ot be reached without a sharp and prolonged
antagonism between the good and the evil tendencies. Mr. Schurz states
the case none too strongly: "Here is the crucial point: There will be a
movement either in the direction of reducing the negroes to a permanent
condition of serfdom--the condition of the mere plantation hand,
'alongside of the mule,' practically without any rights of
citizenship--or a movement in the direction of recognizing him as a
citizen in the true sense of the term. One or the other will prevail."
And he adds, "No doubt the most essential work will have to be done in
and by the South itself. And it can be."

When President Hayes withdrew the Federal troops from the South, it
marked the formal restoration of that local self-government which is a
vital principle of the American Union. Of slower, deeper growth, has
been the spirit of mutual good-will and confidence, with the free
concession to each member of its individual life. Numberless delicate
cords have been reuniting the severed sections. Railways, commerce,
literature, the tides of business and pleasure travel, the pressure of
common problems, the glory of common achievements, the comradeship of
the blue and the gray on Cuban battlefields, the expositions of
industry, the throb of human feeling as the telegraph tells its daily
story of heroism or tragedy--all have done their part. It is by their
nobler interests that the sections are most closely united. Beyond the
squabbles of politicians is the power of such conferences as those of
the Southern Education Commission where meet the best brains and
consciences, the gifts of the liberal, the plans of the wise, and the
energy of the stout-hearted.

The education of a slave into a man, the harmonizing of two races, the
common achievement of a great national life,--it is a long work, but it
moves on.

"Say not, The struggle naught availeth,
The labor and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.

"For while the tired waves vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

"And not through eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright!"

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: In Maryland, an amendment prescribing a series of elab