma
chinery into the hands of the government it
helped to create —but never, sir, will a single
state of this union, north or south, be
delivered again to the control of
an ignorant and inferior race. We
wrested our state government from negro
supremacy when the federal drumbeat
rolled closer to the ballot box and federal
bayonets hedged it deeper about than will ever
again be permitted in this free government.
But, sir, though the cannon of this republic
thundered in every voting district of the south,
we still should find in the mercy of God the
means and the courage to prevent its re
establishment!
I regret, sir. that my section, hindered with
this problem, cannot allign itself, stands in
seeming estrangement to the north. If, sir,
any man will point out to me a path down
which the white people of the south divided,
may walk in peace and honor, 1 will take
that path though I took it alone
—for at its end, and nowhere else, I tear, is to
be found the full prosperity of my section and
the full restoration of this union. But, sir, if
the negro had not been enfranchised, the south
would have been divided and the republic
united. His enfranchisement—against which I
enter no protest—holds the south united and
compact. What solution can we offer for the
emblem? Timealonecandisclo.se it to us.
I simply report progress and ask your pati
ence. If the problem bo solved at all—and 1
firmly believe it will, though nowhere else has
it been—it will be solved by the people
most deeply bound in interest, most
deeply pledged in honor to its solution. I had
rather see my people render back this question
lightly solved than to see them gather all the
polls over which faction has contended since
Catalin conspired and Ciesar sought. Meantime
we treat the negro fairly, measuring to him
justice in the fulness, tho strong should give to
the weak, and leading him in tho steadfast
ways of citizenship that he may no
longer be the prey of the unscrupu
lous and the sport of he thoughtless.
We open to him every pursuit in which
he can prosper, and seek to broaden his train
ing and capacity. We seek to hold his confi
dence and friendship—ami to pin him to the
soil with ownership that he may catch in the
tire of his own hearthstone, that sense of re
sponsibility the shiftless can never know.
And we gather him into that alliance of
property and knowledge tnat, though it rims
close to racial lines, welcomes the responsible
and intelligent of any race. By this course,
confirmed in our judgment and justified in the
progress already made, we hope to progress
slowly but surely to the end.
The love wo feel for that race
you cannot measure nor com
prehend. As I attest it here, tho spirit of
my old black mammy, from her home up
there, looks down on me to bless, and
thrdugli the tumult of this night, steals the
sweet music of her croonings as thirty years
ago she. held me in her black arms"-and
led me smiling in to sleep. This scene
vanishes as I speak, and I catch a vision of an
old southern home with its lofty pillars,and its
white pigeons fluttering down through the
golden air. I see women with strained and
anxious faces, and children alert, yet helpless.
I see night come down with its dangers and its
annrehensions, and in a big and homely room I
feel on my tired head tho touch of loving hands
—now worn and wrinkled, but fairer to
mo vet than the hands of mortal womai* Mid
stronger . yet to lead me than the hands
of mortal man—as they lay a mother’s bless
Ing there, while at her knees—the truest altar
I yet have found—l thank God that she is
safe iu her sanctuary,because her slaves, senti
nel in the silent cabin, or guard at her cham- I
ber door, puts a black man’s loyalty between I
her and danger.
I catch another vision. The crisis of battle ‘
—a soldier struck, stas_„ering, fallen. I see a
slave, scuffling through the smoke,winding his
black arms about the fallen form, reckless oi
hurtling death—bending bis trusty face to
catch the words that trembles on the stricken
lips, so wrestling meantime with agony that he
would lay down his life in his masters stead.
I see him by the weary bedside, ministering
with uncomplaining patience, praying with ail
his humble heart that God will lift his master
up, until death comes in mercy and in honor
to still the soldier’s agony and seal tho sol
dier’s life. I see him by the open grave
mute, motionless, uncovered, suffering for the
death of him who in life fought against liis'
freedom. I see him, when the mound is
heaped and the great drama of his life is
closed, turn away and with downcast
eyes and uncertain step start out into
new aud strange fields, faltering, struggling,
but moving on, until his shambling figure
is lost in the light of a better and a brighter
day. And from the grave comes a voice say
ing, “Follow him I Put your arms about him in
bis need, even as he put his about me. Be his
friend as he was mine.” And out into this
new world—strange to me as to him, dazzling,
bewildering both—l follow! And may God
forget my people—when they forget these!
Whatever the future may hold for them—
whether they plod along in the servitude from
which they have never been lifted since the
Cyrenian was laid hold upon by the Roman
soldiers and made to bear the cross of the
fainting Christ—whether they find homes
again in Africa, and thus hasten the
prophecy of the psalmist who said, “And
suddenly Ethiopia shall hold out her
hands unto God”— whether forever dislo
cated and separate,they remain a weak people,
beset by stronger, and exist, as the. Turk,
who lives in the jealousy, rather than in the
conscience of Europe, or whether in this mirac
ulous republic they break through the caste of
twenty centuries’and belying universal his
tory, reach the full stature of citizenship aud
in peace maintain it—we shall give them utter
most justice and abiding friendship. And
whatever we do. into whatever seem
ing estrangement we may be driven, noth
ing shall disturb the love we bear this repub
lic, or mitigate our consecration to its service.
I stand here, Mr. President, to profess no new
loyalty. When General Lee.whose heart was the
temple of our hopes and whose arm wasclothed
with our strength, renewed liis allegiance to
this government at Appomattox, he spoke
from a heart too great to be false, and
he spoke for every honest man from Maryland
to Texas. From that day to this, Hamilcar
has nowhere in the south sworn yoiing Hanni
bal to hatred and vengeance—but everywhere
to loyalty and to love. Witness the veteran
standing at the base of a confederate monu
ment, above the graves of his comrades. Ills
empty sleeve tossing in the April wind, ad
juring the young men about him, to serve as
earnest and loyal citizens, the government
against which their fathers fought. This
message, delivered from that sacred presence,
lias gone home to the hearts of my fellows!
And, sir, I declare here, if physical courage
be always equal to human aspiration, that they
would die. sir, if need be, to restore this re
public their fathers fought to dissolve!
Such, Mr. President, is this problem as we
see it, such the temper in which we approach
it, such the progress made. What do we ask
of you? First, patience: out of this alone can
come perfect work. Second, continence; in
this alone can you judge fairly. Third, svm
pathy; in this you can help us best. Fourth,
loyalty to the republic—for there is sectional
ism in loyalty as tn estrangement. Tins hour lit
tle needs the loyalty that loyal to one section
and yet holds the other in enduring suspicion
and estrangement. Give us the broad
and perfect loyalty that loves and trusts Geor
gia alike with Massachusetts^that knows no
south, no north, no east, no west; but endears
with equal and patriotic love every foot of our
soil, every State of our Union.
A mighty duty, sir. aud a mighty
inspiration impels every one of us
tonight to lose in patriotic consecration what
ever estranges, whatever divides. We, sir,
are Americans—and we tight for human
liberty! The uplifting force of the American
idea is under every throne on earth. France,
Brazil—these are otir victories. To redeem
the earth irum kingcraft and oppression—this
is our mission I Aivl ;;e G... 1 .
has sown in our soil the seed of
harvest, and He will not lay the sickle
to the ripening crop until His full
and perfect day lias come. Our history, sir,
has been a constant and expanding miracle
from Plymouth Kock and Jamestown all the
way—aye, even from the hour when, from the
voiceless and trackless ocean, a new world,
rose to the sight of the inspired sailor. As
we approach the fourth centennial of that
stupendous day—when the old world will come
to marvel aud to learn, amid our gathered
treasures—let us resolve to crown the miracles
of our past, with the spectacle of a republic
compact united, indissoluble in the bonds of
love—loving from the Lakes to the Gull—the
wounds ot war healed in every heart as on
every bill—serene and resplendent at the sum.
mit of human achievement and earthly glory
—blazing out the path, and making clear the
way, up which all the nations of the eartl
must come in God’s appointed time!
Tho Fanners and the Labor Problem,
The mines, coal aud iron, "the furnaces,
the railroads, the jobs in cities and towns,
are taking labor from the farms. Farm
labor is becoming so scarce and difficult
to procure that farming will suffer for
the want of hands to carry on farm work.
I see in the northern agricultural papers
that the northern farmersiare also com
plaining of the scarcity of farm labor and
the difficulty of procuring] them and the
high wages demanded; so it seems that
the trouble is not local, but general. The
laborer will go where he is paid most;
that is to be expected—a natural se
quence. The trouble with the farmers
now is, they have to compete with capi
talists, corporations of all kinds, that
have large means and can afford to pay
laborers much higher wages than farmers
can pay; hence they will procure the
largest number of laborers. The farmers
have to meet such competition through
out the country it comes finder the law
of supply and demand. So if they can’t
afford to pay the price of labor that com
petition exacts, they will have trouble
in securing labor for their farms.
Now, under such circumstances, what
is best for the farmers to do? » The first
difficulty to solve is, labor will com
mand what it is worth, labor is as much
merchantable as anything else, hence
will bring the highest price offered. The
second proposition is, can the farmers
afford to pay laborers the wages that
miners, manufacturers, railroads and
other corporations are doing. They
can’t, and if they can’t some system must
be adopted to manage the farms and carry
on farm work differently from how it is
now done. That is a problem the farm
ers must solve, it being a problem in
which men of small means must compete
with capitalists and corporations of large
means.
In securing labor since the war, cities,
towns and villages have grown and be
come rich; capitalists their wealth
by millions; and all this wealth is being
concentrated in the hands of the few,
whilst the farmers and working classes
are becoming poorer—the hewers of
wood and drawers of water for the fa
vored plutocratic classes.
The cause of all such is plain and mani-
fCSt—owing to ( I.ASS LEGISLATION.
wealth is concentrating in the hands of
the few, and the few influence congress BB
and our state legislatures to legislate for
thei| interest and benefit, making them
richer and the poor poorer; taxation fa- ■
voring the rich and oppressing the poor; W
the necessaries of life heavily taxed the > il
luxuries, some free, others lightly taxed, y j
This shameful, unjust and unconst?
tional legislation in eongicss, as we'dMH||
in our state legislatures, is what
■he 'ii'i: r--).,-. - ej i-i«-l.it. u tin- W nii 11 i
aires :i:ni impoverishing the farmers
laboring classes. |||mH
Such is the main cause that operaH ''
so much against farming ami the lalfl
ing classes. It can be easily remedH;’.
ami put a stop to if the farmers and \
classes would unite and stand ap to eB
other. They could overthrow all sBHHI
corruption, ami such demagogues,
such rascally legislation that legislate ■|||||
the benefit of the plutocratic elasfl
We have the number and power on
side. All it wants is concentration :■ ,
united action, and a class of men
congress anti the state legislatures tBBB||
will look to the interest of the masse®
well as the classes. What the pe<® '
want is fair and just legislation— e<Jß '
rights to all, special privileges to mmß
The farmers since the war have ;>aH
no attention to politics. They have eH
trusted national and state affairs to
politicians. Ami what has been the
The answer is, Vol i: |'i:i -i;a r< ox i.i rtoß
Depressed and overburdened by
state and county taxes, is it any wot®fjigST
that you cannot compete with
vored classes iu bidding for laborers
your farms ?
Let me say to my brothers of the ■"
Farmers’ Alliance* stand united. Stai.H,
firmly up to each other. Ido not address'
you as politicians. I address you as
farmers, and in future let us for seh-pro- -
tection take this much interest in politics
as to secure men to congress as well as
to our state legislature that will legislate
for the people, and not for the monopoly
classes, and keep fresh on your minds
the proceedings of our last long leois
lature. Jno. H. Dent.
Hickory Grove Alliance.
We, the members of Hickory Grove
Alliance, resolve to use cotton bagging
for our entire crop of cotton for the year
18'JO. We recommend it to weigh one
pound to the yard and to be 44 inches
wide. We will expel any member who
uses anything but cotton bagging, if he
can get it. I. T. Davis, Sec’y..
Red Star Ferric Fertilizer.
Atlanma, Ga., Dec. 13, 18891
Mb. Editor—Dear Sir: Please allow
me a small space in your valuable paper to
say to every farmer and Allianceman that
I am agent for the Red Star Ferric Fertil
izer Co., and 1 will furnish planters the
best guano iu the world at bottom prices—
a guano ihat proposes to enrich the soil
and feed the crop—a crop producer and
enricher of our old land—a propositio*
that has never before appeared. There
is no other guano like it or so valauble to
the plainer. All I ask is a fair trial.
Every one will correspojafT
me. Yours as ever, Z
R. H. Jacksosi, Agent.
Keso lutions Adopted by the Jefferuon C 0...
Alliance.
Resolved h That we adopt cotton as |
a permanent covering for cotton, and in- ;
sist on the cotton committee to
bagging to weigh at least one pound
yard and 44 inches wide.
2. That a delegation be appointjß
five as follows: J. W. Brinson,®
Walden, Jos. Atwell, G. W.
G. Walden, to meet a
each county that does business in .®
ta, asking each county Alliance
erate and elect a delegation to confer
with delegation of Jefferson county, to
appoint a day as soon as practicable to
meet in the city of Augusta with the
view of asking a location of a branch of
the State Exchange in the city of Augus
ta, and for the consideration of other .
business of interest to the Alliance.
3. I hat a copy of these resolutions be
sent to the Augusta Chronicle, The... j
Southern Alliance Farmer and that I
other Alliance papers copy. I
A. C. Taylor, Pres. A
A. H. S. Adkins, Sec’y. B
From Green Fork Alliance. W
Preamble and resolutions were adopt- B
ed by Green Fork sub-Alliance, Nov. B
29th, 1889. fl
Whereas, all persons who join the B
Farmers’ Alliance take upon themselves
a solemn obligation never to reveal any
of the secrets of the Alliance to any one,
unless by strict test or in some legal man- ® '
uer they find him entitled to
them; and ' ®
Whereas, Each week’s issue of oiy" sta'iJ®!’
paper, The Southern Alliance®
Farmer, has many letters . from va-
rious County and sub-Alliances of the ®
state stating what they have done in se
cret session and what th jy intend to do, B
thereby giving our enemies about all the fl
information they want, thus enabling ||
them to defeat ip great a measure the B
plans and intentions of our order: there
fore, be it /i,
Resolved first, That we, the Green ®
hoik sub-Alliance, No. 1877, hereby enter ■!
our most earnest protest against the B
making public through the press the H
resolutions passed by our order in se- B
cret. fl
Resolved second, That we ask our B
County Alliance and all subordinate Alli- fl
ances to unite with us in checking this
evil. fl
Resolved third, That we ask our state I
paper,The Southern Alliance Farmer fl
to refuse the publication of any matter I
that is likely to give our enemies any in- H
formation whatever. fl
Resolved fourth, That we furnish Twjp fl
Southern Alliance Farmer with
copy of the above, with the request that fl
it publish them.
C. H. Avret, Pres. fl
R. P. McCoy, Sec. I