Thus it is that the second American revolution is settling for us the
vexed question of the negro. What should be done with him, or for him,
or to him, had been the disturbing element in our political system ever
since the African slave trade expired by limitation of the Constitution
in 1808. The devices of human ingenuity (inspired, as we fervently
believe, by the purest patriotism) to stave off the inevitable final
settlement of this account, innumerable as they were, and only limited
by the predestined decree of Supreme Benevolence (which is Supreme
Justice), were, at last, exhausted. The statesmanship of '50 had been
outgrown. The giants of those days had gone, one by one, to their reward
ere yet the first breaths of the revolution that has opened the decade
of '60. Nought remained to their lesser associates, who still survived,
but to bow reverently before the storm, 'as seeing in it Him who is
invisible.' Such recognition, indeed, is the measure of men's patriotism
to-day. The man who so perverts his mind and reason as to shut out the
evidence of the stars and his own consciousness (the German
metaphysician's proof of Deity), and deny that God is, is simply a fool;
and every reflecting mind is ready to sanction and adopt the Psalmist's
word: 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' Equally a fool
is he who shuts his eyes to the overwhelming facts of the last two
years, refusing to be taught by the Providence behind them. Such and so
vast is the revolution by which God has intervened in our history. Such
is the Providence that still guides and guards the nation ordained by
Him to be. Such is the revolution that has swept away the slave system,
and opened for us a new path, and given us a new power of progress.
Now, these views need not make one a negro-enthusiast. Because the
system of slavery has been swept away, it is not necessary to assert, as
some do, the negro's equality with the white man in those things wherein
he is plainly not his equal. Yet there is an equality that cannot be
denied. The negro is certainly a man, and not a brute animal; although
so demoralized and corrupt had grown to be the tone of society that we
have actually heard the opinion avowed, in all seriousness, that the
negro had no soul. Shylock, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' pleads for
himself and his Jewish brethren, in one of the most pathetic passages of
even Shakspeare's genius, as though the Hebrew race were considered less
than men. And such, indeed, was nearly the case in Shylock's time. On
the other hand, the Moor of Venice disdains to plead as to his
superiors. His conscious equality in presence of the 'grave and reverend
signiors,' gives to his renowned address a consummate dignity, unknown
elsewhere in literature. He felt, indeed, that his victories under the
flag of the republic entitled him not only to equality, but especial
honor. Is it not singular that in this nineteenth century there should
be found men who gladly accord to the Jew, the descendant of Shem, that
of which they refuse even the possibility to the dark descendant of Ham?
Surely the republic of Venice was not so far behind our boasted
civilization. Our civilization still clings to the idea of privilege.
The privilege of caste is only exchanged for the privilege of color.
Nor need we commit ourselves to the doctrine of some, who would appear
to think that the negro is to be the dominant race of the future; if not
in himself, yet in virtue of his supplementing the composite Anglo-Saxon
race, and thus giving to it a completeness it is assumed not to have at
present. Such we understand to be the doctrine of what styles itself
Miscegenation. It would be pertinent, and, perhaps, conclusive, to cite
on this point the Latin maxim, _De gustibus non disputandum_.
There are those who admire a certain new style of music, of which the
melody is chiefly hidden from the appreciation of common folk, and which
has received the title, 'Music of the Future;' looking forward to a time
when, perhaps, men's senses will be preternaturally quickened to
comprehend its discordant harmonies. It is something akin to that vagary
of religious sentiment, which, whatever may be its merits, whatever its
satisfaction for a spiritually illuminated chosen few, is, nevertheless,
beyond the present ken and comprehension and spiritual compass of most
mortals, and may be called the Religion of the Future. The fatal defect
of all these theories is that they serve no purpose of utility.
Considered as creations of ideal beauty, they may charm the fancy and
quicken the imagination, and even exalt the mental habitudes, of a few
devotees. Or, allowing that they are a sort of morning twilight vision,
they _may_, we cannot dogmatically deny, hereafter develop into a
splendid fulness, in the perfect day. All this may be. But they do not
meet the practical needs of our working life, the wants of weary men and
weary women.
So, what we want for the negro is not a metaphysical theory of his
perfect equality with the white man. Nor, on the other hand, are we at
liberty to say that he is, by virtue of any physical conformation and
structure, something inferior to the white man. Neither of these
positions can be sustained. The one plainly contradicts our observation
and experience; the other needs the proof of science that inferiority is
determined by physical structure. We must face the fact of the negro's
present degraded condition; and we must accept the equal fact of his
being a man, with a soul as precious, in the sight of God, as the soul
of his white brother. For the day when the sublime exordium of the
Declaration of Independence could be stigmatized as a 'glittering
generality,' is gone by. The basis of our American system of government,
it is no longer doubted, is the equality of all men before the law, as
the basis of our Christian faith is the equality of all men before God.
Accepting, then, the two undeniable facts above named, the question is,
What shall we do now with the negro?