guage, and the arts of civilized
life, absorbed amidst the debasing influences of a cruel and infamous
bondage could not be productive of a harmonious development of body,
mind and soul; of strong moral and intellectual fiber; or of ideas of
the dignity of labor; of habits of thrift, economy, the careful
expenditure of time and money; or knowledge of the intimate
relationship of these two great factors in the process of
civilization. These are results attained only where the rights of
manhood and womanhood are acknowledged and respected. The lack of
these results or basic impulses to advancement represent defects in
the Negro character, preventing a more rapid development in the
nineteenth century and directly traceable to his enslaved state; and
the origin or cause, the growth and subsequent development of these,
and other defects, must be taken into consideration before the Negro
is stamped as the greatest criminal on earth, wholly irredeemable;
before he is condemned in wholesale manner for not having made more
rapid strides toward advanced civilization in little more than one
generation of freedom. Indeed, it speaks well for the intrinsic merit
of the race, that although public opinion freely admits that the
natural outcome of bondage is a cowardly, thieving, brutal, or abject
specimen of humanity, even in the darkest hours of slavery, there were
many, many, high-born souls who, if necessary, at the price of life
itself, maintained their integrity, rose superior to their
surroundings, taught these same lofty sentiments to others.

Emancipation and certain constitutional amendments brought freedom to
the material body of the erstwhile slave, but the soul, the higher
self, could not be so easily freed from the evils that slavery had
fastened upon it through centuries of debasement; and because of this
soul degradation the Negro, no less than the South, needed to be
physically, mentally and morally reconstructed.

Reconstruction, the eradication of former characteristics, the growth
and development of new and more favorable ones, is with any race the
work of time. Generations must pass, and still it need not be expected
that the process will be full and complete; meanwhile, what measure of
success is the Negro achieving? Were his achievements in the
nineteenth century, educationally, morally, financially and otherwise
at all commensurate with his opportunities?

The year 1863 saw four million Negroes come forth from