THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE ON THE RACE PROBLEM WAS WRITTEN BY BISHOP HOLSEY, AND PUBLISHED IN THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION AUG. 30, 1899. AS IT ATTRACTED A GREAT DEAL OF ATTENTION, FRIENDS REQUIRED THAT IT BE PUT IN PAMPHLET FORM FOR DISTRIBUTION. A SENSE OF DUTY COMPELLS US TO GIVE IT MORE FULLY TO THE PUBLIC.

Editor Constitution--In reading Mr. John Temple Graves article on "The Race and Social Problem" in the Constitution of the 30th, of April. I believe he has suggested the only present practical plan by which the so-called Negro problem can be solved, And if you will permit me, I wish to say a few words respecting the matter, not for irritation nor friction, but to show that Mr. Graves, in his far-seeing mind presents the only solution of the problem. Not that Mr. Graves suggestion is new, but that it is the best thing to be done. Mr. Graves says:

"But the truth which lies beyond and above all these temporizing experiments and suggestions is the great central truth which I have been preaching for years--that seperation is the logical, inevitable the only solution of the great problem of the races."

"Thomas Jefferson said so. Abraham Lincoln said so. Daniel Webster said so. Henry Grady believed it, Bishop Turner, the ablest leader of his race believes and advocates this policy, and I believe, and have advocated it for ten years in every section of the republic, and the people of the South, white and black, would be amazed to know the magnitude of the indorsement and approval which meets the proposition everywhere.

These two opposites and inherently antagonistic races cannot grow up side by side on equal terms of law and possession in the same territory. There is not a line of history that justifies the hope or faith that they may. Every faint hope that transquility breeds or philanthrophists foster or politicians incourage, has time and again been whithered in a hundred recurring chrisis like this, and if people were not blind or stupid or asleep, they would realized the fact written in history, ethnology and science that opposite races are inherently and universally antagonistic and cannot share, 00044and never have shared in peace and equality since the world begun, any country government created by God or fashioned by man.

"The politians and the apathy behind them may postpone the solution for a while longer, but sooner or later the wisdom of the father and the purpose of the Almighty will prevail.

"For the Negro's best interest and for his own development, not less than for our own transquility and peace, it is to be hoped that the day may hasten to its coming."

To this we have ten thousands amens to lay at the feet of the proposition and suggestion of Mr. Graves, and all those who maintain the same sentiments and feelings. I think it was in 1866 I heard the Hon. Lincoln Stephens make a speech to a large concourse of people white and black from the portico of the hotel in Sparta, Ga. when he told the colored people that they must do one of three things. "First said he, "you must submit to the white man's rule, or you must go out of the country, or you must go under the country." The Hon. Mr. Stephens was not only philosophical and far seeing, but he uttered a prophecy as true as if divinely inspired and which is now in the initatory of full and completh fullfillment. There is no settling of this great question but in one of the three ways mentioned by Mr. Stephens, And unless there can be a division or some kind of complete seperation, the negro race as such, is destined to be extreminated. It is folly for any of us to clude or evade the truth, or attempt to set at naught the inevitable.

Character, wealth, learning and good behavior, and all that make up or constitute good citizenship in the black man, is positively of no avail whatever. Merit cannot win in this case. Even our so-called Christianity is a failure when tested in the light of history and reason. Reason is dethroned and religion perverted when the interest and ambition of two very distinct and dissimilar people are placed in the same territory on parallel conditions. One must be slave and the other master, or else one must go out or under, while the other must rise triamphant and supreme. There is not now, there never has been the smallest possibility for the negro race in, the southern states, en masse to rise to the dignity and possibilities of his manhood. Booker T. Washington's theory and practice is all right as far as it goes. His labor for the solution of the problem is noble, honorable and should 00055be encouraged by all who wish the welfare of the country and humanity, but his theory and practice can only be time serving and temporary. If 95 per cent of the colored race were as advanced in civilization as 95 per cent of the white people, social antipathies and human proclivities would be too great and stubborn and unyielding to settle this problem on amicable basis in the same territory. As sure as there remains together two distinct people, with outward aspects proclivities and tendencies so widely dissimilar, there will forever be race conflicts and civil and social abrasions, because the elements of physicial and mental constitutions are deficient in those harmonious relations and constitutions that are necessary to consummate the bond of peace. All the great governments of man are ruled by physicial force and military power, and not by equity and justice, and when there are great interests, self-aggrandisement and ambition at stake, religion itself is sacrificed or laid aside, or so subsidized as to have no influence in the great transactions. It is not the part of wisdom to traduce one section of the country and glorify the other, nor is it the part of wisdom to traduce one race and glorify the other. Man is very human whether the manhood is covered with a black skin, a white skin or any other skin.

It is written on the pillars of heaven and in the book of fate, without harmony in the physicial aspect and mental possibilities and achievements there can be no constant or prolonged peace. Sooner or later the dissimilar properties and characteristics will rise in dire conflict and bloody tragedies whose restless elements and irrestible force will crush one or the other. Viewing the case historically, socially, and philosophically, coupled with my own experience and observation, I see no difference between the southern people and any other people who may be placed in the same condition. They have done as any other people would have done under the same circumstances. Could southern civilization be so changed or inverted as to put the negro race where the Anglo-Saxon now stands, I have no doubt but that conditions would be the same. To quote Mr. Graves again, he says:

"These two opposite and inherantly antagonistic races cannot grow up side by side on equal terms of law and possession in the same territoty."

Here the "race" are "two." Here they are "opposite" and inherently antagonistic," and therefore "cannot grow up side by side on equal terms of law and possession in the same territory." While this is an unwelcome conclusion, it is too true to be gainsaid. "As soon as the negro gets on equal 00066terms of law and possession in the same territory," there race antipathies and race conflict begins, because of the want of racial harmony. Hence there is no possibility of the two races living together inpeace unless one lives under the other to that extent where the manhood of the one is decimated, and in the exaltation and the triumphant glorification of the other.

If the negro is to be educated and christainized, which is now being done with increasing acceleration, what is he to do with wants, desires, aspirations and ambitions that comes with it? The more the negro is raised in the scale of social and civil accomplishments, and nearer he approaches the Anglo-Saxon's standard of civilization, the greater will be the strain between the two peoples and will produce explosions and interpecene strife that must always prove fatal to the smaller and weaker race. It is evident that the negro race is growing in wealth, in intelligence, and is approximating a higher standard of morality. He is not standing still, neither in the ratio of numbers or in those elements and agencies by which he is raised in the social scale of life. Neither does the civilization of the white man have any tendency to distroy or annihilate the race. The hardships through which they have had to pass have served only as a life-giving energy, stimulating and fructifying his already prolifice nature.

As of old the thrives in poverty and hardships, and repression serves only to multiply the race. Viewing the past thirty years in the light of reason, and weighing the facts and principles that have led to the present crisis, I think both races have done well in that they have done no worse. But a new status of affairs now appear. The very education the southern people have bestowed upon negro youths, and the industrial training that is now taking root in the prolifice soil of Christain philanthrophy, not only increases the aspiration and the ambition of the black man, but also increases racial feelings and antipathies. These antipathies and feelings are not artificial or time-serving, but are parts of the native inherent humanity, and are so deeply imbedded in our nature that no remedy has ever yet been found to distroy it. The history of the white man, as well as of any other man, shows that even the moral principle, with all the powerful forces and agencies of religion is compromised and forgotten when "place and power" is at stake. Up to date the black race has less morals and more religion, and the white race has more morals and less religion. Where the black man is 00077deficient in the moral principle, the white man is dificient in the religious fundamentals. Religion nor Christianity cannot do everything. It cannot make the white man black, nor can it make the black man white. I mean to say that racial characteristics, with those functions and faculties of the deeper nature, cannot be effaced or eradicated by religion, because these are the God-given fundamentals that constitute the ever-enduring humanity. The tendency of the dominant race is to keep the negro to himself as far as possible, and the negro is struggling to have a civilization of his own, forgetting the fact that there can no more be two civilizations in the same country then there can be two separate and distinct streams of water flowing in the same channel. The engines of governments and improvements are all in the hands of the ruling people. What, then, is the remedy? Answer: seperation. Let it be done in kindness and peace. Let the government, aided by the good people, north and south, set off some of its vast domains for the negro citizens still under the government, until they are able to take statehood. No people should live together unless they can live in peace and harmony.

I wish to emphasize the remarks that the white people of the south are no worse than any other people. They have done and are doing, under the same circumstances, what any other people would have done. It may be said that the negro is incapable of self-government, and that if put in a territory to himself that anarchy and interecine strife will be the rule and not the exception. But where has the experiment been tried under these condition? Can it be supposed for a moment that the majestic civil arm of the law will not be able to control a half dozen millions of black men in a territory, or in a couple of states, to themselves? Nay it is a dream baseless as a phantom of the night.

The seven or eight millions of negroes in the southland should sign a pettition to the United States government to set apart so much of the public domain as is necessary, to which the negroes of the south should go and in which, state government may be erected or obtained exclusively for the black man. There the negroes will have all the freedom and privileges of full and equal citizenship as any other class or race of people in the union of states. I know this plan is the beset with difficulties and barriers but any plan or scheme that may be presented will have its difficulties and doubtful proprieties 00088Any scheme or plan for the permanent setlement of this great problem that may be put on foot by the friends of humanity can hardly have more difficulties surrounding it than the present state of affairs.

Not only does the thinking man of color see no future for his race in the present status of society, but thousands of the intelligent white people of the south desire to see the separation of the races, and would, I believe, sign a petition to the government for that purpose. As to the territory that may be necessary for the separation and segregation, we shall hear more of that further on. But we hope and believe that the good people of the south will take part in this great movement, considering it as the most practical and tangible method for the solution of the racial problem.L.H. HOLSEY.THE FOLLOWING IS AN EDITORIAL WHICH APPEARED ON THE SAME DAY IN THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION AS A REPLY TO THE ABOVE ARTICLE.

The letter of Bishop L.H. Holsey, of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church on the race problem is in many respects an interesting document. It will be observed that the Bishop opproves and adopts the remedy suggested by Bishop Turner and Mr. John Temple Graves, namely, the separation of the races, and on that line he delivers a very vigerons argument. Differing with Bishop Turner as to the plan of seperation, he advocats thesetting apart of a portion of the public domain, where the negroes may be gathered together undar a territorial or state government of their own. Those who are interested in the matter are referred to Bishop Holsey's arguments which are so sound as any that can be offered by an advocate of separation. From our point of view this plan and all the other schemes that involve the transpotation or deportation of the negro to foreign parts, or the segregation of the two races in this country is simply a dream: interesting and attractive it may be still it is nothing more than a dream. If there is not room for the negroes where they are, there is no room for them in any part of the republic, 00099In the course of a very short time, their territories or states would be over run by their own natural fecundity, and bemand enlargement; and in any event, the whites could not be kept out. If the two races can't get along side by side, as they are now bestowed, they can't get along under the same government.

Bishop Holsey insists that the more nearly the negroes attain to the standard of Anglo-Saxon civilization the more danger of a conflict there will be as the result of inherent race prejudice. But it is not obvious to all that the best educated and most respectable negroes are the very ones whose character and conduct command them to the whites? Are they not the very ones who may be depended on to curb the folly of the ignorant? How many industrious and well-educated negroes have been lynched in the south? Not one. How many industrious and fairly educated negroes stand in fear of mob law as the results of recent lynching? Not one.

The whole trouble--or what Bishop Holsey calls the "crissis"--grows out of the negro politicians, and they are aided to some extent by many negro preachers who in order to make themselves conspicious are prone to give their hearers bad advice. Nobody knows the extent of the evil better than Bishop Holsey, who is one of the ablest men his race has produced. The nearer the negroes approach the standard of civilization that prevails among the whites and the more wealth they accumulate the better able they will be to see the necessity of conforming themselves to an environment that is enevitable. It may be taken for granted without argument that whatever is inevitable in the history of experience of a race is provi providential--in other words that so far as we poor ereatures can see, it forms a part of the plans and purposes of the Almighty, and that, however mysterious it may be, it is for the good of mankind.

The negroes are here, they have been providentially placed here, and here they will remain. There will be irritation; there will be crimes and heavy reprisals; there will be difficulties to contend with and troublesome episodes; consevatism will be put to a heavy strain in diverse ways and places, there will be reasons of doubt, as well as hope. But will affairs turn out as badly as Bishop Holsey fears? We think not. Indeed the history of the past thirty years is an assurance that we are passing, if we have not passed, through the worst and most direful phases of the problem of racial association.

THE AGUSTA' (GA.) CHRONICLE MAKES THE FOLLOWING COMMENT UPON THE SUBJECT AS A REPLY TO THE EDITORIAL THAT APPEARED IN THE ATLANTIC CONSTITUTION OF THE 30TH. OF AUGUST. IT WILL BE SEEN THAT THE CHRONICLE ENDORSES AND DEFENDS OUR POSITION UPON THIS MOMEMTIOUS ISSUE.

We publish in another column on this page a communication from Bishop Holsey to the Atlanta Constitution on the subject of the Negro Problem which now confronts the south and the nation, Bishop Holsey is one of the intelligent and conservative men of his race, and he looks at the question from the standpoint of the Negro, and also from that of a good citizen who has at heart both the happiness of the people and the good of the country. Bishop Holsey agrees with the views of those who advocate the separation of the two races, and the settlement of the negroes to themselves where they can have a territorial or state government of their own, under the government of the United States, and where they will be free from the danger of daily intercourse and association, friction and discord with the whites.

The Constitution take editorial issue with Bishop Holsey, and thinks nothing would be gained by this separation of the races, even admitting it to be practicable. The Constitution contends that if the races cannot exist side by side in the same states, they could not exist peaceably in adjacent states under the same government; that in a little while they would over-run the borders of the state in which they were placed and that it would be impossible to keep white men out of the negro reservation.

It is probably true the white men would go into the negro state for commercial purposes, and negroes in turn would exploit their wares in the other states. They could not be herded in a reservation and required not to cross its borders. Those who acquired means and desired to travel would have the right through the United States just as other people are privileged to do so. The interstate commerce laws would also accord to the inhabitants of the negro states the privileges of traffic in other states. The problem would not be obliterated 001111but it would be immeasurable reduced in its potentous proportions. Where the southern states are now crowded with millions of negroes of every degree, the whole country would then be traversed by a few thousands of those who are intelligent and well-to-do, and who travelled for pleasure or business. While occasional trouble might arise between white men and negroes in the negro state, or between negroes and white men elsewhere in the country, these would be but specks on the face of the social sun, while now its face is clouded.

The Constitution advances another argument that does not appeal to us as sound. It says: "It may be taken for granted, without argument that whatever is inevitable in the history of experience of a race is providential--in other words, that so far as we poor creatures can see, it forms a part of the plans and purposes of the Almighty, and that, however mysterious it may be, it is for the good of mankind. The negroes are here, and they have been providentially placed here, and they will remain."

In advancing an argument like this, The Constitution makes the mistake of assuming to comprehend the providence of God. It would have been just as wise a few hundred years ago to say negroes could not be transported from Africa and settle in vast numbers in the United States, because God in his providence had placed them in Africa, and there he meant them to stay. If it was the providence of God that brought them to this country, how does the Constitution assumes to know that their present state in the fulfilment of that providence? Who shall say that the season for which they were placed among us is not nearing its end? Who shall say that the present contentions and strife are not being brought about for the purpose of making them move on to the further fulfilment of the divine purpose with reference to the race? Who shall say that it is not God's providence that is putting it into the hearts of leaders among their people to move in this matter and cry unto their people to go hence?

Who shall say that as Moses was raised up in his day, to lead his people out of Egypt, the divine call is not now going forth to leaders in the negro race to lead their people into a land of Cannan, where they may grow up in strength and independence? It has been frequently suggested that negroes were transplanted in this country in order that they might 001212become civilized and educated and return as missionaries to Africa and redeem their own race from barbarism. If this be true, who shall say that the period of primary instruction is not at an end, and that the time has arrived when these sojourners among the whites must now go out from among their teachers, and gather to themselves, and govern themselves.

Perhaps they are not yet strong enough to return a Africa, but they are strong enough to go off to themselves and practice self control and self government, where they will still be under the guardianship of the general government but move from actual contact, association and dependence upon the white race. As the parent bird pushes the fledgling from the nest, in order that it may learn to bear it self up on joyous wing, who shall say that a Divine Providence is not now directing the removal of the negroes from their position of dependence upon the whites for everything into a separate territory, where they shall learn to govern themselves and appreciate the necessity for honesty and virture and the maintenence of law.

This thing of providence is too big for us to say that existing conditions are evidence of its boundries. Bishop Holsey and those who think with him, have just as much right to believe that Providence is directing this movement in behalf of an exodus, as the Constitution has to contend that Providence has placed the negro among us and here they must remain. We are taught that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. He has given us the negro and it may be his pleasure now to remove him. If it be the Divine will that the American negroes shall return to Africa, to civilized their race, then it would seem the part of wisdom that they be segregated both for the purpose of further development in the knowledge of government and in moral independence and for readiness for that final exodus, to their native land when the time shall come. It might be an impossible thing to deport to Africa the negroes as they are now scattered through the states, but if they were all segregated in a single reservation, the movement would present a more feasable aspect. These preachers of the gospel of segregation may be manifestations of the Divine Providence of which the Constitution speaks, and for which it unwisely essay to fix metes and bounds.

THE FOLLOWING IS TAKEN FROM A SPEECH THAT BISHOP HOLSEY MADE IN CHICAGO DURING THE MEETING OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN COUNCIL AUGUST THE 18TH. 1899 AND APPEARED IN THE CHICAGO TIMES-HERALD THE NEXT DAY. SAYS THE TIMES HERALD:

Bishop Holsey explains his propositions as follows:There is but one way to solve this problem, and that is separation and segregation. That is the negro race must occupy a state or states or a territory to themselves. To make this movement effective 1,500,000 voters should sign a petition to congress to set apart a sufficient amount of the public domain, with proper legislative restrictions by which a state or states may be erected, which will be distinctly negro states, havingall the rights, powers, privileges, functions and political faculties given other in the Union.

If this can be accomplished the black man would still be in the great republic and would then be a free and equal citizen of the United States of America. Then would come to him all the benefits and advantages for the development that makes a people intelligent, thoughtful and noble. This territory being, a state or states of the great Union of states the negro would be governor, legislator and judge. All that any people of this country are, the negro could be. Here he could be a man among men. Being in the midst of a great civilization and in the zone of progress, he would be a patriot and a great potential force in carrying forward the stands of civilization. His object would be not to injure or destroy others, but to better his own condition, lift himself to a higher standard of manhood, excellency of character and citizenship.

ANTICIPATE OBJECTIONS.I Know it will be said that the negro is incapable of selfgovernment, but I would ask, where has such a trial ever been made under such conditions as would obtain in organized state of the American Union? He would only have local self-government in commom with the people of other states and would be compelled to conform to the demands of the Union. The removal of the negro to such a state or 001414states would not only be a blessing to himself, but it would be a blessing to the south. It would settle the great problem as far as the negro is concerned, and would relieve the south of many a side issue in the soclal and political world.

The South regards the presence of the negro as a great evil, as a burden to the state and a menace to its civilazation, all of which is true; and if any section of the country is ready for segregation the South ought to be the foremost friend and advocate of the movement. The scheme is practicable if the nation is willing to do what is right and just to any appreciable degree.

As long as the negro remains in the South he can occupy only the position of complete serfdom, with all the places of honor and trust closed against him. No matter what strata of society he may find it possible to stand upon, there can never be the same degree of safety given him that is accorded the white man. In the proposed new state, he could have all of this, and at the same time give the people of the South relief from his presence.

MIGHT ASK FOR OKLAHOMA.When asked what portion of the United States had been elecied by the advocates of the scheme, Bishop Holsey replied:

That is yet undetermined, but I believe that my people will be glad to aecept any portion of the country where they can exist. Oklahoma and New Mexico have been mentioned, but we have not gotten so far with the project that we feel in a position to select any particular territory. One thing is certain, however, and that is, each year the racial differences are rendering it more and more impossible for the whites and the blacks to occupy the same territory, and there is nothing for the black man to do but to move or remain here as an oppressed and degraded race.

The above is a quotation from the Chicago paper which does not set forth the plan in full. To make the whole clearer, to the readers of this little pamphlet, we state the following:

1. There is a great problem, growing our of the fact that two distinct races or peoples are occupying the same territory under the same governmnet and laws: that they are so distinct, and similar in racial traits, instinct and character that it is impossible for them to live together or equal terms of social and political relation, or on terms of equal citizenship.

2. This problem is inter-racial and national, effecting the entire country in all its vaste interests, prosperity and 001515progress and therefore, it is the duty of the General Government to settle the race problem as it is the only power that can do it.

3. Segregation and seperation of the races is the most practical, logical, and equitable, and the only possible method of permanent settlement of the problem.

4. Separation should be gradual, non compulsory, so as not to injure or retard labor, capital and commerce in those states where the negro is a factor of production.

5. In order to make the movement effective and operative the negro population of the states should send in petitions to the President and Congress of the United States of America for separation and segregation. They should ask for territory in the great Republic as legal and equal citizens of the Union, and not go out of the country to be exposed to doubtful experiment and foreign complications, They should remain in their own country and in the zone of progress and the latitude of greatness.

According to our theory of Government, the Negro is a free and equal citizen, but does not enjoy these rights that belong to him as such, largely because there is a deep seated prekidice against him because of his color and other racial attributes and racial peculiarites. And because, also of his previous condition of bondage and servitude. The Angl-Saxon despises a submissive and a servile race. They have no respect for a race that can be enslaved or reduced to serfdom or slavery. They regard such a race as something less than a perfect manhood or a full and complete humanity, Or at least, the negro is regarded as an inferior race, and is treated accordingly.

From year to year, the states of the southern section have enacted laws more and more stringent, and especially adapted, not only to degrade and set bar to the progress and development of the black man, but these law serve to destroy his civil rights, and nullify the citizenship conferred upon him, by the General Government. Sentiment, custom and feeling is against him in every community, municipality rural districts and states of the south, as well as many places in the Great North. Every where the black man's privileges are abridged restricted and often annihillated. As to political preferement, there is little or none for him accept in a few centers where he enjoys these by the appointment of the General Government, and even then he holds his official position with a fearful heart and a trembling hand. When it is possible to make the black man equal to the 001616white man in political office and influence, in every given case, then trouble begins, quickening prejudice, reviving antagonisms, and often producing conflict, and struggle, which most always leaves the black man the sufferer.

Not that the white people of the South are any worse than any other people, but race feeling and prejudice, based on the differences that exists between the negro and the white man, is always present as a stumbling stone of offense, constituting a bar to harmony and peace. It is to be admitted that the negro race can stay here and occupy the same territory with the white man as long as he gives up his rights as a citizen, and accepts his place as a degraded surf or slave, but not as a free man and a citizen. Beside, perhaps half of the far seeing and intelligent white people in the South, who want to see she Negro do well, believe that separation is the only thing that can be done, to set at rest this race problem, and would, I believe, sign a petition to Congress to that effect. The great battle of freedom and human rights has to be fought over and over. Man is always very man, and very human. A people who will not struggle, in some peaceful and legitimate way for their freedom and civil rights, is not worthy of equal citizenship and the blessings of civilized manhood. Of course there will arise objection to any scheme presented to settle the racial problem, and often it will come from the Negroes themselves. It will come from that class of Negroes who live in protection, and are doing fairly well. They have but little cause for complaint. They care but little for the down trodden and debased millions of their race who are dying by peace meal in the rural districts where the great mass of the Negro race lives, or rather where they merely breathe in poverty and ignorence, and die in despair, ignominy and shame. Strange to to say some of these objectors are editors of papers, teachers, preachers, and political office holders. They do not go in the rural districts of the black belt, and are ignorent of the true state of affairs. They know nothing of the real condition of the oppressed and suffering millions of their race, and since they do not feel the sorrow, the unrest, nor see the distress, ignorenc and squalidness of the millions, they object to every thing that may be proposed to settle the race problem.

Let the Negroes arise in all parts of the land, and send up their prayers and petitions to Congress and ask for a separate part of the land, or separate territory, and I believe 001717somthing will be done put at restthe great problem, and the Negro will have a chance to be a man, patriot,a citizen and a factor in this country and an element of force in the great civilization.

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BY BISHOP HOLSEY AND APPEARED IN THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION SEPTEMBER 29TH. 1899.

Editor Constitution--On the 30th of August appeared my letter on the race problem, and also your editoral thereon. Allow me to thank you for your kindness, magnamity and fairness. There are a few points in your editoral which I wish to notice, if consistent with your will and pleasure. It cannot be denied that the race problem is a great question because it involves the peace and happiness of a great republic, and the life, growth and development of a great race. In Africa, the negro's native health, the race cannot be called great, excepting the single fact that it is great in number, and this phase of his greatness assumes its massive proportions mainly because the mental humanity is left uncultured and undeveloped. There is but little struggle to supply the mere necessities of the physicial man, and when not engaged in war and feuds, there is nothing else to do but to propagate the progeny. These facts to a large degree, constitute the condition of the negro race in this country. Being in the midst of a progressive and effervecent civilization, he is of necessity loosing many of his native or racial characteristics so far as the modes of life is concerned. But the negro race in Africa is not the negro race in America. There is a vast difference in aspect and measurement, and a higher and better grade of manhood appears, the effect of civilization. Although it is difficult to assimilate distinct races, yet it is the clearest thing in the face of impartial decision that the negro race accepts and absorbs very readily the pith and phases of civilized life. While the negro race may not claim a great deal of credit for the advances that have been made since emancipation, yet it must be acknowledge that he has made great strides along all lines of 001818achievement and development. Largely so because of the force and restraint imposed upon him by the demands of Anglo-Saxon life. It matters not how this civilization touches or reaches him, if he takes in and absorbs it to his betterment, it shows that he is a great race, and has the elements and inherent quality of a full and capable humanity. So much has he been so regarded that the government made him a citizen in name and privileges, though not in fact That is he was a citizen technically, yet as strange as it may appear to the philosophic mind: the lowest grade of manhood was bound, judged, acquited or condemned by the same standard of sentiment and jurisprudence as that of the most coltured and intelligent Anglo-Saxon. We do not complain at this since human laws are often as imperfect as the ideals that gave them birth and execution. I do not complain of slavery. It was a narrow house of training. It was instructive, corrective and reforming. It may or may not have been providential, but it left a sore, an open, vile bleeding sore, upon the body politic that must be healed by some method or process apparently as yet undiscovered. I trust that the best feeling and judegment may obtain in the adjustment of the racial and inter-racial matters.

But to quote your eloquent words, Mr. Editor, you say: "From our point of view this plan and all the other schemes that involve the transportation or deportation of the negro to foreign ports or the segregation of the two races in this country is simply a dream." I am sorry that you take this view of the question since perhaps half of the intelligent white people of the south take an opposite view, Since also its attractiveness arises out of its depth, weight and importance.

The subject has neither mystictsm, curiosity nor superstition connected with it or to give it a dreamy or a fanciful imbodiment, but it rests upon the sober judgement and far sightedness, upon the condor and peace-loving hearts of the many both white and black. It is useless to multiply persons and quotations to show how wide-spread are the convictions that separation and segregation is the most practical and the supreme and soverign remedy for the almost universal evils that prevail on the account of racial contact. Certainly it is so with the negro race since they are sufferers. Not only the negroes are sufferers but in large measure the white man as well. As of old, the negro is a bone of contention. He confronts the great modern republic as an unsocializable element that will not recede or release his hold, and can never 001919be wrought into the threads of the political and social compact. The white man is degrading himself by degrading the negro, and thereby threatens the distruction of his virtue and the contamination if not the subversion of his civilization. Absorption and miscegenation are the monstrous sin ot the age--a henious crime and a dreadful stigma upon both races that not only carries with it shame and disgrace, but also injection into the civilization a diabolical element that weakens and nulfies Christian virtue and conscious dignity. It was the sin of Sodom, the distruction of the antedeluvian empire and is the curse of Mexico and the Latin nations of today. Law, sentiment and religion, and the dreadful penalty that fallows, cannot deter youthful curiosity and the indiscreet passions of men. In the estimation of the superior race, the negro girl has no fundamentals of substantial virtue and regard for personal integrity. But the white man forgets that for such procedure there is intailed upon his race a sin and a stigma that afflicts his noble manhood and progress with corrupting penality that can only be expiated by a fearful penalty. The southern people have already paid an enormous price for the negro as a slave, and still the astounding debt bears interest, compounding itself as the years go by. Agreeable to the status of society, and situated as he is, he is the dearest laborer that a country has ever had. Heaps of gold and almost endless treasure have been paid for him. Brave sons, noble sirs and intrepid chieftains and queenly women and the flower of the land have been slain upon its high prices, and millions of blood and death have been poured out as bloody librations at the shrine of the swarthy Moloch. The Union of states will never be one with a tenacious integrity until black Ham and white Jepheth shall dwell in seperate tents. Now what does the white man want to keep the black man here for? Is he not a thorn in the flesh? But Mr. Editor, you say: "If there is not room for the negroes where they are, there is no room for them in any part of the republic." It is readily admitted that there is plenty of room in the south for the negroes, but the conditions are adverse to his better manhood, and is a hindrance to civilization in its upward and progressive tendencies. White people will never give the negroes the same rights, privileges, or a free and full citizenship as they themselves enjoy. It is not in the nature of things for them to do it, and no other people would do it under the same or similar conditions. This no one will deny. Every where the black man is treated as less than a white citizen. Special laws and rules 002020are made for him that do not apply to the white people and in a thousands instances this is the only thing that could be done because there is a long difference between the two races in those elements that constitute harmonious relations The negro has much that is not common to the white man, and the white man has much that is not common to the other. Here are elements so inherently diverse and far apart that no law, sentiment of gospel can so coerse or force them to work together. And since this is the truth in this case as has been proven a thousand times, then wisdom, patriotism and all the interest of humanity and of the country demand a seperation. If the negroes are given territories to themselves, with proper restrains and controlled by the government looking to the erection, when the fitness of things will warrant it, government by states, I cannot see why there should not be room for the negroes as a seperate and a distinct class. Segregation and separation is already a fact in the cry, law and practice. It rigidly enforced everywhere in the south, and when the time comes that may make any northern state half negro and half Anglo-Saxon, this same local and enforced segregation will obtain. When the time comes, if it ever does, to set apart territories and establish statehood for the negro race, there will not be only room for him in the republic, but there will be force and skill enough to keep the white man out as a settler and a citizen. Of course it would always be in the power of the government to have its agents of white men, if need be, in any and all parts of the Union, but we think no white man should be allowed to live there as a citizen. Drummers, agents and venders of commerce, and visitors and tourists would be free to come, but not to vote or live. If the increase of the race should demand enlargement of territotial limits in the process of time, the wisdom and patriotism of that age will meet the conditions and solve the problem. We need not be uneasy about that; There is always a way to settle social and racial problems, if the parties concerned are willing.

You say, "The whole trouble--or what Bishop Holsey calls the crisis"-- grows out of the folly of the negro politicians and they are aided to some extent by many negro preachers who in order to make themselves conspicuous, are prone to give their hearers bad advice." It is to be admitted that in the past many loud mouth politicians have said things ought to have been let alone, and have, to some extent, been the cause of irritation, but in recent years the southern gentry of that class have left off that old part of the programme 002121Nowadays I never hear a harsh word or an ugly sentence uttered by our southern political negroes. In short, there is little or no politics in this country for him. His stock in trade is all gone. It is not safe for him to be a politician except in a few restricted centers, and this he knows by sad experience.

As to the Negro politicians, you make it appear that they are aided by negro preachers in stirring up strife and ill-feeling between the races. To be exact, let us quote your words again because the allegation is a fearful one; "The whole trouble--or what Bishop Holsey calls the crisis'-- grows out of the folly of the negro politicians, and they are aided to some extent by negro preachers, who in order to make themselves conspicuous, are prone to give their hearers bad advice." Now this is news to me, and I suppose to the generality of the negro preachers of the south. Surely the editor of the great daily has been misinformed on this important matter. I do not think you will find a single negro preacher in the sonthland who ever, on any occasion, knowingly gives his hearers bad advice. For twenty-six years I have traveled all over the south for many times, and have visited every part of the country, taking in the cities, towns and rural districts, and have attended all sorts and kinds of meetings, and I no where ever heard a negro preacher say a harsh word or do or say anything intended to stir up strife or give offence to the white people of this or any other country. Sometimes a negro preacher utters indiscreet words touching the moral standing of theraces, as a matter of duty, but never as an intended insult to the white people. They are not taught that way in the schools and colleges, neither north or south, neither by white teachers nor black teachers, neither by northern men nor by southern. If the statement is true, then negro preachers would not be allowed to travel in all parts of the country without being molested, as they do. There is no class of the negro race treated with more kindness and consideration than the preachers, because former good behavior has established for them a worthy reputation. Almost everywhere in city and country negro preachers have no trouble in getting credit, even when they are strangers, for what they need. Of course all negro preachers are not angels. The have their faults and valnerable parts, as any class of professions, but they certainly are not propagators of bitterness and strife between the races. Hundreds of times, if not thousands, have I heard them warn their hearers against politics and 002222impoliteness to white people, against violation of law, improprieties and the commission of crime of every sort. I cannot help from thinking you have been misinformed on this point.

From whatever standpoint we view this tremendous race problem, as it exist, in this country, it seems clear that the great propelling force and underlying active factors that give the greatest importance to the subject, are those racial instincts and human proclivities and antagonisms that are always present when distinct races are collected in the same commonwealths. The Anglo-Saxon people hate a submissive and a servile race, let that race be Negro, Indian, Chinese or any other. Consequently the negro, the Chinese or Indian will never be allowed to be equal sharers with him in the same territory. The transpiring events of the day, and the acts and facts of former years, and the intensity and feverish restiveness that are now apparent, substantiates our position upon this great question.

So sure as there is a race problem, it can never be settled while the two distinct races occupy the same territory upon our theory of government. One must be serf to that extreme debasement where all human rights are denied, and the other the single, supreme, and undisputed master. If this does not agree with the inexorable decrees of God, it is the logic of fate and the inevitable. L. H. HOLSEY.Bishop of the C.M.E. Church.

THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL WAS WRITTEN IN REPLY TO THE ABOVE ARTICLE BOTH OF WHICH APPEARED IN THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION ON THE 30TH OF AUGUST 1899. IT WILL BE SEEN THAT THE EDITOR OF THAT GREAT PAPER AGREES WITH US ON THE RACIAL PROBLEM ASTO THE SPIRIT AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE THEORY. THE ONLY POINT WHERE HE DEMURS IS ON ITS PRACTIBILITY HE SAYE; "WE ARE NOT OPPOSE TO SEPARATION EXCEPT THAT IT IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY. IT MIGHT PROVE TO BE THE VERY REMEDY WE ARE ALL SEEKING IF IT WERE POSSIBLE "WE SHOULD SAY THE SCHEME OF SEPARATION AND SEGREGATION IS BOTH POSSIBLE AND PRACTICABLE IF THE NATION IS WILLING TO DO JUSTICE TO THAT PART OF ITS CITIZENS WHO ARE OPPRESSED, DISCRIMINATED AGAINST AND INSECURE IN THEIR LIFE AND PROPERTY BECAUSE THEY ARE OF ANOTHER AND DISSIMILAR RACE.

Bishop Holsey of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church returns to the subject of race separation in a letter which we print elsewhere. It is not to be denied that he presents as strong an argument in behalf of his scheme as can be offered for the side. He goes very deeply into the subject and handles his materials with thought and skill.

As we have said on former occasions, we are not opposed to separation except on the ground that it is an impossibility. It might prove to be the very remedy we are all seeking--if it were possible. It was possible as a condition and an accompaniment of emancipation, but it was not made a condition and hence it seems to us, not folly, but a waste of wisdom for thoughtful men like Bishop Holsey to trouble their minds with it.

During the past forty years the industrious and thrifty portion of the negro race has been engaged in establishing itself in the soil here. It is bound to the south by all the ties that bind men to their homes--to the land of their birth. Its property interests are large and are growing larger every day and those who have the right to accumulate property and take advantages of it, may look forward to the possession of every 002424other right, if not by themselves then by their children or their children's children.

We have no doubt whatever that Bishop Hosley could be philosophical if he tried: at any rate, the very terms and articles of his calling cite him to both patience and charity. Now if we view the matter from the standpoint of philosophy we have in our field of vision one of the most interesting spectacles that has ever been witnessed. We behold a race in the childhood, as it were, of civilization. Up to this point whatever the future may have in store for it, it seems to have been led by Providence. While yet it was in a state of barbarism it was rescued from slavery in Africa and transplanted to this country. Transplanted to another condition of slavery; yes, but a condition as different from that from which it was rescued as day is from night. It was brought in contact with Christianity and civilization.

Now what was American slavery but the school in which the negro race learned its first crude lessons in civilization? We are familiar with the repertoire of our friends, the abolitionists; we know about the "foul wrongs" and the unspeakable cruelties" of slavery; we know how anxious the old-time planters were to multilate and take away the value of their own proderty; we know how much better work a negro could do after he was starved or fed on cotten seed, just as we know how much more valuable a horse or a mule is after the tendons of its legs are cut; but over and above these things there was the reality of slavery, and this reality brought the negro face to face with circumstances and conditions which other races have been compelled to work up to through centuries of ignorance, vice corruption, bloodshed and crimes. And the fact remains, clear and unmistakable to every man who has read history, that the negro race in the south has reached its present position in the scale of civilization with less travail than any other people on which the sun shines.

Now, this fact, the most startling and impressive since the Almighty, under the old dispensation, made the Jews His chosen people, means something or it means nothing; and if it means nothing, Bishop Holsey may as well follow the example of Dr. Lyman Abbott and throw his Bible into the seething and foaming whirlpool of myths and fables. All this, as the reader will observe, is not argument; it is the simple statement of facts that are plain to all thoughtful men.

There is no need to comment paragraph by paragraph on the communication of Bishop Holsey. To carry out the 002525scheme of separation on the lines laid down by him, the constitution would have to be amended; the bill of rights would have to suspende with respects to the proposed territory or state to be occupied by the negroes--in short, a good many things would have to be turned topsy-turvy to fit an exigency which exists only in the minds of the impatient.

Bishop Holsey remarks that perhaps half of the intelligent white people of the south are in favor of the segregation of the negro race. We have no testimony to this effect beyond the bishop's implication, and it seems impossible that the white people are in favor of a movement which would rob the south of the bulk of the laboring population. If the negroes themselves are in favor of it, they manage to conceal their desires very adroitly. There is a certain per cent among them that would be willing to enter into any sort of adventure. This class includes the idle, the vagrant and the restless minded, and it is a class not confined to the black race.

We admit that the negroes are frequently the victims of cruilties and outrages at the hands of a certain class of the whites. This is because the race is in its childhood so far as civilization is concerned. We see the same manifestations in families and schools. The younger and the weaker are knocked and cuffed about until finally they are able to stand alone. They are hardened and strengthened in the process. Man is an animal and at all stages of his history he is either the victim of the victimizer. Only Christianity can subdue his passions and enable him to love his neighbor as himself.

As far the negro politicians, we repeat that they are a pestiferous lot; some of them indeed are almost as bad as the white republican politicians who used to florish in this section. If the negroes could be induced to support measures that are to their own interest and to the interests of the communities in which they live, there wouls be less race prejudice.

In our comments on Bishop Holsey's first communication we may have done injustice to negro preachers. But we had before us at that time a pamphlet, or broadside sheet issued by a negro preacher in Tennessee. That pamphlet or sheet, was made up mainly of letters from negro preachers villifying Booker Washing and endeavoring to turn the tide of the negro opinion against the great work to which he has set his hand. We consider that this is not only bad, but vicious advice. Any negro has the right to disagree with any other person, but he has no right to impute bad motives to such a man as Booker Washington, who, by reason of his conscientious conduct and his great ability, has won the respect and 002626esteem of the best men of both races.

We will add that this scheme of segregation can only be made possible by the negroes themselves if they want to throw down their hands and call for a new deal, and are unanimous in that desire, they can bring a powerful influence to bear in the right quarter. As a matter of fact, however, as we said before, it has no more substance than a dream.