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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