hostile to his
rights, have never gained his confidence, and now seek by foul means to
destroy where they have never sought by fair means to control.

I have spoken of the effect of disfranchisement upon the colored race; it
is to the race as a whole, that the argument of the problem is generally
directed. But the unit of society in a republic is the individual, and not
the race, the failure to recognize this fact being the fundamental error
which has beclouded the whole discussion. The effect of disfranchisement
upon the individual is scarcely less disastrous. I do not speak of the
moral effect of injustice upon those who suffer from it; I refer rather to
the practical consequences which may be appreciated by any mind. No
country is free in which the way upward is not open for every man to try,
and for every properly qualified man to attain whatever of good the
community life may offer. Such a condition does not exist, at the South,
even in theory, for any man of color. In no career can such a man compete
with white men upon equal terms. He must not only meet the prejudice of
the individual, not only the united prejudice of the white community; but
lest some one should wish to treat him fairly, he is met at every turn
with some legal prohibition which says, "Thou shalt not," or "Thus far
shalt thou go and no farther." But the Negro race is viable; it adapts
itself readily to circumstances; and being thus adaptable, there is
always the temptation to

"Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,
Where thrift may follow fawning."

He who can most skilfully balance himself upon the advancing or receding
wave of white opinion concerning his race, is surest of such measure of
prosperity as is permitted to men of dark skins. There are Negro teachers
in the South--the privilege of teaching in their own schools is the one
respectable branch of the public service still left open to them--who, for
a grudging appropriation from a Southern legislature, will decry their own
race, approve their own degradation, and laud their oppressors. Deprived
of the right to vote, and, therefore, of any power to demand what is their
due, they feel impelled to buy the tolerance of the whites at any
sacrifice. If to live is the first duty of man, as perhaps it is the first
instinct, then those who thus stoop to conquer may be right. But is it
needful to stoop so low, and if so, where lies the ultimate
responsibility for this abasement?

I sh