The Negro Tried and Triumphant, OR Thoughts Stirred by Race Conflicts.

If there ever was a time when justice overslept itself or honor seemed dead in the case of the American Negro it was when slavery tried to crush out his manhood and seal his hopes in the grave of blind despair. But even in those dark and trying times hope saw glimmering stars and with songs in the night shouted loud: “There is a just God to plead our cause.” Long before our fathers prayed that heaven should hear, the God of justice had decreed that stern judgments should overthrow the oppressor, and that the songs of freedom should drown the bloodhound's bay or crack of slave driver's whip. The pen and tongues of the brave and true of those days united their wholesome energies with the faith and prayers of the righteous. In the preachings of Haven and Beecher, the writings of Garrison, the speeches of Douglass, the poems of Whittier, 0003 4heaven set a thousand batteries in motion and touched them off at the proper time. Though many of the stalwarts for right forsook both Church and State and trusted to the triumph of a righteous cause, there were thousands reserved to Heaven who never indulged a doubt or crooked the knee to Baal. Lovejoy was mobbed and John Brown slain on the holy altar of freedom, yet stout hearts like those of Sojourner Truth, and Lucretia Mott beat on the music of truth's eternal reign. The State was lifeless, the Church a walking corpse in the matter of human freedom, and yet many brave hearts needed to have their energies quickened by the challenge, Is God dead? which helped the great German reformer, Luther, and which served as a battle-axe to Sojourner Truth. No one should lose heart in these later days of race adversity before giving history full credit for what is recorded in our favor. Until we have tried God of heaven and he fails to answer by fire we should take our stand with Elijah and allow the false prophets of Baal to cut themselves to their hearts' content.

RACE CLASHINGS.

Ever and and anon there are periodical outbursts of adversities which darken the heavens about us and which threaten to undermine our march to the land of promise before us. It seems as if every step of our progress must be contested before our footing is secure or before we are prepared for the higher pilgrim stages of our destiny. With every curse of adversity peculiar to our career since emancipation there are associate blessings and clouds of despondence should not be allowed to curtain them from our view. Faith and philosophy are the glasses which, if well adjusted, will enable us to discern a silver lining to these o'erhanging clouds, and gather apples of gold from the pictures of silver which crown the galleries of all people for whom heaven has reserved a larger destiny.

THE PICTURE DARKENS.

Scarcely had the glad tidings of liberty greeted the ears of our long captived millions before the dogs of persecutions began howling upon our footsteps. The first of these brutes to bring us to bay were the blood-hounds of political antagonism. Not until the bloody chapters of Ku-Kluxism are unfurled in the light of the judgment, will the world ever learn what the Negro paid for the experiment of protecting with his ballot what was purchased for him by bullets. Through the ravages and havoc of this particular type of adversity, it were no extravagance to say that in less than two decades, the blood of fifty thousand dark skinned victims stained Southern soil and appealed to Heaven for vengeance. The parting counsel of the arch-champion of slavery and secession to his sympathetic fellow-country-men was “Keep the 'niggers' down.” The advice was 0006 7given in all sincerity and no doubt the effort was made to put it into lasting effect, but in so doing the fact remained that in the effort to degrade or exterminate the Negro, Jefferson Davis and all such morbid spirits contributed a negative service which reacted most visibly in the Negro's welfare. The great Negrophobist and State's right chieftain lived long enough to see the temple of his cherished hopes anent the black man dissolve like a summer's dream. In the flesh he was an eye witness to the remarkable vitality and possibility of the subject the would forever suppress with shot-gun power or iron pressure. From his own proud State he saw sable princes mount the law making chariot of his country and drive to goals not dreamt of. He saw his own proud home, his senatorial seat, his beloved State institution of learning, the oligarchy of pride and greatness, the throne of the Caesars of Southern aristocracy, all, all overthrown and passed into the hands of former subjects, under the dominion of those, who by the decree of divine economy have ever been ordained to reign after a career of faithful service.

THE CURSE OF IGNORANCE.

While slavery was a curse, we should bear in mind that ignorance was, and is a curse also. While the whites have measurably paid and must still pay the penalty of the one, the Negro can not hope to be exempt from the penalties of the others. The barren wastes, the idle resources, the hide bound prejudice and comparative poverty which abound throughout the Southland betray the lingering hoof-marks of the slave monster as his ghost hovers over this section today. The sound of justice cried to the South for the wrongs of slavery and it gave millions of treasures and rivers of blood. Almighty justice would soon burn the mortgage still held against this people if they were less disposed to repudiate their over due notes and begin with a clean bill of health from Heaven. As already noted ignorance is a curse and entails suffering no matter what the hue or nationality of 0008 9the victim be. With Israel of old, the fact led the prophet to vent the lamentation, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Other things being equal, the possession of greater intelligence on the part of those who so largely suffer at the hands of the oppressor, would serve as a shield of impenetrable thickness against his snares and fiery darts. Let us take the instances of recent outbreaks which so fearfully wrecked the confidence of the race members in various communities and sections against each other. Had the sufferers been cemented together by bonds of unity or guided by the light of intelligence and wisdom there would have occurred none of the lamentable tragedies recorded, or if so the account would have shown a different ending.

IS THE RACE FRIENDLESS?

In the dark days of mob sway and outrageous treatment, the question properly suggests itself, Has the Negro friends? and will they aid him in the hour of distress? On first thought the impulse naturally would be to pass beyond local circles and go abroad in search of charity, if such is to be discovered anywhere. Let it not be concluded however that because our local friends seldom show themselves or because they are rarely outspoken save in cases of gross and flagrant crimes, where no excuse can be given for the whites who perpetrate them, let it not be supposed for a moment we say, that in any community where the “cracker” element does not predominate, the Negro can not count on friends among the white people. Without the presence of such, the residence or existence of colored people 0010 11among the whites would be well-nigh impossible. To the credit of humanity and the glory of our Christian civilization, let it be known far and near that the colored man of the South can point to individual friends among white professional and business men and in private families who will aid him in times of need and go their cable's length in helping him in any way. This is true however of the experience of the individual colored man rather than of colored men as a class. The claim by Southerners that they are better friends to the race than Northerners are, are plausible on the ground that association with the former is more general and less strained because their friendliness is more pronounced in favoring the colored man who is fortunate enough not to forget his place as defined by Southern sentiment.

That the friendship cherished by the whites of the North, toward colored people is unsentimental, yet at the same time genuine, only he who reasons blindly will pretend to deny. If freedom is valuable, if citizenship is more than a myth, if civil rights amount to aught, if the pursuit of happiness, the protection of property, the 0011 12security of life, are hallowed boons to be devoutly wished for by the Negro, then he has these in larger measure in the North than in the South. It has been said by way of contrasting and summarizing the relative value of the North and South, that in the latter the Negro has greater opportunity for making money, while in the former he can spend it more freely. Let Satan be given his due by admitting that while one section is a decided sinner in refusing to grant the colored man his rights as a citizen, the other is far from saintliness in withholding from him his dues as a brother. In the North, the schools are thrown open to him, and class legislation does not oppress him in any form. Still, the unwritten laws which exclude him from workshops and labor unions, place a check upon the Negro as a class, and invite indolence and crime in larger measure among his kind.

WHAT IS TO SAVE THE NEGRO?

The white man, whether we meet him first at the base of the Ural or Caucasus Mountains, or amid the barbaric hordes of primitive Germany, in the undeveloped England, or wild America, lays the broad and deep foundation for the career he plays, and the achievements he has made by the embracement of the Christian creed and faith profession in the Word of God. There is no other safe passage-way or royal road to Negro race excellence than that taken by our dominant brother. In a word, if the race would rise and hold its own like others it must suffer as well as toil like other races. On the Almighty and mighty dollar it must take a firmer grasp. Finally it must learn that knowledge is power and this with love and faith will supply a three-fold cord which no mortal power can break.