THE AMERICAN NEGROWHAT HE WAS, WHAT HE IS AND WHAT HE MAY BECOME

This pamphlet is written in defence of an oppressed and struggling race, which has been maligned, abused, condemned and outraged by an unscrupulous Negro author, seeking notoriety and pecuniary gain by distorting the truth and appealing to the white race prejudices against the Negro.

The object of the author is to present facts as they exist and, appealing to the unbiased conscience of the American people, to deal fairly with the Negro as with all other classes of American citizens.

A lie flies at swift speed upon the wings of the wind, and seeks recognition regardless of consequences, while the truth plods slowly onward, gradually gaining adherents and admission against great odds.

That the Negro is the most discussed American goes without saying; he has been held up in all lights, discussed from every standpoint of human imagination, decried by foes and defended by conscientious friends. The Negro question has assumed a grave aspect, and calls for much thought on the part of the American people. That there is a vexed problem in dealing with the race no thoughtful mind will deny, and to enter upon a discussion of the facts respecting his political, civil, moral and religious status, demands unbiased investigation, studious thought and grave consideration in order that just and proper conclusions may be reached. To enter such a peculiar sphere and deal justly requires a real knowledge of the Negro, an unbiased statement of facts concerning his characteristics, and a just comparison of him with other races. In this spirit of fairness, the careful study of 00056the Negro characteristics and his relation to the body politic as stated in the recent publication of William Hannibal Thomas is reviewed and criticized.

Definition of Mr. Thomas' term "Negro." "Any man of whatever hue, who exhibits the traits which I shall hereafter describe, is a Negro; otherwise he is not."

This is Mr. Thomas' incorrect, unreasonable and impracticable appellation ascribed and attached to the Negro whom he would malign and abuse. This is contrary to all ethnological definitions applied to the Negro who is an African or the descendant of an African race. It matters not whether the characteristics of the person of African descent are commendable or unfavorable, if he is of African descent he is a Negro, and is so accepted by the ethnological world.

To begin with, Mr. Thomas fixes certain low, base characteristics, and selects a subject upon which he wishes to wreak his vengeance; that subject is the American Negro? And why? Because this race has been humiliated by slavery, decried by foes, oppressed by tyrants, and are still being held up in false light before the civilized world. It is popular to malign the Negro.

In his foreword, or introduction, Mr. Thomas relates his history and lineage. Those of us who are personally acquainted with him and with other members of his family, have no doubts as to his Negro descent. He is, beyond question, a Negro, and has always been classed as such. His relations, however, with the Negro people, have been of such a nature that he seems to have learned all that is bad and but little that is good about them. Mr. Thomas has aspired for race leadership, but being utterly deficient, has failed of his attempt; disappointed and chagrined, he has his vengeance in this hurl of vituperation and abuse upon the race. A careful study of Mr. Thomas' racial relations proves him, beyond contradiction, a blank failure as a lawyer, preacher and teacher. He has been a jack--at-- 00067all--trades, and a success at none. As a lawyer he was not successful at the bar; as a preacher of the gospel of Christ he was a miserable failure. Either of those professions presented a broad field in which to operate upon subjects of all classes and races. Why he should end his sphere of usefulness along these lines and retire at so early an age, is a mystery which he fails to make plain. We must conclude that he was evidently unfitted for this kind of life, and was ordained to be an author. In this, he has reached the goal of his ambition, giving us, in his foreword a fair, impartial delineation of what he wishes to publish to the world.

It is my purpose to briefly criticize this book, which Mr. Thomas sets forth as an encyclopedia of facts concerning the American Negro. In doing so, I wish to state plainly that I have no abuse to heap upon the author, with whom I am personally acquainted, and entertain the most friendly relations, socially and otherwise. I have read and carefully reread every page and chapter in this book with considerable interest, and propose to take up the subjects treated under the chapters as he has outlined them, giving him credit for statements of truth pro or con the American Negro.

Chapter I, treats on Alien Chattelism. In this chapter Mr. Thomas writes upon the history of human chattelism and concludes that when all facts incident thereto are weighed and adjusted, that slavery has wrought as great evil to the whites as to the blacks. The statement of these facts is verified by every thoughtful, candid, unbiased man or woman in the world. No human being is justified in the sight of God in the extorting of the rights of his fellow man, but, on the other hand, it is the duty of man to do unto others as he would have them do unto him.

However, in this same chapter, he speaks of the lax morality of Negro women and their relations with white soldiery during the Civil War. Mr. Thomas need not single out 00078the moral deprivation of the Negro women coming in contact with white soldiers. This in no new thing. The same state of moral affairs obtain, to our regret, with soldiers during war times in every country, among all peoples. It was so in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and in China. War is detrimental to morals among all classes.

Chapter II. treats of Decretal Freedom. It is true that the emancipation of the Negroes brought about a social and economic revolution in the methods and habits of Southern life, and introduced grave and disturbing issues that have not, as yet, been amicably settled. The causes for these condition are truthfully delineated by the author and Mr Thomas could not but give credit to the unparalled virtue of the negroes, in that but few of them, men or women, who were living together as man and wife under the regime of slavery, abandoned each other when emancipation gave them the opportunity to sever such relations. But their freedom gave them not only a sense of personal ownership of their entire being, but the knowledge of conjugal duty, parental rights, filial obligations and fraternal relations, which acquired greater coherency as the stability and endurance of these relations became more clearly manifest. Again he tells the truth when he declares that the Negro cherishes no resentment towards the whites, not withstanding that race seems to be imbued with a deliberate and set purpose to forego none of its ancient customs. He states that he believes this problem to be solvable, despite the national attitude of each race toward existing misunderstandings. This, every fairminded white and black man believes, and it will come to pass, when each side is ready to make substantial concessions of justice one towards the other.

Chapter III. treats of Industrial Bondage. In this chapter, at the outset, the author delineates the industrial system of the South, its feudal methods of enthralling the 00089new emancipated slaves. He depicts the present advantages taken of the poor Negro tiller of the soil in the farming and rural districts of the South.

No race has ever labored against harder odds than the Negro laborers of the Southern plantations. The conditions were such that they could not possibly rid themselves of these enthrallments. And yet, there are evident signs of gradual emancipation manifestly shown by the attitude of the Negro in purchasing farms, building homes and becoming tax--payers and self-- producing factors in the same territory in which they were so long held as vassals and chattels. The Negro is charged with being an improvident spendthrift, and Mr. Thomas paints him as a gaudy "dandy," attired in flashy trinkets, etc., rarely exercising sound judgment in his expenditures. It may be true that the majority of Negroes lack economy, but they are not more extravagant than other people. The Negro lives within as reasonable bounds of his income as does other people. There are white people everywhere who are spendthrifts, idlers, etc., and whose methods of life are as deplorably reckless as human beings can descend to. With the open, manifest records of French and American society life, it is wanton folly to speak of Negro extravagance. Comparatively speaking, the Negro has nothing to spend.

Mr. Thomas charges the Negro with incapability as a worker. This charge he bases upon their profound ignorance of industrial possibilities and their abhorrence of disciplinary methods. This charge, based upon the statements made, is absolutely false. Efficiency, rightly considered, must be reckoned with the character of the work to be performed; this statement being true, three--fourths of the Negroes live in the South where a certain class of labor is essential to produce the industry of that section. Was it not found in the early stage of Southern development that the Negroes were better adapted to perform the 000910work of that section. And is it not also true that the Negroes perform to--day more than two--thirds of the manual labor of that rapidly developing section of our country and have held their own in the production of the raw materials of the South. Mr. Thomas ought to know, as well as every well--informed man does know, that the same methods of labor operations do not obtain in the South as in the North. In one section raw material is the industry, in the other the manufacture of this material is the industry. The fact that the Negro contributes his share in the production of the material, claims for him the same consideration as is given to him who skillfully moulds and shapes it to the required needs. The high degree of proficiency in skilled labor required in the North is not required in the South, hence the Negro's capability in this direction has never been tested, as a race. Necessity is always the mother of invention. Abhorrence of disciplinary methods is not to be considered in this relation whatever. Charges against the more intelligent Negroes having a horror for work are unfounded and fallacious. There are among all races lazy, shiftless individuals, whose chief purpose is to live on their wits; the Negro is not excepted.

Mr. Thomas charges that the influx of Negroes into the cities is to avoid manual labor and field work. The trend of the age is toward mobilizing the cities. The census shows that the greatest increase in our American population is in the cities. All classes are emigrating towards the cities. There are many reasons for this growing desire for city life,--better facilities and convenience of contrivances along all lines are regarded more helpful than those presented in the rural districts. Negroes are Americans, and the very fact that they are moving in the trend of American progression shows them to be in harmony with the spirit and genius of our cosmopolitan civilization, and not in order to avoid work. Again, the 001011manifest desire on the part of the Negro to come to the city where the problem of life is the more intricate and complex, where he is forced into the cosmopolitan arena of livelihood, shows him to be a willing contestant in the battle with others of his fellow beings. It matters but little how the Negro gets North, no more than it does how the Irish get here from Ireland, the Chinaman from his far--off clime, or any other person of whatever nationality from his country; they are here, and for all intents and purposes to better their condition. It is just as unfair to charge the Negro with leaving the South and the country to come to the North and to the city in order to avoid labor, as it is to charge the Chinaman with leaving China to avoid work. These kinds of charges and reasonings are illogical and void of truth.

Mr. Thomas says when once the Negro leaves the South and comes North he rarely returns thither. This is generally true of all races. It was true of those of our early American fathers who left England, true of the Irish, German, Chinese, etc. Self--preservation is the first law of nature. A desire to aid their less fortunate brother rarely recalls those of other nationalities to their former home.

THE EXCLUSION OF NEGRO DOMESTICS FROM THE HOMES OF NORTHERN FAMILIES, AND WHY?

Mr. Thomas charges that the exclusion of Negro domestics from white families is on account of Negro women's amenableness to impure proposals from white men, and Negro men's viciousness and improper advances towards the white female domestics. Here are dual immoral charges against each race too black and vulgar to notice. But for the reason that Mr. Thomas is a scouring seeker for foul atmosphere, one whose business it is, apparently, to look for filth to besmirch Negro character, we briefly offer a rejoinder. In the first place, Negro domestics 001112have not been excluded from the homes of the best families of the Northern people. There are hundreds of Negroes, both men and women, faithfully serving as all classes of domestics, coachmen, valets, companions, private secretaries, cooks, laundresses, maids, chefs, etc., and there are continued demands for colored help. It may be true that white servants, bootblacks, barbers, etc., are more in evidence now than in years gone by. It is also true that the Negroes have held their own along these lines. But grant that white domestics are increasing in the homes of the whites, does not this show that servants are not confined to races, but to conditions? The damnable charges of immorality and Negro vicousness is unworthy of notice. Human nature is the same the world over.

When Mr. Thomas rises above his prejudices and biasness, he shows himself as a Negro able to state incontrovertible facts, but there is so much of the spirit of chagrin and vindictiveness in him that he cannot write long in this vein. He admits unfair racial prejudices, and the exclusion of the Negro from many helpful sources of life on account of his bare color, regardless of his intellectual and moral fitness; after which he blunders into blind and limpid examples without reasonable comparisons.

MATERIAL THRIFT.

The fourth chapter of this remarkable book treats upon the material thrift of the American Negro. Upon this subject this Negro vilifyer seeks, as elsewhere, to hold up the race as idlers, lazy mendicants, who have squandered their opportunities in material accumulations. Mr. Thomas states that the freedmen have not made the advance in material prosperity which we of right had expected of them. This is the idea of the man, who, doubtless, has not contributed one single iota in this direction. He says that the Negroes do not represent a 001213saving people. He quotes a few incorrect statistics, and balances up the same, allowing to each individual Negro about $90 worth of property, or in other words, showing a per capita saving of $2.60 a year since emancipation. Even at this imperfect statement of the real facts in the case, the Negroes' material accumulations are in excess of any other enslaved class of people, proscribed and circumstanced as they have been and even are to--day.

In answer to these false charges of Mr. Thomas, we will simply place as a rejoinder the exhaustive discussion of the economic value of the American Negroes by Mr. Bridgeforth, published in the New York Age of February 28, 1901.

THE RACE AS A WEALTH PRODUCER.AN EXHAUSTIVE DISCUSSION OF THE ECONOMIC VALUE OFTHE AFRO--AMERICAN PEOPLE BY MR. BRIDGEFORTH.

Much has been said concerning the American Negro and many questions have been asked, most of which have been from a political, social, educational and religious point of view; but little has been said or written about him as a wealth--producer or as a factor therein. We cannot find in any publication sufficient data to give us an accurate knowledge of the American Negro as an economical factor. Let us take what authentic data we can gather from different sources, and see what light can be brought to bear upon the point at issue. The American people measure value in dollars and cents, but what standard shall we adopt to measure the value or non--value of the Negro in the production of wealth?

Let us look for a moment for a standard. Perhaps you would say that the American Indian would make a splendid standard; very well, let us see. The American Indian once owned this whole continent deeded to him by nature, and had a population of great size, but to--day he owns nothing. The Indians have melted away before 001314Anglo--Saxon blood as snow before the sun; their population has been reduced to only a few thousands, and these few thousands cost the Government annually $12,784,676, besides a standing guard. If we choose the Indian standard, it is clear that the Negro stands head and shoulders above him. Let us go a step further for a just and accurate standard. It seems that we are forced to call upon the white man. Well, his shoulders are broad and he never objects to serving in this capacity. But how shall we get an average sample of the white man? My instruction in chemistry impresses me that to have a sample that can be analyzed with any degree of certainty as to the whole field or bulk of material under consideration, we must take a portion from all parts, thoroughly mix and sample from the bottom. If such a sample could be taken of the white man, what a mixture you would have. In the South you would have the poor whites; in Boston, Americans; in New York, Irish; Ware, French; Holyoke, Polanders; in Germantown, Germans. But it is clear that it is impossible to get an accurate human standard to measure the economical value of the Negro, as there are no two humans alike. But let us assume the average white man as our standard. Now, our standard being fixed, we are ready for comparison.

In the first place, how came the Negro in this country? The first cargo of Negroes was landed on the shores of Virginia in 1620, by a Dutch man--of-- war and bartered to the colonists for food. This trade proved to be of such economical value that Massachusetts legalized the slave trade and slavery, but it was soon found to be unprofitable and slavery in the North was abolished, beginning in Vermont, in 1777, and ending in New Jersey, in 1804. Is it too much to assert that if the Negro had ever become unprofitable in the South that all the forces of nature would have fought against him, and his abode to--day would have been somewhere else; but facts show that the 001415South fought for him. The North fought for him because he was a valuable servant and a man. The North fought for the latter, for it must be clear to all that the Negro was a full--fledged man before he got his freedom, as shown by his achievements, namely; the English language, Christian religion, and a fixture in american life and politics. It is evident to all that it was from an economic point that the Negro at great cost and risk of life was brought from the shores of Africa to those of Virginia. The climate and natural conditions made slavery in the North unprofitable and, as a consequence, many were sold to slave holders further South, and it was in the South that the great tragedy of American slavery was played. It was in the South that the Negro has proved to be of the greatest value and to--day the most useful. It was in the South that the black man, under the guiding hand of the white man, has slain the forest, drained the swamps, diked the cities, built the railroads, and made the whole southland to "bloom as the rose." The Negro as an agricultural laborer in the South in the ante--bellum days, was of the greatest value to the South and North. He was the main factor in the production of cotton, which greatly enriched the whole country, and has held his record since the war. Many Negroes became so skilled under the regime which declared a black man criminal who was seen with a book, as to become overseers, managers of cotton gins and saw mills. The Negro was not only an agricultural laborer but he was an artisan. Every plantation has its blacksmith, carpenter, wheelwright and mason. Many courthouses and public buildings ow wood and brick the old ex--slave can point to and claim as the work of his own hands. There can be no doubt as to the Negro's value as a slave, because the assessed value before the war was $3,500,000,000, nearly twice as much as the general stock of money in the United States, January 1, 1901, which was only $2,449,021,001.

001516

But the great question seems to be about the Negro since freedom. For this part of the discussion data are more plentiful and reliable. How about the agricultural laborer of the present? Mr. Massey, of Friar's Point, Mississippi, says that "The Negro is the most docile and tractable of all laborers, and under proper management the most content and profitable. Thriftlessness generally ascribed to the Negro is more the fault of the employers than of the laborer. It seems to me that this testimony cannot be overvalued, and it is certainly easy to see how many employers misuse Negro laborers because their fathers misused the slaves. A Connecticut tobacco grower testifies that of the many Negroes he had employed for a number of years from Virginia all were reliable and efficient workmen. Colonel Henry Stokes of Prince Edward County, Virginia, showed that 20,000 hills of tobacco to the hand were cultivated in contrast with only 10,000 hills under slavery, demonstrating that a free man is worth twice as much as a slave.

The Negro in the cotton industry alone would make him of great value not only to this country but to the world, for it is estimated that the Negro raises 65 per cent. of all the cotton in American, and 40 per cent. of all the cotton raised in the world. Estimating from reports which show that the annual yield of cotton in the United States is from nine to eleven million bales. Taking the men ten million, at $50 per bale, less $20 per bale for raising and getting to market, would amount to $195,000,000 each year net and for thirty years $5,850,000,000 not taking into account the value of cotton seed, which would more than make up for low prices, and we all remember when cotton sold for $70 and $80 per bale. These figures show that if the Negro had saved only what he has produced above cost, what he has made in the cotton industry, he would be six times as wealthy as he is; for all the property owned by Negroes amounts to only about $995,500,000. 001617But nevertheless, the Negro has produced it, and it should be to his credit. Reliable testimony from students that have gone out from Hampton and Tuskeegee, who have had the practical and scientific work in agriculture, proves that such students are turning to account manures and approved methods of farming, so that an acre that used to bring only forty and seventy--five bushels of potatoes now yields 150 to 250 bushels.

Professor Shaler of Harvard University says: "The fact was and is that the Negro is a better laboring man in the field than the white. Under the same conditions he is more enduring, more contented and more trustworthy than the men of our own race." We, who have been in the Southern cotton markets, have seen the busy cotton buyers with pencil and paper proclaiming: "Naught is a naught, figer is a figer; money for the white man, cotton for the nigger." and we have seen both Jews and Americans carrying out the same to the very letter; only when they get through they have the money and cotton, too, except that which might have clung to the old colored man's clothes. Not only in the cotton fields, but in the rice and tobacco fields the Negro has been a valuable laborer. He has for the last two decades been in great demand in our phosphate mines in South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida.

I have been asked, can the Negro do the manufacturing work such as is demanded in our cotton mills at the South? The most reliable testimony is from Mr. Gilbert of Moodus, Connecticut, who runs several mills there, and who has large capital invested in the southern cotton mills. He says that Negro operators in the cotton mills have proved a success. Why the Negro is not employed more in the mills might easily be explained in that most of our cotton mills in the South are controlled to a great extent by Northern capitalists, who carry into the mills Northern men for setting up machinery, who advocate 001718unions such as they shut the black man out with in many parts of New England. To expect a Southern man to compete with a Northern man who has watched spindles all of his life would be as foolish as to expect a Northern man to compete with the Southern man in "picking or hoeing cotton," and we know that the process of weeding and hoeing comes before the spinning. Those of us who have raised cotton for quite a number of years know that it is an essential process in the production of wealth from that staple.

There can be no doubt as to the Negro being a wealth producer as an agricultural laborer, and yet there are other vocations in which his services are in great demand. We find most all housework and cooking carried on in the South by colored help; you can see him on every "Pullman car;" he is to be seen turning the brakes of many of our Southern freight trains; some, I understand, are firemen, and a few have been trusted to put their hands on the "sacred throttle." In every daily paper are to be found advertisements calling for colored men and women to join the economic family in all parts of the world, and in many honorable positions of trust. Even the German government is calling him, and has sent some of Mr. Washington's students back to redeem Africa with the cotton plant. There is no further need of evidence for proof that he is a valuable agricultural laborer, but most people have gotten the erroneous idea that anyone can farm, while the truth is we have a less number of good farmers than any other class of men. This can be shown by taking the number of poor farmers and subtracting them from the total number of good farmers. It is only the thoughtful and observing man, who watches the seasons, keeps his own books and a record of each field and crops, who really prevents famines and starvation.

Let us for a moment look at the Negro in the business world; here we find him a patient competitor and a firm 001819believer in the doctrine of "laisses faire" (hands off.) Let the demand and supply control prices is what he believes and practices. Many colored men have started in business with a capital anywhere from $25 to #1,000, and to--day in every city and town where the population is large enough, we will find one, two, or a half dozen business houses conducted on a recognized basis. The following tables will show what the Negro is doing in business in a few towns and cities in the United States, prepared by Mr. Dubois of Atlanta University: Vicksburg, Mississippi--Jewelers, 2; clothiers, 2; dry goods stores, 2; newspapers, 2; drug stores, 2; undertakers, 1; upholsterers, 1; butchers, 1; fish and oysters, 1; miscellaneous, 3. Montgomery, Alabama--Grocers, 6; drug stores, 2; butcher, 1. Richmond, Virginia, Capital--Insurance and banking, $75,000; fish dealers, $3,000; dry goods store, $2,000; insurance society, $1,000; undertaker, $2,000; undertaker, $10,000; photography, $1,500. Birmingham, Alabama--Grocers, 8; barbers, 6; bankers and brokers, 5; druggists, 4; tailors, 4; plumbers, 8; photographers, 2; contractors, 9; silk culturist, 1; painters, 30; electricians, 19.

It is in Birmingham where there is one of the three Negro banks, with a capital of $25,000. Birmingham has a population of 20,000 colored and 5,000 are depositors in this colored organization.MOUND BAYOU, MISS.NO. OF YEARS INCAP.ASS'D VALUE IN REALBUSINESSINV'DESTATE General Merchant10$5,000$3,000 Merchant81,0002,000 General Merchant23005,000 Blacksmith7150800 Merchant and Saw--mill101,00010,000AMERICUS, GA.Grocery141,500Restaurant101,200Grocery91,500Druggist51,000001920Grocery2255Furniture73,000Groceries10270Groceries4300Groceries8300Groceries8375Groceries121,000Wood Yard9500Meat Market71,000Barber Shop and Restaurant9500TALLAHASSEE, FLA.SALES PER YEAR Groceries1,500$6,000 Meat Market1,0004,684 Meat Market250732 Groceries4001,500 General150 SEATTLE, WASH.Stock Broker32,500Real Estate510,000Hotel21,500Club House2700Barber Shop63,000Saloon21,000Barber Shop3500Restaurant4900Restaurant91,000Newspaper62,000

To be sure the capital invested is small, if compared with the Besse, Mills & Co., Carnegie, Rockefeller or Pullman; but let us not forget that these men started with a capital less than the smallest business run by colored men cited above. And would it be the height of folly to prophecy that this century will bring forth her business and financial directors as the past few years have given us Bruce and White as statesmen and politicians, Du Bois and Scarborough as scholars, Crummel and Derrick as pulpit orators, and Washington and Price as educators?

In business as in other professions, a man's education determines in a great degree his success. It is the educated man that looks ahead and keeps down famines and financial depressions; it is the educated man who stands at the 002021head of business corporations and banks. An education is first and essential in all the walks of life. Let us see what the Negro has done in the educational field that warrants for him a lasting place in our business of the present and future. In thirty--five years the Negro has reduced his illiteracy by 45 per cent., according to professor W. H. Council in Forum, '99, and his address, in the West. There are 2,500,000 children in the common schools; students in higher institutions, 45,000; teachers, 35,000; students learning trades, 50,000; students pursuing classical and scientific courses, 3,000. The Negro has accumulated $15,000,000 worth of school property; $40,000,000; church property; farms valued at $450,000,000; homes, besides farms valued at $325,000,000; personal property $165,000,000. On many of the farms stands the old manor house to--day deeded to whom? Not to Mr. Samuel Horton, but to "Sam Horton," his old ex--slave, without any education, only possessing a deal of common sense, of which there is such scarcity all over the world, with tact and industry, who has come into possession of a large plantation, aided by his true and sincere white friends, to whom he often goes for advice and guidance in law and business.

The Negro has raised $13,065,000 for his own education. The taxable property of the Negro in Georgia is $14,000,000; he owns in Georgia 1,605,000 acres of land. The Negro in Virginia, according to reports made by Hampton Institute, paid for the support of the government $58,576.92 in 1898. The Negro owns one--twenty--sixth of all the land in Virginia; he owns $11,431,916 worth of taxable property in Virginia. The Negro bought in one year ('96--'97) 5,367 acres of land, in fourteen counties of Virginia; in the same year in the fourteen counties the increase of personal property and real estate was $88,554, or 6 1--5 per cent. increase over previous years.

The following questions were asked Southern men who 002122have had every opportunity to know the Negro, by Mr. Washington.

(1) Has education made the Negro a more useful citizen?(2) Has it made him more economical and inclined to acquire wealth?(3) Has it made him a more valuable workman, especially when thought and skill are required?

Out of 300 answers there was only on "no."

In one of the black belt countries, the Negroes held a convention to see about getting more white people to live among them; one old gentleman who did not know of the convention, on being told of the purpose of the meeting, replied: "For God's sake, boys, don't you know that we niggers got just as many white people in this country as we can support?" I believe that the Southern white man is the best friend that the Negro has in business. I further believe that Northern competition is worse than what some people call Southern prejudice. I most heartily agree with the statement that the disfranchisement of the colored man will stimulate him to accumulate wealth and education, while the poor white man in the South will sink lower in the scale of human existence.

Who are the wealth producers here in this commonwealth? Is it the Capitalists? Not entirely. Who then can it be? It is the plain and common people backed by the capitalists; the Italians, Polanders, French and Irish and middle--class Americans. The capitalists alone produce no wealth; they may invent machinery, but the production of wealth lies largely in the hands of the laboring classes; without them the capitalist must sit and build air castles with his money, and not mills and shops. The capitalist may loan his money for interest to whom, if not to the laboring classes? Who tills your fields, runs your factories, saws your lumber, transports your coal, builds your roads, and runs your cars, except 002223the Italians, Polanders, French and Irish? They are your plain and common people, and in a great measure New England's wealth producers; but in the South the black man and the poor whites are the plain people; without them all business would stop, and the whole foundation of society would be disastrously shaken. Some of you say the Negroes are lazy and "happy--go--lucky" creatures; I will admit that, but don't we find the lazy and indigent white man? What means that army of Aryan tramps? You say that the Negro steals, and the percentage of criminals is very large as compared with the white man; I will admit that because it is true, but have you forgotten that one bank president of New York or Northampton steals more in a few minutes than the 11,000,000 blacks do in a decade? Yet the white man supports the government, develops the country, accumulates property, educates his family, and dies for the flag, and we must accept him as a factor in the production of wealth. The American Negro for the last few years in freedom, and even in slavery, has done the same.

Mr. Thomas assumes the arrogant role of a dictator to Congress and to the American people, as to the specific methods of their treatment of and dealings with the American Negro. If he were as influentially wise as he professes to be, at least some of his suggestions would have been considered, if not adopted, but a careful study of his plans shows impracticability, and himself to be a wild dreamer possessed of a disordered liver. He would hold up the progressive South, with its growing industries, its increased wealth since the War, as evidence of Negro degradation and hopeless poverty, this thrift and progress having pushed the Negro aside to relax into servile chattelism and industrial annihilation.

Mr. Thomas, the close observer and philosopher of Negro material failure, does not see that the freedom of the slaves has impoverished the native whites of the South, 002324and further, that the real material development of that section is practically the skill, genius and wealth of Northern capitalists. Yet in the midst of this onward progress the Negro has gained vantage ground, and is keeping pace with the times, steadily increasing in wealth, intelligence, morality and religion. With this array of stubborn facts standing out in bold relief before the gaze of the enlightened age, any man who takes such a pessimistic view of the American Negro as does this author, Mr. Thomas, proves himself to be a fool and a knave.

CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS.

Chapter V. of this book treats of Negro Characteristics. This chapter is the climax of the author's villiany. I don't believe that William Hannibal Thomas wrote this article. The contents herein stated ought and should be suppressed, because they are lies of the blackest and most damnable character. These statements respecting any race of people are without comparison in the history of nations. No atheist, infidel or sceptic has ever penned such lines, nor has printer's ink ever before in its history stamped such infamy upon paper. It is worst than the writings of Tom Paine, Bolling Brooke, Voltaire or Hume. They are all angels of light to this vile dragon; every decent man and woman in the land should frown down with contempt upon the author of such a production. How a Negro man, born of Negro parentage, possessed of Negro relatives, married to a Negro woman, could have the brazen audacity to write such a chapter to be published to the world, human intelligence fails to design. And yet this is the chapter that has been given the most mentionings and greatest prominence in the public press of the country. This we would verily regret were it not that not a reputable newspaper of the country has endorsed the sentiments, or characterized these statements as being the truth, but on the other hand, the purported author has 002425been raked and vitrioled, branded and libelled as the Judas Iscariot of the twentieth century. This Christian nation should rise in its intelligent might and banish this infamous production from every library where it has been placed.

Let us note a few of the many libellous charges herein made against the American Negro. First--"There must be certain qualities inherent in the nature of the Negro which differentiates him from other human kind as distinctly as either color or feature. The slave offspring, however, underwent a physical transformation, and foreign miscegenation, changed a sensuous, savage animal into a rational human creature, with a possible attainment to manhood and spiritual consciousness." "The Negro represents an accentuated type of human degradation." etc.

What ethnological science has deduced these facts? Did not God create of one blood all the nations that dwell upon the face of the earth? Where in all history do we find the second creation of human beings by the Almighty? Does not the general sameness of human characteristics obtain in all sentient beings? Does not soul thought obtain in every human kind? Are there not distinct differences to be found in man and the lower order of animal creation? Does not the divine word of God verify the almighty acts of creation? However distinct and diversified human intelligence of rational creatures, do we not, as a race recognize human characteristics? Does not the genealogy of the human race trace all classes of mankind back to one human progeny or parentage? The facts of recorded history, both sacred and profane, answer these questions in the affirmative. Then, where does Mr. Thomas get a foundation on which to rest these glaring falsified statements? "Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting." There is no degeneracy in the American Negro. There is no manifestation of this characterized in any of the spheres of existence; but on the other hand he 002526has shown himself to be a progressive, sentient being, as are all other types of the human race.

Mr. Thomas states that no man, white or black, is entitled to speak as an authority about the characteristics of the freedmen unless he has an accurate knowledge of the Negro people. If this be true, then Mr. Thomas himself should hold his peace, for it is evident that this knowledge of this race is very limited. He charges that the "Negro has all the physical endowments of intellect, but he has a mind that never thinks in complex terms, and that his mind is wholly engrossed with units of phenomena, etc." This can be said of all ignorant people. We admit that the masses of the Negro race are untrained intellectually, because they have never had the opportunity to be trained. Thirty odd years is no time to be allotted to a race for intellectual development. The American Negro was enslaved for more than 200 years, and ever peeled. The accuracy of human knowledge, as is well known, depends on the number and quality of stored--up concepts, as this author states. The Negro, like all other human beings, must be trained to think and reason systematically. This is the purpose of education.

Mr. Thomas charges the Negro as being imitative; this is true of all men. We do not deny the fact that there are but few real scholars among the American Negroes. And why? Because the Negro has never had the opportunity to meditate studiously and acquire scholarship. His has been a life of force, hurried activity for livelihood and existence. His schoolhouse since his emancipation has been the menial spheres of arduous toil, hunger, want and deprivation; his preceptors, the bitter experience of contact with the odds and ends of well--laid obstacles placed in his way. And yet, with undisciplined preceptors, poverty, humiliation and racial prejudices, Negroes have arisen from the depth of ignorance and superstitious folly to the 002627sublime altitude of scholarship and intellectual proficiency. Negro scholars have exerted strong intellectuality. Bannaker, the philosopher and astronomer; Payne, the erudite, polished and refined theologian, scientist and linguist, and a host of others can be reckoned among the profound thinkers of the age. The American Negroes have had no time to produce scholars. Not one in a thousand has been privileged to study in the great institutions of learning in this country or abroad for proficiency in scholarship. The best informed among the race are self--made men, who blazed and burned their way through the forest of darkened hatred, and over the mountains of stern and bitter opposition. Many of them have scaled the height of acknowledged eminence, and are enrolled among the galaxy of the brightest immortals of American history. All things considered the American Negro can present to the world to--day as many strong men and women of intellect, with moral and true Christian character, as any race upon the face of the earth, under like conditions, Mr. Thomas' false charges and vile vituperations notwithstanding.

He charges the American Negro as being immoral, and cites statements too ridiculous and vulgar to mention. Everybody knows that there are vile characters in every race; moral perfection does not obtain among human creatures, as a rule. The good and the bad are found among all people in every community. This is exemplified each day of our lives. The columns of our daily papers are charged full of accounts of crimes of all kinds and immoral habits of people not confined to any special race. Why this pessimistic saint should single out the American Negroes as the greatest immoralists of the land, any fairminded man fails to see. This author can do himself justice by plucking the immoral beam out of his own eye, for he is not without fault along this line.

He speaks of the Negro spending and wasting time in 002728talking about one another. How trivial! The majority of the people, white and black, intelligent and illiterate, are guilty of the habit of backbiting one another.

He charges the Negro as being deceptive and dishonest. The Negro is not an exception. Banks are robbed, treasuries bankrupted, and thousands of other dishonest practices are carried on by dishonest and deceptive white men.

He further charges the Negro with untidiness in their homes, and uncleanliness with their persons. As a class of poor, laboring people, the Negroes will surpass, as a rule, the majority of other similar classes in neatness and cleanliness. If Mr. Thomas knows anything about Negroes at all, he know that even in the rural districts of the South, where the Negroes live in large numbers in plantation cabins, there, in their one--room huts, the rude floors are neatly swept, and the simple furnishings kept in firstclass order. Of all the charges made against the Negroes by many of the prejudiced whites of the South, Negro uncleanliness is exempt from the roll. The Negro, though poor, is proud. I challenge a visit to Negro homes, rented or otherwise, for verification of these statements.

Mr. Thomas charges that the Negro is superstitious, and believes in hoodooism, and so forth. There are the superstitious among all races. You will find nine white fortune tellers, spiritualists, ventriloquists, and the like to one Negro. These magic venders are attended by both races, high and low, rich and poor. He further charges that the Negroes are dying out for lack of cleanliness, etc. The census shown that there are steady increases among the Negro population of this country, and this one fact should be borne in mind,--that Negro increase in populations is genuine American, while that of the whites consists of emigration from every foreign clime.

In one place Mr. Thomas charges the Negro as being void of humane feeling; then again, he states that the 002829"Negro's passions are as fleeting as a summer shower."--"He will forgive for injuries done and grievious indignities heaped upon him." How this Negro analytical detective author has found such hidden, vile traits in his black brother, undiscovered by the piercing and searching investigation of the white man who had nearly 300 years study of the Negro, we fail to see. The Southern whites, whose close and intimate relations with the Negroes existed for more than 200 years, in the greatest hour of their trying ordeals, entrusted the Negroes of the South, under the most peculiar conditions ever recorded in the annals of the world's history, with their all--wives, children, properties and even their lives; yet not a single instance is recorded where the Negroes breached a trust imposed in them; but they were kind and humane to their families, and safely guarded their possessions. These acts alone should silence forever the humane deceptive traits of the Negro.

Mr. Thomas asserts that the Negro lives in the past, unconscious of the demands of the present, unaspiring as to the future. The earliest struggles of the American Negro to rise from his present humiliation and shame to higher walks in life and nobler achievements, as are seen by every observer of human events, should silence and brand this statement as absolutely false.

It is also charged that the Negro is not amenable to verbal suasion, therefore he should be exterminated. Then Mr. Thomas has the unbounded audacity to ask, "Is this a barbarous suggestion?" It is a suggestion the most inhumane, barbarous and infernal ever submitted to a Christian nation. Julian, the apostate, Nero, Trojan, nor any of the terse persecutors of the early Christian Church have not submitted a more wicked proposition. Think of it!

William Hannibal Thomas, a lawyer, teacher and so--called minister of the gospel of the Christ, who came to seek and to save the humble, ignorant and poor of all nations, this fallen angel from the true height of his former 002930mission, would clothe himself in a murderous garb, go out on the rampage and exterminate 10,000,000 struggling people, for no other reason than for his unjust charge of the Negro not being amenable to verbal suasion. This demon, black, cold-hearted wretch in human form, should bury his infamous being from the sight of intelligent, sentient creatures, instead of putting on the market a volume of contents of his contagious, wicked microbes.

His suggestion is both impracticable and impossible. If the American Negro could endure the hardest oppression and most cruel inflictions ever imposed upon a race, for nearly 300 years, and amid it all gradually rise from the deepest depths of degradation to membership in the American body politic, making themselves important factors in the development of the greatest country, century and civilization of the world, it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt their durability and capability for all future emergencies. From less than twenty slaves a few hundred years ago, they have grown to be 10,000,000 freedmen, playing their part upon life's highway with the cosmopolitan races of the earth. The Negroes will never be exterminated or annihilated. Such glibbering verbosity is rot and nonsensical folly. And I thank God that no such thoughts as these have any place in the hearts and minds of the progressive Christian class of white people of this country. This foolhardy suggestion of Mr. Thomas', like others that he has tried to impress upon the people of this country, will be put aside to die without a creditable second.

ETHNIC BELIEFS.

Chapter VI. treats on the religious beliefs and practices of the American Negro. Mr. Thomas begins his tirade upon the sectarian freedman, as having no well--defined ethical convictions, nor positive and steadfast notions regarding denominational distinctions, but will unite with one or the other as caprice may incline. Social instincts,003031he says, have much to do in promoting religious association among Negroes. This may be also true of white people. Denominational, Christian organizations are made up and augmented and propagated by social relationships. This is true with all churches and people. he charges that the large multitudes enrolled under the banner of Negro religion are to it a source of weakness rather than strength. This is contrary to all ethical teachings. He further states that the American Negro religionist has made no important nor valuable contribution to American life or morals, thus failing to impress contemporaneous Christian society with a considerate regard for its leadership or admiration for its achievements. Here, as elsewhere, Mr. Thomas proves himself very ignorant. Both Protestant and Catholic contemporaneous Christian societies are in fraternal accord with Negro Christian Endeavor, and commend and appreciate the work their colored fellow Christians are striving to do. This is clearly manifest in the appointment of Negro committee--men along side by side with the white Christian for the anticipated work of the Ecumenical Council of the World. Again, when the World's Parliament of Religions assembled in Chicago in 1893, Negro Christian leaders were in evidence and played conspicuous parts in the deliberations of that world--wide Congress, which was the greatest religious gathering in the history of the world. In the publication of the records of that great Parliament, no race is given more prominence and is more highly commended than the Negro race. This is recorded history. (See World's Parliament of Religious.) What about the Y. P. S. C. E., Y. M. C. A., B. Y. P. U., and other similar religious organizations where the white and colored Christian religionists are working co--operatively, yet each in their distinctive churches and among their specific races? Suffice these facts to silence Mr. Thomas' charges as falsehoods?

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He further states that Negro religious belief enthralls illiterate souls and blindfolds consciences by its methods of false scriptural exegesis, and cannot rid the Negro race of its characteristic defects and appalling weaknesses attached to them through inherited ignorance, inherited laziness, inherited unbridled desires, inherited apathy and cowardice. The American Negro Christian is perfectly willing to rest his case with God Almighty and not with the ethical interpretations of Mr. Thomas. This reformer charges further that the Negro does not comprehend all the principles of religion. There are thousands of whites who do not comprehend these principles. He says, "In his native home the Negro was a fetish worshipper," etc. So were the Greeks, Chinese, Romans, Hindus, Anglo--Saxons and other races. Every student of history knows that from time immemorial races and nations have groped in pagan darkness in search of true religious light, and continued in`this state until clearer and purer thought was manifested to them through the gradual revelation of divine agencies; the Negroes are not exceptions.

Mr. Thomas, the preacher failure, like a raving maniac makes an unmerciful and devilish attack upon the Negro ministry. Before considering further his criminal charges against this class of Negro leaders, let it be borne in mind that this man, William Hannibal Thomas, professed religion, joined a Negro church, and swore allegiance to the doctrines and principles of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, taking upon himself the sacred vow of its ministry, whose garb he has worn for several years, and in whose fold he still abides, having never relinquished his claim nor disconnected himself from this Church and ministry. He has proclaimed these ordinances from our pulpits, and administered the rites of the Church to Negro communicants. With these facts and conditions bearing upon his own relations, we are a loss to locate the sense of his integrity as a man, much less as a Christian. Surely this 003233man Thomas has masqueraded in a garment of seeming righteousness, at the same time being an archangel of fiendish diabolism. He is culpable enough to take unto himself every charge that he has alleged to the Negro ministry. He says, speaking of Negro preachers, "These Negro culprits are sinners fallen from grace." Surely he is the "Lucifer" of the crowd. But I thank God that these false, ridiculous charges are untrue, and come from a vile source. The American Negro ministry, as a whole, needs no defence. What it has accomplished and is still doing for the Christianizing, uplifting and betterment of the Negroes and mankind cannot be told in words nor described by pen; eternity alone will tell the happy story. This ministry has been called of God and commissioned from above to go into all the world to preach the gospel and discipline the people. The majority of them, like the humble disciples of the lowly Nazarene, were poor and unlearned; yet they have had strong faith in God, believed the gospel they preached, and through their ministrations thousands have believed and are saved, and millions to--day are striving to live holier and happier lives. No class of public men are harder workers, more self--sacrificing, and withal so poorly paid as the American Negro preachers. Theirs is unlike the ministry of any other race in this country. As a rule they minister to a distinct class of people, whose relations and environments are peculiar. They are not only preachers but teachers of these people. The position of their ministry carries with it the entire officiary of the church; they stand in the front rank; not only do they plan, but they are the executors of their plans for the success of the work of the church. In the majority of cases they are held personally responsible for every debt contracted and, for the general actions of the Negroes of their respective communities. Mr. Thomas charges them as being illiterate; they are generally regarded by all classes in every community as 003334the more intelligent and better informed of the race. Mr. Thomas says they are "immoral, cowardly monstrosities"; if so, why are they allowed such unrestricted freedom everywhere, by all races, especially in the South, where Negro lawlessness is so little tolerated? Not only are they privileged to preach and minister to their own people, but are admitted to the churches, pulpits and homes of the white people of the South, and respected, encouraged and helped in their work by the better classes of both races. Americans are too devoted to the sanctity of home life to allow such vile wretches as described by Mr. Thomas free passports into their sacred domiciles. The work of the American Negro ministry has been a marvelous success. They have been the consoling comforters to the oppressed slaves in the darkest hours of their night of affliction,--the star of hope pointing this race upward and onward through all of their wilderness wanderings. They have ministered both to the master and the slave. Like Moses, Joshua and Samuel of old, they have led forth Israel from bondage into the promised land. They have judged and ruled the people in righteousness. Their mission is not yet ended. Mr. Thomas says that the weakness of Negro leadership is emphasized by the fact that race churches have not escaped the evils of sectionalism? Does he not know, too, that white churches have not escaped sectionalism? He further argues that Negro churches should have superior white Christian supervision,--which is impracticable and impossible. He believes in the abolishment of Negro churches, and the segregation of Negro membership into white churches,--a thing which is impossible and will not work. The race question divided the Methodist Episcopal and the Presbyterian churches. In fact, the Negroes are not wanted in the white churches; this has been thoroughly demonstrated. On the other hand, the Negroes do not desire to force themselves into these Christian 003435bodies where they are not welcomed. Were the suggestions of Mr. Thomas put into operation, there would be a survival of race prejudices such as have not been manifested since the emancipation. Each race is better fitted to carry out its Christian endeavors, ministering to its own people along lines of co-- operated fraternalism.

MORAL LAPSES.

Under this caption Mr. Thomas charges that the freedmen cling with greater obstinacy to their environing conditions, and thus philanthropists have become discouraged in aiding the Negro on account of his lack of interest. This is a false charge. Manifest evidence shows that the Negro is putting forth every possible effort to break away from his former restraints, and is gradually rising from poverty, ignorance and degradation. He is not depending alone on external aid from the white people, but is sacrificing much to help himself. Negroes are building schools, educating their youths, fostering charitable organizations, and are mustering to their aid all the agencies commandable to help in this direction.

Mr. Thomas charges that Negro marriage is no barrier to illicit sexual indulgence, that the Negro utterly disregards his plighted betrothal. He says that Negro women uuresistingly betray their wifely honor to satisfy a bestial instinct, etc. He follows this strain of vulgarity to a disgusting finish. He says that Negro schools in the South are immoral sanctuaries, and charge those in authority as immoral brutes, etc. These infamous charges are an outrage upon the fair womanhood of every race, and are without comparison in the annuals of history. The blood of these defenseless martyrs will be required at the hands of their infernal accuser before the bar of a just God. It is an easy matter to besmirch character and stigmatize an individual or a race. We will only remind Mr. Thomas of the immortal words of Shakespeare on 003536character destroying, and the robbing of a good name. Thousands of innocent mothers and daughters of Negro descent throughout this broad land and the world, will pass the name of William Hannibal Thomas down to their unborn generations as the greatest foul destroyer of their virtue and honor. Yea, this man may spend the balance of his days feasting upon his ill--gotten gain, but the day of retributive justice awaits him at some time and somewhere. Think of it! Has there ever lived a man of any race who has openly charged ninety per cent. of the women of that race as being lascivious and immoral save this man, William Hannibal Thomas? Thomas, dost thou charge thy mother, sister and wife with these villainous accusations? Wilt thou answer?

CRIMINAL INSTINCTS.

In the eighth chapter of this remarkable encyclopedia of libellous accusations, Mr. Thomas charges the Negro with criminal instincts. Stealing is a crime as old as man; from time immemorial, human beings have extorted from one another through unfair means that which rightfully belonged to somebody else. Instances one after another are recorded in both sacred and profane history of individuals, races and nations plundering and taking by theft that which was not their own. This trait is not confined to race or nationality. Stealing and downright robbery are daily occurrences practiced among all nations; why single out the Negro as an exception? We would not condone the shortcomings of the Negro; that there are those among them guilty of pilfering, theft, lying and other sinful practices goes without saying, Negro thieves who are not content only with the stealing of a pig or the lifting of a chicken from its roost, but Negroes who would steal thousands and bankrupt the country were it possible. At the same time there can be found more white people stealing on larger scales, and 003637better skilled in the business. A rogue is a rogue be he white or black. There is no white vice nor black vice. Vice is vice and crime is crime, regardless by whom committed.

Mr. Thomas states that crime is on the increase among the freed people, and he bases this claim upon the statement that seventy--five per cent. of the incarcerated criminals of the South are Negroes. This is an incorrect basis from which to reason. There is no law rightly executed in the South where Negro interest is involved. Feeling, prejudice and passion have the right of way. The only way Negroes of the South can stay clear of criminal incarceration is to avoid friction and unpleasant relations with the whites. Thousands of Negro prisoners in the Southland to day are serving terms in the chain gang, and public works, and penitentiary, who ar as innocent as angels as far as the crime alleged against them is concerned. They could not tell for what they are accused and incarcerated. Mr. Thomas seems to be ignorant of a great many of the conditions still existing in that section of our country where the freedmen live in great numbers. There are hundreds of Southern whites who are not far removed from heathen and pagan practices, and this class of white men exist almost entirely upon oppressing, extorting and depriving Negroes. The law of condemnation in the South, especially in the rural districts, is made and executed upon Negroes. No man is justified in judging the criminalities of the freedmen from Southern court records. The law is all one sided; judges, sheriffs, jurors, jailors and accusors are all white; the accused only is colored. True there are low, vicious, criminally inclined Negroes, the same as in other races.

Mr. Thomas charges the Negro man with vicious, brutal habits of assaulting white women. This is a new mania on the part of the Negro. For 250 years the Negro had every opportunity to commit these false outrages, but 003738we find him not even inclined toward them; yet, within the past few years this new habit seems to dominate him. This is a problem shrouded in mystery. There is something wrong somewhere. If the Negro is so brutal as to commit these crimes upon white womanhood, why does not the law making classes enact some severe legislation to mote out speedy and just punishment to this class of criminals without enrolling themselves as barbarous and lawless desperadoes, equally as guilty as the Negro accused culprit? Why did not the Negroes, during war times, when white women and children, the fair maidens upon whom they attended and had every opportunity to commit Joul acts, why did they not brutalize these white women then? No, they would not, and thousands of the sable, dusky sons of Ham would have poured out every drop of blood coursing in their veins, to protect the virtue of the white females, whom they felt it their duty to protect and support. I don't care what Mr. Thomas may charge or how much he may malign the race, the Negro, as a rule, has high respect for womanhood, and the leaders of this race frown down upon crimes regardless by whom committed. He would justify his position by asking, "If these lynchings and so forth are not justified, why don't the Negroes rise up and resent them? Why not bank themselves and wreak vengeance upon their accusers?" Because, in the first place, this is impracticable and impossible. They are poor and defenseless. However justified, such an attempt under present conditions would only militate against them. The Negro is a law abiding citizen; he is patient and long forbearing. Mr. Thomas would try to force the idea that the Negroes of the South are encouraged to commit crime, under the false delusion that the Northern whites stand ready to support and defend them. This is a lie. Every Negro of common sense in the North, South, East and West knows that this race need expect no redress from the white North. The Northern 003839white man and the Southern white man are united, one and inseparable. We will not further the discussion of the why and wherefore of this union. The Negro believes that he must fight his own battles, live in peace with all mankind, adapt himself to his surroundings, and make the best possible out of life. But we conclude our rejoiner to this chapter on criminal instincts by quoting the author's own words: "It is correct to say that fully ninety per cent. of the freedmen are reasonably law abiding citizens. They have the confidence and support of the orderly white society, and are rarely molested by its lawless class." He further states, "On the other hand, the most liberal estimate will not allow the Negro criminal class to exceed ten per cent. of the race." He puts the white and black criminal classes on par. This is his final summary, which contradicts his former criminal charges. One can readily see why Mr. Thomas has been a failure as a lawyer before the bar, and a successful preacher in winning souls for his Lord and Master.

MENTAL TRAINING.

The ninth chapter of this book treats on mental training. Again this author condemns practically every method that has been used, and even the present methods in vogue, for lifting up the Negro. Everything is wrong except that which he advocates. He charges gross defects in the current school system, and states that $100,000,000 have been spent by the South without making any visible inroad on Negro illiteracy, or rather on Negro obtuseness. As usual, Mr. Thomas is blinded to every advance step of Negro progress, and fails to see that Negro illiteracy has been reduced to 45 per cent. He advocates industrial education in one strain, and condemns it as it now exists in the schools of the South. He opposes denominational schools, and charges that these colleges and universities are wasting a wealth of energy to 003940no good purpose. Notwithstanding over 5000 young men and women are being daily trained in these schools to do efficient work in all the avenues of life, with thousands of graduates filling acceptably positions of trust and honor, working daily among their people, enlightening and uplifting the Negroes in every section of the Southland, still these worthy endeavors and accomplishments are of no avail as regarded by Mr. Thomas. He also fails to see the self--sacrificing, independent strivings of the Negroes in this direction to help themselves.

He attempts to outline a curriculum for teaching agriculture and every other thing which he designs the Negro should know. The very things for which he condemns the educators of the South for not doing are actually being done in the schools scattered throughout that section of our country. He charges that it is a fundamental mistake in educating the Negro along Anglo-- Saxon lines, and would therefore prescribe a distinct education for the freedmen, which is altogether out of harmony with the genius of our American institutions. Then he shows his folly, on the other hand, in knocking the props from his own logic, by commending a certain school in Kentucky where white and Negro children are attending the same school and receiving the same instruction, as being along correct lines. Tuskeegee, Hampton Normal, Morris Brown College, Georgia; Paul Quinn College, Texas; Atlanta University, and a host of Southern schools, whose work has been and is being highly commended and supported by the best educators and philanthropists of the country, are utterly ignored by this pessimistic author. He charges that all of these schools of prominence have among their pupils young freedwomen sustaining immoral relations with white men. This, Mr. Thomas cannot substantiate. He says further that this is done with the knowledge and consent of the school authorities. In all candor, I ask William Hannibal Thomas of Everett, 004041Mass., does he mean to allege these base charges against such honorable men as Dr. Bumstead of Atlanta University, Dr. joshua H. Jones, President Wilberforce University; Prof. Booker T. Washington of Tuskeegee Institute; Dr. Frissell of Hampton, and a number of institutions under the control of the Congregational, Methodist, Baptist and other denominations? Mr. Thomas, you have been heretotore hurling your damnable, false charges in a promiscuous way; we now demand of you to name the schools, the professors and the young freedwomen so gravely charged; can you? Will you name them? If you don't you prove yourself to be the most villainous liar of the twentieth century.

You further charge that the preachers in charge of the moral training of the Negroes, and the teachers engaged in their mental instruction will steal from each other and from the whites as readily as the most indigent freedman. This statement includes some of the ablest and best men and women in the country. Sir, it remains for you to prove to the public that these persons are guilty of your grave accusations. This base vilifier and race slanderer, opposes co--education of the races on the one hand, and favors it on the other, and goes on ad libitum with polywog contradictions. He finally concludes this foul chapter on mental training by declaring that everything, all efforts and aids, have failed the American Negro.

SOCIAL RIGHTS.

Mr. Thomas, in the tenth chapter of his book discusses social rights, and makes a very strong, justifiable and reasonable plea for the Negro's social rights. He confesses that there are white people in this country inferior to the Negroes, which is generally admitted by the better classes of both races. He, as all reasonable, fair--minded Americans, believes that race discrimination, proscription and oppression will eventually cease in this country.

ENFRANCHISED FUNCTIONS.

Chapter XI. treats upon the enfranchised functions of the freedmen. I commend many of the true statements made by the author relative to the enfranchised rights of the Negro, and will state that the Negroes are not responsible for the political conditions of the South. They offered the Southern whites their support immediately following the emancipation, but were rejected. The white South is to blame for the political disturbances and present unpleasant relations of that section, and should not blame the Negro for their culpability. If it was a mistake to enfranchise the freedmen, the whites of this nation made the blunder and the negroes should not bear the blame. This nation should be both fair and manly and live up to its contract, or dissolve partnership.

I hereby give notice that in my forthcoming book I shall discuss the elective franchise of the freedman. Mr. Thomas treats this subject in a manly way, and what he says deserves careful reading and much thought.

CHIMERICAL EXPATRIATION.

In the twelfth chapter of his book, the author discusses at length, in a very reasonable way, expatriation or Negro emigration. This is discussed in a clear, logical manner, and every Negro man should read and ponder his word. The white people of this country, also, can find many very helpful thoughts and suggestive methods in their dealing with the race. Mr. Thomas admits that the Negro is improving his condition in this country, and should remain here and have the aid of the white man in helping the race to higher and nobler achievements.

FEASIBLE REGENERATION.

Chapter XIII. treats on Feasible Regeneration. The first charge Mr. Thomas makes under this caption, is that the American negro is in a low state of social development 004243and is self--content. In other words, the Negro is in the lowest stage of degradation, and is content to remain there. This charge, as others of his fallacious statements, is untrue. The Negro has adopted, after careful experiences and observation, the same methods for his uplifting as those operated by the Anglo--Saxons. What means the publication of 500 or more newspapers, weekly and daily, dissimilating truth, advice, instruction and aspiration among the American freedmen, the fostering of schools of every grade, the building of churches, and the Christian disciplining of more than four million communicants? What means the mighty struggle for wealth on the part of these people, but an earnest desire to rise? What race or nation has doubled its wealth within ten years but the Negro? Think of it! The freedmen in Georgia alone own $17,415,350 worth of property, and in Virginia these said to be contented Negroes are acquiring property at the rate of more than fifty thousand acres per year. No people in the history of the world, under similar circumstances, have ever made greater efforts to rise, notwithstanding Mr. Thomas' claim of racial incapacity and all other deficiencies.

Mr. Thomas further charges that in the North, where the best educational advantages are obtainable, there are found some of the most ignorant and degraded Negroes. This is also true of the white race; some people of all races are indifferent to any and all advantages. This voluminous--fabulous author says, "The Negro is the waste product of American civilization." A little learning is a dangerous thing is evidenced by the bold reckless use of words and terms employed by Mr. Thomas. The American Negro wants no props, but a fair chance in the race of life. If this is accorded he will succeed.

NATIONAL ASSIMILATION.

The last chapter of this peculiar book treats on National 004344Assimilation. Mr. Thomas openly avows that the Negro is opposed to American civilization. He says the freedman has not become assimilated and reckoned in the general body politic. BE this true or false it is no fault of the Negroes that they have been excluded. They have made advances only to be repulsed by the whites; yet they are more American than any other foreign class of emigrants. Mr. Thomas charges that the Negro is inferior to the white man. If this be true, man's Creator is unjust, and the blame rests with God. No self--respecting Negro does or can feel that he is inferior to any man of any race, but every sensible man should and ought to know and feel that worth and fitness alone are the right standards of measurement, and the just methods of comparison.

Mr. Thomas declares that the survival of the American Negro is due to the fostering care with which slavery surrounded him, but, says he, "The Negro is a perishable product who squanders his vital energies with reckless abandon." Think of the inconsistency of these statements in the face of stubborn facts, which show that instead of dying out within the last decade, the Negro has almost doubled his numbers in this country. Mr. Thomas charges that the material accumulation of individual Negroes furnish no criterion of the material progress of the race, etc. Now if the material accumulations of individual Negroes furnish no criterion of the material progress of the race, what does? By what process then can we measure the white race? Every individual member of a family is a part of that family, and all the parts make up a whole. Divest a thing of its parts, and you have destroyed the entire object; bring those parts together, and you have the consummate whole. This is clear mathematical reasoning. It must be concluded, therefore, that the wealth of a country is computed upon the basis of the individual citizens inhabiting their country; so we must measure the progress of the Negro race by the progress the 004445individual members this race have made. If there were no Negroes in the country, there would be no Negro race, but since there are individual Negroes in the country, these individual Negroes considered together form a race. But we need not further argue this point to contradict the statement of the author. Like all the charges alleged against us by this accuser, it is libellous and void of reasonable foundation.

But why further pursue this declaimer of foul declarations? Can we expect more from one whose own record savors with such impurities as does his? Had William Hannibal Thomas been a wise, discreet man, he would have held his peace and remained in obscurity, at least until he had fairly redeemed himself from the foul crimes which besmirch his own personal character. But we are told the "murder will out"; the criminal cannot conceal his guilt.

That the American people may know this Judas Iscariot of the Negro race, the man who enters the twentieth century with lying firebrands to destroy an innocent, struggling people, we now turn on the search--light which reveals the Col. William Hannibal Thomas, the author of the "American Negro," the book of infamous villiany. The following correspondence in the "Colored American" of Washington, D. C., April 13, 1901, will explain itself:

WESTERN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ALLEGHANY, PA., April 12, 1901

Dear Sir: -- W. H. Thomas was a student in this seminary between the years 1865 and 1868, and in the latter year was dismissed because of criminal intercourse with the woman he subsequently married. He first denied the charges, but later confessed their truth, and was sent out. I have just written out a transcript from the faculty minutes for a lawyer in New Bedford, Mass., and mailed them to him. Yours sincerely, T. H. ROBINSON, President of Faculty.

004546

COLUMBIA, S. C., March 1, 1901

DEAR SIR:--Referring to your letter of 21st ult., in regard to Mr. W. H. Thomas, I hand you enclosed a letter from Mr. E. W. Screven, who, at my request, has looked up Mr. Thomas' record. Hoping that the enclosed letter will furnish you the desired information, I am,

Very truly yours,(Signed) E. A. WEBSTER.

P. S. You are at liberty to make any use of this letter you think proper. Note. Webster is collector of the Port at Columbia, S. C.

COLUMBIA, S. C., March 1, 1901

DEAR SIR:--With reference to the career of Mr. W. H. Thomas in South Carolina in the period of 1876, I would say he was elected a member of the STate Legislature in the fall of 1876, and took his seat in that body when it convened at the Capitol on November 29 of that year. Owing to political complications at that time there were two rival organizations claiming to be the legal House of Representatives, and Mr. Thomas gave allegiance to the Mackey House, which was, shortly after its organization, adjudged not to be the legal body by the Supreme Court of the State, and after sitting just twenty--three days adjourned sine die. It never re--assembled.

I find by the reports of the proceedings of this body that Mr. William H. Thomas was chairman of the committee on privileges and elections, and that during the twenty--three days three reports were made by this committee. I find also that Mr. Thomas made one report to the House on behalf of the Judiciary Committee, and upon inquiry I learned that he was chairman of that committee. All this information I got from the files of the News and Courier whose reporter was present daily and gave very full accounts of these proceedings. I can find no journal of the House in the State library giving 004647any account of these proceedings of the Mackey House and it is reasonable to assume that the legality of that body never having been recognized, no record of its proceedings would be preserved by the State.

While in Newberry County a few days ago, at the County seat, I took occasion to make inquiry as to the record of Mr. Thomas while a citizen of Newberry, and I ind that he was a trial justice in 1876. I also find that Mr. William H. Thomas was indicted on May 9, 1877, for "corruptly and fraudulently" seizing and selling property. Mr. Thomas was bound over to appear at the general sessions court, and bounded in the sum of $500, his bondsmen being Elijah Phillips, Burrell M. Raines, Henry Kennedy and William H. Snead. When the Court convened Mr. Thomas failed to appear, and these bondsmen were cited by order of the court on the 17th of June, 1878, to make payment of the bound, which they did.

A sealed sentence is now on file, Roll 1306, in the clerk's office at Newberry against Mr. William H. Thomas in this case.

The case against Thomas was brought by a colored man, J. H. Blease, who in the examination swears that a bale of cotton valued at $42 was taken from him, and that he has never seen the cotton from that day to this.

I saw Elijah Phillips, an honest and respected colored blacksmith, doing business in the town of Newberry, and he assures me that he and his associates on the bond of Thomas paid the bond, and that they have never been able to get any payment or reimbursement of any kind from Thomas.

I saw Mr. R. E. Williams, a highly respected colored citizen and former merchant of Newberry, who informs me that he had endorsed for Mr. Thomas rent in the sum of $84 which he had to pay, and that he has never received any reimbursement from Thomas, although he has many times requested payment of the debt.

004748

I called Mr. Williams' attention to the sweeping charges made by Mr. Thomas against the virtue and morality of the women of his race, and asked Mr. Williams how he accounted for Mr. Thomas' impression. He said that Thomas was himself a lecherous character, and doubtless drew his impressions from his personal and immediate surroundings, which were horrible during his residence in Newberry. I found that Mr. Williams' opinion was concurred in by all from whom I asked information.E. W. SCREVEN.

NEWBERRY, S. C., April 1, 1901.

DEAR SIR:--Your favor of 29th ult. received; will send copy of record in the case of State vs. William Hannibal Thomas for $500. Your information as to the case is correct.

Respectfully, JOHN C. GOGGANS, C. C. C. P.

NEW BEDFORD, MASS., April 5, 1901.

FRIEND BRUCE:--Many thanks for documents you sent and which I return herewith; have got certified copy of criminal court record complete in case of State vs. W. H. Thomas. Have received from Dr. T. H. Robinson, president of faculty of Western Theological Seminary, copy of vote recorded in minutes April 17, 1868, showing Thomas was expelled on forced confession, after strenuous denial, of immoral conduct with a woman he afterward married, and by whom he had a child in less than seven months. It seems Thomas himself had informed shortly before on another colored student and caused his expulsion, so the faculty felt his own case peculiarly aggravated. The same sneaking reptile then as now. Somehow they have confounded William Henry Thomas, a MAN and minister, with this libertine and criminal. That error they must correct, and I know they will gladly do so.

With sincere regard,EDWARD B. JOURDAIN.Attorney and Counsellor at Law.

004849

What the scriptures say to the critic:--"Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things. . . Thou, therefore, which teacheth another, teachest thou not thy self? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?--Romans xi: 1, 21--22.

No more need be said concerning "Thomas"; his unenviable record speaks for itself, and if there is anything in it of which he is particularly proud, he's welcome to it all. These disclosures will explain more fully than any words of ours who this man is who has presumed to set himself up as a critic and censor of the morals of the Negro race. Discriminating people of whatever race will be slow to attach much, if any, importance to the learned deliverances of this "second Daniel come to judgment" to be found in the autobiography of W. Hannibal Thomas. His extreme modesty possibly prevented him from giving his book its correct title.JOHN EDWARD BRUCE,97 Orange Street, Albany, N. Y.

Poor, poor, William Hannibal Thomas. Thou art done for! The people of the white race, whom thou sought to please and cajole, will not have high regard for a writer who has withdrawn himself from his own race, and has gone outside of it to emphasize its weak points before an audience of another color, even were the personal records of that writer clean and spotless. But since thou are a moral leopard, a traitor like Arnold, a betrayer worse than Judas, it would have been better for thee hadst thou never been born. Thou hast betrayed the innocent,--give up the blood money, and go off and hang thyself: die and be forgotten. For as a race the Negro shall not become discouraged, nor cease its onward march with the world's progress of the twentieth century, for he has learned to labor and to wait. In God we trust.