But how can this problem be solved? I will tell you how it cannot
be solved. It cannot be solved by keeping the Negro poor, degraded,
ignorant and half-starved, as I have shown is now being done in
Southern States.
It cannot be solved by keeping back the wages of the labourer by fraud,
as is now being done by the landlords of the South. It cannot be done
by ballot-box stuffing, by falsifying election returns, or by confusing
the Negro voter by cunning devices. It cannot be done by repealing all
federal laws enacted to secure honest elections. It can, however, be
done, and very easily done, for where there is a will there is a way.
Let the white people of the North and South conquer their prejudices.
Let the Northern press and pulpit proclaim the gospel of truth and
justice against the war now being made upon the Negro.
Let the American people cultivate kindness and humanity.
Let the South abandon the system of mortgage labour and cease to make
the Negro a pauper, by paying him dishonest scrip for his honest labour.
Let them give up the idea that they can be free while making the Negro
a slave. Let them give up the idea that to degrade the coloured man
is to elevate the white man. Let them cease putting new wine into old
bottles, and mending old garments with new cloth.
They are not required to do much. They are only required to undo the
evil they have done, in order to solve this problem.
In old times when it was asked, “How can we abolish slavery?” the
answer was “Quit stealing.”
The same is the solution of the race problem to-day. The whole thing
can be done simply by no longer violating the amendment of the
Constitution of the United States, and no longer evading the claims
of justice. If this were done, there would be no Negro problem or
national problem to vex the South or to vex the nation.
Let the organic law of the land be honestly sustained and obeyed. Let
the political parties cease to palter in a double sense, and live up to
the noble declarations we find in their platforms. Let the statesmen of
our country live up to their convictions. In the language of ex-Senator
Ingalls: “Let the nation try justice and the problem will be solved.”
Two hundred and twenty years ago the Negro was made a religious
problem, one which gave our white forefathers about as much perplexity
and annoyance as we now profess. At that time the problem was in
respect of what relation a Negro sustains to the Christian Church,
whether he was in fact a fit subject for baptism, and Dr. Godwin, a
celebrated divine of his time, and one far in advance of his brethren,
was at the pains of writing a book of two hundred pages or more,
containing an elaborate argument to prove that it was not a sin in the
sight of God to baptize a Negro.
His argument was very able, very learned, very long. Plain as the truth
may seem, there were at that time very strong arguments against the
position of the learned divine.
As usual, it was not merely the baptism of the Negro that gave trouble,
but it was as to what might follow such baptism. The sprinkling him
with water was a very simple thing and easily gotten along with, but
the slaveholders of that day saw in the innovation something more
dangerous than cold water. They said that to baptize the Negro and
make him a member of the Church of Christ was to make him an important
person--in fact, to make him an heir of Jesus Christ. It was to give
him a place at Lord’s supper. It was to take him out of the category of
heathenism and make it inconsistent to hold him a slave, for the Bible
made only the heathen a proper subject for slavery.
These were formidable consequences, certainly, and it is not strange
that the Christian slaveholders of that day viewed these consequences
with immeasurable horror. It was something more terrible and dangerous
than the Civil Rights Bill and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
to our Constitution. It was a difficult thing, therefore, at that day
to get the Negro into water.
Nevertheless, our learned doctor of divinity, like many of the same
class in our day, was equal to the emergency. He was able to satisfy
all important parties to the problem, except the Negro, and him it did
not seem necessary to satisfy.
The doctor was a skilled dialectician. He could not only divide the
word with skill, but he could divide the Negro into two parts. He
argued that the Negro had a soul as well as a body, and insisted that
while his body rightfully belonged to his master on earth, his soul
belonged to his Master in heaven. By this convenient arrangement,
somewhat metaphysical, to be sure, but entirely evangelical and
logical, the problem of Negro baptism was solved.
But with the Negro in the case, as I have said, the argument was not
entirely satisfactory. The operation was much like that by which the
white man got the turkey and the Indian got the crow. When the Negro
looked for his body, that belonged to his earthly master; when he
looked around for his soul, that had been appropriated by his heavenly
Master; and when he looked around for something that really belonged to
himself, he found nothing but his shadow, and that vanished into the
air, when he might most want it.
One thing, however, is to be noticed with satisfaction; it is this:
something was gained to the cause of righteousness by this argument. It
was a contribution to the cause of liberty. It was largely in favour
of the Negro. It was a plain recognition of his manhood, and was
calculated to set men to thinking that the Negro might have some other
important rights, no less than the religious right to baptism.
Thus, with all its faults, we are compelled to give the pulpit the
credit of furnishing the first important argument in favour of the
religious character and manhood rights of the Negro.
Dr. Godwin was undoubtedly a good man. He wrote at a time of much moral
darkness, and when property in man was nearly everywhere recognised as
a rightful institution. He saw only a part of the truth. He saw that
the Negro had a right to be baptized, but he could not all at once see
that he had a primary and paramount right to himself.
But this was not the only problem slavery had in store for the Negro.
Time and events brought another and it was this very important one:
Can the Negro sustain the legal relation of a husband to a wife? Can he
make a valid marriage contract in this Christian country?
This problem was solved by the same slave-holding authority, entirely
against the Negro. Such a contract, it was argued, could only be
binding upon men providentially enjoying the right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, and since the Negro is a slave and
slavery a divine institution, legal marriage was wholly inconsistent
with the institution of slavery.
When some of us at the North questioned the ethics of this conclusion,
we were told to mind our business, and our Southern brethren asserted,
as they assert now, that they alone are competent to manage this and
all other questions relating to the Negro. In fact, there has been
no end to the problems of some sort or other, involving the Negro in
difficulty.
Can the Negro be a citizen? was the question of the Dred Scott
decision. Can the Negro be educated? Can the Negro be induced to work
for himself without a master? Can the Negro be a soldier? Time and
events have answered these and all other like questions. We have among
us Negroes who have taken the first prizes as scholars; those who
have won distinction for courage and skill on the battle field; those
who have taken rank as lawyers, doctors and ministers of the gospel;
those who shine among men in every useful calling; and yet we are
called a problem--a tremendous problem; a mountain of difficulty; a
constant source of apprehension; a disturbing social force, threatening
destruction to the holiest and best interests of society. I declare
this statement concerning the Negro, whether by good Miss Willard,
Bishop Haygood, Bishop Fitzgerald, ex-Governor Chamberlain, or by any
and all others, as false and deeply injurious to the coloured citizens
of the United States.
* * * * *
But, my friends, I must stop. Time and strength are not equal to the
task before me. But could I be heard by this great nation, I would
call to mind the sublime and glorious truths with which, at its
birth, it saluted and startled a listening world. Its voice, then,
was as the trump of an archangel, summoning hoary forms of oppression
and time honoured tyranny, to judgment. Crowned heads heard it and
shrieked. Toiling millions heard it and clapped their hands for joy.
It announced the advent of a nation, based upon human brotherhood and
the self-evident truths of liberty and equality. Its mission was the
redemption of the world from the bondage of ages. Apply these sublime
and glorious truths to the situation now before you. Put away your
race prejudice. Banish the idea that one class must rule over another.
Recognize the fact that the rights of the humblest citizens are as
worthy of protection as are those of the highest and your problem
will be solved, and--whatever may be in store for you in the future,
whether prosperity or adversity, whether you have foes without or foes
within, whether there shall be peace or war--based upon the eternal
principles of truth, justice and humanity, with no class having cause
for complaint or grievance, your Republic will stand and flourish for
ever.