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 'W&r>Yl 
 
ADDRESS . 
 
 TO THE 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE NATIONAL EDUCA¬ 
 TIONAL ASSOCIATION, AT WASHINGTON, D. 0., 
 
 ON THE 
 
 S. M. FINGER, 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 FEBRUARY 24, 1886. 
 

 
 
 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 
 
 
 
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 https://archive.org/details/addresstodepartm00fing_0 
 
 
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SSOr\ 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS INTERESTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Colored People of the South. 
 
 Si nee the storms (hat beat upon our ship of State subsided, 
 we find her anchored in the harbor of freedom and equality of all 
 men before the law. Twenty-one years have elapsed, and as the 
 clouds clear away, it becomes us to take our reckonings. Almost 
 a generation has passed away, and other men control and other 
 ideas prevail. It is wise that we lay aside all sectional feelings, 
 and without crimination or recrimination discuss all the great 
 problems that confront us, and especially the negro problem, 
 which I submit is, perhaps, the most difficult of them all. I 
 desire to have it understood that in anvthing I shall say it is 
 furthest from my purpose to offend any man, white or black, 
 North or South. 
 
 Born and reared in the South, having a Southern ancestry 
 ante-dating the revolution of 1775, the son and the grandson of 
 an owner of slaves, I have had opportunity of studying the negro 
 in his home in the South before and since the late war between 
 the States. 
 
 Educated in New England, and having had business inter¬ 
 course with the people of the Northern section of the Union, I 
 have had opportunity of studying the negro in the North also, 
 both before and since his freedom. 
 
 Add to this the fact that I was taught bv my father to look 
 with suspicion upon the institution of slavery, and that conse¬ 
 quently I had a degree of sympathy for the slaves. 
 
 In view of these facts, I trust that I can enter upon the dis¬ 
 cussion of the negro question, with freedom from prejudice 
 
 
9 
 
 against the colored people, and with sufficient opportunity to 
 have learned something about them from actual contact, and to 
 enable me to keep up with changing public sentiment about the 
 negro, both North and South. 
 
 But with all these opportunities to study and observe the 
 negro, I am free to confess that I do not know that I fully 
 understand him ; and I cannot, with satisfaction to myself, 
 forecast his future or form a definite conclusion as to his 
 capabilities. So far he is an undetermined quantity in the 
 problem of civilization. Whether the size of his brain 
 and his other peculiarities mark him as the white man’s 
 natural inferior, or only emphasize his want of opportu¬ 
 nity, is an unanswered question, and it must remain an unan¬ 
 swered question until he shall have been tried and cultivated for 
 more than one generation. 
 
 It is, however, but fair to state that when we consult history, 
 any claim of the negro, or of any other of the colored nations, 
 to equality in intellect or force of character with the Indo-Euro¬ 
 pean nations rests upon a very slender foundation. History 
 shows that the Aryan family of nations overcame all other na¬ 
 tions with whom they came in contact. So far as the negroes 
 in Africa were concerned, the grand, ancient civilization around 
 the shores of the Mediterranean sea did not stir them. While 
 the Egyptians built the pyramids and their magnificent cities ; 
 while the Carthaginians grappled in successful conflict with the 
 Romans ; while the Greeks and Romans made their arts of war 
 and their fine arts felt and known throughout the then known 
 world ; while in later days, even down to the present, civiliza¬ 
 tion and Christianity have been developed by the European and 
 American people—while all these things have been going on, 
 the negroes in Africa have never, to any considerable extent, 
 been aroused by them, notwithstanding in modern times special 
 efforts have been made to civilize and christianize them. His¬ 
 tory is against the claims of the negro to equality with the white 
 nations. He would seem to be immovable, incapable of pro- 
 
 » 
 
o 
 
 o 
 
 gress except as he is brought into immediate personal contact 
 with the whites. 
 
 However this may be, the white people of the Southern sec¬ 
 tion of the United States, as well as those of the Northern, de¬ 
 sire to give him a fair trial. In this, there seems now to be very 
 fair unanimity of sentiment. So far as the thing to be done is 
 concerned, there is not much diversity of opinion. He is a citi¬ 
 zen, equal before the law to any other citizen in all the States of 
 this Union. The conclusion is, therefore, irresistible that he must 
 be educated, intellectually, industrially and religiously, not alone 
 for his benefit, but for the protection of our government. 
 
 But when we come to consider how this is to be done, intelli¬ 
 gent and good people have different plans and theories. These 
 plans and theories have foundation in the minds of those who 
 hold them according to the glasses through which the negro is 
 seen. One man sees in him capabilities equal to those of the 
 white man, and he fits his plans and theories of education to his 
 estimate of the negro’s natural ability. Another man sees the 
 negro as an inferior being and he fits his plans and theories to 
 his belief. Still another man sees him asan untried and unknown 
 factor in civilization, now far behind in intelligence, morality 
 and religion, and so his ideas as to how to educate him take 
 
 It is exceedingly interesting to watch these ever changing and 
 developing views about the negro himself, and the consequent 
 ever changing and developing plans and theories as to how is 
 the best plan to deal with him and educate him, both for his own 
 benefit and for the benefit of the white people. Indeed, the 
 whole matter would be amusing if we could forget the exceeding 
 importance of the problem. 
 
 One man says “the race line is providential, and therefore it 
 ought to be perpetuated.” Another replies, but the race line has 
 already been broken down, and he goes on to argue that all laws 
 that favor the separation of the races in schools and all laws that 
 forbid intermarriage between the races ought to be repealed. He 
 says that no harm would come to the body-politic by allowing 
 
4 
 
 intermarriage, because there would be very little of it anyhow. 
 Thus one of the reasons urged why intermarriage should not be 
 forbidden, serves to show that legitimate social instincts have 
 been given to the races by their Creator, which will perpetuate 
 the race line in spite of law. Still another man says, this race 
 question can never be settled until by intermarriage between the 
 races the white race is made to absorb the colored race; and he 
 advocates mixed schools and mixed churches, because he thinks 
 this policy will lead to mixed marriages. 1 repeat that these dif¬ 
 ferent views wotdd be amusing if it were not for the momentous 
 consequences involved in the adoption of a correct policy—such 
 a policy as will be right in the highest sense of that word, and 
 as will be for the best interests of both races. 
 
 Whether or not the negro is naturally equal or inferior to the 
 whites is disputed, but his equality or inferiority need not now 
 enter into the discussion as to how he should be educated. In a 
 practical point of view, there is common ground enough to stand 
 upon. The ground upon which this discussion should proceed is 
 Jiis real status now. We should recognize his intellectual and 
 moral condition as it is, and not too eagerly inquire what it will 
 be after some generations of training shall have been given him. 
 The future will take care of itself if we faithfully takc.care of 
 the present. 
 
 Let us now inquire what his real status is. 1 do not think 
 that any man who has not lived in the South for many years and 
 observed the negro in his country home, as well as in the cities 
 and towns, will be likely fully to understand his real condition, 
 intellectually, morally and religiously. He may read all the lit¬ 
 erature touching upon it; he may travel through the South, and 
 even sojourn for years in the South, and not comprehend it. Far 
 the greater part of the negroes live in the country, on the planta¬ 
 tions, and a traveller would be apt to form his opinions by what 
 he saw in the cities and towns, where the most intelligent of the 
 negroes congregate, and where their educational and religious 
 opportunities are better than in the country. One who sees the 
 negro in the cities and towns only will fail fully to comprehend 
 
5 
 
 his condition, even if he is free from any, preconceived opinions 
 about it. 
 
 Consider the case as it is. A race of the most barbarous people 
 on the face of the earth, and perhaps the most ignorant, brought 
 to the United States but a few generations ago at most; sunk 
 into the lowest depths of heathenism; bound in all their worship 
 by the most abject fear and degrading superstition ; subjected to 
 slavery without any effort, worth the name, to cultivate their 
 intellects; suddenly released from their bondage in the condition 
 of paupers; suddenly made citizens equal before the law to their 
 old masters, who had been civilizing and developing for a thou¬ 
 sand years; taught for twenty years in the bad school of poli¬ 
 tics; embittered against their former owners and for a time vir¬ 
 tually ruling them ; with only a few years of limited education 
 by the impoverished South—with this history and this treatment, 
 what, in the very nature of the case, must be their condition and 
 disposition now even if we assume their natural equality with 
 the whites? Let any intelligent man free himself from any pre¬ 
 conceived notions and answer as his reason dictates. 
 
 We could but expect them to be ignorant still; averse to labor, 
 and so still living in poverty; ruled largely by superstition and 
 fear in their worship; without providence for the future, spend¬ 
 ing their earnings, day by day as they receive them, if not for the 
 necessities of life, for its pleasures and frivolities; inclined to 
 immorality; the present generation, in large part, growing up in 
 idleness and worthlessness because of their surroundings and 
 home life. 
 
 These surroundings and home life are, as a rule, of the most 
 unfavorable kind. In the country as well as in the cities and 
 towns, in many cases, whole families—fathers and mothers, 
 brothers and sisters—live in small houses, often containing but 
 one room, the parents exercising no restraint or an impatient 
 and passionate restraint over their children, and the children 
 having no elevating companionship. Of course there are excep¬ 
 tions, but I am not now noting the exceptions. With such sur¬ 
 roundings in the formative, family life of the colored children 
 
(j 
 
 before they reach the school age, and with such companionship, 
 they have a most unfavorable start for the formation of charac- 
 ter. Add to these home influences the physical inheritances 
 transmitted to them—inheritances that are apparent to the sight— 
 and add to these still the inheritances of mind and soul which 
 are invisible to mortal sight, but which are no less real than the 
 physical, and we can have some appreciation of the real condition 
 of these children. 
 
 I have drawn the general picture. I am glad that I can 
 note many exceptions. As we visit the hotels and barbershops, 
 we find almost all the service performed by well-behaved, in¬ 
 telligent and decent colored persons, whose very service has 
 brought the elevating contact with the white people, just 
 as it does in the Northern States. Then, too, we have in 
 the South a large number of old negroes, industrious and well- 
 behaved—good men and women. The schools have elevated 
 quite a goodly number into respectable teachers and preachers, 
 and some have advanced in other walks of life. But all of 
 these compose but comparatively a small proportion of the great 
 mass. 
 
 In this connection, it should be noted, too, that in those sec¬ 
 tions of the South, where the farms were small before the slaves 
 were freed, and where the whites labored with (he slaves, the 
 negroes are far more advanced in intelligence, good manners and 
 good morals, than are those who lived on the large cotton, rice, and 
 sugar plantations. The difference is marked both as to the older 
 negroes and their children; but I cannot now examine the differ¬ 
 ent sections of the South in detail. 1 have time to draw onlv a 
 
 «/ 
 
 general picture of what the negro’s condition is in the South, 
 and 1 desire to draw it strictly in the light of facts, and in making 
 this list of exceptions, I am willing to leave a number of blank 
 pages to be filled by any person to suit his section ; and still the 
 general picture, as I have drawn it, will be found substantially 
 true. I am willing to concede that the negroes, as a whole, are 
 improving slowly intellectually, and yet 1 want to impress the 
 tact that the great mass of them is at the bottom round of the 
 
7 
 
 ladder of civilization, and that there are hereditary tendencies 
 which any proper system of education must take into considera¬ 
 tion. 
 
 One of the great mistakes many Northren teachers made when 
 they came South and took charge of colored schools was not 
 to take note of these hereditary tendencies, both physical and 
 mental—and the result was that the moral development of their 
 pupils did not keep pace with their intellectual development. 
 Some of these Northern teachers, who have had charge of col¬ 
 ored schools for years, now understand the real status of the 
 negro children as to intelligence and character, and they hesitate 
 about training their own children in association with them in the 
 school room. 
 
 These teachers had seen the negro in the North only, where 
 the brightest pf them had found their homes before the war; 
 where they did not number one in fifty of the population; where, 
 from the very fact of there being comparatively so few of them, 
 contact with the whites was a necessity in the daily labor of the 
 negroes, because, .wherever they turned to find employment, they 
 rubbed against, the whites; where they had the very best oppor¬ 
 tunities that any people so low down in the scale of civilization 
 ever had in the whole history of the world; where, on account of 
 the comparative smallness of their numbers, they had no appre¬ 
 ciable effect upon the multitude of superior white people; where 
 the one negro child, elevated by constant contact in every-day 
 
 O / V W V 
 
 life with white people, had been educated with a multitude of 
 white children without any appreciable deleterious effect upon 
 them. These teachers, with ideas about the negro formed by what 
 
 they saw of him under such circumstances, came South and ex- 
 
 */ * 
 
 pected to deal with him in the same way they had dealt with him 
 North. After years of labor, many of them, I think, are dis¬ 
 couraged with the slow progress their pupils have made, especially 
 in the development of character. 
 
 Aristotle wisely said, twenty-two hundred years ago, the same 
 education will not produce the same virtues in different persons, 
 for the formation of character in each person is dependent upon 
 
8 
 
 three tilings—nature, habit and instruction. This was true as 
 applied then to the progressive Greeks, and it is true as applied 
 to all people. Shall we not recognize it now as applied to the 
 negroes? Shall we attempt to educate the negroes of the South 
 in the same school-room with the whites? Shall we ignore the 
 fact that the nature and habits of the colored children are widely 
 different from the nature and habits of the white children? Shall 
 a false philanthropy cause us to attempt to do an unnatural and 
 an impossible thing? 
 
 Many things have been done since the war that have been 
 damaging to the educational and religious interests of the negro, 
 fhe passions of the hour ran so high that we went to work 
 to advance him to a position far beyond what he was pre¬ 
 pared for. He was given the ballot of which he was not wor¬ 
 thy. He was taught that to be free he must leave his old mas¬ 
 ter’s premises, if only to* remove to an adjoining plantation; 
 that he must leave his old master’s church and organize a church 
 of his own; that education was a panacea for all the ills of life; 
 that he must have teachers and preachers of his own color; that 
 the southern people would, if they could, put him back into 
 slavery. 
 
 Fhe color line was drawn in this way, and to a large extent it 
 is kept up yet. Because of prejudices growing out of their 
 bondage, and because the southern people resisted giving them 
 the ballot at the time it was done and in the way it was done, it 
 was easy to align the negroes against the whites in politics and 
 to separate them from the whites in every other way. This sep¬ 
 aration lessened their contact with the whites and set them back 
 in a religious point of view because of the dense ignorance of 
 those who assumed the office of preachers. In this respect they 
 yet suffer great loss, for in very many cases their preachers are 
 still densely ignorant and the preaching is unmeaning words— 
 mere sound and furv. 
 
 J 
 
 But the prejudices between the two races, which was perhaps 
 stronger on the part of the negroes against the whites than on 
 the part of the whites against the negroes, are breaking down • 
 
 o / o y 
 
9 
 
 and I do not think it will be long until a much better state of 
 feeling will exist between them. What I desire specially to say 
 in this connection, is that the American people have been pursu¬ 
 ing a wrong policy with the negro, in that they have placed him 
 in an unnatural state of advancement, and have spoiled him. 
 
 The negro’s burden as a slave was forced labor; to him, free¬ 
 dom and the ballot and education meant exemption from man¬ 
 ual labor, especially with such teaching and treatment as I have 
 alluded to. With all this history as slaves and as freemen and 
 citizens, and with their ignorance, it could but be expected 
 that many of the negroes would become more and more worth¬ 
 less as laborers, and that their children would be trained to 
 avoid labor as the curse olhcurses, and so be more worthless than 
 their parents. The negro’s head, so to speak, has been turned, 
 by the very novelty of his new condition. 
 
 In proportion, however, as they have been properly educated 
 and have been led to see their condition as it is, and have learned 
 that their freedom is secure, and that the white people of the 
 South mean to assist them to such degree of elevation as they 
 may prove worthy of, they become more contented. The state 
 of feeling towards the whites is continually growing better. So, 
 too, the white people are more and more adapting themselves to 
 the situation. More and more there is a settled conviction that 
 not only are the negroes citizens, and here to stay, but that they 
 are best adapted to development of, at least, the agricultural 
 possibilities of the South. With a judicious system of educa¬ 
 tion, and with just such treatment as they may merit from time 
 to time, they will improve and make valuable citizens. Just 
 now it is of the utmost importance that a determined effort shall 
 be made to properly train the negro children in schools and Sun¬ 
 day-schools, and to improve the home life of the colored people, 
 and to inspire them with a higher idea of the Christian religion. 
 Not only is this of the utmost importance, but it is a work of 
 the utmost difficulty, and one in which the white people must 
 guide. 
 
 In my judgment we must have not only separate schools for 
 
10 
 
 the colored people, but also separate churches; and these schools 
 and churches must be taught and ministered to by colored 
 teachers and preachers so far as colored people will prepare 
 themselves to fill these offices. This is so because both races, as 
 a whole, want it so; and because the relative condition of the 
 races make it a necessity. Any attempt at a general system of 
 mixed schools and mixed cl lurches would be a signal failure. 
 
 J know that some philanthropists claim that no aid should be 
 given to schools or churches in the south except upon the condi¬ 
 tion of opening the doors to both races. They have a theory 
 that must not be departed from. Judging them by their words 
 and acts, they believe it to be wrong—a sin—to open a school 
 for the colored people and at the same time not allow the white 
 people to patronize it; also, that it is wrong to open a school for 
 the white people and not allow the colored people to attend it. 
 Likewise, they hold the same belief in reference to churches. 
 1 hey believe in the promiscuous mixing of the races in the 
 churches, and in many cases this course is urgently advised. 
 
 the result of this teaching has been a continual clashing of 
 the races, and it has threatened to break down the public schools 
 of the south. 
 
 In some sections of the south, strong efforts have been made 
 to establish mixed congregations for public worship, and the col- 
 ored people have been invited and even urged to join the white 
 congregations, but they almost invariably refuse to do it as long 
 as there is a colored congregation in the neighborhood. I see it 
 stated that quite recently the Florida Conference of the M. E. 
 Church North divided on the color line, forming two conferences 
 in the same territory, one white and one colored. In making 
 this division it was argued that this step had become a necessity 
 foi the pi ogress of this church in the south. Thus slowly is the 
 truth dawning upon men s minds that these races are so different 
 in nature and habits that they are not now suited for such asso¬ 
 ciations. 
 
 The colored people really prefer to have their schools and 
 churches separate from those of the whites, and whites demand 
 
11 
 
 ♦ 
 
 that their schools and churches shall he separate from those of 
 the colored people. 
 
 This disposition of the races to separate from each other is 
 explained by those who advocate mixed schools and mixed 
 churches by saying that at the bottom of the whole matter is race 
 prejudice. Those who advocate separation say that this disposi¬ 
 tion rests upon legitimate social instincts , and not upon race pre¬ 
 judice. Whatever is the true explanation, the. fact is hardly dis¬ 
 puted by any intelligent person, and as a fact it must govern our 
 policy. 
 
 The most intelligent of tin; colored people know that the 
 policy of mixed schools would inevitably break down the whole 
 public school system of the South, and so deprive them of the 
 educational opportunities which they now have at public expense. 
 They know, too, that a policy of mixed schools means that ichite 
 teachers, and not colored ones, would be employed if such a 
 policy could be adopted without breaking down the schools 
 entirelv. They know, too, that mixed churches means white 
 ministers and not colored ones. 
 
 If the colored people are to make progress they must, as far 
 as practicable, be thrown upon their own efforts, educationally 
 and religiously, as well as in a material point of view. In these 
 particulars the same rule applies as in the whole animal and 
 vegetable economy— effort and exercise. The colored people can 
 never be made to stand alone unless they are encouraged to 
 depend upon their own efforts and resources. Mixed schools 
 and mixed churches inevitably take away the occupation of col¬ 
 ored teachers and colored preachers, and continue the colored 
 people’s dependence upon the whites. There may be mixed 
 schools and mixed congregations presided over by colored teach¬ 
 ers and colored preachers, but, if so, J do not know where they 
 are. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the colored people are far enough 
 advanced, educationally, morally or religiously, to stand alone, 
 and to make further progress in these particulars without the 
 assistance and guidance of the whites. Indeed, I am free to say 
 
12 
 
 that I do not believe they are. I think it is evident now that if 
 
 all assistance l>v the whites and all contact with them were with- 
 %> 
 
 drawn, the colored people, in the aggregate, would go backward 
 instead of forward. 
 
 One thing, however, is very much to the negro’s advantage: 
 his faculty of imitation is very strongly developed. He seems 
 naturally to imitate his white neighbors and to follow their guid¬ 
 ance, especially when he is not controlled by prejudice. There¬ 
 fore everything but principle should be conceded by the whites 
 in order to break down all prejudice. That done, the whites will 
 have access to the colored people and will be able to guide them. 
 
 1 hen good examples will be imitated and good instruction will be 
 heeded; then will the whites be able more successfully to teach 
 colored teachers and colored preachers, and. to gather colored chil¬ 
 dren into Sunday-schools and instruct them in the principles of 
 morality and the Christian religion. 
 
 But the colored people must be encouraged in every practicable 
 way to help themselves. Just as a child, when being taught to 
 walk, does not learn to walk, no matter how much its mother 
 may help it, until it puts forth its own powers and tries to help 
 itself; just so must the colored people, weak as they are, be led 
 by the whites, but in such way as to cause them to trv—cause 
 them to call into exercise all their powers. In accordance with 
 this piinciple, I think it best for them to have teachers and 
 
 pi eachers of their own color so long as thev may want them. 
 
 By pursuing this course, the two races can, I believe, live in 
 the South together in peace, each helping the other; and there 
 will l>e some field of intellectual work open to the negro. In 
 this country, where there are seven whites to one negro, with 
 su< h a wide difference between them in everv way, it is not rea¬ 
 sonable to suppose that there can ever be any considerable field 
 for intellectual work for the negro unless he finds it among his 
 own people. \\ ithout some opportunity to exercise his intellec¬ 
 tual faculties, he will soon be discouraged and lose his appetite 
 foi education, and become a mere serf or peon. Already there 
 are signs of discouragement. As the negroes realize that labor 
 
1 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 is a necessity, and that education does not free them from it, they 
 relax their efforts and are not so anxious to send their children 
 to school; and under any system that will be practicable to adopt, 
 we will see more and more of this as time rolls along. They, 
 however, have a commendable race pride. They have always 
 been dependent upon the whites, and the whites have always 
 claimed that this dependence was natural and necessary for the 
 welfare of both races, and have always claimed superiority. In 
 more ways than one, since the war, the negroes have been taught 
 that they are not naturally inferior to the whites, and that all 
 they lack of being equal to the whites is education and a proper 
 sense of self-dependence, or rather independence. Even if this 
 is not so, their believing it stimulates their race pride, and makes 
 them struggle harder to advance. This is very much to their 
 advantage upon the principle, universally acknowledged, that a 
 faithful trial is half the battle in every enterprise, and with all 
 people. 1 think, therefore, that so long as the negroes prefer 
 teachers and preachers of their own race, they ought to be en¬ 
 couraged in their preference, provided colored persons will qual¬ 
 ify themselves for the work; but there must be a rigid superin¬ 
 tendence of all school work by the whites. 
 
 From another standpoint, I insist that this is the correct policy. 
 The negro’s prejudice against the whites of the South, has been 
 intense for two reasons; (1) because he was held in the bondage 
 of slavery, and (2) because in the days -of reconstruction, the 
 whites resisted his being allowed to vote. These prejudices will 
 sooner be broken down by allowing freedom of action in all par¬ 
 ticulars where no wrong principle is involved. To accomplish this 
 end, it is better to allow them reasonably competent teachers of 
 their own race, even if, for the time being, better qualified white 
 teachers could be employed to serve them. After perfectly 
 friendly relations are established, and after the negroes see that 
 it may be better for them to have white teachers, they will seek 
 them—then plenty will be found to serve them. 
 
 I have said that there are signs of discouragement among the 
 negroes, because freedom, the ballot, and education have not 
 
14 
 
 *■ 
 
 brought the beneficial results which they so confidently expected. 
 So, too, many of the white people are also discouraged. Out of 
 their poverty, the Southern States are spending for the education 
 of the negroes perhaps as much as five million dollars per annum, 
 without satisfactory results. In this work, both the Southern 
 negroes and the Southern whites deserve the encouragement of 
 Congressional aid. But that question 1 do not propose to argue 
 at length; it seems to me to be a self-evident proposition. It 
 will encourage tlie negroes as well as the whites, and it should 
 be given in such way as to allow a part to be used for building 
 and furnishing: school houses. Comfortable and well furnished 
 houses are necessities, and of such the South is very sadly in 
 need. The aid now proposed by Congress is confessedly mainly 
 for the South, and L can see no good reason why it should be 
 limited to the payment of teachers’ salaries. It should, by all 
 means, be put into the school treasuries of the States, and be used 
 in common with State funds for all school purposes. If Congress 
 will consent to encourage the school workers of the South by 
 extending this aid, let it be done in such way as not to hamper 
 
 them. 
 
 If it were not for the negroes, the Southern States would not 
 need this aid and would not ask it, and if it were not for the 
 negroes no member of Congress would propose it. It is due to 
 the south in common fairness, and the people of the south have 
 sh own that they are in earnest in educating the negroes and are 
 worthy of it. I honor northern men who favor it, and I am sur¬ 
 prised at southern men who oppose it. I honor northern men 
 more who favor it without hampering restrictions, and I am 
 the more surprised at southern men who oppose it when it is pro¬ 
 posed that the funds shall be managed by State authorities. 
 
 So far as the question of civil rights as distinguished from 
 social privileges, is concerned, that is fast working itself out, and 
 the less force applied to it the better. 
 
 It is no unusual thing now in the South to find negroes rid¬ 
 ing in first class cars with the whites. I have seen negroes in 
 the political conventions of both political parties; I have seen 
 
♦ 
 
 15 
 
 them serving with the whites as jurymen in the trial of import¬ 
 ant causes. Recently, in a city of the South, a't the dedication of 
 a public school building, 1 saw white and colored aldermen 
 seated on the same rostrum during the ceremonies. In all such 
 intercourse proper conduct and qualifications can be made requis¬ 
 ites. Indeed, in all social and semi-social intercourse the cor¬ 
 rect policy is to apply as little force as possible, and let people’s 
 likes and dislikes' and the free spirit of our republican institu¬ 
 tions control. 
 
 The white people of the South insist rigidly upon but two 
 things as to intercourse between the races. 1. That there shall 
 be separate public schools for both races, and (2) that there shall 
 be no inter-marriages between the races. The negroes, or rather 
 the too sanguine friends of the negroes, who do not know them, 
 will act wisely if they will make no contest on these two {joints. 
 These are matters of public policy which the States have a right 
 to control, and about which there is almost unanimity of senti¬ 
 ment. 
 
 In this paper I have spoken of education in a general way 
 only, using the term in its broadest signification. While educa¬ 
 tion in books, especially in the fundamental branches of English, 
 is, perhaps, of prime importance, industrial education is of 
 scarcely less importance, and it is pressing for proper recogni¬ 
 tion in our systems. How and to what extent it can be applied 
 for the benefit of the negroes I cannot now discuss more than to 
 say that it is most highly probable that an unusually* large pro¬ 
 portion of them will always find their places on the farms, and 
 that therefore special efforts ought to be made to teach them the 
 most improved methods of farming. Farm life is itself a very 
 fine industrial school, and as the general farming interests of the 
 ■South are improved the negroes will share largely in the benefits. 
 
 
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