ll we, because these rights are denied us, fail to teach
our children that these rights are ours? And can it not be seen that
for us to concede that the relationship, now existing between the two
races in the South, is friendly, is an admission of the righteousness
upon which such relation is based? And even this very book will be
brought in evidence against us.

A friendly relation grows out of real friendship, so that it is
necessary here to explain friendship. Mr. Webster gives the meaning of
friendship as a state of being friends; a friendly relation or
attachment, to a person, or between persons; affection arising from
mutual esteem and good will; friendliness; amity; good will.

"There is little friendship in the world," says Bacon. There can be no
friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Dryden says, "Aptness to unite; conformity; affinity; harmony and
correspondence are the signs of friendship." These grow out of that
soil and are the forerunners of that friendship out of which a
relation must be had to be called friendly.

Now let us analyze this term "friendship." "Amity"--from the Latin,
amare to love, or friendship in a general way between individuals,
societies or nations. "Goodwill"--I wish you well, peace and
prosperity. "Integrity"--moral soundness; completeness; honesty;
rectitude.

We have given some of the terms which Mr. Webster used in the
explanation of the word friendship. Our purpose for so doing is to see
if it is possible to base the relationship which now exists between
the two races in the South, upon all the synonyms or any one of them.
I confess with candor that I cannot see (nor can any lover of liberty
who holds sacred the rights of the human family, regardless of race,
color or previous condition of servitude) even a semblance of amity in
the treatment which the Negro gets at the hands of the dominant race,
in fact, it is just the opposite, the relationship is forced and also
one sided.

The seemingly friendly relation is forced from the Negro; that is, he
must show up friendly or be lynched by the first angry mob who becomes
thirsty for Negro blood.

If we sustain a friendly relation based upon the integrity of the
Southern whites, there could be no lynching; the friendship of the
white man would cause it to cease at once.

Would to God that they would interpret our actions in the light in
which they are rendered and not make us suffer for what some