that, "while great advance has been made by a race only
fifty years old, it is still in its infancy and therefore in the servant
condition." Nor is it any exception in this respect.
Through adversity and hard treatment, the Irish people who first came to
this country were largely in a servant condition. They accepted it. They
became our domestics and built our railroads. But "Pat" is not on the
railroad now. He is found occupying the seat of the chief justice, or
serving as private secretary of the president and filling many other
positions of honor and influence throughout the country.
What is thus true of the Irishman, is also true of other Europeans, who
came to this country. It is an honor to them, that they truly
appreciated their condition, accepted it and, through an honest and
valiant struggle, rose above that condition to something better.
The American negro is now making it evident, that he is no exception to
this general law of progress, under favorable conditions. It is neither
necessary nor prudent to blind their eyes in regard to their real
condition and status. Their best friends are those who encourage them to
accept the situation in which they have been placed by an over ruling
providence, and, through a noble endeavor, worthy of divine favor, rise
to something better.
Their friends assist them best by aiding and encouraging them to make
this noble endeavor, without which they cannot rise. The mass of the
people must have native teachers and preachers to serve as leaders. This
suggests the need of two kinds of educational facilities. A common
industrial education, that will enable the mass of the people to achieve
success in their daily avocations; and some special educational
facilities of a higher grade, to prepare the needed supply of teachers,
preachers and other leaders.
The mass of the people need an education, the scope of which will reach
their physical, mental and spiritual natures. Their greatest need is
instruction in the Bible, that it may exert its saving power on their
early lives and animate them with noble aspirations.
THE CRY OF THE BLACK BELT
"They shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors
and he shall send them a Saviour and a great one and he
shall deliver them."--Isaiah.
The following appeal in behalf of the Freedmen, by Rev. A. W. Verner, D.
D., president of Scotia Seminary, Concord, North Carolina, one of the
five normal schools of the Pr
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