I have stated in a former chapter that the Colored people,
notwithstanding the many adverse circumstances surrounding them, did
succeed in obtaining a living and avoided becoming a great public
charge, which fact, I think, will be universally admitted. But we can go
further and show that they not only accomplished this, but other things,
equally as great during the period from 1865 to the present. Many white
people believed, when these people were freed that they were incapable
of taking education, and therefore could not safely attain to
citizenship, all of which has long since been shown to be erroneous, and
at this present time the men holding such views cannot be found.
The Colored people have fully demonstrated their ability to take
education, not only in the common, but in the higher branches as well,
and as rapidly and as thoroughly as the white student. They have also
shown their ability to master any of the learned professions, so that
the men who have heretofore prated so loudly about the incapacity of the
colored man, have been driven successfully from each stand they have
taken, until the last ditch is reached; they now admit the Colored man’s
ability to cope with them in the professions, but say he is unreliable.
But he will soon drive them from that position also.
We are now classed as a “Negro” race. Webster says the word “Negro”
applies to black men of southern Africa, or their descendents. While
there are a few pure black men among the Colored people of the United
States, at the most, not over one-fifth, the other four-fifths are
mixed, in a lesser or greater degree, with the white race, and this
process of mixing has been going on for over two hundred years. Children
take their nationality from their mothers and not their fathers; so that
every child whose mother is a white or a Colored American, is an
American to all intents and purposes, and cannot be otherwise. These
mixed bloods married, and begat children, who were Americans. Though
they were deprived of their liberty by American law, they could not be
called Africans any more than the white Americans could be called
Europeans, and this forces me to state that there is no such a thing as
a Negro race in this country. We are Colored Americans and this, I think
is the proper name for us.
One thing is pretty clearly seen, and that is, we are not a race with
sufficient race pride and affinity, which are the special prerequisites
of all races of men in the great struggle for race supremacy. We have
not and cannot have race pride, because we know nothing of a mother
country; nothing of a united people; nothing of the different nations in
Africa, from which some of our ancestors were purchased or stolen. We
are here by the will of God, and He will in His own time and in His own
way shape our destiny. For the present, in my opinion, we are here to
show the sin and wickedness of the American people, and we are here to
stay. This is our country; our coming here being co-existent with that
of our white brother, we know no other; we have contributed our full
share to make it what it is; we have defended it in all its wars, before
and since the Declaration of Independence, and we will defend it
against all nations. We are Americans as truly as any others in this
land; this is our home, and its flag is our flag.
I have been unable to find a case in history, ancient or modern, where a
people had been held in subjugation and ignorance so long, and reduced
to such a state of immorality, that they had not the slightest
conception of, or respect for the marital relations, and especially the
moral law. This was the condition of the Colored people at the close of
the war. It is unnecessary for me to ask, who was responsible for this
crying shame, or whether it was the fault of the Colored people. In my
opinion it was and is the sin of the American people, who had gone to
Africa and stolen little children from their virtuous homes and parents,
brought them here, reared them as they reared their cattle, and
regardless of the rights of humanity, the laws of morality and
Christianity itself, reduced them to slavery, and robbed them of all
conceptions of chastity and virtue. I have said this crime was committed
by the American people, and I say this, because nearly every one of the
original thirteen States, which formed the United States, July 4, 1776,
held slaves or recognized property in them. But the most absurd of all
absurdities, is to hear white people prating about the immoral conduct
of Colored people when, as a matter of fact, they are responsible for
whatever they see in us to condemn, for we are what they made us. I say
Colored people, because we would have been pure black, were it not that
immoral white men have, by force, injected their blood into our veins,
to such an extent, that we now represent all colors, from pure black to
pure white, and almost entirely as the result of the licentiousness of
white men, and not of marriage or by the cohabitation of Colored men
with white women.
The fact is this, that we had to take ourselves as we found ourselves,
regardless of the many different shades of colors among us, and start
then, for the first time in our history, to build our own characters and
homes, with a very limited knowledge as to the way to proceed. Upon
being emancipated we commenced the practice of morality and virtue by
going to the church and the courts, and being legally married, and by
raising our children up in the care of the church and the Sabbath
schools. So that in a very short time after our freedom, nearly all
those who had been living as man and wife, by order or consent of their
masters, had been lawfully married. Then and not till then, did we
commence to build our own homes and to perpetuate a name. Of course the
name could be only that of our masters, as we had none and were
compelled to adopt that of our last master or some other, as the names
that were borne in Africa, by our stolen ancestors, were entirely lost,
after nearly two centuries in slavery.
It should not be expected that a people with so many disadvantages and
drawbacks could attain to the degree of morality and virtue of a people,
who had the benefit and experience of a thousand years’ training, but I
think we compare very favorably with that class of whites, who can
command no more capital than we. Our people have not added to the
increasing number of tramps, infesting nearly every State in the Union,
committing crime wherever they go, and causing the women to be in mortal
fear in the absence of their male protectors. The Colored people are, as
a rule, content and faithful workers wherever employed, a fact which
contractors who have given them work will confirm. They have never been
known to organize a strike, or to be in any way connected with one,
unless it be to accept work where white strikers had refused, and that
at the solicitation of owners or contractors. So that it may be stated
without the fear of successful contradiction, that the Colored laborers
are the most reliable class of workers the country possesses to-day,
less riotous, less turbulent and more tractable than any other class,
and can and do perform as full a day’s service.
The Colored American is most loyal to his government as a citizen and as
a soldier, a fact which will be generally admitted by even his worst
enemies. He is not to be classed among the anarchists, or any other
class of men who plot against the laws of the land. His loyalty and
bravery as a soldier have been shown, not only in the late war, but
since as an enlisted man in the regular army, a fact which the Seventh
United States Cavalry will admit willingly, because it was the Colored
troops that came in the nick of time to their aid at the Wounded Knee
fight, and turned defeat into victory. And speaking of their loyalty, I
feel safe in making the assertion, that they would be among the first to
enlist to defend the old flag, in case of an invasion by a foreign
enemy, even though he landed his forces in the extreme South.
Having no mother country with which to divide his sympathies, the old
flag would receive the Colored soldier’s loyal support. Can this be
truthfully said of any other distinct class of adopted citizens? I think
not. Suppose this country was forced to declare war against Germany or
Italy, could we expect the undivided support of the German Americans or
the naturalized Italians? Not at all. We would be at the mercy of either
of these great powers, because they could have their spies and
emissaries in our rear at every movement. This would not be the case
with the Colored Americans, who know only America, and whose allegiance
need not be questioned. The Colored American will be found fighting in
the ranks of the loyalists to sustain our present system of government
intact when the great conflict shall come, which now seems threatening,
and which came near being inaugurated at Chicago in the spring of 1894,
between those who are loyal to our present economic system of
government, and the extreme socialists, who are mostly of foreign birth,
and therefore less in sympathy with our institutions and established
mode of government.
The Colored American will always be found voting and fighting on the
side of the white American aristocratic classes, the classes that have
made our common country what it is to-day--the best government on the
face of the globe, and who are striving to keep it in the lead of all
other civilized governments.
There are several questions of great magnitude agitating the minds of
the American people to-day, questions which have been before them for
the last few years; and which will have to be met and settled, in my
opinion, at no very distant day, and in that final settlement, whether
in a war of ballots or bullets, the Colored Americans will wield an
important power, and will have an opportunity to make themselves masters
of the situation.
When the social question, or the struggle between labor and capital,
between law and order, between American and encroaching foreign ideas,
shall present themselves for settlement, the Colored Americans, being
most loyal to everything that is American, and especially to those
things which conduce to law and order and good government, can and will
always be found battling against the anarchist and the revolutionist of
any character. On account of their unwavering loyalty to America and its
established institutions, the Colored Americans will in such struggles,
in all probability, hold the key to the situation, or the casting
influence, and if rightly and wisely used, they will hold the balance of
power in this country.
I have tried to show that the typical poor whites and their allies, the
foreigners, seeking to control the labor work of the country, are no
friends of the Colored people, and have never been, and that the Colored
people cannot support any measure they may advocate. So then it will be
seen that it is the duty of the Colored people to support the principles
of the better classes of white people, North and South, for the
aristocratic classes are our real friends, and are also the friends of
good government for Americans.
I cannot see how a Christian nation can so far forget its duties as to
allow a loyal, industrious class of its citizens to suffer injustice and
wrongs at its hands, a class of people who only ask a fair chance in
common with its other citizens. One great injustice the Colored people
are forced to suffer, without the means of redress, is at the hands of
the press, especially the periodicals, which allow any writer who may
wish to attack the Colored people, space to vent his spleen, and when he
has given his story about them, whether true or false, the publishers
will not allow the Colored writer space to reply. Strange as it may
seem, these publishers will promptly refuse to publish articles
reflecting upon the moral habits and character of any other distinct
class of people in this country. Then why treat the Colored people
differently? Fair play and a fair show are all they ask, and this they
will ever ask, and as Americans this they have a right to ask.
Great injustice has been inflicted upon the Colored people of this
country by men engaged in business enterprises, such as manufacturers,
mill and mine owners, in their refusal to give them employment. These
great captains of industry have persistently discriminated against the
sober, industrious, faithful Colored American citizen, and given
preference to foreigners, who, neither understanding nor feeling the
slightest interest in our institutions, have, at times, by strikes and
boycotts, caused great loss to the employer and the employed, and
unnecessary inconvenience to the general public.
I make no complaint against that class of men, who, leaving the old
world and coming to the new, and assuming the responsibilities of
American citizenship in good faith, adopt the broad American doctrine of
equal rights to all. I refer to that irresponsible class, who, leaving
their country for their country’s good, have contributed little or
nothing to the peace, order and prosperity of the United States; they
are the inciters of strikes, riots and general disorder in nearly all of
our great centres of population.
The situation in this respect is becoming more and more a matter of
anxiety and alarm on the part of patriotic Americans, and the question
now confronting us is, “What shall we do about it?” Many things can be
done, some of which must be done speedily. Restrict immigration to the
industrious, sober, law-abiding classes, enforce the law rigorously
against rioters, anarchists, and the like, make education compulsory,
and teach English in all the public schools, and admit to the factories,
the mills, the mines, and other works, the worthy American worker, both
white and Colored, upon terms of perfect equality.
It is a burning shame, a disgrace to the country, that our own citizens
should be denied the opportunity of earning a livelihood at the
suggestion of a herd of ignorant and lawless foreigners.
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